Both of them made a disgusted look while Hellen simply stood at the side, looking at the scene of murder.
Elias’ expression shifted as he asked, “Like zombies?”
Valeria replied with slight amusement, “Quick to catch on aren’t ya? But yea, like zombies, minus their greenish skin, virus or anything extra. Specters are purely just rotten corpses, decayed corpses, whatever. You geddit.”
She continued after glancing once at Hellen, indicating this time it was for her to listen too, “You can roam the house, see if you can spot anything out of place. I’ll add you all to a group where you can list down your findings. Remember, you don’t need to think if the stuff you found is useless or not. You found it odd? Out of place? Weird? Report it on the group. No one would blame you for anything if it happens to be unrelated. It's all part of the process. I’ll be standing outside in case you happen to need something.”
After saying her piece, she walked away. Aiden and Elias got to their work, scanning the entire house if they could find something. All the things they found odd were reported on the group, where they found a list of other odd things a group of policemen and Valeria had listed.
“The lid of the commode in all the bathrooms was open.”
“There is a lot of kitchenware for there to only be a single resident of the house.”
“The paintings all contain dogs.”
“The other shoe from the same pair which was on the crime scene is in the shoe rack outside the house.”
“He took pills for nearly every part of the body.”
While Aiden and Elias added their own thoughts to the list, Hellen had already left the home to approach Valeria. The latter was smoking a cigarette while holding a stack of papers on the other hand, sitting cross legged on a bench located in the garden of the house.
“Uhm”
Hellen cleared her throat in order to get her attention, seeing how Valeria was so engrossed in reading the papers. The guide snapped out of her reading state to witness currently the only special license holder in the town already taking a seat beside her. Out of habit, she offered, “Want a cig?”
“Nope.”
“Not even a puff?”
“I don’t smoke.”
“Why? Health reasons? I heard field agents need to always be in their top physical state. Guess it wasn’t false.”
“And you still tried to offer me a cig? And how do you even know I was a field agent?”
“No offense, just checking if you were still fit for the work. And well, there aren’t really many types of special license holders in small towns, there are those who get it because of their authority but the mayor of this town isn’t available, I just had to guess from the rest.”
“I see. Well, I am not fit by the way, I left long ago. I’ve never liked smoking, that’s the only reason I am refusing. I wouldn’t have involved myself in this affair either if not for Aiden. He seems to have been targeted by a specter at his house. I want to check if the one here and the one in his house are the same or different.”
Valeria’s expression didn’t change at all when she heard there might be one more specter in the town. She calmly replied after taking a long puff, “You would have been involved sooner or later. The other special license holder of the town, the mayor, had to leave because of some emergency. We couldn’t have continued for long without taking your help. There are already 5 murders, the police would have contacted you as per the protocol sooner or later.”
Hellen didn’t reply to that, ensuing a period of silence as the smell of cigarette lingered in the air. A few seconds later, Hellen inquired, “Do we know what sort of emergency it was?”
“Nope. The way he just went missing seemed like he was in a huge rush though. Shouldn’t you have some information on hand already?”
“The phone which connects me to the Bureau broke down some time ago. Although I no longer work for them, they should still be sending me some information considering that I am the only special license holder in the town right now. The phone will be fixed tomorrow, then I can investigate what happened.”
A sarcastic reply came out of her mouth as she blew on the smoke of her cigarette, “Such a convenient time for it to break down.”
Hellen once again offered no reply to her but instead asked, “Enough about me. What about you? Although I don’t know much of what happens in the town and who holds what position, someone of your caliber shouldn’t be in this small town. Especially someone who knows about specters, in a town as small as this, there should only be special license holders who have knowledge about it. Unless there are exceptions of course.”
“You’re right. I am not someone stationed here. I come from one of the major cities of the human federation. Here only to visit my sister. But I saw how this town didn't even have a position to investigate the crime scene, coupled with how there was actually a crime going on, I lent a hand. Who knew it would turn out to be a work of specter? Of course, I could be wrong too, maybe it is some psychopath who just likes to work in a pattern, but I’d like to assume it was a specter.”
Hellen had a relieved expression on her face as she got up and held out a hand. “I’ll check out the place, thanks for being forthright.”
“Of course, I would need genuine help to deal with the issue after all. Can’t get to it while being dishonest.”
Hellen’s face clouded over for a second as she replied and left without looking back. “I’ve seen worse.”
The three of them spent plenty of time going over the house and seeing if they could find any clues. When they were finally done and about to move out after a couple of hours, Valeria approached them in a hurry,
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“Like you should already know, a murder had been discovered again today. Sorry but I’ll have to take my leave. If I get some free time I’ll take you to the rest of the crime scenes tomorrow.”
Saying so, she quickly left in a hurry.
There was a period of silence as the three of them digested the information. Elias already told them about it but it was still a bit stressful. “That makes it the 6th murder, one for each day since 1st march.” Hellen muttered with a thoughtful look on her face.
She heaved a sigh, thinking about a few things before she turned and addressed Aiden, “Come, we still have your issue to deal with.”
Aiden nodded and glanced at Elias who quickly responded, “I won’t be joining. Y’all go ahead, I’ll see if I can procure some more information for us to work on.”
*****
Aiden sat in the living room of his house as he ate the dinner along with Hellen who had chosen to give him company and sort out how to deal with the ghost. He had already told her about all the help he received and what he personally thought about all of them.
“Why do you think the ghost doesn’t know about you people personally?”
Hellen asked with an intrigued expression on her face. It was common knowledge to people like her but for someone who came across it for the first time, Aiden was proving to be far more capable, astute and observant than she thought.
Aiden swallowed the food he was chewing calmly and replied,
“Well, for one, my sister knows I almost never drink water for some time when I come home. I sweat a lot when I drink water after any kind of bodily movement, even if it’s walking. That day when I came home from a meal with my friends, the ghost had prompted me to drink water. Next, it had switched on the geyser, I never take hot showers even in winters, not to mention it's summer now. It’s extremely rare for me to take a hot shower, and it definitely wasn’t a day I would take one on.”
“Just based on these two facts you came to the conclusion that the ghost doesn’t know you personally?”
“Yea? Why not?”
Hellen shot him a smile and appreciated him before continuing with her dinner. “That’s impressive.”
There was another bout of silence as Aiden didn’t respond to her appreciation.
“The ravioli tastes amazing. I wish my sister was here to eat this too.”
Hellen gently smiled at Aiden as he expressed his regret before assuring him, “I can cook it up again you know. It’s not like this is the last time I’ll be meeting you or cooking for you.”
“I wonder how she is doing at the care center. You know, she would rather solve all of her problems herself rather than ask me to help her or take care of it. She said life there was good, and the people there were welcoming, but I don’t know if it is the truth. I wish she didn’t keep to herself about her problems.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But as an older brother I wish it wasn’t like that. God forbid any difficulties come her way but if they do at all, I wish she asked me for help so I could solve them.”
“You know that would hinder her growth right? People need to face challenges to grow. Lack of problems corresponds to lack of growth.”
“I know. I know. I also know it’s my worry speaking but can I stop it? Can I stop wishing that problems don’t come her way? I know. I also know that I should instead wish she always has strength to overcome the problems which crop up in her life. I do wish for that too but -”
He heaved a sigh, and ate another bite of ravioli, opting to end the sentence in silence. Hellen gave him some time to settle down before saying her piece,
“Sometimes you can only hope that you’ll be available if by chance they ask for help. You should indeed hope they have the strength to overcome their problems but it would be extremely excruciating if one day they couldn’t do it and asked for your help, only for you to not be there for them.”
He shot her a tired smile for a reply and continued eating the dinner. They didn’t have much to talk about. Like mentioned earlier, it was his parents she was close to, and anytime they had an encounter, it was only an exchange of a few words before both parted their ways.
Even after his parents went missing, Aiden didn’t depend much on Hellen as a neighbor to take care of them but instead learned to handle things on his own. Ironically, in a way, he was similar to his sister he lamented about.
Just as he was done with the dinner, Aiden was about to get up when a napkin flew over and settled itself near his dish.
Fortunately Hellen was indeed paying attention, when she witnessed the napkin flying over, she glanced at Aiden and saw a hint of fear in his eyes. She suppressed the soft smile and thought, “Indeed, he is after all a child who hasn’t experienced this. Putting on a brave front all for the sake of his sister and himself.”
Aiden didn’t pick up the napkin, opting to wash his hands in the sink of the kitchen instead. Hellen entered the kitchen shortly after, dishes in her hand as she asked, “What happens when accepting help is the only way to proceed?”
He took the dishes from her hand and began washing them as he answered, “I simply do the opposite, then do it myself. Kinda like resetting the help. For example if the ghost had washed these dishes, I would’ve dirtied them again, then washed them myself.”
“I see.”
Aiden continued washing the dishes, not refusing aunt Hellen’s help in cleaning and rearranging the dinner table. He knew she wouldn’t stop even if he told her to. While they were talking, Hellen recounted in a tone which said pay attention.
“So, for the information we have on our hand - 1. The ghost is trying to help you. 2. The intensity of its help is increasing. We don’t know why it is increasing, is it because you refused help repeatedly? Or is it because the time of activation of its powers is coming near? 3. It is helping while being hidden. It is either a condition for the activation of its powers or it is going through a side effect which can be dealt or avoided through hiding. If it is the former, there is a chance that its target, which is you, might be reset, it would then be unknown if it would target you again. If it is the latter, it would help us immensely while fighting it. 4. We don’t know where it is hiding, so for now we will move to my place. I’ll place cameras all over my house to see if the ghost enters my house to continue targeting you. I’ll have more information to work with depending on how it acts.”
Aiden carefully listened to her entire analysis, which showed how the hands washing the dishes slowed down, almost coming to a halt as his attention allotted to the analysis increased. In the end he asked, an expression of confusion painted across his face,
“Your last line, is there some more information on ghosts? If it’s relevant to the situation at hand, could you please tell me? Even if it’s expensive, or well, too important for someone like me to know, I would repay you for the information for sure if I manage to make it out of this alive. But please, if it would help with the situation, please tell me, it’s related to my sister’s and my survival.”
Hellen looked into the tense eyes of Aiden, his hands had completely stopped and were clenching the current dish tightly without him realizing. His lips were pressed thin, facial muscles taut as he stared intently at her. She heaved a soft sigh and gave a warm smile to him. Walking closer, she held his head in her hands and softly said,
“I am not so cruel as to profit off you in times of danger. No matter what, you are still the progeny of my companions who I went through life and death with. That’s the least I could do for your parents who saved my life countless times. I am sorry that the situation has developed to this point, I had no idea what was happening or I would’ve taken action far sooner. I can’t put surveillance in your house now, can I?”
She ruffled his hair and continued, “Gotta respect the privacy of you guys. C’mon, let’s try to see what we can do about the ghost. I’ll tell you the information on the way.”