Innocence Forsaken

Ch 3. Detectives

The old bus shook round the countryside, chucking around the very few people who sat inside.
K sat on one of the old, ripped seats, files sprawled out over his knees, and a pen gripped between his teeth. He looked out in the grassy hills out the window, catching a slight glimpse of his blonde hair reflecting in the dirty window.
"K!" His friend, Far, asked like a small child trying to get sweets from his mother.
"What?" K replied droningly.
"Are we there yet?" He asked, pushing himself into a crossed legged position and jabbing his knee into K's side.
"No." K groaned, as he shifted over a little. "Get your feet off the seats. It's unhygienic."
"It's not like this whole bus is hygienic." He responded, rolling his eyes and putting his hands on his feet.
"K." He asked again.
"What?"
"Are we there yet?" He said as he pulled K's files away to look at intently.
"No." K sighed. He yanked his files back and hit Far over the head with them lightly.
"K." Far said once again, this time dragging it out further.
"I swear to God if you say 'Are we there yet?' once more I'll-" He was cut off by his friends giggling.
"What is it?"
"Someone just stole your wallet." He giggled again, this time a little more maniacally.
"What-- No" He shook his head in disbelief, checked his back pocket. "This wasn't you, was it?"
"Nope."
K began scrambling around in the undergrowth beneath his seat.
"It must have fallen. That's it." He sneezed. "Ugh. It's so… Dusty down here."
Far looked up and quickly grabbed the files again.
“Ooh.” His eyes lit up and he swiped through the many pages. “Ahh.”
He jumped down, kicking K in the process, and laughed.
“Ow. What are you doing?” K asked, an ashamed tone in his usually neutral voice.
“We have arrived…” He jumped up, happily and grinned.
K pulled himself out from under the seat, his blonde hair now with highlights of grey and whites.
“Nearly.” He giggled and closed his eyes. “3… 2… 1…”
The bus ground to a halt, throwing K across the aisle onto the, luckily, empty seat opposite him. Far stood tall, as usual.
He bounded down the bus, tipped his pretend hat to the driver and thanked him, closely followed by his gloomy friend who fought to keep his papers together.
Unsurprisingly, they were the only people to get off the bus at the point.
“Look how pretty it is!” Far yelled at the top of his lungs, hopping from one leg to the other in quick succession.
“This is not a holiday. We’re working.” K said, only to be ignored as his friend scuttled over to a light grey stand that held different leaflets.
“They… have a... “ For a second, his face relaxed. “Pancake World!”
K hit his face and rubbed his hair back, closing his eyes and wishing he’d misread the leaflet.
He turned to the benches a fair bit behind him, hoping that his friend would forget about the theme park after a night of sleep or two.
“Excuse me, Miss?” He asked a young woman who sat on one of the wooden benches. She brushed her black hair back out of her face, revealing her petite little face and sea blue eyes. A few freckles graced her pale face.
She smiled.
“Yes?” She had quite a melodic voice that rang out in K’s ears. Although, he couldn’t help but recognise a slight atmosphere of malevolence.
“Could you point me in the direction of Kinley Hall?”
“Just over there.” She pointed down a small cobbled street. “Just past the shop.”
He nodded.
“Thanks.”
Far waddled over, a leaflet sticking out of his coat pocket.
“Brr. It’s a bit chilly ‘round here.” He said as he jogged on the spot a little.
"Get over it." K said. "This is Scotland."
K headed in the direction the girl said, closely followed by his dear friend.
K looked over at Far, his shoulder length brown hair covering his pale face as he wrestled it to keep it out of his eyes.
"Stop messing around." He muttered, as Far started spinning in circles and walking backwards to keep his hair away from his eyes.
"I'm not, I can't see." He took his hair and held it in a ponytail.
"Why did I get stuck with you?"
Kinley Hall was one of the biggest buildings K had seen so far in the small town. It was brick, and it was shared by the police and council.
Outside was the market, a sea of brightly coloured tents and stalls.
They opened the door and entered. It was a cosy place, there was a small receptionists desk at the front which was currently unmanned. Sitting at the desks behind was an older Japanese man, and a middle aged Ginger woman.
"Ah, Supt. Miyashita." K greeted as he extended his arm politely. He looked over to Far, who was giggling at the man's name, and gave him a death glare.
"I assume you're DCI Corley?" He said.
"Aye, hullo." She said as she shook K's hand.
"What did she say?" Far asked, confused as he let his hair fall from his grip and raised his eyebrow a little.
"Don't be rude."
Far sighed, honestly being unable to tell what Susanna was talking about, and he wandered off. He spotted a filing cabinet, looked back and noted the others were distracted. He opened one of the draws and pulled out a file.
The town's baker. Far looked through it for about two seconds before he put it away for it being too boring.
He found one with Susanna's name on it. He picked it up.
DCI for a year…
Boring information, until he reached further.
5 kids.
"Wow… She's been getting on." Far muttered.
He looked through it. The youngest was 2 and half, followed by a five year old. Then a 14 year old, and two twins, aged 16, which were adopted.
She also had a late husband, Daniel Corley.
"Far, please stop violating people's privacy." K came over and tried to shut the file. He scanned it a little bit.
"Actually, that's the cleverest thing you've ever done."
K snatched the file.
"The murderer was always one step ahead when you were in charge of the investigation, almost as if they knew everything." K sat down to explain his theory to the Police.