Artificial Tears

Chapter 18

"Hey dad, how are you doing?"

Detective North walks up to a man with hair as white as snow and a wrinkled face.

They are in the nursing home, one of the many in this big city.

North's father has recently been diagnosed with dementia, unfortunately there aren't any chips invented against that yet, it shows that time can actually be going slow. And this time went as fast as a snail for the detective.

Everything is really going down the drain for me... the detective thinks to himself.

"Hey Liam, how are you?" His father has thankfully not yet forgotten about him, but that can change any moment. Just thinking about it makes Liam nauseous.

"Where is little Johnny?" Yep, there it is.

"Dad... Don't you remember?" Liam asks him and his father immediately looks regretful of his question, so he does remember.

"I'm sorry son, my mind is just not working that well nowadays. It's honestly pretty scary." His father shakes his head, his face filled with sadness, having his old memories returned.

"I know." Liam holds his father's hand, helping him sit down.

Johnny had been missing for fourteen years now, Liam had counted the days from when he had last seen his son.

Life wasn't easy, his wife had left him after he didn't want to stop working to forget and relieve himself even a little bit of that time. truly the worst decision he ever made. Overworked and tired he had come home, mostly even taking a different route home each time, in the hope that their son would be found and returned.

But nothing worked, John North was still missing to this day. 

No day ever went by when he didn't stop to think about it all. With time Liam had gotten a little bit used to the emptyness that came with the los of his child.

It was awful, every year on his son's birthday, they had to light a candle, they prayed.

But even though they were atheists, Liam would from time to timecurse whatever god had done to his child. That fucker might even be the devil himself. He would quietly think.

"How is the investigation going?" His father takes him out of his darkening thoughts.

"Not so well, I'm stuck and our only real lead, the one who could help solve this, has vanished. Edith Shaw, just decided to either ignore me completely or something bad has happened to her." Liam continues: "It's all such a bizarre case, I just can't wrap my head around it. Why, just why does the killer do it that way? All those random people, they have done nothing wrong. There isn't even really a pattern"

His father sits up looking at him, as you know he had been a detective too once. Although now you wouldn't say that anymore, with his forgetfulness. 

Though luckily he still has his sharp moments so now and then.

"Have you already done a background check on the girl?"

"Yes, but it's not completed yet. It's so strange, we haven't found anything."

The old man seems to have an old spark in his eyes he used to have: "I think she might be more important than you think in this case."

"That's what I'm trying to find out but-"

"You met her first at the place she works, right? Before that there was a victim killed at the café she visited a couple of times and before that another who she only spoke to a bit. She is clearly connected."

Liam shakes his head: "How do you know all that?"

The old man smiles and without answering his son's questions he continues: "I thought it might just be stories, but back in my day." He suddenly leans closer and starts whispering: "There was talk of a city underneath this city."

"What?"

Was this another part of his father's illness? Jumping from one thing to another at this speed... What made him suddenly think of this?

"I used to investigate it when I was still young, younger than you now, I was still at the police academy. It was just a rumor, but I found a way in." The old man seems rather excited: "I documented it and hid it in a book of mine, it should still be in one of my boxes."

"Dad, why the hell would we not know if there was a city underneath us? And what connection do you think it has to Edith Shaw?"

He smiles seemingly knowing that Liam doesn't believe nor understand him: "Check it, before I forget about it please."

Liam leaves after the conversations come to an end.

He still doesn't have a good lead, but what his father said, even though it's probably rubbish, should be checked out. Just to be sure.

As he returns home, he makes sure to lock the door.

He makes himself a cup of coffee and starts looking through the old boxes of his father, like he had been told to do.