The Ritual

"Please! I have a wife waiting for me at home... And a child!" Only the cracked voice of the pitied man was heard in the room, as the footsteps of coming danger got near. "I... I can pay you! I'll give you everything I have, even if it means becoming homeless and divorced! I... I've never truly loved my wife... I'm sure they would do fine without me!", he tries to bribe his inescapable fate, without knowing his worth. "Please! I beg you.." he says, falling lower and lower every step... until he is sitting on the exclusive rag. "What did I do wrong...I did everything you told me to do..." Now, there was only regret and fear in his tone, which was rather vicious and vengeful only moments ago... As if it would save him from death. "I'm sorry! I can fix it--Aaghh!!" ... Splash.  *** "Have you seen the morning paper? It's the talk of the city!" someone said in the waiting line outside the cafe I was sitting in. "Indeed! How disturbing," someone answered, whereas another said, "It's horrifying! He was stabbed and dismembered. Such an inhumane death!" "What's worse is that it happened only a few blocks away from here... In a fancy hotel!" they finished, just to be denied by a passer who got interested. "No, It happened in an alley near the hotel, as I had heard from the hotel's worker!" she says, but denied by the previous speaker, "Don't be fooled. What makes you think that they would admit the truth?", and made the unfortunate by-passer shut their mouth. "Anyhow, the poor man was last seen with a lady." everyone near enough to hear the speaker was surprised by this sudden fact, as it was still unknown to most. "Words say the man was married. And they had a child... a son, not even one-year-old." with everyone utterly shocked, they were all muttering words with each other; "How scandalous!", "Karma, I'd say!", "I pity the wife, not the man... losing both her dignity and trust in a single night...", "So cruel"-- *Pud* Suddenly, a drunk man falls out of a nearby building notorious for its owners, which drives the people's attention away from the intensifying topic. *** "I see that word still got out. That undoes our work for the last 'few' hours, don't you think, Mr. Inspector?", I provoke him. "Does it seem so, Ms. Claire? I was worried that you might misunderstand, and you actually did think that, huh..." I was totally embarrassed by the sudden comment. If we weren't working to hide it, then... "We want the news to spread as fast as possible. Holding an official press conference would take too long to prepare for and still would not be taken seriously enough. But, if we rather start a word about this matter, well, words can fly a thousand yards without a wing. It will be far more impactful as mere gossip." He has always been like that. Always reasoning the unreasonable, while being unreasonable himself. As he picked up his coat, I realized that we were going outside, somewhere. The moment we step outside the office, he heads to the crime scene. Then, he suddenly took a sharp turn to face me and said, "Why are you following me?" I've never been so humiliated and embarrassed from the moment I came to this god-damned timeline.