"I've already said what I know to the police yesterday..." John replied.

This man looks to be about forty three years old. Except for being bald and black, what captured Simon's attention was that he also had that triangular tattoo on his left arm. Like Damian did.

"Yes but I just want to clarify things." Simon said after observing John.

John looked at Simon strangely but with a little bit of sadness and said,

"alright."

Simon felt confused because of how John looked at him.

John led Simon to a room inside the factory where it was more decent and clean. This place was where the leaders would rest or supervise from. He's the leader of the group of workers in this area of work so he head access to this room.

"Take a seat" John said. Simon didn't reply but instead just took a seat. They both looked at each other calmly. Simon broke the silence and then said, "Mr. Thompson, what is your relationship with Mr. Hawthorn?".

"Well, I'd like to consider myself as his best friend. We always spent time together inside and outside the factory. I treat him as my brother." John said with a sad face.

"I'm so sorry for your loss and because we're talking about this." Simon said.

"No it's okay. I want to help out in finding Damian's killer." John said.

Simon nodded and then he said, "John, tell me more about you and Damian."

John sighed and said, "Damian and I were best buddies. Wherever he went, so did I. I met him after I entered the factory. He started to work here a year after I did. We instantly hit it off. I mean, I like the guy. He was kind and honest but not naive. And he wasn't racist! It's hard to find a person who's not racist around this part of England."

Simon nodded. He understood this. When he was still in college, he could always see black men bullied simply because they were black. They were despised by the world. Despised by the students and even the professors. This was natural since the british folks were also involved in african slavery way back to the 1600s to early 1800s. Although they abolished slavery on 1833, something that happened couldn't be changed. The disdain of the people towards different races and colors wouldn't change even after almost two hundred years.

"Hmm..." Simon clicked his tongue. "Did you have any contact with Damian before he died?" Simon asked.

"Yes we did actually. Two days before he died, he stopped working. I called him and asked him why but he said that he wasn't feeling well." John said the last words with a bit of hesitation.

This couldn't escape Simon's eyes.

'John definitely knows something about why Damian died...' Simon thought to himself.

"Did Damian ever told you any strange things before he died? Like seeing something, flickering lights, hearing noises and something like that?" Simon said.

John looked at him strangely and then he replied after a brief moment, "I don't recall him ever telling me anything like that. No. Why do you ask?"

"Oh nothing nothing. I'm just being thorough." Simin smiled.

He identified that John was lying but he didn't want to break all forms of cordiality so he just let it slip. He looked at John, stood up, and said with a smile, "Thanks for answering all of my questions Mr. Thompson!" Simon shook John's hand and said.

After they shook each other's hand, Simon pointed at John's tattoo on the left arm and said, "What a beautiful tattoo. Hey, i looked over Damian's files. He too had a tatoo like this right?"

"Uh..." John said with a pause. "Yeah he did. It's something that signified our friendship, you know? Something corny like that." John continued with a laugh.

Simon also laughed and then said as ge walked back to his car, "Well thanks again Mr. Thompson! I'll inform you when the killer has been caught!"

'That guy was extremely suspicious. Something's not right with him. He seemed to be very nervous and he desperately tried to hide that fact. I could see it just by the way he talked and the way he breathed. It was like he was on a marathon, he was lacking breath. I'll come back later and follow him when he goes home.' Simon thought to himself.

Simon drove to the hotel, left Leo there and then drove to the library. He didn't want to leave Leo on the car for hours so he might as well leave him in the hotel where there was food and he could walk around the room.

Simon entered the library and took off his black fedora. He walked towards the librarian and then asked, "can you arrange for me the murders or kidnappings in this town in the the last fifty years?". The librarian was a man who looked to be about sixty years old. He had white hair, glasses and a wrinkled face.

The librarian looked at him , nodded and then left. After half an hour, the librarian came back with a bunch of newspapers inside a box.

"These are the killings and kidnappings in the last fifty years. Knock yourself out" the librarian said.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Simon thanked the librarian and then started to read. After an hour or two, Simon had narrowed down all of the cases into one final case. This case was particularly interesting.

"It's stated here that six years ago, a girl called Andrea Grey went missing. She had long black hair and white skin. She just turned 28 years old that year..." Simon mumbled to himself.

"The only person that people saw her with before she disappeared was a man called Hernandez Klein. The boss of the Lowry's Marshmallow Factory." He continued.

"The cops questioned him but since there was not enough evidence, he wasn't locked up"

"Bingo!" He quickly got up, arranged the things that he used, bid his farewell to the librarian and then rushed to his car.

'So Hernandez may or may have not killed the girl. But I wonder how he's connected with Damian and John. I guess I'll have to follow him or maybe even confront him. I've still got an hour left.' Simon thought to himself.

He drove towards the factory and then sneaked to the back. He jumped over the fence silently. The security inside the factory was not worth mentioning since no one in their right mind would ever think of entering a factory without permission. I mean, there wasn't even a single thing that could be stolen except for unpacked products that is. Simon entered the factory and then looked around for a few minutes.

Luck was on his side as the workers were not here and Simon easily spotted a man about fifty years old, wearing a suit and tie along with John enter a room.

'I gotcha.' Simon thought to himself. He silently tiptoed towards the door of the room and eavesdropped on them.

Hernandez and John sat down.

"Boss, an FBI agent came over and asked me questions about Damian's death." John said.

"And?" Hernandez looked at John and replied.

"That FBI agent asked me about my tattoo and if John told me strange things before he died." John said.

"The thing is Boss, John did indeed tell me strange things. He said that he started to see 'her'. He would see flickering lights and the temperature surrounding him would suddenly drop. He would hear the sounds Boss..."

John lowered his voice but it was still audible to Simon. "The sounds that she made when we raped and killed that girl."

Hernandez looked at Simon seriously and after a few moments, he broke out into hearty laugher.

"John my boy! Have you gone mad because of Damian's death?! Look, I know that he died and It's been hard on you but don't turn crazy on me or else I'll have to spend effort to find a good leader again alright?" Hernandez said and then patted John's shoulder.

John also laughed at himself but this laugh sounded more like a forced laugh since he kinda believed in ghosts and spirits. Seeing that something about that was said to him before a man died really creeped him out.

"Alright John, you can go now." Hernandez said.

John bid his farewell and then walked towards the door. Simon heard this, so he quickly found a place near the door to hide.

John exited the door. He felt like someone was there but found no one. He felt shivers down his spine. He quickened his pace and walked towards the streets so that he could take a cab.

Simon followed him silently.

On the way there, John saw a figure all cut up and bruised. Her hair was dishiveled and she was wearing a shite dress stained with blood around the abdomen. John's pupils constricted and he came to an abrupt halt. "Andrea..." John uttered weakly. "You... You killed and raped me John!" Andrea said while walking closer to John.

John took a few steps back and said, "No! No no no! I was just forced to do so! I'm sorry! Please! Forgive me!"

"Forgive you?! You're sorry?!" Andrea shrieked and her face turned that into a corpse. A decayed face filled with worms and dirt. John screamed in fear when he saw this and he suddenly tripped down on the floor.

Simon saw what was happening, so he took out his derringer pocket pistol and then shot Andrea. The spirit got hit and then dissipated. "Bang!" The sound of the derringer pocket pistol firing reverberated through the air.

"Wha-what was that?! Did you see that???" John said.

Simon hid the derringer pocket pistol and then he helped John stand up.

"Wa-wait! You're that FBI agent" John said.

"Well, I'm more like a temporary one depending on the occasion. Ha ha" Simon replied awkwardly.

"Come on, I'll buy you a drink."

...

Inside a bar called "Liquid Hot Momma Bar" appeared two men drinking. One was black and one was white. These two were naturally Simon and John. Simon was drinking an alcoholic beverage called

"Satan's Whiskers". A drink that was made famous by the Satan's Whiskers restaurant. The drink had gin, orange juice, sweet and dry vermouth and Grand Marnier mixed in on it. The team who made this also added sugar and a dash of lemon to lighten the recipe up a bit. It was light brown in color but more vague. With one sip, you would be able to experience drinking with Satan, or so they say. The bartender is friends with the owner of the Satan's Whiskers bar so he could sell this drink here.

John was drinking a drink called Campbeltown. It had the same color as Liquor. It tasted peaty and robust while being complemented by vanilla. Its name was derived from a place called Campbeltown.

"So John, tell me, who is it that you saw?" Simon said intelligently.

John looked at him trying to avoid the question. He took a shot of the Campbeltown and then drank it in one go.

"One more please!" He yelled. The bartender poured more of it into his glass.

"I didn't see anything!" John said.

"John, you know what you saw. If you don't tell me now, I won't be able to help you." Simon said and then he took a sip off the Satan's Whisker.

"She's Andrea Grey right?" Simon whispered.

"Shh! Lower your voice." John sighed and said.

"Well, then tell me." Simon replied.

John looked at him and then he sighed.

"That's right. Her name is Andrea Grey. One day, my boss told us to come with him with her in tow." John said, clearly hiding more crucial information.

"John, listen to me. If you don't tell me what happened, more people will die! Damian has already died! You or your boss could be next! John? Do you want to die?!" Simon said.

Simon had a thing for saving people. Regardless of whether they were in the wrong or not.

"Me and Damian couldn't disobey Boss since he was our Boss. So we quickly rode his car. Andrea Grey was tied up and her eyes and mouth were covered by clothes."

"We drove her to a house at the outskirts of town. There, Boss raped her. And then after he raped her, he told us we could rape her too. Join in on the fun you know?" John said.

'Bastard!' Simon thought to himself. He really wanted to punch John in the facd right now but it would do him no good.

"I was rather caught up in the moment at that time. I knew that since I was with them, I didn't have any choice. I got into the tiger's back and I know I can't dismount." John said.

"Damian and I did her. As well as Boss. We stayed there for about three days. At the final day however, we saw Boss's true nature. He had this fetish of getting turned on when seeing blood all over the one that he was having sex with." John said.

'So that explains all the cuts that Andrea had...' Simon thought

"Andrea couldn't take it anymore so she fought back. Boss got angry when she resisted so he punched her in the face a couple of times."

"He ended up killing her in the process. Boss got angry when she died, so he vented his rage on her corpse. Breaking her left arm."

Simon's brows were very arched at this point.

"Boss told us to help him dispatch the body. We put the body inside a bag and buried her under the ground." Josh said.