Confidential Scheme 1

Chapter 11: Over a Cup of Coffee

Chloe's POV

Hours after the meeting in the campus police. We decided to go outside the school premises and cut classes. I wasn't sure about going out at first but I wanted to see this case closed.

And also, I'm the only one inside the club who will not participate if ever. Lorcan said that it's actually okay if I don't want to but If I do that then it's like I'm embracing to only be a decoration in the club.

As much as possible, I wanted to help. I joined this club knowing the burden that I'll carry for months. I cannot go back anymore. And I honestly don't want to.

We head to the parking lot to find a red coupe. That's Dustin's car. He's the only one who have a car among the four of us in the club. I honestly don't think of buying event though I have the means to.

My apartment is not also that far away for me to drive one. Minji on the hand, has his parent's car to fetch her. Sometimes his Dad with his Mom fetched when we were about to leave together. I remember Lorcan saying that his family driver is gonna fetch him.

That's when we bring Michael to the campus police. Now that I'm thinking of it. It makes me feel bad somehow. We kinda paved the way of his suffering. I don't want to have any negative thoughts but something inside really tells it no matter what.

"Okay before anything else, what would we tell the landlord if ever they asked what's the relation between them and us?" Dustin asked when we're all inside the car.

"We tell them that we are Madeline and Ricanne's greatest friends." Lorcan answered.

"But... how can we make the landlord believe us?" I asked because it bothers me.

~~~~~~

"Wait. You'll let us in just like that?"

"I don't care who you are and what you wanted. I just wanted to get rid of their mess as soon as possible. There's a lot of newcomers that needed a room." The landlord explained.

To my surprise, she doesn't even care about who we are. Lorcan told us earlier that in order for the landlord to believe us, we must act like we were mourning over Madeline and Ricanne's death. Fortunately, we don't need to.

The moment we stepped in the apartment building and asked the landlord about them, she immediately asked if we were the one to get their things left before they commited the s word. I don't want to say it anymore.

"It's almost a day since that happen but no one still able to even get any of there things."

Minji exclaimed.

"Maybe their relatives are on the other provinces, maybe some are in other country."

Dustin said.

"Or simply because they don't have any relatives at all." Lorcan is holding a piece of thing that looks like a book.

When we went closer to him, it's actually a photobook. "Only the two of them is included in this album. It's also recent photos and the oldest being from two years ago." Lorcan pointed out as we see the date on the lower side of a photo.

"We can say that they've no contact with any of their family members in the first place."

"How did you know?" I asked because I don't think seeing a single photobook would exposed their whole life. I don't doubt Lorcan's skills but I wanna see what he still got inside his sleeves.

"I heard the SOCO officers earlier. They said that they have the contacts of every person the two contacted. They've also retrieved the deleted messages. No family members or amy relatives was found."

I knew it. Lorcan wouldn't say something that's not supported with a proof or evidence. He always have a strong substantial informations when it comes to these things.

"Now shall we start looking for things that might reveal their past?" He asked.

There's only two rooms inside of the apartment unit. One would be the bathroom and the other one...

"It's locked." Minji said.

"Step out of the way." Dustin ordered the two of us. Lorcan is standing meters away so we stood beside him.

He started banging the door using his body. Turning sideways everytime he do it. He's struggling to get it.

I heard Lorcan sighed beside me. He then walk slowly beside Dustin and stopped him.

"When I count on three, we pushed together okay?"

Dustin didn't seem to believe that Lorcan approached him to help him on something.

He nodded at him.

"One... Two... Three-"

We heard the door lock so it was probably broken. The door also opened. I just people in this apartment building didn't hear something.

The door ain't broken it's just the lock and the doorknob seemed dislocated. After they pushed it together.

I tapped Lorcan's shoulder, "Good job. I didn't know you'll be helpful in physical works like this."

He looked at me, "Are you saying that I'm weak?"

I shook my head, "Of course not. You're very strong... when it comes to psychological tecniques and mind tricks."

I entered the room before he could say something else. I shouldn't have said that after what happened to us days ago. But he once said that people's opinion about his appearance or physical attributes is bot important. But he'll never let someone escape when they talk bad about his intellectual abilities.

I don't someone would have the gets to say it in my opinion. If ever they knew what he's capable of manipulating someone's mind to feel bad about themselves, he could do it in a minute. That's one of the reason why I don't wanna out a fight with him.

But I'm kinda know pne of his weaknesses. Or maybe that's hus only weakness. I have no idea. But that:s really irrelevant for the moment.

The room is quite dim so we can't see anything. The light switch is also broken so we can barely see what exactly is inside at the moment.

Then Minji opened her phone's flashlight. If only I take my phone with me, it would me much brighter. But I think her flashlight alone gives satisfy me.

We saw pictures of men pasted on the wall using either tape or pin. There's also some x written on other photos. It's quite creepy to even look at it. There's also a squared table with newspapers and other things sitting on top of it.

When we looked closer to one of the pics, we realized that Michael Writher's photo is in it.

We all glanced at each other. It's not shocking to see his photo here. They planned this. But what's shocking is there's a lot of them in here amd the similarity on every photo?

They're all guys.

"So they only targeting men?" I heard Minji's voice.

"Men with history of s****l assaults and rape." We looked at Lorcan who's holding the newspapers on his hands. He showed it to us.

"There's only one subject about every newspapers in here. About cases of r**e and s****l assaults."

"They are targeting rapists and abusers." Dustin uttered.

We spent a few minutes in the room and we haven't found anything else. We then go back outside of the room and search for anytthing else that might reveal why they're doing it.

We spent another minutes in finding but we can't seem to find one then...

"Guys, this is Madeline's diary." We all looked in Minji standing beside the bed.

"Where'd you found it?" Dustin asked.

"The closet."

Dustin then looked around the room to check on something?

"That's the only one we haven't checked yet so I guess that's it?"

"Minji, bring that thing with you. Let's talk about this inside the car." Lorcan opened the door.

We walked past by the landlord who's doing laundry in her yard. We tried so hard for her not to see any of us. We definitely don't want to have the responsibility of getting those things especially it's owned by criminals.

No matter what their reason is, what they did is still wrong. Killing a person isn't always the solution.

"Read it." Lorcan said when we're all inside the car. I'm beside the driver's seat where Dustin is seated while Lorcan and Minji is in the back, passenger's seat.

Minji opened one of the page and started reading it. "I was 8 years old when I first experienced it. It was horrible. I cried a lot and hid in my closet. My dad always brings me in the basement whenever Mom is not in the house. He takes off my undies and-" Minji stopped and stare at the diary.

"That's enough." Dustin took the diary from her, closed it and put on the car's space in the middle.

I feel bad for Madeline for going through that horrible experience when she was 8 years old. What is his Dad thinking?

"Now that's the reason why they're targeting men. Rapists specifically." Lorcan muttered.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

A day later and I still can't believe that the case came this further. Like if you connect it together, you will clearly see how it's important to not miss a single detail. Every detail even small can help you conclude a specific case.

All of us are sitting right now on the bleachers in the gymnasium. They reminded us yesterday that there will be assembly for some announcements which I have no idea what's it about.

Dustin and Minji both are sitting comfortably while the guy sitting beside me is once again not amused by the situation.

"Tsk." Lorcan clicked his tongue.

"Lorcan." I called his name and he immediately looked at me. He's irritated. "Why don't you like meetings? In your perception, you'll rather go somewhere else than attend class right? So what's making you triggered about this... This meeting."

"You're very much wrong about that. I don't like both."

"Why is that?" I asked in curiosity.

He sighed. "Meetings are useless. Every announcer are asking students to do this, to do that. To obey this, to obey that. But at the end of the day, no one has ever obeyed what they had said. Things that they don't allow still happening like everywhere. So why would me want this?"

He's got a point. But...

"What about the opera? Why didn't you wanna watch it?"

"I've explained this to you as far as I know but okay. Operas are a piece of crap. I don't like musicals at all. And they even combine it with drama? Seriously, it's lame and that's period." He then turned away and look somewhere else.

To be honest, It's kinda funny how Lorcan does this everytime. I can't say if ge's suffering or not but it's cute to see him helpless sometimes. We had to force him again this time to go with us. What's new?

Then a man with familiar voice caught my attention on stage.

Mr. Richard Fergal. The assistant professor here in Hyeoncion University. It's been almost two weeks since I last saw him. He looked the same the last time I remembered. Well, it wasn't really that long since that 'last time'.

He announced things about students who weren't wearing theur uniforms and how is it important. He said that intramurals are coming and that means boots and other fun school activities is on its way as well.

The whole time Lorcan was just staring blankly at the sky outside. Since there is transparent glass built with the roof of the gymnasium.

When the announcements are over we walked down the stairs beside the bleachers and took the entrance as our door out.

"We'll be meeting with Mr. Fergal later or tomorrow." Minji said while we're walking back to our clubroom.

I checked the time in my phone, it's early for lunch and first class. I wonder how would we spend it especially that are club is close today for clients.

Wait. "Lorcan, do you mind if I ask why are club is closed today?" I asked him.

"Same question." Dustin added. Lorcan is thirsty for cases. It's shocking to see him closing the clubs for day. Is he now considering a rest?

"As far as I would want to open it for more cases. Our club is booked today and we still are not done with the Michael Writher one."

Booked? How are we booked? No one ever came to us since the Madeline and Ricanne case.

"Mr. Fergal told me about it. It was a case related with coffee." Lorcan spoke.

Disregarding his mind reading tactic, I am curious about a case about coffee. Is coffee now the culprit for killing someone?

We are finally in the clubroom. When we're seated on the couch inside, Lorcan took out something from his backpack. It's a black recorder.

Wait. It's

"Michael Writher's interrogation room conversation with a police officer was recorded. Officer Bernard gave me this."

He then clicked one of the button and placed it on the table.

We heard static noise then we heard a police officer and a familiar voice from the tape.

"How are you, Michael?"

"You detained me here, then you'll ask me how I am? What kind of question is that? Get straight to the point!"

"Michael... I just wanted to know why you did that?"

"Did what?"

"kidn*pped Madeline Bayhart."

"What? Do you have any proof that I kidn*pped her?"

"The ARC Club found you in an apartment with Madeline being on the ground tied. How can you eplain that?"

"I didn't kidn*pped anyone. And Madeline, I loved her why would I do that?"

"Loved? So you don't care about her any more?"

"I loved her. That was when we're still going along together. But she did this? She set me up of abusing and k********g her when I don't!" His emotions were a bit out of place when he said that.

"Okay. Okay... Michael. Tell me more about it. Why do you think she set you up?"

It took second before Michael starts talking, "I- I don't know. We're still okay the night before it happened. So I was shocked to see her there on the floor tied and later accused me of doing bad to her."

"Madeline was missing for days. She didn't attend any classes or even rehearsals for her opera. Why is that?"

"She said she doesn't want to go to school anymore. That she wanted to have a peaceful life with me. She wanted only the two of us and no other." He did not even stutter once.

"The night before that happened, do you sense something weird about her?"

"No. She was... She was okay. It's just..." Michael seemed to be hesitating to say a word.

"What is it Michael?"

"I knew it. That's why she didn't told me who it was."

"Michael wh-"

KRINGGG KRINGGG

Lorcan pushed something on the recorder to stopped it from playing. Someone called him and he immediately answered it.

"Okay. We're on our way."

I looked at him. "What is it?"

"We're going to determine how people died over a cup of coffee."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"No witnesses? No CCTV footage?" Lorcan asked the police officer in front of him.

Officer Bernard is out somewhere. He will do something personal so other police officer was assigned as a substitute for him.

"We checked all of those but we didn't find any hints. But don't worry we'll check it again just to make sure."

After Lorcan received a call. He told us that we're gonna solve a case. What's the sudden rush and who exactly is our client this time?

There are two persons inside the room that was now a crime scene. It's a condemned room and for some reason they entered without even someone noticing it.

But I'm glad someone found the body. When we entered the room I smelled something familiar.

"Coffee." Lorcan said.

Minji with her gloves on walk towards and stood in front of the table. There aren't many things in this room. But Dustin seemed not pleasant with the idea of not checking any of those so he's looking around just to make sure.

Lorcan stood only meters away from Minji, observing the place of the crime. I'll explain how it looks like. There's a squared shape in the middle of the room table that's only good for four people. Not because it's square but because it's not that large.

The victims bodies were lying on the ground. They are not actually lying on the ground but there's trace of how their body look like earlier when found by the police, they used white chalk.

There are two mugs in the room. The one shattered into pieces on the ground. And the one on the table is still okay. It's even standing still. I don't know but it's kinda suspicious.

"No scent of almonds or cyanide. Not even a single plant smells like this. It's pure coffee."

Minji explained after smelling the two mugs and the stains around the area.

"What's the name of the victims?" Dustin asked. His arms were crossed and his eyes were stucked on the table.

"Dina Velasco and Chris Wong." Minji uttered.

"Connection?" He asked again.

Minji looked at him. "They are both on a relationship. Well that's according to the them." She then put her look on the two students outside. They're both guys.

"Colbert, the guy on the right said that he's the one who found the body in here. He saw that the door was not closed properly and of curiosity? He entered and saw the body."

Minji explained.

"What about the other guy?" I asked.

"Steve told Colbert what he had seen. So they both came in here. When it was confirmed, they reported it to the campus police."

I looked at Lorcan whose eyes were on the two suspects. They're outside talking to the police officers.

"Is there people that can prove their innocence?"

"They both have alibis."

If they both have an alibi then who did it? Is this case another suicide?

"We'll check the CCTV." Lorcan said after minutes of silence.

"Are we not going to ask the suspects ourselves?" I asked.

"There's no way asking them if they will only deny it. We'll checked the CCTV ourselves."

"But the officer said..." I was not able to finish what I was going to say when I realized something.

After that, we went outside and told the police officers that we're going to check and solve the case on our clubroom. Our excuse is Minji is not feeling well so she needs to get rest as soon as possible. It'll work since they'll think that we're just concerned about out club mate. That's right we are concerned about each other but that's not it.

"Are you saying that he's lying?" I asked Lorcan when we're far away from them.

"I told you that I only trust Officer Bernard in the campus police. The school is high on maintenance, so there's no way they didn't see anything on the CCTV."

We arrived at the CCTV room after minutes of walking. Theres only one guy inside the room and he approved us on checking the footages. He said that he'll be out on the cafeteria because he didn't eat breakfast and all that.

Minji tapped on the keyboard then we saw nothing suspicious from the area's footage. Students were walking past by the room and no one even dared to look at it. Minji then rewind a specific part for a few times then turned to us.

"It was manipulated." She then repeat it and told us to pay attention on the door of condemned room. We didn't see anything for a few seconds then it suddenly a bit opened later. There was not even a clip of being opened slowly or slowly opened by itself. It looks like it's cut.

"Can you recover the deleted footages?" Lorcan asked.

She sighed. "I haven't done that one before but... I can try."

Lorcan nodded. We head back as fast as we could to the clubroom and...

"I need to get back in there. I just need a copy of the footages and try to retrieve the missing data as soon as possible. It make take a while." Minji explained to us once we're inside.

She opened her bag and took out a flashdrive.

"I'll come with you." Dustin and Minji exchanged glances then they went out to get back to the CCTV room.

"What will we do now?" I asked him.

"We need to-"

He was about to finish his sentence when someone knocked. I didn't have to open the door because the person behind it opened it himself.

A student with long black hair appeared before us. He then shut the door and locked it.

"Who are you?" I muttered all my strenght to ask. I even stood up from sitting.

"Oh, allow me to introduce myself. I am Gabriel Santi. Your new coffee brewer." My wide opened when he raise his left hand holding a two cups of what seemed to be a coffee.

He then sit on the couch in front of Lorcan.

"Lorcan. I'm a big fan. I can say that you're really inevitable after what happened. I think he actually likes your attitude. Badass."

What? What is this guy talking about?

"Are you one of his minions?" Lorcan asked.

"Aww. Minions? Mmm, maybe. But I don't consider myself as his minion. I served no one. I just need him for extra income."

"What do you need?"

"Oh! Well I want us to play a little game. A fun game." Gabriel seemed to be excited about what will happen.

I just need to open the door and run. One... Two... Th-

"Don't try." I halted as he said those words. My hand was about to touch the door's handle. "Some of his as what you call, his minions, are outside. So if that girl behind you will run outside and call for help? She'll experience the same as J-"

"What game?" Lorcan cut him.

"I know that you liked coffee a lot so I brought you one." He said putting the other cup of coffee in front of Lorcan.

"So you're the one who did it?"

Gabriel flashed a smile. "Absolutely."

"And now you're gonna do the same with me and my colleague behind me, is that true?"

"Oh, no. Not at all." He shook his head. "This one's for me only. The thing is one of the two coffee is poisoned while the other one isn't."

"And you want to test where luck is siding today?"

"Unfortunately and fortunately, luck has always been on my side since day 1. I don't about you. Is it considered luck when you've lost someone important in your life?"

"I need to smell which one I'll take and which one to ignore. You know I'm choosy about coffee." Lorcan said as if he's just talking to one of his friends.

I see how it is. Lorcan is taking care of the advantage. I just hope he'll drink the one without poison. That's if Gabriel was honest about it. The two cup of coffee might be poisoned after all.

"Great idea! As expected from you, you're making the game more interesting." Gabriel exclaimed.

Lorcan the opened the lid of each cup and smelled each one for minute or more. He picked the one he smelled the first time.

"Since this might be the last of me, I'll ask. Why did who is he?" Lorcan asked the man in front of him.

"Well, I really can't tell anything about him. Because I haven't seen him in person. But he told me that you see each other once."

Then they both took a sip of their coffee. I'm just quiet here, watching them but my heart is literally beating so fast.

"You told me earlier that he had her killed. Why is that?" Lorcan asked once again as he sip from the cup of coffee.

"Obviously because she found out something that... wasn't meant to be told." He choked a little bit in the middle of the sentence.

"Can you tell me what is it?" Lorcan asked again.

"He... He-" Gabriel grasped his neck and searched for air. Minutes later he fell down the floor.

I gasped. I looked at Lorcan who was still sitting in the couch holding the cup of coffee.

I was about to compliment him and ask him how did he not get the cup with no poison when I heard a loud thud and splash of liquid on the floor.

"LORCAN!"