Detective work meant wearing the wings of Justitia to carry out tasks of humanity. To punish those who are guilty and protect souls who are innocent.

Detective duty implied being on the frontlines, scouring for action and crime. Trying to decipher remnants of the perpetrators' misdeeds. Spending countless hours assisting the police in locating and identifying the right people guilty of the wrong things.

Adam Jucas no longer wished to identify as a detective.

Indeed, having the knowledge of how other detectives operate indicated that he himself knew how to avoid being detected by them.

Loops of dread were already coiling around his frowning face.

Right now, the only person guilty would be himself.

A first-time life-time experience in reverse-engineering a case where the culprit was already looking at him in every reflection.

'Congratulations, you've did it again,' he mocked himself by imagining a mental scenario of his employer acknowledging him for solving this exact case in the forthcoming future, dragging the limp, attractive body of a woman he had almost weaved cobwebs of dreams of a happy life together for. Her soft fingers were curling inwards, growing ever more stiffer and colder by the minute. The doe lips he had hoped to kiss one day were now forever tainted in blood. 'You've solved the case, Jucas! A celebration should be announced in your name. This case was so crafty that we spent months trying to get him.'

Carrying her like a princess lost in sleep, Adam walked towards some bushes underlining the forestry on either side of the monopolist highway of Vicilia.

The trailing skid marks of his vehicle's pneumatic tires were painted red with the wine of Sophia's life essence.

Sophia or Catalina. The detective couldn't tell.

With no eye witnesses around, only the barren trees paid a standing ovation to the burial of the womanly corpse. A doll of flesh and blood with a voice so serenely special.

One last time, out of an inner blob of respect and admiration for the grown girl, Adam's lips intercoursed with hers.

The embrace left a sour aftertaste of iron from the haemoglobin in Sophia's blood in his mouth.

If he were a vampire, he would've lusted for sucking out every last drop.

Such a pretty face, with innocent eyes.

Adam never wanted to hurt her.

He doubted whether any human would. Nor would any carnivorous creature, based on the limited amount of jiggle he had felt from her torso, hips and locomotory organs while she was in his arms.

Somehow the realization dripped a crueler feeling into  his gut.

He was worse than the entirety of the Earth's population. Killing just one person burdened his mind to believe that he had slain all of the humans at once.

It felt like it.

It felt worse than losing her due to an accident.

It reminded him of the past.

It reminded him, of his ex-wife.

Transitioning from a warm-hearted detective to a cold-blooded killer, Adam Jucas began to feel more like a dead man alive.

He heard whispers.

Whispers from an entity foreign to human perception. A being from a different dimension and race. A spirit, more like.

"It's not your fault," it consoled him, resting on his shoulder, alive, ancient and invisible. "You only did what's right. She deserved it. She was the one trying to trick you. To manipulate you."

Adam tried to shake the demon off. But it was useless by his own attempts, he knew.

"I seek refuge from this devilry, dear God," he prayed solemnly. "Please forgive me. Whatever You've created certainly returns back to You."

The whisphering halted. Even if for the time being.

Whether the waitress was completely lifeless or not, he wasn't sure. The impact of the brakes and hundreds of kilograms rolling over her body had certainly mashed her ribs in much the same manner as foretold to be done to sinners in the grave. Guilt was his girlfriend now.

The ex-detective refrained from leaving the body of a Heavenly female human out in the open for predators, and he didn't want worms and parasites to infest her body as soon as she wore the ground as a blanket.

He placed her in between the bushes, the only leafy things in sight. Her organic leafy lodgings for the everlasting night.

'This should do it. In case I am hunted and accused, I could round up the charges to point to my doppelganger instead,' his cerebrum highlighted a memory of the day before, of the photograph. Lifting up his tuxedo by extending out and angling his arms in triangles, he shoved it down to blow off any unsettling dust or biometric information from the dead woman. 'As a matter of fact, I doubt that most detectives in this region would be able to look ahead like I do. I should be safe with my tracks turbid enough.'

His footsteps softly echoed across the woods, vibrating with nature's sadness for the foul work.

He got back to the car and drove off to the north.

***

"Nice ride," a middle-aged man slapped the Bentley's hood with care. "You're from out of town, eh?"

"Yes, quite so," Adam replied, unsure how to feel proud behind the thick layers of lies currently piling up and fertilizing his tree of mental strain. His arms were crossed idly. "Vicilia seems like a very peculiar place to live in. This is my first time visiting this citadel."

"On vacation, eh?" the bearded man thrust a dispenser tube into the fuel tank with a hairy arm. "I say, have ya visited any coffee shops around here? There's one called the Eve-Jack. Fancy place, affordable prices. Simple as."

Adam wasn't sure how to react. How did he know that he was on vacation? Worse still, the reference to the forsaken café seemed surreally ominous to hear, at such a frequency.

"Ah, yes, how did you know?" he couldn't help but agree. On one hand, he was slightly curious to hear more from this person managing the gas station. "About that café... I myself have visited it a number of times already. Love it as you do."

"Oh hell nah! I only guessed. Heheh," the man's belly bod bounced with his heaving lungs full of laughter. "Ohh, well that's interesting. Good for ya, good for ya. The place was founded by Eve Bouchie and Jack Jucas. Eve is my niece's name, by the way."

Adam gulped down a gasp of shock. He just realized who the man was. He just discovered new answers to his previous curiosities. He knew what was coming next.

"Ohh... Your niece?" he was struggling to keep his voice monotonous with the initial tone in the conversation.

"Yes, my darlin' niece! Oh, how I miss her! She works a few shifts sometimes. Presuming that you've already visited their café, I'm sure you've met her?"

"Aye..."

"Been a long time since I last met her. Got too busy with m'factory down south. How is she now?"