Well, Gāisǐ de. She thought in partial Chinese. What were the chances that she would meet with someone who knew this online persona?
She was initially planning to try and message F8 to ask them what they knew and if they would be willing to come down to talk, but perhaps now, she might not need to.
“You know F8?” Kira repeated, wanting just to confirm.
Morrigan nodded. “I do. F8’s known on Reddit for looking into cold cases. But I’m not sure for how long. All I know is that this is something that they have done for fun. It’s the same with the Ghost Woman cases.”
Uh, what? “Wait, F8’s been working on this, by themself, for fun?”
Morrigan merely shrugged. “Yes and no. F8 is interested in trying to find any connection to the Ghost Woman. They even told me that they worked with Trace Labs in the past. Though, again, I can’t tell you for how long.”
“Trace Labs?” Freddie repeats.
Morrigan’s gaze went to Freddie. “It’s a non-profit organization that works with hackers to try and locate missing persons, or even just to find clues that weren’t discovered yet. It’s something that F8 often talks about and sometimes will ask me what I think might have happened to a person who disappeared.”
That didn’t make any sense to Kira. “Why?”
“Because I could give outside perspective, but I think it’s also because they said I tend to think a bit outside the box. I write stories, and to F8, it gives more flexibility in what might have happened. In their view, someone with a creative mind can look past the obvious and come to a possible conclusion based on what’s out there online. They even give me pointers on things I could fix with my writing. They like the stories I tell, especially since it’s not romance.”
As interesting as that was, there was one thing that was left dangling in Kira’s thought process. “How did you two meet?”
“We met about a year and a half ago, on a form. I was gathering some research online about what it would take for a person to go missing after committing a murder. F8 was one of the first to respond.”
“And you were looking for that to write a story?”
She gave Kira a slight smile. “I get that it sounds strange. The majority of writers that I know tend to joke that we’re probably on some watch list because of the things we try to look up for information.”
Kira smiled, thinking of Lucia and her trials of being a writer when delving into research that some would look questionably on. “I think I can understand that.”
Her blue eyes lit up only to quickly snap out of it. “Anyway, F8 isn’t the only one, of course. I also get some advice from another person named ArchangelUriel. They also talk with F8 from time to time. Their conversations are pretty interesting. Even F8 finds what Uriel has to say as something to listen to.”
“Is this Uriel religious?” Freddie asked.
She shook her head. “As far as I know, they’re not. They just seem to use it as it fits what they do. The Archangel is known for helping those in need, hence the name. At least that’s what they say. No one knows who they are, not even F8 knows.” She then looked at Kira. “Sorry, I keep going off track with this.”
“It’s okay,” Kira said. “Do you know how long F8’s been looking into these murders of the Ghost Woman?”
“No, but they did tell me something that you might not understand.”
“What’s that?”
“The reason they’re looking for the Ghost Woman. F8 wants to thank them.”
Kira’s eyes went wide as Freddie responded. “Whatever for?”
Morrigan looked a bit on edge, probably thinking that she might have said too much but was already halfway in it. “Because the Ghost Woman killed someone that F8 despised.”
* * *
It had been an hour since interviewing Morrigan Wolf with her mother, and the literal bombshell that the seventeen-year-old girl dropped became a nucellar bomb of questions inside Kira’s mind.
Just who did this Ghost Woman kill that F8 wanted so desperately to die?
Or was that really what they wanted since this was just coming secondhand from another person who even they weren’t sure if it was the truth or not.
From what Kira saw online, it didn’t make much sense to her. F8 seemed to want to stop the Ghost Woman, not thank her for killing people. But then, what did Kira know? It was a person behind a screen typing all that. For all Kira knew, it could have been a lie.
This person known as F8 could very well have been a troll, but how could that have been given how earnestly this person searched for clues. So many things contradicted each other. It was almost maddening.
I need sleep. Kira thought with a heavy sigh. Fredrick was right, this was doing her no good, and it’d only get worse the longer she kept going on like this.
She’d need to take a bit of time off to get her thoughts and her sleeping schedule in order so that she can get back to doing things properly and not act like an idiot rookie.
And her day wasn’t even done yet.
“Detective Song, Ms. Davenport is almost here questioning.” A different police officer came to tell her this. “It’ll be another hour or so until she arrives.”
How she wished she could just stop time for a moment with a generic TV remote.
“Alright, thank you.” She said before heading to the woman’s restroom and splashing freezing water in her face to wake herself up, then added a bit of makeup to hide the shadows under her eyes to make herself look like she wasn’t as exhausted as she felt.
And the last thing she wanted was to look exhausted in front of a woman who had something to hide.
“Are you all right, Detective?”
Kira stopped when hearing a familiar voice when she left the restroom. Turning around, she came face to face with Alastor Hilmarsson. What was he doing here?
He was dressed in a cotton button-up dress shirt in a light lavender colour with dark blue dress pants and a matching vest with a silver-grey tie making the man look not bothered by the mid-August heat. His hair was brushed off to the side as he smiled warmly.
Did the heat just not affect him like a normal human being?
“Is there something you need, Mr. Hilmarsson?” she asked, slightly confused as to him being here at the police department.
“I’ve merely come to see for myself, the monster whom you call Lauren Davenport’s mother. That’s all.”
Monster? Kira frowned at the man.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“I thought I should come by and give a bit of a refresher in what she’s done, oh excuse me, what it’s rumoured that she’s done. Or at least allowed to happen.”
“Mr. Hilmarsson, what are you talking about? Did you… did you know that she was being abused and did nothing about it?”
The man didn’t even look phased by her question to him as he put his left hand into his pants pocket before answering. “That’s a lofty jump, detective. I had the assumption and even called the police about it. But nothing changed. If anything, she was treated worse.”
Kira scowled at that. “And you know this how?”
“It doesn’t take a detective to notice the difference in a person’s demeanour.” He tells her rather flatly, with that infuriating smile of his. It was like he was mocking her with that comment. “She was my daughter’s babysitter after all. How much time she preferred to stay at my home speaks volumes,” his gaze then looked off to another part of the room. “I honestly doubt Ms. Davenport even really knew her daughter given how she never even told the police that her child went missing. People who think they are so self-important often believe that no one is better than themselves, even their children.”
She was about to ask what he meant by that, if Alastor had seen something like that with Lauren and her mother first hand, but didn’t get the chance to when Alastor then handed her something Kira didn’t expect.
“This is Miss Davenport’s diary. I found it in my guest room after doing some cleaning.” He says as she takes a look and sees the first page. Seeing that it was, in fact, a diary. And it was written in Lauren’s handwriting as well.
“Why was this at your place and not—”
“In the Davenport home, where it could have easily been destroyed or hidden?” he finished. “Because it probably would have been. Miss Davenport was more than welcome to stay overnight if it was far too late for her to head home on a rare occasion. She was also rather meticulous when it came to keeping what she cared about safe. She mentioned that her home wasn’t. Mine was the closest thing to it. I haven’t found anything else, but if I do, I’ll let you know and bring it to you.”
“Have you read it?”
“Besides the first few pages, I kept my curiosity in check.”
She eyed him with suspicion. Why now, though? “You said you just found it, but what did you mean when you called Cathryn Davenport a monster?”
He put his other hand into his pants pocket. “Well, Cathryn must be if she allows those who she calls “family” to hurt her daughter. Someone whom she’s supposed to protect, it’s the job of a parent to do so. Yet she has failed so spectacularly.”
“You mean that even about her son?”
“Considering he was also taking part in the abuse; I’d dare say so. Ms. Davenport has failed in every regard as a mother.”
“Then why not report it?” that was something she just couldn’t understand. If Alastor hated this woman so much, then why not take action?
“You think I haven’t tried?” he asks, his smile faintly there on his face. “I have at least on three separate occasions. But nothing was being done. The night she disappeared, I asked her to stay in my home until going off to college. Had I been a little firmer in trying to convince her, she might not have disappeared.”
He sounded genuine in his statement. Yet something about it bugged Kira. She couldn’t figure out why that was with this man standing in front of her, how he hated the woman who was coming in for questioning with distinct displeasure. Something pushed its way out of her thoughts and out of her mouth. She couldn’t tell if it was due to her lack of sleep, her morbid curiosity or both mixed into one.
“And what would you have done if it was your daughter?” she asked, only to stop short when seeing him as his gaze now rested heavily on her like an oppressive weight. He was still smiling, but it was different. The look he had was evident as the air around him changed.
“They’d be dead.” Or something akin to it. But it was gone the next instant as he answered her question.
“To be honest, I’m not sure. Amalie is my everything. Wounding her would be like wounding me. I want her to live a long and happy life, away from the monsters that guise themselves as humans when they are not even such.”
It was something that brought Kira pause. He certainly had an interesting way to parent his kid, or at least how he viewed parenting.
He then pulled out a pocket watch. It was made of gold with a flowering detail border on the back and a stag with mountains in the background on the front.
“That’s a beautiful pocket watch.”
Alastor’s silver-grey eyes glanced at her as his smile grew. “Thank you. It’s been in my family for many years now. It was used by my great-great-grandfather whenever he went hunting.”
“Do you hunt?”
“I did on occasion.” He then closed the pocket watch. “But not anymore, parental duties and all. Speaking of, I only intended to keep this short of delivering the diary. I need to head home. I wish you all the best, Detective.” Alastor Hilmarsson left without another word, leaving Kira with the diary of Lauren Davenport.
A small book that felt so much weight in her hands.
She headed back to her desk and began to flip through the pages.
“I received a 79 on my last test. Even though I was sick and still went to school, it wasn’t enough for her. She was so mad she pushed me down the stairs. I didn’t break anything, but everything hurts. I’m going to limp for a little while but, I can at least mask the bruises with makeup. She won’t even acknowledge me anymore… I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.”
“Dave was ranting again, going on about not being able to get what he wants. I think it’s drugs again, but I’m not sure what kind. He masks it with that Axe Body spray so that no one can tell. Dad just watches TV unless he wants me to hand him over the money I get from Mr. Hilmarsson again. If I don’t, he’ll hit me, same with Dave if he can’t get money from her. Working with that man was a surprise, given that I was sure he’d say no given his job as a radio host. But it was the only kind of job I could do that I didn’t need my parents for.”
“Mr. Hilmarsson found out about the money I had been earning being taken by my family. He was somehow able to convince the bank he goes to open an account for me. I don’t know how he did it, but I’m grateful. He says I can use the money to apply for the college I want. He even deposited the total amount that was stolen from me in it as a start. And just to be safe, he’d still hand me some money so that they wouldn’t be the wiser when they’d steal it.”
“Amalie asked me if there was anything she could do to help me. She’s only six years old, but she’s perceptive. She’s much more aware than your average kid, I know she’s been bullied by kids at her school, and the teachers don’t do a thing to help. I think Mr. Hilmarsson plans to place Amalie in another school soon. Although he’s interacted with the teachers that have done nothing to help, it’s like he wants to hurt them for allowing them to fail at their jobs. I can’t blame him. I don’t want to worry Amalie, she’s such a good kid. I’ll act out her favourite book to distract her from asking again.”
“She won’t even look at me anymore. As long as I keep my head down, I’ll be okay. Just a little bit longer, and I’ll finally be free, away from all of this and them. Amalie told me that she wishes she could be like me, confident and strong like the characters in the books she likes. But I’m not… I’m anything but strong. But I don’t have the heart to tell her that.”
“I wish I could just disappear; I love the Hilmarsson family, Amalie especially. But what I’m going through feels too much to bear now. I don’t want to drag them into my problems. But I can’t run away. I don’t dare to try again. Even if I did, she’d just drag me back and have everything covered up like before… why can’t the world just swallow me whole? Why can’t they all just disappear?”
On and on, this went. The bits of detail that Lauren would go into of what her home life was like. Her mother saw Lauren as less important, while her brother was seen as the Golden Child even though he did nothing worthy of merit. At the same time, her father was a constant alcoholic and would strike her with a belt.
The constant descriptions of abuse at the hands of her brother and father while her mother did nothing to the point where her mother no longer saw her as someone who even existed as the abuse would slowly become worse and worse. Lauren’s constant fear of what she would do if she couldn’t go to class or what lies she would have to give as she covered up the injuries with makeup. The only solace Lauren seemed to hold on to was her ability to act, even though the pain she constantly dealt with, and somehow getting a job as a babysitter that she was more thankful for. Seeing her job as another escape from her home and how sweet the daughter was, she also seemed rather perceptive in her own right. And the graciousness of Alastor allowing Lauren to stay days at a time.
But it was her last entry that made Kira even more concerned.
“I have no choice but to do it. I need to so that I can finally be free. I know Mr. Hilmarsson cares, but this is my problem. Besides, even if I do vanish, my family wouldn’t look for me. They never cared. I wished they never had me. Then at least, I wouldn’t be here to suffer like this. Tonight will be the night. It’s my only chance. If I don’t, I’m dead.”
“Holy Christ on a stick,” Freddie muttered with an exasperated sigh as he closed Lauren’s diary. “How the fucking hell was this not looked into?”
“Her diary makes it clear. Ms. Davenport covered it up somehow.” Kira replied. They haven’t even gone over the whole diary, just looking over bits and pieces before Cathryn arrived. What they’ve seen thus far was depressing and enraging.
Who was the one that swept this under the rug?
What officer was selfish enough to do this for fucking money?
But as angry as Kira was, it probably wasn’t a penance in comparison to Fredrick, for as she looked at him, she could see the older man trying to hold in his anger.
Abuse of any kind on a kid was something he would never forgive, no matter the person.
But he compressed it down as he let out a breath and then asked. “Are you sure about this? I can do this on my own if you think you can’t.”
“I’ll be fine,” Kira told him, but the look he gave matched the one that she felt, that she didn’t think she’d be okay. But her stubbornness persisted. She needed to see this through, at least with this woman.
Inhaling a deep breath through her nose, she gave a look of determination to Freddie before she reached the door and went inside to speak with Cathryn Davenport.