A Murder, Inc.

7: Clues

Chapter 7

Clues

07:21 pm

Vira’s bedroom, Manhattan

She has been keeping ugly and uglier long enough in her headquarter. It is about time that she takes out those trash.

Today also marks the third day that Aramis has been missing, and she still has not come up with a better lead ever since she found Hecate and Schlin.

Her victims usually would have spilled anything she wants to hear at this point. But they are different. She has to think of this case in a new perspective. What if they really do nott know anything about Aramis’ disappearance? What if they were trapped? After all, Vira must admit that it is quite surprising why the two came up under the radar again after having gone for so long.

If her new suspicion is correct, then that means the real culprit must have intentionally misled her to them. And for what purpose? Finding them again has come to her advantage. She has been itching to slice them to pieces ever since the moment they opened their disgusting mouths….

Perhaps that is why. The real culprit knows that she hates them. Knows that she will take her sweet time in torturing them. And while she is busy with them, he or she has enough time with Aramis, with whatever they want to do to him.

“Sin kopile!” she curses in Serbian. She’s been careless and underestimating the kidnapper. And look how much time has lose.

Okay, get it together, Vira. You have to finish this chase soon. Who knows what kind of hell Aramis’ been through.

And to get things really done, she knows that her ability in computing will not suffice. She has to ask for help.

So she picks up her phone and dial her contact. She tries to call, but the tone keeps on ringing. She tries the second time, but the result is still the same. Finally, her call goes through when she calls for the third time.

“….annyeonghaseyo,” the male voice from the other line says sleepily.

“It’s me. I need your help, Ileong,” she says urgently.

There is a pause. Then, “Do you have any idea what time it is here?”

“Eight in the morning. It’s not that early.”

“Well, it is, for some of us. Now what do you want?” he asks, sounding pissed.

“Aramis is missing. I need you to hack into an email account and get me anything you can find from it. I will also send you a map with possible locations on where he was gone from,” Vira begins typing furiously before pressing the send button. “Check your inbox.”

“I’m looking through it right now,” he replies absentmindedly, though sounding more awake right now. “The owner of the email account is located in Seattle, oh wait! Oh no….”

“What it is?” she asks.

“It’s from our old school. It was registered from the library.”

St. Magoc?

“What else can you find?”

“Other than the fact that someone created a whole new domain just to make this one mailing account? The person could either be a school staff or a student—”

“Or ex-staff or alumni,” she quickly added.

“—that has a grudge on him. But considering how low profile Aramis is, I don’t think he is really targeting your cousin.”

“He? He? How can you cross out half of our suspect list by using that referral?” Vira reacts hotly.

“Hold your horses. Let’s not jump to any conclusions. I’m just being practical here. Yes, it can be a female, but let’s just think about this thoroughly. Who in their right mind would want to cross you when they entire school knows you destroyed it just because you were pissed at its system?”

There is only one name that can come up to their mind, and it’s—

“Xenos,” they say at the same time.

But he’s dead. She killed him, along with the rest of the student body who stood in her way of collapsing St. Magoc. There shouldn’t even be a school left on that ground for that email account to be created. And yet there it was, the proof. So what’s exactly going on?

“Yep, I double-checked it. The source was St. Magoc, alright,” Ileong confirms. “And guess what? Check the school website.” Vira does as he says, and finds a surprise from the search engine.

It’s up. The school website is up. It shouldn’t be there, though, since the school closed years ago. The website would have expired, considering that no one else alive was around to pay for the annual bills. Then why is it there? Vira clicks the link and it directs her to a brand new page. In there, it says that the school has been reopened since a year ago.

“W-who….” she finds herself shuttering.

“It’s him. He owns the school now,” Ileong explains. “And look, he brought back the caste system to the school. I can’t believe parents are signing their children up to this place.”

The caste system used be to an unspoken rule for the school. This time, the school advertises its regulation openly.