Psycho • Completed

-10-

"You again?" Is what welcomes Kongpob as soon as the door to the Chaiwong's household is opened by no other than Kannika, Kittibun's widow. 

After looking for any sign of nosy neighbors, she continues with a harsh whisper of, "I thought you already closed the case. What is it this time, detective?"

Kongpob can't blame her though, the first few weeks of her husband's murder investigation was a total circus, everyone in the town was crazily focused on them, creating far-fetched rumors– of Kittibun's involvement in a mafia, that he's a mafia boss himself, and that they're a sinful syndicate family and the murder was one of their punishments from God–

Their family was harassed so it's no wonder that she's already moved on but Kongpob hasn't. He still needs to put the psycho where he should be at. 

"I have an update regarding with your husband's case, here." Kongpob gives her the paper with Aroon's information he got from the juvenile center. 

She grips her jaw. "I knew it!" Then, she quickly pulls Kongpob inside, locking the door behind them, closing the blinds, and makes him sit on the couch. 

"That kid," She squints her eyes and starts to open the locked drawers in the living room, looking for something. "When Kit and I saw that kid, helpless, I knew something's wrong with him."

Kongpob has his notepad in his hand, from those weeks he's interviewed her, this is the only time she's been nice to provide information and not glare at Kongpob as if he's the one to murder her husband.

"Do you remember where exactly you saw him and in what state?"

She lifts her head up for a moment to frown at Kongpob before returning back to the drawers. "Of course I do. Kit and I were strolling blocks away from the orphanage when we saw that blasted kid-"

"Wait, orphanage? The town's orphanage? Child's Hope Orphanage?"

"Yeah. We didn't know what happened to him, he looked really distraught and he was begging for our help so we took him in, I didn't want to but Kit insisted."

"Did he say anything about what happened to him?"

Like how he escaped from the orphanage or how set fire on it or why the hell did he do it in the first place?

"No. We asked if he's from the orphanage because we heard of what happened there but he didn't tell us anything," She huffs and opens the last locked drawer, "I wanted to turn him in to the authorities but he begged us not to so Kit didn't."

So, Oon did escape. 

"Did he tell you his name?"

"No. He said he didn't have any so we named him Aroon. At that time, we didn't have a kid so we adopted him. My husband was oddly fixated on him, he treated that kid like his own but then he started showing his true colors, our neighbors would always report him of stealing from them, threatening their kids and hurting them,"

She heaves a sigh. "So then Kit, in hopes of straightening him out, started to punish him for it but he became worse, he began terrorizing the whole neighborhood and that's when we decided to put him at the juvenile... Where is it?" She rummages on the drawer, almost wanting to throw out all the things there. "Ah! Here it is." 

She then sits beside Kongpob and gives him the lone paper she's found. "Here. That's him."

It's a photograph of a kid, although unrecognizable because of the burnt spot on the upper part of the photo, with the familiar mark on his shoulder, Kongpob's sure it's Oon. 

"Is he the one responsible for my husband's death?"

"We're not yet sure but-"

"Of course he is, that kid isn't normal, I'd told Kit that many times but he didn't listen to me," Kannika sniffs, tears threatening to fall. "Kit had loved that evil kid wholeheartedly but what did he do? He killed him."