Adventure in the World of Crimes

2.24 Crucial Evidence

"Warren, we saw two men trying to unlock Senior Merit's car." Officer Gil said as soon as he opened the door of Senior Merit's hospital room.

The doctor had just come out after checking the senior and thankfully, he said he was perfectly fine though needed to rest for a few more days as his wound would cause a little dizziness on him so he had to be careful, he also recommended an ointment to which Mrs. Merit had took note of, and regular cleaning to avoid infection. But since they will need to move to the other town, Warren also took note of those to take the responsibility of taking care of Senior Merit. His student had also gone back to the agency, but without leaving the box of jellies at the senior's car compartment as what he was asked for.

But as soon as the good news of Senior Merit's light condition, another bad one arrived, brought by the two officers who had just enter the room with furrowed brows.

Warren's eyes widened, ears perking upon hearing what he had just said. "They what? Where are they? Did they get something?"

Officer Gil walked in, followed by Officer Kleo who was the quietest among them and rarely interacts, he was holding the brown envelope and the white paper that Warren left in the car, the only important thing inside the car.

"They ran. They already opened the door of the backseat but we happened to see it since the car was parked at the very outset." He took the envelope to Officer Kleo's hand, "We saw this on your backseat. What are these?"

He was about to read the letter on the white paper but Warren snatched it as fast as lightning, folding it and putting it inside the envelope. He glared at Officer Gil, "That's my girlfriend's letter to me."

Everyone fell silent, everyone was looking in his way curiously, even Senior Merit who had no idea what the letter in the white paper was about because he was unconscious by the time he picked it.

"You have a girlfriend?" Senior Merit asked, tilting his head to the side where Warren was.

Warren raised his brow, feeling a little offended. "Why do you all look like I can't have one? This face?" He scoffed, "Women are head over heels to have me."

He heard Officer Gil snorted, "Stop lying. You're jealous of my face, right? So women are dying to have me."

T made a noise, like he was trying to hold back his laugh but failed when it slipped his mouth so he was now covering it. Mrs. Merit bumped him lightly, whispering to him to not listen and meddle himself with older people's talk.

"Sir, what happened to you?" Officer Kleo asked, cutting the subjective argument of which was more handsome and which was not.

"I hit my head on the edge of a cabinet in my house while looking for something." He explained, holding her wife's hand when she looked at him with a questioning look. "We came there after going to the Central Station."

The two nodded, believing the senior's lie. Of course, he looked very serious and believable that if Warren was not there with him when it happened, he would also believe him. That was the skill he wanted to learn, those like Laura's and Senior Merit's, maybe he had to look innocent, remained a straight face, and not awkward for him to do that, however, he couldn't lie a whole scenario, like made-up a new story and explain it to the people without stuttering. Though he could lie, only those one line lies like what he did earlier.

"I thought something grave happened to you, Senior Merit. You should be careful all the time, you're old." Officer Gil remarked with a playful smile.

"I can still run after a criminal without getting tired after an hour, Gil. Can you do it now?"

Warren watched as the fat man frowned, they were talking about an episode in their life, maybe while in duty and like what he said, running after a criminal which was the nature of the police work, and assuming by the tease, Warren could imagine Officer Gil panting while running because of his body, and by how Senior Merit cackled, it was sure a fun time.

"Are they the reason why we're here?" Officer Kleo asked, gaze directing to the men on the floor.

"Oh?" Officer Gil exclaimed, eyes wide as he looked at them, only realizing that there were other people inside aside from them. "Who are these people?"

"They planned something to Senior Merit while I was gone. Here is the evidence." He showed them the evidence bag with a syringe inside, "This has Potassium Chloride, they tried injecting this to him while he was unconscious."

"What? How did they know he was here?"

Warren sat back to the plastic chair available beside Senior Merit's bed, he looked at the two officers and shrugged his shoulders. "That we don't know. That's why you're here."

"We'll bring them to the precinct? Under Director Commissioner Carpio?" Officer Gil asked, walking to kick the two lightly and finding out if they were asleep. "Did you cause this?"

"No, My friend whom I called to look out for a moment did this. Anyway," He looked at Senior Merit, "Do you know which division Officer Pierce and his superior are located?"

"Ah, Police Detective Leira?" Warren nodded, "I think on Ruston Street on the Morrison town, it is also where our parents live. Why?"

"We can't trust the officers in our precinct, we should bring them to their station. They will at least tell us what information they will get, and their security I hope is far better than us." Warren explained, Senior Merit nodded getting his point.

"We got it, we'll bring these men to them. Kleo." Officer Gil motioned Officer Kleo to help him take these men who were obviously larger than them, so they were kind of struggling to put their weights on their shoulders. "We're going now, sir. Take care of yourself."

Senior Merit and Warren nodded to them, watching as they struggled on walking out. When they closed the door, the room became silent. It was past seven in the evening and he could see T dozing off.

"T, sleep on the couch. I'll just buy our dinner." She said, tapping her son to his legs in which he immediately followed and laid his back on the couch. Mrs. Merit walked out of the room, leaving Warren and the senior the privacy they needed.

"What's in the white paper and the envelope?" He asked, moving up to a sitting position with his back and head resting on the headboard. "Where did you get the former?"

"When I was rushing down the stairs, I saw it on the floor. I don't know since when it was there." Warren took the paper inside the envelope and unfolded it.

A short note was there, written in black pen with terrible, almost unreadable penmanship. it also didn't look like it was old, and the date scribbled in the very small numbers at the very left side confirmed that it was just recently.

"The person who will come by the door knows where the key is, if it is you, the owner's superior, it's time to connect and break the silence. Find me at the journalist's house. 11/23/20." Warren read it aloud, reading like he was in some sort of a movie and he was reading prophecy. "Is the letter talking about you?"

"Most probably." Senior Merit replied, closing his eyes. "We'll go to the former journalist's house next week. I'm sure the letter was talking about the journalist connected to Mury."

"Who might be the person behind this then?" Warren asked, curiously. "Whoever it is sure has ugly handwriting. I almost couldn't read it."

Senior Merit looked at the letter, realizing it was indeed ugly, it has excess streaks on some letters, and it was almost robotic writings, it was not smooth at all, nor a rushed writing. But he didn't know anyone who had the same penmanship as this one.

"Whoever this is might hold a lot of information. And we are also scheduled to go to the journalist's house so it was just in time. Let me just rest my head for a week." He said then gave back the paper to Warren. "How about the envelope? What does it have inside?"

Warren set the paper on the side of the hospital bed, opening the envelope and taking out the papers inside, it was stapled. He placed the envelope on his lap and moved near the senior so they would both see what was inside.

The first page was only with words, it said 'Proof of Nasty Activities'. Warren turned up the page, their forehead creased upon seeing the second page, and they froze when they comprehended what those were. Senior Merit snatched the whole papers from him and fastly looked at the pictures, his eyes were wide and mouth agape, completely shocked at the information in his hands.

"These are the police stations with hidden passages where they beat up the criminals and do nasty things." Senior Merit uttered after he scanned everything the pictures of different stations around the country with that secret room. "He had gone to every precinct for delivering drugs, and he might have been welcomed to these rooms that's why he got these pictures."

By how it was unclear and blurry, it was not hard to assume that it was taken secretly. It was so brave of this officer to both work under the evil side and the good side.

"So we hold the most crucial evidence for this. We just need to identify the people behind all of this." Warren asserted, seriously looking at the floor with his hand under his chin. "Could it be-"

He was cut off by a loud ring of a cellphone, Senior Merit looked at his son and to Warren with warning eyes as the latter fumbled on the pocket of his jeans. It was Senior Merit's phone, a certain Officer Hogan was calling.

He gave it to Senior Merit and he immediately answered, "Hello-"

"Senior Merit, a criminal died in prison."