The Heroes We Weren't

Chapter 31 - Everything That M Ever Was

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

Adam didn't lower his chin to view me, but kept his gaze steadily at the receptionist ahead of him.

As Hyun-Soo had excused himself to go carry out his undercover drug dealer mission (this was the title he had given it, but we all knew that he was only going to pull 'pretty please' or two in front of Sam), I had been left as the only barrier between the detective and his fate.

"I can understand this choice of yours," I began, "but can't you wait another week?"

I understood him, and his wish to do what he felt was only right, but we were so close to bringing the dream world back to its original state now and if M was to end up in prison--

I lowered my eyes as Adam passed me. Forget M, forget the dream world - more importantly, a great friend of mine was about to admit to his crimes.

"Officer Adair!" A policeman had suddenly called out. "It's great to see you again!"

Adam gave the man a nervous nod.

Right. He had been an employee at their station, up until that one day when he had suddenly told them to 'haunt down an unknown man who was ordering evil upon the world of dreams'.

I could tell by the wrinkle between the policeman's eyebrows that he had not yet forgotten about Officer Adair's sudden freak out.

"So," the man gestured with his coffee cup, "are you," he hesitated, "are you feeling better then?"

Adam held forth the bag, and so I held back my screams.

"I believe," the detective cleared his throat, "that this may help you with the One-eight-seven M."

"Homocide?" The man decoded the numbered instructions and accepted the bag. "Case M..."

He scratched his chin.

"Are you referring to the Mayor case?"

We soon enough found ourselves seated in a small office. The policeman leant back in his chair, as he waited for his older-than-a-windows98-box of a computer to accept the file.

"How did you come across it then?" He asked.

"I-" Adam begun, but before he could confess, the video had popped up on the screen and caught the other man's attention.

"Oh, there we go." The policeman pressed the space bar.

And there it was – absolutely nothing. The video played and yet there was no M entering or leaving the building, no proof of him ever having smirked to the camera and no way for Adam to turn him in.

I noticed the small numbers in the corner of the video – they skipped a few seconds of footage, maybe even a minute. The video had been edited.

I slowly turned my head to the side to view Adam, but he was just as surprised as me. M must have edited it himself.

That's when it hit me - there was only going to be one person left in the video, and that person was me. Entering and leaving the apartment of the murderer's victim.

"Wait!" Adam called out; he had realized it too.

"I don't see anything." The policeman narrowed his eyes at the screen.

I leant forth and viewed the time - a small glitch had flashed across the screen. Just like how M seemed to have covered up his own tracks, he appeared to have covered up mine as well.

I slowly leant back in the chair. There had been no reason for him to save me.

"How did you say you came across these?" The man asked again.