Chapter 27 FOUR: THE CREATURE ON RAG
A fluorescent lamp shone brightly above as Kevin sat in the interrogation room, back straight, wrist cuffed. Stared blankly at the white walls. His feet were bound with a loose chain and tied to the chair. He sat facing William, whose foot couldn’t stop tapping the floor.
William shot a glance at him. “Do you know what day it is?”
“April 25th,” he mumbled.
“That is only a day before your damn birthday!” William thundered, slamming his hands on the table. “In less than twenty-four hours, my baby girl would be tortured to death and her body would be dumped on the street, just like the ones we’ve seen so far.” he muttered.
Leaning forward, he continued. “I lost her mum few days back, and now Natasha. I will not sit by and do nothing while my daughter dies. I will to find where they’d taken her, if it be the end of me, and you’re going to help me.”
Kevin spoke in a low voice. “Since the day I met Natasha, I tried to stay away, but…”
Again, he slammed his hands on the table angrily. “Curse the day you set eyes on my daughter.” he cursed, abruptly getting up from the table. Started pacing the room.
Kevin could only watch in silence as William paced, arms folded behind his back.
“It could have been any other girl, any girl at all. Why Natasha!?” he blurted out, turning to Kevin. “Why my daughter!?”
He stared wordlessly at his face.
William groaned and continued pacing. “I heard about what happened to the girl you were supposed to marry. Her body was disembowelled and already rotting when the police had found her.”
He walked to the corner and stopped. His head fell. “My daughter will not end up that way. We would find her before that happens.” he said, without so much as a backward glance at Kevin.
The door opened, and a woman snuck her head. “Sir Alex of the state police department is here to see you, sir. He’s waiting in your office.” she declared. “Said it’s urgent.”
Without turning to glance at her, he said, “Tell Mr. Krevoy that I will be with him shortly.”
The woman left, shutting the door behind.
William turned to glare at him. Opened his mouth to say something. Words evaded him. Then he closed his mouth and bolted out of the room, slamming the door angrily.
Kevin caught a glimpse of a black creature hanging from the ceiling. It dropped onto the floor below, close to the door. The creature looked familiar. Tried to remember where he’d seen it.
As the creature edged towards the door, it stopped and turned to gaze at Kevin, its hideous face causing him to shudder. He finally remembered—the creature that had stared at him through the keyhole the night he followed Cedric down to that warehouse.
The creature opened the door and vanished outside. Kevin breathed a sigh of relief long after it was gone.
That thing had been watching me. The thought sent cold shivers racing down his spine. How long has it been up there?
Light sliced into the room as the door abruptly open. Kevin flinched. He quickly turned, expecting to see the unholy creature return. Instead, he found Derik standing at the doorway.
Kevin stared at him with fixed eyes. Too afraid to utter a word.
Derik hurried towards him. “Oh, thank Goodness.” he breathed, expressing his relief. “I thought they’d taken you.”
“You did not see the dark creature with a red, hideous face and rags as clothing on your way down here, did you?” Kevin raised a brow at him.
His eyebrows knitted when he immediately understood what Kevin was talking about. “Wait… it was here?”
“It hung there on the ceiling, listening in on my conversation with William. Then it climbed down and walked out through that door. That was a moment before you walk in.”
He blinked in surprise. “That’s the same thing killed Jeffrey.”
Kevin’s brows raised.
In the silence that followed, Derik, serious faced, asked, “How did you end up in here, anyway?”
“Lawrence found out about what I am. I don’t know how he did it, but trust me, its far from instincts or his experience being a shifter hunter. He brought along a couple of solid evidence to proof that I killed those men that night. After he had me arrested, he brought me to a lab where he injected me with some drugs that distorted every abnormality in my DNA—so I was told. I’m completely human now.”
“I warned you to be wary of him. Lawrence is not a man to be reckoned with.” he frowned, expressing his displeasure.
“But there is something you must know about him.” Kevin eyed him, his voice lowered. “Lawrence is not the man you think he is. He is also one of them.”
“One of who?”
“Lawrence is a Beocraftian. He is a member of Beocraft.”
Derik blinked in surprise. “That’s quit some accusation. Are you sure of what you accuse him of?” he said, his voice sounding low. “An accusation such as this could get you—us, into trouble if found to be false.”
“Lawrence came around to the house today with some hard evidence to prove that I killed those men and broke into the shifter’s prison to rescue a little girl, and there was something off about….”
“Wait, you broke into the shifter’s prison?” Derik interrupted him, not believing what he just heard. “I thought I’d asked you to stay clear of that building.”
“They captured an innocent little girl. What would you have me do? Would you rather I sit back and let them burn her alive when I could have saved her.”
“And how did that turn out?”
Derik’s question was met with a blank silence. He observed the regrets that spread across Kevin’s face.
“She’s dead,” he finally said. There was a note of sadness and regret in his voice. “T-Rex killed her.”
“Because of your recklessness, you’ve exposed yourself to Lawrence.” he leered.
“For some reason, Lawrence had a photograph of when I’d snuck into the prison to save Ashley. The content in that photograph was exactly the same as the one I had found in Cedric’s drawer. But what struck me the most was that it had Beocraft’s insignia printed at the bottom right corner of that photo. And also, when the big guy tried to arrest me, I noticed that the same symbol had been tattooed on his chest.”
Derik was a little dazed. Then he smiled bitterly. This was finally his chance to get rid of Lawrence. But was he willing to risk everything just because Kevin suspects him? It could turn out that there is a perfectly reasonable explanation to how Lawrence had received a photograph bearing Beocraft’s insignia. But what other explanation is there other than Lawrence being a member of this cruel organisation—Beocraft?
“Words alone cannot justify his affiliation with this organization.” Derik finally said. “We need solid evidence if we’re going to put him away.”
“Go over to Lawrence’s office… see what you can find.”
“What? Are you crazy?” Derik whispered. “Nobody, except the vice-president, is allowed into that office.”
Suddenly a thought came to him. “Unless…”
He hurried out of the room without saying a word to Kevin.
