Adventure in the World of Crimes

2.16 Mysterious Letters

"Who bribed you!?" Senior Merit asked for the nth time now with his hands slamming the table a little louder that echoed in the whole interview room and that surprised the sixth officer from another town's station who was being interviewed in the isolated room.

He was the last, the five men didn't say anything that had the senior pissed off big time, all they said was they did not know and the senior was not buying it even a bit. It was impossible not to know who bribed them, all he asked was who bribed them, and all they had to say was the name of the person who gave them their money to let go of the criminals, but they kept repeating that they didn't know, but still admitted that they actually were bribed to do so, and that didn't make sense to him resulting to frustration.

"Sir, we don't know. I don't know." The officer answered as frustrated as the senior basing how desperate his face was.

"Then how!?"

The poor officer flinched at the deputy commissioner's sudden outburst, he reached the peak of his patience and he wouldn't let these people go without earning a little piece of information. Warren, however, was standing there in one room where they could watch and hear the whole conversation, especially Senior Merit's distress.

The officer fumble on her pants, looking for something until he pulled out a white paper folded multiple times to fit in his pocket and pulled another one, an envelope, inside his leather jacket. He then put them on the table, pushing them towards the senior who was creasing his forehead in confusion.

"What is this?"

The officer just motioned his hand to the papers, telling him to see it for himself. So he unfolded the envelope first, he saw cash, a large amount folded with the envelope.

"That's the money we were bribed of. Each of us had that quantity, so we didn't hesitate on accepting what they asked us to do. Who can resist that great amount of money, right?"

"Your dignity and reputation are this... cheap?" Senior Merit asked, disappointment laced with his tone. "If someone says to kill your family in exchange for a million dollars, would you still do it? Because you can't resist money? Are you that kind of person?"

The ashamed officer shook his head, "No, sir. I'm just blinded by the large amount of money that I had never had before. Those two are different things, I am earning for my family."

Senior Merit snorted, "Do you know that people you just let go of? They killed innocent people, more than fifty, there are families who are hoping to get their justice, and they are counting on us. Sir, you are part of the police, you're an accessory for justice, not for crimes!"

The officer looked like he just wanted to be eaten by the ground in shame, every word was getting through his heart. "I'm sorry, sir. I'm ready to face the charges, but we really don't know who was behind this. This paper was just sent to us when we were working this early morning."

Senior Merit took the paper and unfolded it, it was a printed letter with a short message addressed to the officers.

There are people, one man, and a woman, that you will chase after because they are reported for being criminals. However, the money in the envelope will be yours if you will let them go but throw this in the bin if you refuse.

"How many are you that were given of this?" He inquired more, standing straight with his fingers pinning the paper, "And how many accepted?"

"It's just us, six of us didn't refuse. Though we thought of it multiple times, but seeing the money, and how badly we know the value of money for us to let it just get wet and wasted in the bin, it was unanimous to just do it and came up with a trick of pretending that we were doing our job. I'm sorry, sir, I feel terrible." He explained, covering his face with his hands. He was uttering words of apologies, to the senior and his family.

"I wonder if you will also say that if we were not informed about this by the agents. I bet you'll use the money gladly without feeling guilty at all." The senior presumed, gathering the evidence he caught, at least he got something informative. "We won't make this out in media, that's the only thing I could do, I hope this will teach you a lesson for the better."

"That is still a big help, sir. I do not want my family to be attacked because of their father's wrongdoing. We'll face the consequences quietly." He replied, looking at the senior thankfully.

"Very well." Senior Merit said, going out of the interview room and ordered the officers to isolate them while they wait for their lawyers.

Warren also went out of the room where he was in, walking towards the senior who was putting the envelopes and letters inside the evidence bag.

Warren took one of the letters on the table and opened it, taking out his phone in his pocket and took a picture of it. He wanted to gather information for future purposes. He felt like something was bigger behind these crimes.

"Who do you think is behind this, sir?" He inquired, crossing his arms as he watched the officers being transferred inside the cell.

Senior Merit pursed his lips and sighed, "I don't know, somehow, this reminds me of something related to the previous case, and it didn't make me feel good at all."

"Does this have something to do with your previous assistant?"

Senior Merit froze, he creased his forehead and looked at Warren. "Where did you know about that?"

He scratched his brow and hesitantly looked at him, "I just remembered Mrs. Merit told me about that. She said you only brought two people to your house, one is me and one was your last assistant, who also betrayed you."

"I guess men should not tell everything to their wives. They just spilled it unknowingly." He muttered to himself, shaking his head at his wife's talkativeness.

"So? It's true?"

"Well, partly. I will explain to you everything after this issue. I also want to reopen that case because I know there was something bigger lies behind his death, that is also why I made you an assistant. I want someone that could help me out." He explained, he propped his hand on the table and looked at Warren. "Are you up for it?"

That was the sole reason why I'm here. He thought.

He grinned, finally seeing the progress of his main task. The past few weeks were only filled with police works that were unrelated to his task, well sort of, since he was still earning the senior's trust which he had finally achieved.

"I love this kind of cases, sir. I'm more than willing to help." He agreed, then remembered something. He put his hand under his chin and squinted his eyes, looking away as he tried to remember the exact moments of the sudden memory. "However, sir, back when you first include me in raking action of the crimes, the hostage-taking at the bank."

The senior raised his brow, crossed his arms, and looked at Warren with interest. "What's with it?"

"I told you that someone was telling them of the officers' moves, right? That's why they appeared to be fast thinkers. But, aside from the certain police who were contacting them, the two youngsters told me about someone else, a certain man with a masked face who recruited them along with the other three. I think he strategized everything, and also was one of those who was telling them of their moves. I saw him on one of the building's rooftop, silently observing everything up there."

"You saw him?" Senior Merit asked, totally picked his interest.

"Yes. That was why I came back a little late, I followed him, but he was gone when I reached the building."

"Did you find something else?"

Warren acted as if thinking again, contemplating if he should tell him about the message he left for him. But then he decided not to as he shook his head slowly, "No more. There was nothing more on the rooftop "

Senior Merit nodded, "You should've told me about this sooner. We could've dug deeper into the case. But anyway, the information is still relevant."

They walked back to their desk after Senior Merit secured the evidence in the drawer where they usually put those. Warren immediately pulled out a bag of gummy bears on his bag and gave a small one to Senior Merit, like only two fingers could fit in because he couldn't eat as much as Warren could.

"Who do you think is that man, sir?"

The senior tore the plastic, shrugging. "I don't know, but he's crucial. I feel like he is a big, influential, dangerous man."

"We should capture him first, sir, before he attacks us if that's the case." Warren seriously replied, turning quiet after that.

Unknown to them, there were ears listening and hawk eyes observing them silently. The frantic and continuous clicking of a pen was kind of disturbing, good thing was no one was seated on the chairs because they were busy with the newly caught criminals. The person took the phone on the desk and started typing, the pen was now on the mouth and chewing it slightly.

Warren felt his phone vibrated in his pocket, he took the gummies in his mouth first before taking out his phone, looking at whoever messaged him. His chewing halted and he literally froze upon reading the message from another unknown sender.

"Good luck with capturing me first, Warren. But as far as I could foresee, you are way behind me."

"What's the matter?" Senior Merit asked, confused at his assistant's surprised face. He shook his shoulder, "Officer Warren? What is it?"

However, another officer came rushing to Senior Merit's desk, his face looked happy and just by looking at him, he looked like he bore good news.

"Sir! The criminals were caught!"