Edited by: Waning_Crescents

“Are they here yet?” Vergil asked as he entered the building.

“Yes, Mr. Rivera. Mrs. Lanford already took them to your office,” one of the officers replied.

“Great, thanks,” Vergil nodded and hurried away.

The witnesses, a couple, sat at one side of the desk as they waited for Vergil’s arrival. Elena served them coffee as her partner entered.

 “Sorry for the delay.” Vergil moved around the desk and sat down opposite them. “I really appreciate your cooperation.”

“Of course, we want to help where we can,” the man said.

“If we only had known that this would happen, we maybe could have avoided it…” the woman dug her nails into her dress.

Vergil shook his head. “No, I am glad you didn’t do anything, or we maybe would have four victims now instead of two.”

“That’s right! We are already lucky enough that you have seen them, that already helps us a lot.” Elena encouraged them.

“Alright, tell us again what you saw, please.” Vergil started the questioning.

“As we mentioned before, we saw a man clad in black with one of the victims walking close side by side out of K-Lane,” the man answered.

“We actually thought something seemed off and observed them for a little while. We were even debating if we should call someone, but then we decided not to…” the woman added.

“What do you mean by ‘seemed off’?” Elena asked further.

The couple looked at each other for a brief moment and then the woman continued. “The man who later died kind of behaved abnormally; he staggered and clung to the other man’s arm. He also talked to the person clad in black, but we couldn’t hear what he was saying. He just seemed desperate...I think?”

Her boyfriend nodded. “Yeah, something didn’t seem right, but we weren’t sure at that time. We also considered the possibility that the man was just drunk, and his friend was helping him…that’s why we refrained from calling the police.”

“I see...” Vergil pinched the bridge of his nose. “Did you perhaps see where they were heading to?”

“They were heading further downtown. We…” He stopped for a moment and looked at his girlfriend before he continued. “We actually followed them for a while, but as we saw that they entered a bad neighborhood we stopped.”

Vergil raised an eyebrow. “That is something you didn’t tell us before.”

“Y-yeah because as we realized where we ended up, we knew this was bad, and we were afraid. We didn’t want to get into trouble.” the woman let out with her head hung low.

Elena sighed. “I am glad you came around and told us because this is important information.” Then she glanced with a stern expression at them. “And never do something like that again! What you two did was dangerous, this could have ended terrible for you!”

The couple nodded. “We are sorry.”

“Alright.” Vergil took out a map of the city and placed it on his desk. “Can you please show me where exactly they were heading to?”

The man gazed at the map and then pointed to an area close to Shuri Town.

Originally, only the poor and homeless resided there, but the population increased over the years. The government neglected them, and the people became desperate. Needing money, they resorted to other methods, like selling drugs. This, however, attracted other criminals and in no time, Shuri Town grew into the most popular area for shady business.

Vergil frowned. “Thank you very much, that would be all then.”

The couple got up from their seats and apologized again for withholding information before they left.

“This area is bad news.” Elena said with a serious expression.

“Yeah.” Her partner nodded and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “But what bothers me more is that nothing about drugs was mentioned in the report of the coroner.”

Elena stroked her chin. “I guess the reason was that the cause of death was clear and, therefore, he didn’t see the need to test them for all kinds of drugs, especially the ones you can’t just find with a simple blood test.”

“Yeah, that is exactly what I thought too.”

“Do you think they told us the truth, though?” Elena asked. “They withheld information before, why would they suddenly cave?”

“I don’t think they lied; their body-language didn’t indicate any odd behavior. However, if they did, we will find out, and then they are in serious trouble.” Vergil stated. “For now, all we can do is find out the truth and that starts with a proper check-up of the victims.”

Elena nodded. “I will contact the coroner and tell him to test them properly of any kind of substances.”

Vergil clicked his tongue and got up. “I can’t believe they are so sloppy in this case!”

Then he picked up his jacket from the back of the chair and glanced at her. “In the meantime, you and I are going to check their apartments again. If they did buy drugs, then there is no way to not find any traces in their homes.”