Lieutenant Woods —

Coffee. Black. No creamer. It’s the strongest, and that’s what I need right now.

After having to drive around Frankie to the dump, to the department, and back to his place, only to head back to the dump again, it was a very long morning. There have been too many of these lately.

“So…what did they say?”

“That I’m not getting my baby back.”

“Sorry to hear…”

I was genuinely sorry. Frankie got over his wife’s death all those years back by pouring himself into that car. It was a beauty, a true symbol of hard work that allowed him to have a clear head. But now…

“FUCK!”

“Oi, Frankie. There is no need to slam the door.”

“Whatever, just leave me be.”

“Here?! You sure about that? Let me at least take you back to the station or your place.”

“No, it’s fine. I am fine. I am good, mate.”

“Someone alright doesn’t need to say it twice. Much less three times.”

What I thought were light words sunk too deep like a man unprepared for quicksand fighting for freedom. It left me at the end of some salty sailor words followed by a man who couldn’t even wait for me to come to a full stop. 

“Frankie cut it out. At the very least, let me drive you to the hospital. You can’t go around with a half-ass job like that.

His head was already leaking, leaving him to play around with his self-applied bandages. 

“No, they will tell me to take some pills and lay off the drinking. No, no. I’m good, and this is all the medication I need.”

He flashed his flask, filled with who knows what. Liquid courage or brazen stupidity. Who was I to say anything more?

“Okay, but promise me you will rest. Mate, let me do what I do, and I’ll find the guy who took the Piper’s body…”

“And if it’s not person…?”

“What?”

“Nothing, just… I’ll see you later, okay.”

Frankie was trying his best to keep it cool, but his hands were shaking. Tucking them in his pockets wouldn’t hide how shaken up he was from last night’s events. He didn’t say much, but when I got the call and arrived at the scene, he was soaked in his own sweat. Apparently, he had just woken up and was given the paramedics one hell of a fight.

As for Siri… she wasn’t there. At least not there for me to see her. I called only to hear her ask me questions. Funny how that works, right? Told her Frankie was alright as he can be, but she knew that. She wanted me to pull CCTV footage of the accident. 

Unfortunately, there was none. It wasn’t wiped or deleted, but the time of the accident was just not recorded. It malfunctioned, they said. Obviously, the kid didn’t take kindly to that news.

The driver of the other vehicle is someone I plan on questioning but at the moment they are in being looked at. I arranged for them to be sent to the same hospital as this Sophia woman—Luca’s nanny. 

Virgil had informed me that she was now awake. Making it my next stop.

To be clear, I am not working for the Winters, but I am working with them. We all want the same thing: to catch this lunatic. Several children have gone missing without a trace from all parts of the city. It’s silent since Luca’s funeral, but who knows who is the next victim? Many are scared, and with no leads, I can understand why. A wave of disappearances has never happened to such an extent before. One or two in a year, but damn near a dozen in a month alone. 

If that wasn’t the worst part, get this: I can’t be honest with those asking if it genuinely fell upon one suspect. The frequency was random for the disappearances, with two children having gone missing on the same night at two very different ends of the city. The whole thing was getting out of control. The news media was not helping; they were only spreading more panic.

So you can imagine what sort of field day was being had when the rumors started circling about a witness. The only one is Luca’s nanny—Sophia. Not only that, but the fact that she works for the Winters led to more speculation. 

Reporters staked out the hospital, trying their best to get in and ask her questions long before she had even awakened from her injuries. I had a few good men and women stationed at her door the moment I got the details of where she was located, but I guess that only leaked the news.

“Virgil…”

“Lieutenant, you sure took your sweet time,” Virgil answered with a suspicious eye.

“Apologies. You’re no stranger to how my mornings seem to invite the unexpected.”

“Hmm…”

“No, Mrs. Winters?”

“She rather loathes the media more than Ronnie.”

Ronnie, huh? Strange. He refers to Winslet as Madam, but the brother-in-law, head of the family himself, is just Ronnie. Didn’t think twice about it before, as I had assumed the young man worked for the Winters, but now… “Virgil, who are you exactly to this family?”

“It seems laying off a drink or two may have made you too sharp. How do you feel?”

“Like shit…” I answered slowly.

“Sorry to hear that. Maybe we can go to the bar after this and fix that. I am a fixer, after all.”

“And here I recall you saying you were a mechanic.”

“Careful Lieutenant. You listen too keenly and search too hard for certain things that you shouldn’t, which will only land you in a situation you don’t want to be in. I learned that at a young age from my dad. Understand?”

Catching the hint, I spun toward the one who may be more receptive to my questions. The officers I knew personally who weren’t in the Winter’s family back pocket.

“Anyone come and go?” I asked.

They seemed hesitant to respond for a moment given my company, but one stepped to answer.

“No. But we have caught a few sleazy reporters trying to dress as staff.”

“Hmph, unbelievable…” I mumbled. “Well, alright, if you don’t mind…”

Closing the door behind me, I took to a seat by the bedside. Sophia’s arms were bandaged all the way up to her shoulders. A side of her face as well.

“Who are you?” She managed to ask.

“Lieutenant Woods of the Hallow Grove City Police Department. If you don’t mind I have a few questions that I want to ask you, Sophia.”

She seemed to try to crawl further back into bed. 

“I am not here to hurt or anything. Mrs. Winter’s said it would be alright.”

“The Madam?”

She seemed more at ease to hear that I had the blessings of her employer. “Yes. Could you tell me about the night you disappeared? Do you remember anything? Anything at all that would be helpful to me. For example, how did you end up like this?”

She scoffed before turning her sights upward to the ceiling.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you…”

“Try me.”

“I am not crazy. I am not…”

“I didn’t say you were? Just start wherever your heart desires.”

“It, it…”

Sophia spoke of what transpired. The evening was no different than any other, aside from a child she did not recognize trying to talk to Luca before she had called him that day to retire from play. She recounted confronting the boy later in the night and how his grin stretched from one ear to another, with an eerily disgusting sight of crooked teeth that were anything but that of a child. She also described how he hummed, and it sounded like…

“A nursery rhyme?”

“I am not crazy!” Sophia snapped as if offended.

“I didn’t say you were. Please, tell me. Which one?”

“It…it sounded something like…” she paused for a moment. Eyeing me in suspicion. “Ring Around the Rosie...”

“Ring around the Rosie, a pocket full of posies. Ashes. Ashes. We all fall down ♪. That one?”

“Yes! “

“And the boy…you said his face looked odd. Eyes far too large, correct?” She nodded, leaving me with a very strange description. I would need to call in a forensic artist later. “About how old would you put him around? Same as Luca—older, younger?”

“You’re not listening. It wasn’t a boy. Anything but that. The way his skin flaked off as it started to laugh and giggle.”

The way she described what she had witnessed, referring to him solely as “it” instead of boy or him, left me feeling uneasy. Her harsh portrayal of the individual seemed to weigh heavily on her, adding to her distress. The heart monitor flickered, showing an increased heart rate. Sophia’s eyes raced from side to side; she was clearly in a panic.

“Calm down, Sophia. Please take a deep breath. We can stop here if we need to.”

“That thing was pure evil. It was fun with me. And what it did to Luca before he came. How my skin crawled. It’s not mine, it’s not mine anymore.”

“He?! Who came?! Sophia, please—”

Suddenly, the door cracked open, and a nurse—no, a doctor—stepped in. She had curly orange hair, beautiful, flawless skin, and long lashes.

“Is our patient alright?” She asked. Her voice is ever so gentle as if hugging your eardrums in a soft, warm embrace.

“Y-yes.” What the hell is wrong with me? Did I just stutter? Never has a woman made me so flustered since.

“Rose…”

“Sorry?”

“No, it’s my fault. Sorry, you, you reminded me of someone.”

“Do I?” 

Not really. I don’t know why I said that. She doesn’t look like Rose at all. Not even in the slightest.

“Oh goodness, Sophia. There is no need to worry. You are safe here. Please calm down…”

Her words were so calming, that even I felt at ease.

“…Do you mind if we call it here for now? Mister…?”

“Lieutenant Woods,” I said, introducing myself. “Nice to meet you. “

“Doctor Bordeaux, the pleasure is all mine.”

“Yeah, I have no problem calling it here. But, if possible, can I ask Sophia one last question?”

“Don’t mind me. It’s for our patient to decide.”

Sophia hesitated but nodded to humor me with one last request. She spoke of getting attacked by this not-so-child but mentioned that “he came.” Who was this individual? I don’t quite understand how she managed to escape. Was it Hummings? Why would he help her? I thought he was the Piper, the man behind all of this.

I still had so many questions, but I suppose they will have to wait for now, as one stood out as the most curious one.

“Do you recall anything else, sound, words, strange symbols,” I asked, retrieving from my pocket a napkin I had sketched several markings of from Luca’s neck. I didn’t wish to show her the victim’s body, given the circumstances.

“Wh-what is that?”

Given her reaction, I left it at that. 

“Nothing you have to worry about, I am sure. If anything comes to mind, please do give me a call. I left spare card with my contact with Virgil.”

“Virgil?! He’s here?! Where—can I see him?”

And here I thought she would be more interested in recovering. How interesting.

As I reviewed my notes in the hall, Doctor Bordeaux joined me. She seemed to have a curious eye about her, intrigued by the investigation. 

“…sorry to bother you, but I couldn’t help overhear the conversation in there with the patient. How have things progressed? You find the culprit?”

“No, not really.”

“I see. The reporters will have some fascinating headlines to write if the Lieutenant himself can’t make any headway on this case.”

“Hmm…” I groaned. Refraining from saying something I would probably regret later, I switched the topic. “You heard anything about another patient here? Would have been in a terrible accident around the 3 o’clock belt last night.”

“Oh, yes. Her… Fascinating individual.”

“Fascinating how?”

“You see…” 

Doctor Bordeaux informed me of the details regarding the individual who was currently bedridden. She suffered minor injuries, nothing more than bumps and bruises, with a few scrapes here and there. However, the issue lies in the fact that she is in a…

“Coma?”

“Not quite exactly. Medically speaking, yes, technically, she’s asleep. She is effectively in a state that is quite that simple. We assume that’s what happened. She just fell asleep at the wheel.”

“So why can’t you just wake her up?” I asked curiously.

“If it was so easy, we would have. Some are calling her sleeping beauty, you know.”

Doctor Bordeaux flashed a humorous smile that I’m sure wars would have started over to keep treasured. It only sparked me to chuckle.

“Heh, she did not eat an apple, I suppose.”

“No. But she could have been cursed all the same.”

“Hold on now, are you being serious? Witchcraft?”

“Joking! You were so serious in there that I thought you were going to pop a vessel.”

“Would I be one of your patients?”

“For me to look after you?” Her smile put me on cloud nine. Not sure why I was getting giddy like a school boy, from our banter but something about her allure was so intoxicating. “Leave me with number, and I’ll give you call should our patient awake.”

“I got no more business cards.”

“Really now?” Her expression was playful as she took my hand into hers. I was captivated by how soft they were as she jotted down her number instead. “How about you call me when you get more in stock than Mister Handsome?

She pocketed the pen before turning away and heading off to who knows where. It left me stunned by her words, only to study her signature and my heart racing.