Chapter 19: Chapter 18: Trust

“Look, I told you and you didn't listen to me, I told you that you shouldn't be alone. do you believe Me Now? “You are stubborn.” Darin had just arrived wearing his own green pajamas with a cow-eyed frog print. “So, now you believe me?” Say threw a pillow at Darin with a tired expression.

“When I told you what I saw, you said I imagined it. So what now? With everything that has happened, are you really going to continue with the case?” Darin turned to ask August, who sat on the couch opposite.

The waiting room of the forensic department was now full of people with various functions in the investigation of the case. Both August himself, as well as King, Darin, Say, and Thup.

“If I don't do it, who will?”

"But is dangerous. You can see what each person suffered. This is without taking into account the incident with the forensic team's vehicle.”

“Just leave it at that. If you don't agree to this, I won't stop you.”

Once they were all together, Thup began to tell the story, since everyone working on the case had to know the information.

“Despite all this, I have to take this serial killer out by the throat or it will happen again.”

“ Singha, I want to help. But from what I saw, I'm afraid I won't be able to survive,” Darin said before looking at the three dolls on the table from the corner of his eye. Just seeing them like that made his skin crawl. If I had to deal with everything directly, I felt like I would have a heart attack and die.

Darin stood up and quickly left the room. Thup understood, and just watched him leave, without intervening in his decision.

“So what do we do now?” King said quietly.

"You believe it?

“If it wasn't you who said it, I wouldn't have believed it.” He raised his head and looked into the eyes of the person sitting not far away from him, “Then how can we catch the person who does this? “How can you take a ghost to court?”

“Damn Thup, even if it was all true, someone must be able to catch him, right?”

“Yes, these are ritual elements. “Anyway, there must be a living person doing it.”

“So how do we find that person? From what I have seen so far, you guys still haven't accomplished anything.” King said, leaning back on the couch. A pair of piercing eyes looked at the boy who was sitting next to his ex-lover, very attached to him, more than he would like.

"Enough. The CCTV camera of the shop in front of the temple captured the image of some of the victims who entered there. I just checked the pictures, and I've seen two people so far. One is the boy named Chom and the other is Khun Min, but the first never left the temple. As for Khun Min, there are images where he can be seen leaving. The other recordings should be reviewed to see if we find more people.”

“Are you saying that the people at the temple are suspicious?”

"It could be possible. Because the autopsy carried out on the body of the deceased found that almost all of them had the same food contained in their stomachs. Except for those whose content was already digested.” Say finished speaking and stood up to pick up the autopsy report file, which he tossed towards King, before sitting down as before. As a person who believes in science, past events caused him some fear. But he also believed in black magic, and he knew that evidence of this was not easy to find. But they had to find a way to prove it. “Chicken meat, curry paste, wheat flour used to make noodles, these things were found in the stomach of the deceased. And when I took Darin to the temple, I realized that's what they normally eat there. Therefore, it is possible that the food found came from there.”

“Temple food, Thup, did you bring the food the monk gave us?”

“It's on your desk.”

“Go get her. Here is the key." Thup took the key to the major's office, before walking to go collect the things as ordered.

“Do you trust him that much?” King asked when there were only three people left in the room.

“I just asked him to go pick up some things.”

“Although he is a stranger, and a suspect, you took him to your house, what are you thinking?”

“I think we should just talk about work.” When August's eyes looked like a threat, Drew King let out a sigh.

“Say, check this for me.”

"What is it?"

“Pottery clay,” he said, handing her a slightly soiled handkerchief, which Say took. “I want to know if the same type that was used to make the dolls.”

"Where does this come from?"

“From outside the abbot's room.”

“The abbot of the temple? Don’t tell me you doubt him.”

“So what will we do from now on? Do you already have a plan?”

“Not yet, but I think I need to find all the dolls first.”

“According to what that boy says, we have to search according to the correct date, now that we have three, we have four left to find.”

“What do you think you'll get from these dolls?” King asked after a pause. “They probably don't have any prints anymore,”

“Maybe it doesn't hurt to try it first. The important thing is to discover what kind of ritual the murderer was doing, and for what purpose.”

“Won't it be some kind of sacrifice?” Say asked, his face very serious, although he did not believe that such beliefs still existed in today's world.

“Maybe,” Singha leaned against the back of the couch and ruffled his black hair, lifting it slightly. “As for the dolls, I will look for them myself. Say, you will check for fingerprints, then check the soil type to see if it is the same or not. If you find something, tell me. As for you King, check the CCTV cameras at the temple entrance to see if any more victims are seen, and find out where Khun Min's car was taken.”

“Let me examine this doll, no problem. The point is that things will happen. No?" Say said before looking at the Xiakban dolls that had a lion and horse head.

“Go and bring the Buddha with you.”

“Shall I ask the monk?”

“How would I know? Search yourself.”

“Then I'll go ask Darin, but first I'll let him rest, and then let him get out of this. “So you can recover from this crazy ghost story.”

“I'll go home with Thup first, we'll come back tomorrow,” said the young inspector, and he stood up, turning his body to relieve some of the fatigue.

“Won't it be dangerous?” King asked as he stood up to find what he was looking for.

“Would you rather take it?” Singha asked in a mocking tone.

When he saw that the other party did not respond, he laughed deeply, “I'll go. If Thup comes back, let him give you the food and tell him I'll wait for him before we go home.”

"Yes Yes."

Singha took the three dolls that were in the evidence bag and left the forensic department room.

…

Thup went to Singha's office, quickly used the key and collected the things. When he finished doing this, he left the room. As he returned to the forensic department room, he stopped suddenly, when the lights began to flicker. He had taken this tour before, and never saw anything, but this time, at the end of the hallway, he saw something. It was the deformed body of a woman. At that moment, his legs felt like they were frozen, because he couldn't move how he wanted to. He began to clench his hands into fists when he saw the figure begin to approach him. Every time the lights in the hallway went off, all he could see were white eyes and a terrifying smile.

“Hehe, the giant is not here. Who will help you?”

It was not necessary to say who he meant by “the giant” . It's not that he didn't know that he could face a situation like this in August's absence, because he couldn't hold on to him forever, although now was not a good time to not have him around, nor did he want to cause more chaos in his life.

"What do you want!"

“I ate seven and I will eat more!”

Eat seven? Was he referring to the victims?

“If you keep doing this, you will only increase your karma. Please stop." It was the first time Thup dared to do something like this: be brave. Because he knew that whatever he discovered would definitely help Singha solve the case, whether the information came from someone living or dead.

“Ghost boy.”

Thup frowned slightly when he heard this, before a hand surprised him.

"Need help? I saw that you have been standing here for a while.”

“Oh? No." Thup shook his head frantically before turning to look down the hallway again.

The ghost had disappeared.

“Then I apologize.”

“Oh, you're one of the group of teenagers who broke into the crime scene, right?”

"Yes it's true. It's just that our case isn't over yet because the police are busy, or something. That's why we're still here.”

“I understand, well, thank you…”

“I'm Bomb. Pleased to meet you."

“I'm Thup. Nice to meet you too.”

“You seem to be quite close to the police. So please, could you ask if someone can come and finish our case? “We’ve been here for quite some time.”

“Well, I'll try to see what I can do for you.”

The two said goodbye briefly before going their separate ways. Thup turned to look at the hallway again and quickly walked back with the things.

As he approached the forensic room, he heard the sound of conversation. First he saw white cigarette smoke from outside. When he listened carefully, he immediately recognized that it was King and Singha.

“Are we going to be angry like this forever?” King exhaled smoke. as he stared at the sky, standing next to August.

“If you came just to talk about it, you better go back inside. “Annoying.” The young inspector frowned in annoyance and was ready to continue filling his lungs with nicotine.

“Well, I came to apologize.”

“So if you apologize, you think you'll get me back, right? King, you are overthinking things.”

“So what do you intend to do? Keep talking sarcastically to me while you stay with that kid all day and night?”

“What does ours have to do with Thup?”

“How many years have we been together? “You think I don’t know what you’re thinking?”

“ 'How many years have we been together' ?” Singha repeated mockingly. “Three years, maybe? Three years since you betrayed and used Say, Darin. “Three years where I was stupid and let you fool me for so long.”

"I'm sorry." King grabbed the wrist of the man in front of him, before speaking with a weakened voice.

“Taking my job wasn't enough, you also blamed me for the mistakes you caused. And now, you just come back like that. It is easy for you to come back and ask for forgiveness.” Singha dropped his cigarette on the ground before stomping on it until it sank into the ground. He broke free of King's grip and pushed him against the wall. “Before you apologize to me, there are more people you should apologize to. Think about the position you are in. How many heads did you have to step on to get there?”

When August was about to return inside, he stopped his steps. He laughed in his throat and said, “And if there's anything between that kid and me, it's none of your business.”

The young man who had heard everything went to the forensic room, and upon entering, he sat in silence, because what he had just heard still echoed in his head.

“Is this what you want me to check?”

Say asked, as he looked at the things on the table, but when he heard no response, he looked back at the boy who was sitting blankly, “Hey, boy, did you see a ghost or something?”

“..”

"What's happening? Did you hear my question?

“Yes this is it.”

“Just a pawn.”

“Khun Say, can I ask you something?”

“Just ask quickly, I have to go to work.”

“Phi Sing and Khun King, have you ever been in a relationship?”

“Well, they didn't get to the point of having a relationship per se, they didn't define their status. But you could tell what was happening to the other person just by looking into their eyes.”

"How is that?"

“Well, the point was that they were going on parallel paths.”

“And what was the problem between the two?”

“Maybe you've heard it before. Telling you the detailed story would be a bit long. Just know that this guy almost caused August to go out of commission and end up in jail.”

“Phi Sing seems very angry with him.”

"Yeah. Something you should know about Sing is that he is a person who will give his all if he trusts you, but if you break his trust, don't expect anything from him.”

"I understand." Thup pursed his lips with determination in his eyes. I definitely wouldn't disappoint Phi Singha.

"Why you ask? Will you flirt with him or not?”

"Oh no! Oh, I just saw them talking outside. Right now, he was indifferent. “I wasn’t trying to flirt.”

“Then why do you get so nervous? I’m just joking.”

“Well, I don't want you to misunderstand anything. “I don’t dare flirt with him.” He sentenced.

The last sentence fell softly from Thup's lips.

“Hey, Thup,” the call that came from the door, which suddenly opened, startled Thupla.

"Yes sir!!"

“What's wrong with you? Why are you making so much noise? I just came to tell you that we're going home now. Did you bring the food?”

“He brought it just now…” said Say.

“So, I'm going with Phi Sing. Goodbye Khun Say.” Thup quickly interrupted him and spoke loudly.

He immediately left, pushing August back from the door, and leaving the room, because he was afraid that Say would tell him what he had just asked.

"What happens?"

“Hía, can we go to the supermarket and buy things first? There is no fresh food in the refrigerator in your house.”

Thup took the arm of the person in front of him, and spoke to him feeling nervous.

"Something happened?"

Thup denied vigorously.

“Really, nothing happened.” Thup immediately turned to look at the person with gloomy eyes, but when he saw his fierce eyes, he immediately pursed his lips: “I…I heard you talking to the Khun King outside.”

"Already…"

“So I went to ask Khun Say about what they were discussing.”

He looked at August again with concern, as this was a delicate matter between two people, and he didn't want him to think he was prying. "Are you mad at me?"

“FYI, no. where do you want to shop? “I’m tired, don’t be late because I want to go to sleep.”

After telling him this, they began to walk towards the car normally. Thup was relieved to have gotten it off his chest and to see that Sing wasn't angry or upset at all. So she smiled before running to his arm and holding him like before.

“There is a supermarket near the house, it's good there. But are you really going to take those dolls home? “Don’t bring them home.”

“Do you think it's better to leave them here and cause more problems?”

“Then… leave them in the car. I have something to tell you. “Just now I saw the ghost of the young woman I met at Khun Min’s house again.” He finished saying this and immediately turned to look at the older man, because this time the young man did not go with him.

"So what happened?"

“She…named Jump.”