Oswald (Wozwald)

Ch 2. Encyclopedia Black

I stepped off the bus platform and opened up the carnival. Some parents were waiting for me to open the gates. The children's beady little eyes waiting for me to let them all go in. Some of my father's employees, I mean my employees had already gone in and started their shifts but they couldn't open up without me because I was the one to open up the gates.

" Hurry up mister!" One child shouted gripping at a pant leg of mine nearly pulling my goddamn pants down to my ankles. I scrunched up my nose seeing him weighing me down physically. I needed to get my damn day started, kid. Hell, I'm already an hour late. The child's mother picked him up in her arms and carried him away to scold him. Serves the little bugger right I didn't want to deal with another troublemaker.

I creaked the gates open as several children ran in while their parents tried to get them back in an orderly fashion. Of course they were children so it'd be hard to tell them what to do. Under my breath I muttered, " Welcome," before stuffing my key ring back into my pocket which make a small noise as it scraped against the metal of my lighter and crunched a receipt I had left in there.

I figured it'd be best if I started the investigation where my father was found, in his office. I made my way there not caring if people saw me entering my father's office. I don't care if they think I'm his killer or what other crazy theories they have in their pea-sized brains. As I got there, everything was the same as the last time I saw. I haven't been able to access this room because of the crime scene investigators blocking all access to this room while they collected evidence and all that nonsense. But it didn't seem like they disturbed anything or took anything out which was rather strange. I recalled trying to see my father's body to make an early identification of him but, the stupid police wouldn't let me.

" What's your damage?!" I shouted into one of the policeman's ear. He sort of noticed how I tried to kill his eardrums and nearly beat me the hell up with his police baton thing kept at his side.

My father's desk still had pencil shavings and the stuff left by erasers after using them. I thought the investigators would take them for further analysis but I guess not. I decided not to touch it because I might need to see it later on, for future reference you could say. His office was a large space which you wouldn't imagine, it was as if my father spent more time in his office than actually managing his own carnival. I'm going to assume that he does spend a lot of time here, I mean he was found in here. I just don't quite know yet if he was killed in this room.

His couch still retained a space where it was dented in, the place where he most likely often sat at. I was surprised that it was still here, or maybe someone had recently been in the room. I doubt it though since no one else has the keys to his office except himself. However, I was also thinking that when he lost his key that was when somebody stole it. Yes yes, that seems most likely because the material this couch is made of isn't the type of keep in dents on the seats.

So I confirmed with myself that someone had been snooping in my father's office recently. The police said that they closed off the investigation and determined the perpetrator of the crime was unknown and that they had no other leads so it couldn't have been the crime scene investigators. So it is the person who stole my father's key. It was strange because on my father's key ring it was just the key to his office that was stolen. I figured if the killer had access to my father's keys he would steal all of them instead of taking just one. They probably were curious of what he had in his office. Hell, so was I and I was his own son but I hadn't seen his office in 10 years.

Last time I was in his office was because he asked one of his employees to babysit me while he took care of something quickly. I asked him where he was going and he said he wasn't going to far, in fact he was just going to go somewhere in the carnival and needed someone to watch over me for a quick minute. It turned out to be a couple of hours before he finally got back. I was getting awfully sleepy so I was laying down on the couch while my babysitter was stroking my hair. I remember she kept going on about how I looked like my father except my hair was stark white with a streak of black hair. My father's hair was jet black, the opposite of most of my hair.

He told me stories about him and my mother how her hair was so white it was almost blinding whenever you'd look at it. He said my hair was brighter than her's in comparison, he even went so far as to compare it to a pearl that was on the bracelet he got for my mother in one point of their relationship. I wonder where that pearl bracelet was, maybe it was in here. He pretty much lived his life here anyways. The room was much more cluttered than what I remembered, well it had been a while since I've been here.

I spotted a drawer that had a padlock on it. The code to unlocking it seemed to be 3 numbers. What? He's hiding things now? No one even has access to this room except him so I don't know why'd he put a lock on his drawer. He did come off as a secretive man now that I really think about it. The blinding glitter of a mirror on his wall shined in my eyes. Upon further inspection I noticed that the mirror is completely covered up with a thick dusty layer. How did the investigators miss this obvious clue? I picked up a bandana that I found on the floor to wipe the dust off of the mirror. Let's hope that it's the code I thought in my head.

After I wiped the mirror clean, I set the bandana on top of the drawer while I examined what I had uncovered. The mirror displayed a book followed by a transformer action figure and a hammer.

" Book, action figure, hammer?" I wondered aloud rubbing my eyes. Am I seeing this right, I asked myself before thinking what this could mean. There are 3 symbols, the padlock has 3 numbers in order to unlock it..

I was sure as hell that the symbols pertained to the padlock. While I was scratching my head trying to think of how the items displayed on the mirror correlated with the items in the room. There were two books on the floor instead of the bookcase where they should've been so I'm thinking the first number is 2. Then I looked for transformers action figures, I ended up finding 4. I recognize all of them, I had bought these to put on my shelf since I loved transformers but they had gone missing. It turns out that my dad took them after all. I'm not going to take them home yet though. So 2,4, how many hammers does he have? I couldn't seem to find any hammers so 0?

I returned to the drawer and moved the bandana covered with dust out of the way so that I could input the code. 2,4,0, I shook it around and trying to undo the lock but it didn't seem to work. Are there more books, action figures, and or hammers? Frustrated, I wanted to smash open the lock with a hammer but instead I thought it was a god idea to rapidly twist the numbers one by one until I feel like it'll open up. Turns out I didn't need to because after one turn of the padlock to change 0 to 1, it opened with ease and no hesitation.

So there is one hammer in the room but I couldn't seem to find it. Interesting, where would it be? But that's not important right now, I've finally opened up the drawer. What could be inside? I heard rolling as I slid the drawer open. Could it be marbles or a ball?