CLOVER

Where could Jennifer be?

"Your name?" Scarlett asked, a grim expression covering her face. "Please, this is some sort of insanity! How come she knows this location? And how were you so sure she would come here? I can not help you if you don't tell me what I need to know!" "Let her go first." William looked at the girl. Scarlett let go of her hands, and the girl started running towards the ally. "So, anything to say?" she looked at him, crossing her arms one above the other. "Speak up, Trenor." -"I do not owe you any explanation. I hired you, and you must do what I ask." Scarlett scoffed hearing at what he said. She stepped closer to William, turning her head up. "Wow. So this is what we are?" -"Whatever happened between us, it was a mistake. Now turn back to the hotel, and I need you to communicate with Tyler. We need him to come here." Scarlett's gaze softened, and it dropped at its lowest. "I do not wish to work for you anymore." She spoke the words. William's thoughts blurred with one another. These words were not supposed to affect him at all. Working alone is what he always wanted, and no one could say anything to him as long as he didn't discharge from duty anyone. Scarlett waited. Deep inside, she hoped that William would stop her and apologize, but he stood firm. His eyes gave her a cold look. That was enough for her to understand that he was not going to say anything more. He let his eyes speak for him. Scarlett left out a stressed breath and turned for her leave. Her hands balled into fists,
and her teeth were clenching hard from anger and disappointment. "I hope you find her before she decides to kiss you too." her words echoed in the alley. Her presence started fading as she was walking away. William looked once more to the house as if he was saying a last goodbye.

...
William looked at the kind officer. His eyes were feeling heavy from all the tears he shed. "Why will you take care of me?" he asked the officer with his voice trembling. "Do you feel pity for me?" The officer smiled at him. He took William on his arms and lifted him up. "You are a special child. I believe you are still here for a purpose. I know you will make me proud." -"But I failed. I failed to save my sister." William broke down crying again. He was still a child. He did not have the strength he was asked to have. The officer wiped his tears with his thumb. "Everyone fails in life, little boy. What matters is that we learn from it and come back stronger."
...

"Excuse me? Where can I use a telephone please?"
"There is a cabin nearby. Turn to your left, and you will see it." A pedestrian showed her the way. Her steps were strong and faster. She saw the cabin from a distance and rushed to it. The door was open already, and the telephone was hanging from its cable. "What bullocks!" She got the telephone and untangled the cable, leaving it in a coiled shape. She placed the telephone next to her ear as she was trying to dial the numbers. "Pick up, Tyler!". She waited for him to answer, stomping her feet repeatedly.
"Hello?" he finally answered. "Our plan backfired. Are you around here?" she covered the space between her mouth and the telephone. "Our detective gave up on us this early?" Rumbling noises were being heard from Tyler. "I do not think we can meet today. I am busy with something." he hung up.  "What? Tyler?" she left the telephone back to its place and then left the cabin. A  spark of thought crossed her mind, and she turned back to the cabin, dialing another number. "Hello? Who am I talking with?" a manly voice answered. "Sir. Beddington. It is me, Scarlett."

The door opened again, and another customer came in. "Hello again, sir! Decided to stay a little longer?" the register lady asked. "Yes. I will make the payment the day that I leave. Can I have some tea served in my room, please?
"Certainly!" the lady assured him. He climbed the stairs in a hurry. The door got closed by the wind. It was noon. She should have been here waiting for him as he asked her for. "Room service!" The faint voice of the servant was heard from the other side of the door. William gave permission for her to come inside. The servant was a young lady holding a tray with a ceramic teapot and a beautiful cup matching the design of it. A little creamer was standing at the corner of the tray along with a sugar bowl filled with small, beautifully cutted sugar cubes.  The servant lady put the tray next to William's table, which was now filled with all the pieces of the puzzle that Clover left for him to solve the past few days. She could not help but look at the collection of things that William gathered in his table. He was inspecting them so carefully that the lady got curious as well. She was pouring the tea on the cup, not noticing that it got filled up. The tea spilled down to his table, creating a mess to the papers laying around. "Bloody Hell! Can't you be more careful?" He yelled at her, backing off from the table. The lady apologized quietly and left the room. William sat down, holding his head with his hands. His detective mind was not functioning properly since Clover disappeared. Her plan was going perfectly, though. Messing up with William's mind was a really hard thing to do, but she easily did it. No one can hurt you more than the people you thought you were close with. He picks up the creamer to put milk on his tea. The tea is still warm, and the papers are absorbing it slowly. One sugar cube falls in right behind the other. The sugars disolved into a black particulate solution, which seemed like it got burnt inside the tea. His lips touch the cup as he lifts it up to drink it. After his first sip, he felt a sweet aftertaste. He got back to working on the riddles. The papers were dried from the tea, but something was strange with the way they looked now. William picked up a piece of paper and dipped it on his cup. He waited until the paper absorbed the tea only to see that the paper got a different shade of brown. Maybe it was because of the milk, he thought. Suddenly, the paper's corner started disolving into crumbles and ashes. The tea had poison in it. He got up, holding his throat tightly. The poison already got in his blood. "Scarlett -" he collapsed in the floor.

...
No one was allowed to trespass the building. Not even the authorities. The inspections were almost finished, and they blocked the alley that led to the building. The fire was caused  by a lit cigarette that fell near the curtains. That's what the authorities wanted the others to believe. "Sir Beddington, we closed the case successfully. No one will suspect a thing." An officer came running. "Good." he confirmed. "Take the boy to my house. Tell Margaret he will be staying with us. Make sure to mention his name to her." Beddington tried handing William to the officer, but he was holding tightly on his jacket. "Please, sir! What is the reason my house got burnt? Who wanted to kill us?" Beddington signaled the officer to take him and leave to his house in Cambridge, refusing to answer William's questions. He was too young to know. "Time will tell everything, little one." Beddington took care of William as if he was his own child. He was close to that. William's father was a great friend of Beddington. He was a really good officer and detective who lost his life because of a planned fire. They wanted all his family to be dead, so Beddington could not risk for them to know that William was still alive, and instead, he took him and raised him with his wife Margaret. Margaret passed away on William's eighteenth birthday. Since then, William refused to celebrate his birthday. Margaret grew pretty close to him. Beddington wanted William to follow his father's footsteps, so he trained him in his own agency since then. William grew up to be a tough man and a really skeptical detective as he is known today, which made Beddington proud. No one knew of his past aside from Beddington and Jennifer. Jennifer had been working beside William since his training days, and he trusted her more than anyone in the company. She was always there when he called for her help. "Jenn! I need your help!"
"What can I do for you?" she entered his office holding a file on her hands.
"I need you to find me a beautiful boquet of flowers with white margarets."
"Taking someone to a dinner date?" she asked curiously. He turned at her laughing. "No, Jenn, you know I don't like to do those things. I am visiting Mrs. Margaret's grave."
"Wake up." she whispered at him. He looked at her confusingly. "What?"
"Wake up!"
...
"Trenor, for God's sake, wake up!" she slapped his face. He opened his eyes and gasped for air. "You came..." he was breathing heavily, clutching his shirt near the chest. "Calm down. You are alive." she held his hand to comfort him. William looked around to see Tyler examining the tea. "It had--." "Poison, we know." she interrupted him. "The servant must have been working for her. She knows you are getting too close to catching her." "Why did you come back? I thought you did not want to work with me anymore." he asked her. "I talked with Beddington. I am sorry for how I acted before. I did not know." William looked down, trying to hold his tears. Whenever this topic was brought up, he could not control his emotions. All the memories would simply rush back to his head. Every single moment. Even the voice of his sister that always haunted his soul. "It's the same poison she uses for her lipstick." Tyler interrupted the moment. William looked at Tyler, tiredness flowing around his face. "I don't think she is the one who wanted to kill me. She wants me to go to that ceremony. She is doing all this only for me." Scarlett and Tyler locked eye contact. William got up from where he was laying, trying to show the scheme of everything. "She always lets us know where she will be next. The clues she gave were only trying to prepare us for her big plan. The morse code and the music box. She will commit her next murder at the Big Ben, and the person she is going to kill is me."
Scarlett slammed her hand to her forehead. "Good heavens." Tyler tried to talk, but he stepped back. "What is it that you want to say?" William asked. "Well. If she left clues behind for you to follow. Where could Jennifer be now?"