The Bear House

Act 3. Chapter 3: The case of the missing officer

Act 3. Chapter 3: The case of the missing officer

His eyes are not seeing as he stares unto the old well-kept wallpaper. The sun barely illuminates the room with the dark wooden furniture and floor offering little to no reflectance. His breathing has gone low, with a heavy feeling his eyes has gone waver. Upon fully closing them he can feel the wind, he can hear the trees, he can smell the lavender.

He smiled.

The present offers more relaxation, more stories that are real, with a current life to feel. For a moment, if only the briefest moment, he felt at peace with his position, his mind, and wherever his existence went.

For the briefest moment.

Because then voices came, voices spoke, voices passed by like a train within his mind.

They speak in hush, they speak in conversations, they are thoughts, they are all the words he could find.

If they were real sounds his ears would definitely bleed. In the midst of all these voices, a high-pitched ting would come and go. His mind was trying to mince the words, but he only got one headline.

Mind reading is nothing like the movies. He thought. Human thoughts work entirely different.

"Practicing to be more powerful than I, dear?" Arthur said, opening Colin's room without knocking. He leaned unto the door frame, relaxed and smiling.

Colin smiled. "That will come eventually. For now I'm banishing your presence from my mind. You know me and my mental hobby."

"Ah. The mental hobby." Arthur stepped forward towards the boy's placement in the middle of Georgie's – his – room, facing the wallpaper without any object near him within a four meter circumference. "From what I can see, it's the enhanced version of mind-reading. Care to tell me what you heard?"

His smile faded, replaced by lips thinning and grinding. "Powley was investigating us. You killed my mom." His expression turned darker, but not directed to Arthur. "Jacques was food-poisoned and it's somehow tied to you."

Arthur somehow managed to conquer the slightest bit of Colin's personal space, and Colin somehow managed to show he's the least bit intimidated. He only made a point by showing his unchanged face. If he cannot be as strong as this man, he will at least be untamed, he decided.

"And also." He continues, "Some of the local police works for you."

It was Arthur's turn to smile, a smile that creeped to his lips with pleasure towards the boy who's slowly knowing who he really is. "Amazing, isn't it. You have no idea how easy it is to enter systems with a little intimidation. Why? I do not know, I can't really read people's mind all the time."

The man set his ungloved hands behind him. He kept the same smile while lowering his face to Colin's strong one. In that position, he can admire Colin's face closely.

Ah, he really is beautiful lamb. He's a boy with ugly life, beautiful mind, and thus, beautiful philosophies; despite being opposite to his.

This beautiful face he has; his dark brown skin, inherited from a mother with African origin and a father with Germanic-American kin, unruly deep brown hair and eyes so expressive he could read them on its own. Like a beautiful gift wrapped in a surprisingly expensive fabric for a parcel, a thing he'd think twice to get thrown.

He has always been a lover of beautiful exquisite things.

"I advise you do not perform range mind-reading again. My boy, you have such a beautiful mind, I do not want it being influenced by the tasteless mind processes of most humans."

Colin sighed deep with flare. "Okay." It was exhausting, to be fair. For that brief moment, he had come across the most questionable minds. Alarming was the fact that these humans are the ones we walk with, we sleep with. They are many. It is disturbing.

It will be a very special occasion if he reads minds in range again.

*

The lab reports from SOCO had come back, and the results are as equally disdaining as the fact that Arthur has been taking advantage of Colin.

The documents say the toxin is called Tropane alkaloids, a toxic that can be processed to be a hallucinogenic. It can be found in several flowers like the Nightshade. The lab found yellow traces of the flower in some rice grains, so they identified the flower immediately. The flower is called Brugmansia, or Angel's Trumpet: a toxic flower that are only allowed to grow in a few countries. Even smuggling this flower inside UK is illegal.

The Philippines is one of the countries that unknowingly allows this toxic flower to grow in their soil, even in public spaces with children. He thought of the Philippines because the sack of rice has a label 'from the republic of the Philippines', with a witty product name 'Angelica'.

There are no other suspects but Arthur Goldie; the one who brought this rice sack. He probably smuggled this in because there are no records of the transaction.

There's another thing he needs to find out. He heard Colin went to hospital after passing out in the children's play park. Jacques was far away but he saw when the ambulance carried him in. Most of the 'meat' evidences of Ms. Keller's death was taken by the SOCO, but the kidnapping case was handled by the local police station. Maybe the results of that hospital admission is with them. There's a big possibility that this hallucinogenic has affected Colin, and it would affect his head specifically.

Upon entering the station, one of the lesser senior officers approached him. "Hello, Officer Powley. Being big with SOCO now, are we not?" He said kindly, which had Jacques suspicious. "What are you here for?"

"I would like to look at the collected evidences." He said professionally.

"Like what evidences?" The officer asked, then his eyes wandered at the lab reports Powley was holding. "Ah, probably looking for medical records?"

"...yes?"

"Alright. Come, follow me."

Powley followed, of course. His better judgements lost the battle of desperation and mistrust. When they turned to a hallway, another senior officer smacked his head hard he might be dead; well, he might be, for his head is flowing heavily with blood. They carried him to a car's trunk, his limbs tasseled throughout the space. There, they let more blood escape from his body.

The two officers drove to the meeting point. A clearing far away from the Bear House but nearer to the cliffs. There, a young but tall and pristine figure awaits with a book in his hands. He looks serene and composed, but the officers thinks he shouldn't be.

"Sir Goldie, the rookie had something tested." One officer handed the lab reports to Arthur. "And these documents are just copies. The originals are probably with the SOCO."

Arthur read them, and just nodded. "They found out I've drugged Colin. You will have to destroy his medical records."

"But sir, the hospital also has those records. SOCO could just subpoena the documents."

"SOCO would not subpoena anything if they would not know they must. So far, I could tell only Powley had the idea." Arthur replied.

"Well worry not sir." The other smiled. "We killed Powley. Cleanly."

"Good." Arthur nodded then destroyed the documents with fire coming from his hands. The two officers only rooted their feet, looking at each other, trying to look like they're used to this. "Throw him off the cliff."

And so they did.