Chapter 15: The Killer in the Dark Shadows

"Is it really not possible?"

"It's really not possible, doctor." The young security guard had a worried expression on his face, he didn't dare to look her in the eyes, especially when her eyes were very sharp. "Our security measures have been stricter because something bad happened to the security guard from before, who was responsible for the CCTV."

Rin crossed her arms, "I just wanted to see if anyone took my things."

"Six months ago?" The young man shook his head.

"Well, I just realized my stuff is missing." Actually, Rin hadn't even started working here yet at that time. However, this young security guard did not know that she was a new doctor.

"In that case, I will have to ask you to report it to the police and have them record your request. I will take that record and report it to my superior for you."

"What if the police come here in person?"

Someone's firm footsteps approached both of them, thus silencing the argument in front of the hospital's CCTV control room, Rin turned to look at the approaching person and smiled slightly before looking at the security guard, whose face became pale as he turned to look at the person who had just arrived.

Let's see if my request is still not possible.

Inspector Em sat with his arms crossed and looked at Rin, who was concentrating on watching the CCTV footage that the security guard pulled out for her to see. It seemed that Rin already knew from what date, time and place he wanted to check it out. After getting the recording she wanted, she dragged Em to come watch it with her.

"I risked my profession a lot for you here. Won't you tell me what you want to see on the CCTV from six months ago?" The police officer moved his chair closer to Rin, "You tricked the security guard by telling him you lost your stuff. My ass, you weren't even here six months ago."

"I'll thank you later," Rin said without looking at Em. "What would you like? Do you like men's chest bags? What style do you like? Gucci, LV or Balenciaga?"

"Are you bribing the officer?" Em laughed out loud. "For a farmer like me, a cloth bag is enough."

"Here!" Rin shouted and pointed at the screen. It seemed like he wasn't listening to what Em had just said. "They're taking him out of the ICU."

Em had never seen Rin so excited before. Even at the scene, the fragmented corpses can't change the expression on their faces. "So, would you like me to help you look at that, ma'am?"

The doctor stood still for a moment before moving her chair away from the screen. She looked at Em. His face was stunningly beautiful as always, but there was also a lot of sadness and anger. "Six months ago," Rin's voice became calmer. "My father died here."

Em, who was smiling widely, slowly closed her mouth because she could feel that what Rin was going to say was important: "He passed away due to what kind of illness?"

“My father,” it seemed as if the air in the CCTV control room suddenly became heavy. "He was shot in the stomach. The bullet penetrated up to the aorta, so he lost a lot of blood and needed major surgery. After his conditions began to improve and he was able to be transferred out of the ICU, his heart stopped beating and he died suddenly on the day of transfer."

Em stood still and silent for a while before saying, "I'm sorry."

"You asked me before why I came here." Rin looked at her beautiful hands.

"You wanted to find evidence to sue the hospital for not taking good care of your father, right?"

The doctor shook her head, "No." Rin's response made Em raise an eyebrow in surprise. "I don't intend to sue the hospital, but what I intend to do is find evidence that my father..." the young woman took a deep breath before glaring at Em, "...was murdered here."

The young inspector opened his mouth wide. His brain was trying to process who the person Rin was talking about was, but it was too unbelievable. "Your father was..."

Rin's hardened eyes began to shake, as if they were walls that could no longer support the weight. The pair of beautiful eyes began to turn red and tears flowed down uncontrollably. A woman like Rin never showed her weak side for anyone to see and it turned out that Em was the one who could see it with her own eyes. She used both hands to cover her face and cried as Em walked over to hug her. Rin's face was pressed against Em's strong chest. The policeman raised his hand awkwardly in the air, but finally decided to place it on the young woman's head and gently ran it through her beautiful, long brown hair to comfort her.

"My father was surely murdered," Rin said as her face was nestled in Em's embrace. "My father... was the person... whom you called... a murderer... for the euthanasia case."

It was as if lightning struck the ceiling of the room at that moment. Em's eyes widened in surprise and she looked in disbelief at the thin figure she was hugging. Is this great forensic doctor the daughter of Dr. Somsak, former director of this hospital and murderer of the euthanasia case?

Em had goosebumps from head to toe. The investigating inspector could sense that a huge and terrible storm was coming. It took him six months to form and he was now ready to destroy everything he knew about the euthanasia case. He would tear up all the files that the deputy superintendent presented to prosecutors. They would have to start from scratch from this mistake and the things they have previously overlooked. Because it seemed like there was another killer hiding in the shadows from the beginning.

******

"Nong, please take this." Gun  handed the brown envelope containing 200,000 baht cash to Ornanong, who was now disguised in a long black dress, sepia glasses and a turban. At this time both of them were standing in the Ornanong longan orchard. It would probably take the police a while to find this place.

"My dear Professor Gunn," the middle-aged woman gently touched Gunn's hand, "You don't need to help me like this."

"No, you should take this, Nong. It can help you go very far," the young doctor said quickly. His voice sounded more grumpy than usual as he said, "Nong, take this and leave quickly. Now."

"I'm sorry."

Gunn closed his eyes and tried to calm down and control his anger, "Why did you never tell me about the stretcher staff? I thought I just needed to disguise myself as someone, but I didn't know that you... set a trap for him to be fired." ”.

"I did it for you. If you had been caught, the blame would have fallen on Tao, who got drunk during his shift. The fact that he got fired was for the best, so we could get rid of anyone involved in this plan."

"I didn't want a scapegoat. I didn't want to get rid of anyone. If I decide to do something, I'll be the one to do it. I won't ask you to do it. I won't involve you in things like this. I thought you and I were a team, but you did many things behind my back." The doctor lowered his hand with the money envelope next to his body. "You also killed Ying and made Som's heart stop beating too, right?"

Ornanong lowered his head and looked at the ground, "I'm sorry again. I did it because I wanted to get rid of evidence that could have pointed towards you. I had good intentions. I wanted to protect the doctor I love and respect."

The young doctor took a deep breath and looked away. It was true that his heart was full of anger, but he couldn't deny that he was able to treat his patients in a special way these days because Ornanong was helping him. It's just that he only knew part of the details of how she helped him, not all of it as he understood it before.

"And you? What will you do now?" Ornanong looked at the handsome man in front of her with a worried expression. "You will have to fight alone from now on."

"I have to stay here to fix the things that happened," Gunn said as he sighed. He picked up the envelope with the money again, grabbed Nong's hand, and placed the brown envelope on top. "This is a result of the fact that we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. We could carry out euthanasia in countries with laws that allow it, but we have to do it secretly where we are now. Trying to hide what we do "We end up killing innocent people. We have become...murderers."

The warm breeze passed by both of them. The silence only reinforced Gunn's words. Ornanong received the envelope with the money from Kantapat and then took out a small black USB from her bag. He placed it in Gunn's hand. "This is the information about Tao that I gathered on my own from the detective I hired. I tried to get rid of him by setting fire to his house, but I was unsuccessful. Right now his name is 'Van' and he works as a drug dealer for the drug dealer named Tong. After Ord and Por's mafia family disintegrated, Tong replaced them. At this time Tong is also looking for Van because he is getting rid of all his subordinates who create problems. Doctor, try to use the information here to find him before It's too late

"You should have told me from the beginning," Gunn opened his palm to receive the USB and held it tightly in his hand. "But let bygones be bygones. Right now you have to run away. This is the most important thing right now. Do you understand?"

Ornanong's tears filled her eyes and her voice trembled: "Thank you. I wish you all the luck and happiness from now on."

At that moment, Gunn felt as empty in his heart as he had never felt before. "I'll get in touch."

Nong shook his head. "You shouldn't contact me anymore because the police might think you're involved in the things I did." The middle-aged woman walked away from Gunn. "Faith will keep us firm in what we are doing. Thank you for restoring my faith in my profession. And no matter what happens, I wish your faith remains strong forever." The nurse smiled at him one last time and said, "Now I'll say goodbye."

Ornanong turned around and walked away. Gunn's eyes followed the small-framed nurse with a big heart until she was out of sight. The anger he felt disappeared. He wanted to scold her for escalating everything, but in the end what he felt was just loneliness. The doctor raised his hand to massage the shoulder blade that was pierced by Dr. Somsak's bullet.

You can't just blame Ornanong just because he was the cause of everything that happened. Gunn wanted to survive, so he chose the wrong method. He chose to follow the path of a murderer.

No matter how careful he was, the sin he committed would come back to him. It's like that.

Deputy Superintendent Bird and Sergeant Narong walked quickly along the hospital path. The deputy superintendent's eyes hardened. As someone who reported the euthanasia case with his own hands, he admitted that he is frustrated by what Lt. Kong was trying to suggest. The euthanasia case was a difficult case and known nationally. His work at that time had to face pressure from all sides. When the case file was handed over to the prosecutor and he found the culprit, Bird felt as if an entire mountain weighing on his chest had been lifted. Out of nowhere, someone pointed in his face and said that everything he had with great difficulty concluded in the case file was wrong. Surely this made him unhappy. However, what else can you do besides jump from your ego to the high tower and seek the truth before more people die?

"Department Superintendent," said Sergeant Narong. "Would it really be like what Lieutenant Kong said?"

"Kong must have been right when he said that it seems like everything that happened lately is connected." Bird frowned sternly. "The Superintendent reaffirmed that he prohibits anyone from giving information to journalists about Ornanong because if people in the community find out, they will connect him to the euthanasia case. Our reputation would be ruined."

"Yes sir." Narong replied. The two police officers soon arrived at the door with the sign "Palliative Care Unit." Bird opened the glass door so forcefully that it made a sound, and then entered the room. He looked left and right and found that this room was empty. Bird approached the front of the desk with a sign with his name on it: 'Dr. Guntapat Akaramethi' in it.

"Don't tell me everyone found out and ran away," Bird said in frustration. He reached into his pocket to pull out his phone, intending to call Wasan to ask where Gunn was.

The sound of the door opening made the two police officers turn to look. Dr. Gun  was standing there looking confused, “Hello…hello.”

"Doctor," Bird breathed out. On the one hand, he is relieved to have found Gunn because if he had run away, it would have been clear that he was definitely involved with Ornanong. "I'm here to see Ornanong. Do you know where he is?"

Nong?" Gunn looked around the room. "I was late for work today, so I haven't seen her yet. But I think he'll be back in the office soon. "Perhaps he has gone out to carry out his duties in other buildings."

Bird nodded, "Can I trouble you to call Ornanong? Just tell him it's something important and ask him to come back here quickly."

"Of course, I'll call Ornanong for you." Gunn took out his phone. Bird tried to observe the doctor's behavior. He seemed confused, surprised, and was cooperating well. Gunn pressed the phone to his ear. The expression on his face changed to one of surprise. He hung up the phone and dialed again. "The number you're trying to reach can't connect... Maybe he turned off his phone or the battery died. Anyway... what's all this about?"

Bird stared at Gunn's face. "Last night, two assassins broke into the apartment of Lieutenant Kong and his boyfriend. Fortunately, Kong did not die so easily and was able to defeat the invaders. When we checked one of their phones, we discovered that the person who hired them was Ornanong."

Gunn was stunned for a long time. He looked at both police officers confused. "That's impossible."

Bird crossed his arms. "Why do you think it's impossible, doctor?"

"Nong is one of the best and kindest people I know. There is no way he could kill anyone."

"Then we'll have to ask her if it's possible or not. So, you can't contact Ornanong, right?" The policeman asked again.

Gunn tried to dial again and turned on the loudspeaker for the police officer to hear. The result remained the same. "Yes, but if Orananong returns to the room, I will call you as soon as possible."

"I won't bother you anymore. Sergeant Narong will wait here in this room." The Deputy Superintendent approached Gunn. Although he was shorter than the doctor in stature, his muscular body made the police lieutenant colonel quite fearsome. "I'll see you at the police station, we have a lot to talk about."

"Me again," Gunn frowned.

"If you are just an unlucky person, after this case is over, I will order Wasan to take you to a good temple and have a ceremony to protect you from bad luck. I hope you are simply unlucky. But if not, this time "I won't make a mistake again." Bird said quietly. "Just wait for your court order, Dr. Gunn."

After saying that, Bird walked past Gunn's shoulder, yanked open the door, and left the room. The doctor looked at him with a confused expression before turning around and seeing Sergeant Narong smiling dryly.

"The delegate has been in a bad mood since morning, doctor." Narong said in a friendly tone. "If you are not involved in this, then you don't have to worry. Please cooperate like you did last time. If you have any questions, you can ask Inspector Wasan."

"I wonder why you are so suspicious of me." The doctor massaged his eyebrows for a while before saying, "I need to go see my outpatients. Hundreds of them are waiting for me. Officer, you can wait here for Nong. You can also call me for questioning at the police station, I will definitely come." Please excuse me."

Gunn opened the door and left the room. When Narong was alone in the room, he took the liberty of exploring the things inside the room, including the document files on the shelf next to Ornanong's desk. The policeman picked up one of the files. The front of the file had a label that said: "Patients with home visits for palliative care." When he opened the file, he found the printed medical records of each patient. Some of them were stamped with red ink identifying that the patient had "deceased."

Narong did not know whether these names were related to euthanasia or not, but he had to gather information. Should the case be reopened, these names could prove useful in the future.