Artificial Tears

Chapter 7

Just as lunch break starts, I get a message from the dryer that my clothes are dry.

Glad that it didn't take too long, I walk to the washing room.

As I open the door with my card, I see Ian, he too must have been soaked by the rain.

"Hi Ian!" I wave at him, but he seems rather startled by my sudden presence.

"I-I..." Then in one movement he takes his clothes out of one of the machines and darts out of the room.

Strange...

When I get closer to the dryers I notice something strange.

It's a piece of clothing that looks familiar.

It looks a bit like what the murderer in my dreams wears.

But then again, I'm not certain.

Perhaps it's something in fashion?

Not sure what to do with it, so I just take a couple of pictures of it with my phone and scan the info on it, just in case.

I don't touch the piece, I don't want it getting my fingerprints on it.

Ian couldn't be the killer, right?

He is able to get inside the building without any problem.

He has been working here for much longer then I have, so most likely he knows a lot about this place.

But Ian is such a nice guy, he doesn't seem like the type that would hurt another person.

That is what I want to believe, but in reality, everyone is a suspect in cases like these. No one is to be trusted. Oh, how much I hate that dark, sinking feeling.

Should I keep it to myself for now?

That might be best, since I don't have any real evidence. And if I start pointing fingers now, no one would want to work with me anymore. I am still new here and Ian isn't. Many social experiments have been done and those have concluded that people who are newer to a group, have to be more careful. If they start doing things the others dislike then they will be punished worse than another.

I learned those things from Jonathan of course, he would tell us all about those things, but I'm probably the only one who would listen to the end. The others get bored rather fast.

Now that I think about it, didn't Peter say something strange recently?

I should ask him about that, the whole: 'Don't trust anyone', it is very out of character for him to say such things.

I quickly get dressed into my now warm and dry clothes, then I leave to go to the canteen.

When I arrive in the grey, but still plant filled room. I see a lot of my colleagues sitting on the same table, they all look rather gloomy. Must be from what happened.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" I carefully ask Lydia.

She nods and I take place next to her.

"Hey..." She says softly: "I heard you stayed up last night to help us with our work, is that true?"

I nod.

"Thanks." She says with a sad smile.

During lunch break nobody really talks, but I do notice Ian's gaze that lands on me from time to time.

He seems stressed.

Just before lunch break officially ends, most of us have already returned to our work.