Until Proven Innocent 🤍 Net/James

Chapter 5 ~ wake up baby ~

Noel got to Mr Khunithikorn's house just before 9am on Saturday morning because even though he knew that his boss wouldn't be there he liked to be as punctual as possible. He had been awake most of the night after more unsettling dreams and his eyes were red from sobbing.

He didn't really feel like working but at least if he got tired enough he might be able to sleep through the night without waking up. He let himself into the house and walked to the kitchen after securing the door.

Reading the to - do list he decided to start with the mirrors, the boss wanted him to clean them all so he got a couple of cloths and the cleaning solution from the cupboard under the sink and began.

There was a particularly large mirror in a gold frame so he started to clean it when a massive spider crawled from behind. After the initial shock he managed to catch the errant wildlife in a large glass and evict it from the house then he decided to carefully take the mirror down to make sure there were no other creatures living behind it.

Luckily for him, that spider had been the sole tenant so he dusted the back of the mirror before hanging it again. After cleaning all the mirrors he started on the next chore which was cleaning all three bathrooms, that should take him to lunchtime.

Today he had brought some sandwiches with him and some more fruit. He saw that the boss had told him to help himself to the food in the cupboards but he felt awkward doing that. It felt wrong when the owner of the house wasn't present so he decided to just eat his own food again.

This time he had bought his own clothes too and he would leave them here until the job was over. It was a lovely house with a lot of character and Noel pretended it was his house and treated it accordingly. He took pride in cleaning everywhere and imagined what he would do if it were his and where he would place the furniture.

By lunchtime he was pretty exhausted so he sat for a little longer than usual, drank water and ate a sandwich. Next on the to - do list was washing the downstairs windows inside and out, well that was the afternoon taken care of. 

He got the steps and a bucket of warm soapy water and started working, first the outside of the house and then inside. They were pretty big windows so he didn't finish them until after 6pm then he trudged up to the master bedroom to get a shower before changing into his own nightwear.

He went back downstairs to eat another sandwich and a piece of fruit, washed it down with water and then he showered and went to bed. He laid on the top as he had the week before and fell asleep almost straight away.

Unbeknownst to him, Man had been watching the proceedings on and off throughout the day and noticed he hadn't eaten properly again. It's not like he could chastise the kid either or he would wonder how he knew? 

He had seen him struggle with the large mirror and when he had been climbing the steps to wash the windows, Man had felt anxious about his safety. He noticed that Noel had brought his own clothes this week and that he looked tired and his eyes were swollen as if he had been crying again.

There was no denying that the kid was a hard worker and he had turned up on time too. He would have to test him to see what he would do in certain situations, that would do next week. With nothing more to see, Man decided to go to bed himself.

He woke up about 5.30am to use the bathroom and decided to have a quick look on the webcams to make sure Noel was ok. When he saw Noel, it seemed he was in the throes of a nightmare again only this time he wasn't waking up, Man turned on the audio and listened as Noel moaned in his sleep.

'nooo   stop   leave   alone   off   r'

Man couldn't make out what Noel was saying but he could see that the kid was frightened again. The audio was two way so he decided to intervene, he spoke into his microphone gently so as not to startle the kid.

"Noel, Noely, wake up, wake up Noely" he said in a very quite voice so that Noel would think he was dreaming.

There was no change so Man tried again.

"Noely, it's time to wake up, come on baby, wake up"

This time Noel began to stir but instead of waking up he turned on his side and snuggled down, his face at peace as the nightmare ended and he slept once more.

Man breathed a sigh of relief, he decided to place his laptop on the bedside table with the audio on so he could hear if Noel began to dream again then he wondered why he was beginning to feel so protective over the boy.

Noel woke up on Sunday morning feeling refreshed, it was the first time he'd slept through the night in a very long time. It was strange but he felt as if someone had been watching over him and protecting him.

Today the boss wanted him to wash the curtains and vacuum the rugs, sweep and mop the tiled floors so after a quick breakfast he started work. He tidied the bed he had slept on and took down the curtains before loading up the washing machine then while they were washing he vacuumed the rugs and cleaned the floors.

When the washing machine stopped he hung the curtains outside to dry and then ate lunch. He spent the afternoon ironing the curtains and rehanging them before checking the house, securing everything and looking for random jobs to do until 5pm when he could leave.

As he left the house he still had the weird feeling that he was being watched but funnily enough he wasn't scared, he felt safe, perhaps the house was haunted by a benevolent spirit he smiled, yes he was going to be really sad when this job came to an end but nothing lasted forever, there would be other good jobs, he hoped.

Man had been checking in again throughout the day and was almost convinced now that the kid was sincere but he just wanted to test him one more time then he could rest easy. He was running out of jobs to give the kid anyway but he was going to kind of miss watching him as he did his jobs.

He couldn't help but feel concerned about the dreams Noel was having and who would take care of him afterwards? For the time being he had to concentrate on the Winchitathoom case, it would seem that the ex wife had been seeing some guy but no one knew who?

If they could find out, he might have some valuable information to incriminate her then they could hit up a judge, they were so close he could taste it. Man shut down the webcams to the house and closed the laptop before getting changed and heading out to the gym, he needed a good workout and it might help him to think.

The gym was in the basement of the DSI HQ, he often went to to just hang out and get to know what the other departments were up to. A lot of information could be learnt by loose lips in the locker room. 

Man got changed and went to the treadmills, he chose one beside a guy who worked in the records department.

"hey Pod, how's it going?" Man asked.

"you know how it is, good days and bad" he replied.

"what do you know, anything exciting?" Man said.

"not really, I heard Passaranoot is getting a divorce, don't know how true it is though?" Pod said.

"doesn't surprise me really, it's difficult for wives and partners in these high stress jobs, they have to be alone an awful lot and many of them can't take the isolation" Man said.

"course it's got nothing to do with him being an asshole" Pod said laughing.

"well there's that too" Man said laughing with him.

Department Executive Police Lt Col Ruen Passaranoot had worked his way up from being a humble police officer to the head of the DSI and Raskorns superior, some said he'd married into the job and that wouldn't surprise Man at all.

The gym was practically empty and it didn't look like he was going to catch any gossip tonight so he wrapped it up and left to get some take out before heading home. He wished he could check on Noel but he wasn't in his house, another week of worrying about the damn kid.

***

~ if you enjoyed it please vote ~