The Whitechapel Case [abandoned]

Part 2: The Connections (Chapter 5)

The Whitechapel Case
Fox-Trot-9

PG-13
Horror/Suspense/Mystery (How-Catch-'Em)
Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt or Death Note.

Part 2: The Connections
Chapter 5

Day 2—The ride to the Allenshire House for the Insane was a forty-something mile trip from King's Place that felt more like the lonely stretch on Route 50 in Nevada; it was lonely and far too quiet. At least out in the open, where barely a breeze rustled through endless fields of farmland. Noll, Lin and Bert were squeezed together in the back seat of the cabbie like the Three Stooges, because the superstitious cabdriver wouldn't have anyone sit in the front seat. He told the three when they boarded his ride that whenever someone sat in the front seat, he always had a flat tire, or an airbag deploying for no reason, or a dent in the bumper, among other things. So here they were in the back seat. Bert had just hung up, and now they were silent. No need for chit-chat now.

Noll had been thinking of Jason Pickmaster's second-hand account of Evan Moore for most of the trip. And of course, any thinking man of Noll's caliber had many questions in his mind, namely three. One: Who were the other four kids that went along with him into that cave? He didn't know, but he had a biting suspicion who one of the others might be. Two: If his theory was correct, that the enigmatic figure in a white suite had a grudge against Jacob Meiler, could this also be applied to Evan Moore's death? To Noll, it seemed... eerily plausible. And three: Besides Evan Moore, could Jacob Meiler be one of those five kids? At first, such a proposition was quite a stretch, but now it seemed it was not only plausible but inevitable. So one more question remained: Who were the other three?

As Noll sat thinking, the three in the cabbie saw the fields give way to the hamlets and private villas of the rich folks, as they entered the jurisdiction of Croydon. Ten minutes later, they reached their destination, stopping at the parking entrance that was restricted to only the employees, and got out after paying the cabdriver his dues. The asylum looked ordinary enough, just a long box of a building, painted in pale colors like your everyday walk-in clinic or hospice. Half the parking lot was occupied, and that meant most of the workers were about to clock out and head home. The entrance was paved in slabs of stone, with a lawn and garden that wrapped around the front facade of the building. Bert looked at the words over the entrance; below the name of the asylum was another word: WELCOME.

That's one hell of a welcome, thought Bert.

"Who were you calling back there?" said Noll.

"Terry Haller; he's a friend of mine that I know I can count on, besides Jake."

"So he'll be joining the case?"

"Yeah, unless you have any objections."

"I won't have any until I meet him," and off he went.

Bert looked at the kid when he said, "Hey, Lin; is that kid really your boss?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Damn, man. You have my sympathy."

"Just deal with it."

A few benches were near the entrance, one of which had two middle-aged, male nurses taking a time-out. Another bench had a wrinkled old-timer on it; he was in a hospital gown, squinting into space with his mouth open and a line of drool spilling over. The man had a cup in his hand and seemed oblivious to it and everything around him, his mind and body frozen into a stupor. A pitiful sight.

The three walked past them and through the sliding doors and saw a forty-something-year-old reception lady shifting papers at her computer station.