At that moment, right in that place, while looking the feeble silhouette of the boy standing from his place, unscratched and neat, Daniel felt true fear. Something had emerge from the very depths of his subconscious, an information he had already forgotten, but that he would remember soon. He felt in presence of something really strange to see.

The boy then left his seat and walked through the lawn, barefooted and having left his pot, plain empty, in the table.

He seemed amused for a second, watching the forest at the other side of the house, then he turned back at them.

— You certainly have a good eye, detective —

Said Oliver lightly, even satisfied, like someone who just has won a price in the fair, or beaten the dealer in blackjack.

— I truly admire the spirit you put into your work, I think you’ll be able to find whatever caused that — said Oliver in a derogatory manner.

— But you haven’t just yet, after all, how could I have caused such destruction just by raising my hand? —

Barnes looked at him quietly, prepared to jump with a hasty commentary

— You truly think so? after all the examples you bringed just a second ago… —

Asked first Daniel.

— Yet… I think so, but you’re in the right track —

— How could I? —

— Do you believe in Demons, Mr. officer? —

Daniel shared a look to Barnes, his eyes denoted a crescent discomfort.

— I… do not, usually, no. At least, there’s nothing that had made me believe they could exist —

— Well, that’s a shame —

Oliver seemed disappointed again.

— Then had you ever heard about Manson’s Law? —

— I don’t think so —

— Manson’s Law of avoidance, Detective, it’s a belief fenomena that states that we’ll avoid doing or believing anything that could ever endanger our perception of the world in which we live in —

Oliver explained calmly.

— Most people, if not everyone, fights with this unconsciously, while they grow and learn more about themselves, but this law exist only because there are things around us that we do not understand or can explain with out limited point of view —

Daniel’s mind got blank.

— I think that many times this is the reason behind why we don’t find the answers we so desperately search for —

Daniel raised an eyebrow out of curiosity.

— We don’t find the right answer, because we do not make the right question, we’re not even able the see the whole picture in the first place —

Then Barnes stepped in between the two of them, grabbing Daniel by the arm

— Well, mister Strange, I think that’s it for today —

Daniel seemed everything but aroused.

— Are you leaving already? —

— I think we have all we wanted for now, althought we may pass by another day —

Oliver hummed

— We actually wanted to talk with your mother too, it’s a shame she had to leave —

When Daniel realized they were leaving, Barnes was already at his side looking down at him.

— Thanks for everything... Oliver —

He said politely, standing quickly from his seat.

When both of them had left the house, Barnes shook Daniel from his coat.

— It was a bad idea from the start, the kid it’s a freak —

And he was right, somehow it wasn't only Daniel's total lack of line-of-interrogation in the questioning what was wrong, no one would've expected what they just saw there. The way in which the whole conversation deviated into a sort of X-files parody conversation had stained the whole interrogation. It wasn't even worth to make a transcription of it. They had lost their time, thought Barnes.

A couple minutes after both left the house, Daniel was still sitting in the driver's seat from his sedan, thinking.

While passing by in the opposite direction, talking from his own car, Barnes couldn’t avoid feeling something was very wrong with Daniel's new found interest in the case.

— It’s just… odd — said Daniel, staring blank.

Immediately, Barnes clicked his fingers in front of Daniel’s face.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

— Listen to me Daniel, go home, talk to your wife, it’s been a long week — and he added

— I’ll throw away everything related to the case out of your desk, and we’ll hope that no-one finds out we where here, but for god-sake, pull yourself together — and that was it.

Either the kid was nuts, or Daniel was, there was no way around it, and after meeting him in person, Daniel had a good idea of why the Commission stopped investigating the case, and decided to close it instead. It was a dead end, a crap box, something you don’t want to get your nose in.

Even if there was something inside it.

Down Byers Road, turning left, in the middle of Hawking's Quarter, was Hollow Creek's School. A nice set of building sit down in-between Hawking's Park, and Hawking's Library, altogether where surrounded by suburban residents and gave form to the schooling heart of Hollow Creek's childhood.

The school itself had already forty years, and even before that was a primary school for the community, so everyone that had grew up in the city the last four decades knew it at least by name or had memories in it. Daniel wasn't different, he studied in Hollow Creek's School all the way from primary till he was accepted in College, and it even played a big part on his coming back, when Eve was hired as a music teacher. That's why he was there that afternoon, to pick her up after work.

Five minutes after Daniel parked in the sideway next to the entrance, she crossed through the entrance charged with paperwork, as usual. She was wearing a yellow floral design dress covered with a wool brown pullover. Her blond hair was neatly tied in a pony tail and her purse was hanging on her back. She didn't usually used make up, and she didn't need it, one of the reasons Daniel had precisely found her amusing was her face, she was pretty and exactly his type, everything else came later. When she entered the car, sat down said on a conter-tenor voice.

— Bollocks, that Manson kid, is going to drive me crazy — then took a moment to look at Daniel and greet him with a kiss.

— Sorry, how was your day? you look tired — said on a more softer tone.

— I am — Daniel added — Wanna go for coffee first? — her eyes shined out of surprise, he always made that when he had something on his mind. Then she say yes.

The place was a hill near down the highway, a perfect spot for taking a look at the city at night, or taking a girl for a make out session, something that Daniel had done before. It was one of Daniel’s favorite places on Hollow Creek, and after ten years going to have talks, it had become one of Eve’s too.

— So, what happens to you? — she asked after an hour of small talk on their daily issues.

— Today I had an interview with that kid, the one from the Mall’s parking lot incident —

— Oh — exhaled with a constipated face — Well, that makes sense —

— Sense? — Daniel asked naively.

— To why you look so distressed, what happened there was, well… horrific —

Daniel remained silent for a minute. She was right, even after reviewing so much into it, we where talking about an slaughter. If she was able to say that without being there, Daniel who had been re-watching from months, couldn’t be just ok.

— You knew him, right? — asked Daniel, not sure if it was a good idea to go that direction.

— You mean Oliver? yes, he came with his mother during the summer schooling course, he needed to catch up —

— How was he? — she looked at him with a grin on her face, like if she was just letting him making that question

— Well, like any other kid, a little bit more quiet and evasive, definitively an introvert —

— That’s odd — answered Daniel

— Today he seemed very secure to me, like those kid who would talk over you in a class, like that Manson kid —

— Uhmm, well, kids usually find their way around after school I guess, to me he always seemed like that type of kid you must tell to play with others in the kindergarten. They just need a kick out of their comfort zone —

— Apparently they came all the way from California, new place, new life — Daniel added, like giving her the reason.

— Moving out during Summer it’s not the nicest thing for a teenager, but... fresh starts motivate anyone to adopt a new approach to life, right? — she stated with a smile.

"Even if that approach is becoming completely nuts, yeah "

Daniel thought to himself, and she posed her arm around his waist.

— Does that makes sense, Mr. Holmes? — she mocked him.

— I guess, Dr. Watson — he conceded.

That same afternoon, after leaving Eve in their house at Pinewood Yard, Daniel went back to work and took a detour on his way to his cubicle, once again as he had many times, he found himself in the evidence room, looking inside the Oliver’s case files.

He had the idea during his visit to Oliver’s house, and vaguely remembered reading something in the forensic paperwork concerning the headless body found in the wooden area near Oliver's house. It took him a while, but after reading it so many times, when he had the information in his hands, he knew where to look.

— Here it is — he said watching a brief description from his missing report, it was stated in the following sentence.

“The boy has a scar four inches long in his right knee, left after a surgery, the leg was broken in four pieces due to an skate accident, stated the mother”

That sole information, typed in blurred ink was the only thing left about it. The body was still with the forensic, yet a set of about twelve pictures were placed inside the same folder. In that moment, while reviewing the photos, his breath gained weight, and his fingers became shaky. It wasn’t like having the corpse face to face, but having watched the boy in person, the similarities between their bodies became evident. When he saw the scar on the knee, everything went down for a second. The boy they met that morning, didn’t have that scar. Whoever he was, he wasn’t Oliver, he couldn't be. He didn’t match the description everyone gave about Oliver before he disappeared, then, the phone rang in his pocket. Daniel’s heart almost got out of his chest, that scared the shit out of him.

— Hello? — he asked without even watching the identifier before, it was Barnes.

— Hello what? where are you, I was searching for you —

— I just got back, I’m on my way to my cubicle, what’s up? —

— I need you at the interrogation room, you need to see this — said Barnes quickly, like in a alarm state.

— Are you ok? — he asked before.

— Yes, it’s nothing, I’ll be there in a minute —

Then the call ended, what could possibly be? Daniel packed everything in his place, fold the folder, and put it inside his jacket.

When he arrived the interrogation room, Barnes was waiting outside the door with a dog face

— What happened? —

— Where were you? — he checked on him quickly.

— I was just reviewing some stuff in the evidence room —

Daniel wouldn’t lie.

— Goddamit Daniel, I told you —

— Look — interrupt Daniel — This is not what you think —

— Forget it —

Said Barnes waving his hand

— We’ll talk later, there’s a government agent inside that room —

Daniel's mind went blank.

— FBI? —

Said Daniel clueless.

— Nah, but he jumped somehow over the commissioner, listen to me kid — Barnes gave him a look straight to the eyes.

— We are not supposed to have the next conversation —

Then, he scratched his beard with his hand.

— And he’s asking for you, for us —

Suddenly, the air got cold.

— How did they knew? —

Daniel assumed the worst, as short as they where operating, the interrogation from that morning souldn’t suppose to happen.

— Look I don’t know, but we haven’t done anything wrong… yet. You just have to speak the truth, then shut up and listen. That’s usually how this work —

— Ok —

— I go first, just follow me —

Then, he opened the door.