His Conundrums

Chapter 10

Where Did Mr. Lauve Go?

"These are your things before you had a car accident," Alex said, giving him his box.

"We don't know when you'll come back, so I put it in a box just in case," he added.

He scanned all of the things he left behind, but nothing can answer his questions. Not a single clue. It's just a box with his trophies, pictures of him with his dad when he won some recognition, some of his pen and small notebooks, which seemed like his notes from his past cases, and a planner. He opened his planner and saw some torn pages.

"Well, just before the accident happened, I saw you ripping some of those pages and burned them. Do you remember?" Alex said.

Of course, he can't. He scanned through each page, trying to remember why he did that, but he was so frustrated that he couldn't remember anything.

"How do you feeling? Do you remember me? Why are you here?" Alex asked him.

He looked at Alex. He's a man in his mid-'50s seeing those white hair fighting numbers with his black hair. He's not that fat compared to those people he saw outside. He bet he's not that of a drinker nor a smoker type of person. He also tried to look at a young woman standing beside Alex. They have a bit of resemblance, which made him conclude that it's her daughter, and she's also a detective seeing she was sleepless in the middle of the day with her dad. And based on their posture, hand gestures, way of breathing, and the look in their eyes, they have no other intention and just happy to see him alive and kicking, and now he's back in their office.

"I'm good. I'm sorry, I still need to work with my memory, but I don't think I've lost my ability on the field. What can I help you?" He asked.

He saw how their face went bright and clear behind those dark circles. He thought about it before, if he still wants to go back in this work field, but he was too busy mending his own heart being torn by his memories. By the way, how he was entangled with the old man's bombing case, he thought about going back and maybe, just maybe, he'll get the answers he's finding.

-0-0-0-

Joe went to a cake shop about 15 minutes away from the old man's hotel. He insisted on having at least a cake on his 65th birthday. He still has the mug and decided to give it later when Sirius arrived. He just wanted to make Sirius feel bad for being so stone cold and empty-handed. He smiled at his own thoughts.

"Can I have that vanilla-strawberry cake, please?" he told the girl on the counter.

"Jeremy!" He felt someone tapped his shoulder and turned around, seeing George, that guy from the mall. 'Uh-oh! Did he found out?' he thought.

"George! What a coincidence!" he said, facing him. He felt a bit nervous.

"Yeah! Thank you for saving me yesterday. I really don't know what to do." George extended his hands and reached Joe's hand for a handshake. Joe faked a laugh saying it was okay. 'That was close!' he thought.

"Is that for your grandpa?" he asked.

"Yes. How did you know?" Joe asked him.

"Well, you were holding a gift wrapper yesterday for your grandpa," he said.

"Ah, yes. Are you busy? We can invite you. It's just us with a weird guy from a neighborhood. You know I really like him, but he's somewhat blunt and cold... HAHAHAHA ... and boring. But you'll gonna love them. Do you want to come?" he said, inviting George.

"Sure!" he assured.

They were on their way to the old man's hotel. They talked about a lot of fun stuff and learned that George is living alone in his apartment, trying to reach his dream to become the most competent detective like the guy he dreamed of meeting one day.

"You're going to meet him sooner or later. Who is he, by the way? And where is he now?" Joe asked him.

"Well, I don't know where he is. It was about a month ago when I came here from our province. I heard he had an accident and couldn't come to work for a while. Nobody knows where he's staying aside from our seniors and some people who knew him well," George said.

"Too bad. Oh! I have a question. The news said Mrs. Porter committed suicide, but from what I heard from you that night, you said it's not. Why?" Joe asked him.

George has given a timeout from his work due to all the things he's been doing for a month. All he dreamed was to meet the guy he admired so much. He didn't have the right to disclose some information with a stranger, and if he does, and someone will find out, he'll be kicked out.

"Forget it. My intuitions failed me that very moment," he said.

"Oh! Okay." Joe didn't seem to be interested in that case, by the way.

They were drawing near the old man's hotel room when Joe felt something was strange. He's trying to prepare himself if something happens. It was about two meters away when he saw the door was left half-open. He remembered closing it when he went outside and reminded Mr. Lauve never to open the door for someone unless it was them.

He slowly opened the door and took a little peek inside. He gestured George to stay quiet when he was about to ask a question. He could feel his heart beating. He suddenly opened the door and saw everything was in place. Nothing has left a mess, and no Mr. Lauve is waiting on the chair. They searched everywhere in that room for the old man's whereabouts twice, but he was nowhere to be found. His heartbeat went faster every second the clock hands move.

"He's not here," George said, who came out from the shower room. Joe was about to go outside, leaving his box of cake when Sirius showed up at the door. He looked puzzled when the old man's not there while seeing a new guy.

"They took him," Joe said.