Chapter 5: Chapter 4: This place has a Owner

There was a commotion at the station after loud banging was heard on the inspector's office door. Singha sat at his desk, while a security guard reviewed the CCTV footage and Thup sat frightened, not far from them, with his knees drawn up. Since the young man arrived at the police station, many strange things had happened.

According to the CCTV footage, no one else was found in the room apart from Thup. Hearing that, Singha became angry. He was stressed enough to find the killer and now he had to listen to this kind of garbage. He didn't believe it and asked the officers to play the recording again.

In the recording, you could only see someone passing by casually, but no one entered or left. Suddenly, a path of scratches slowly began to appear, but there was no physical attacker. The door shook, but then the inspector was seen arriving, and then everything was silent.

“There was no one at the door, inspector.”

“How is it possible that there is no one? Everyone could hear the sound, how could these marks appear on the front of the door? If it’s not a person, what the hell happened?” Singha said angrily.

“Check again.” Everyone looked at Singha at that moment, even his subordinates, but no one dared to say anything to him. The young man's eyes blinked fiercely, and Singha looked at him, before sighing in frustration.

“Have you already gone to check this child's room?”

“The search warrant will be delivered to the Says promptly.” the officer responded.

Singha looked at the clock. There was only half an hour left and it would be the morning Says. “Here, inspector, these are the images of the moment the sound occurred.”

He looked carefully at the image of the event that occurred in front of his office, he could see people passing by, but no one stopped in front of the door. The image remained like this, but after about 5 minutes there was movement, suddenly, traces of scratches gradually appeared, but there was no shadow of the perpetrator. The door shook slightly. But when he arrived, everything calmed down.

“Inspector, you won't be able to see anyone,” said the voice of the young man who sat upright on the sofa, drawing the attention of the two police officers who turned to look at him. “But I saw it.”

They watched the video footage over and over again, and although others saw it as a blank image, before their eyes, they could see a woman in worn-out clothes, hair disheveled, dragging her nails across the door.

“What did you see?” Thup raised his head and looked Singha in the eyes. Only the person in front of him understood what he was seeing.

“What does inspector do? Lieutenant Khem hurriedly asked when he saw his leader walk up to the young man and begin to remove his handcuffs.

But Singha went to his desk, took his gun and said, “Please keep an eye on everything. If someone comes to see me, tell them that I went to work on the case, and also fix the door. “My eyesight bothers me.”

“Work on the case? Where will you go to work on the case? Inspector, Inspector!”

But Singha was not interested in answering, despite the shouts, he left dragging the young man straight to the parking lot.

While outside, Singha approached the black motorcycle, closely followed by the young suspect, and handed him a helmet. But when the other party saw him, he put on an uncomfortable expression, and Singha realized how poor this child's life skills were.

“Did you know that you are the suspect with the most problems since I have been working?”

"I'm sorry." His voice was cut off and his face was like that of a puppy that was scolded. This made Singha want to hit the helmet in his hand, but instead, he took it out of his hands and placed it on his head. Once he secured it, he said, “ Come on, go up.” When he saw hesitation in the young man's eyes, he added: “If you don't, I will leave you here.”

Thup then sat tensely behind the inspector. “I normally go by motorcycle. But Win never made me wear a helmet.” Thup said quietly, for fear of being scolded again.

“Give me your address, show me the way to your condo.”

Thup nodded before beginning to give instructions.

The sun had not yet risen over the horizon, normally Thup did not leave his room, especially without his amulet. During the ride to his condo, Thup kept his face against the inspector's back because he didn't want to see anything that shouldn't be seen.

There weren't many cars on the way, so they arrived in front of the condominium in less than half an hour.

“Am I no longer detained?”

Singha did not answer anything.

“So why do you want to come to my condo, and why with me?”

“I need to check your room, after all, you are a suspect who is involved in the case.”

“Don't you have to wait until you have a search warrant first?” Thuppiang Kho looked at him suspiciously.

“Oh well, then I'll leave you here and go back to get the warrant.” After saying this, Singha put his helmet back on, but the young man grabbed him by the hem of his shirt.

"No, it's not okay." Something he had noticed when being with him, after spending so many hours together, was that the person in front of him seemed afraid of being alone. His forehead was sweating and his expression changed, he even lost the shine in his eyes. It was clear that this boy was afraid of something.

The young man took the inspector to his room. Although the condominiums here were not luxurious, it was considered a comfortable place to live. It also had a complete security system.

Once they entered the building, Thup nodded nervously, before taking the key card. Then they went to the floor of his room, and he opened the door.

The boy's room is simply decorated with warm colors. The living room had a clean set of furniture, there was a separate bedroom, and an area set up to work. Everything was in perfect order. There was a drawing board along with a drawing screen and a desktop computer. Everything seemed to be settled, very different from his own house.

“Inspector, where do you want to search?”

“Everything is very organized.” He looked at everything around him, without finding any abnormality. Then he looked at the young man again.

"Then I'll sit down so as not to get in your way."

“Go take a shower.”

"Yeah?"

“Would you rather stay in those blood-stained clothes all day?” Singha took out an evidence bag and handed it to Thup. “Take off your clothes and put them in this bag.”

"If, according." The thin hand was about to reach out to grab the plastic bag, but Singha pulled it back and said, “Undress here.”

"As?!" Thup shouted in surprise, making his voice break, suddenly the behavior of the inspector in front of him was not the same. Was he joking? “Inspector, are you serious?” .

“Yes, come on, quickly.” Singha looked at the young man, who slowly began to take off his coat, followed by his blood-stained shirt. Although the boy didn't have many muscles, he wasn't very skinny either. His skin was very white, indicating that the other person was not someone who liked to do outdoor activities.

Thup hesitated for a moment before unbuttoning his pants, while Singha watched him with a cold expression. No matter how innocent this young man seemed, the inspector was not careless, he was still a suspect and he had to collect all the evidence to thoroughly examine it.

“Um, inspector… I… can I go get a towel?” His white face turned slightly red with embarrassment. Singha rolled his eyes. Annoyed, he picked up the clothes that were on the floor and put them in an evidence bag.

“That's it, just go and do what you want.”

“Inspector, while I take a shower, you can take a look at the room. Don’t leave yet.”

Singha entered the room after Thup went to the bathroom, was this young man a monk? There were talismans hanging everywhere, it looked like a small temple; The inspector put on his gloves and began to walk carefully around the room, using a black light in some spots. This room was not very big, it had its own bathroom. The living room was connected to the kitchen and the outside bathroom. And there is also a balcony in the kitchen. If a murder occurred here, it would surely be heard in the next room.

After a thorough inspection of the room, Singha found nothing suspicious. Then, he took off his gloves and grabbed the evidence bag. He left Thup's room and went down the hallway to knock on the door of the next room on the same floor. After waiting for a while, the door opened, letting out some smoke.

"Hello. Excuse me, I am a police officer, I would like to ask you some questions.”

“Damn, police,” said a very surprised young man, and hurried to put away his marijuana smoking equipment. Then he immediately opened the balcony door to expel the smoke. “It's legal, official!”

“Well, I hope so, but that's not why I'm here.” Singha decided he didn't care if he smoked marijuana, since he was there to investigate a murder.

“So, what do you want to ask about?”

“The tenant in the room on your left. Do you know him?”

“That introverted kid? “Sometimes I have met him when I go downstairs to buy things.”

“Yesterday, approximately before 9 pm, did you see or hear anything from his room?”

“Ah! That kid was like a nervous wreck. Last night there was a lot of noise. And then he hurriedly left, but I don't know where.”

“Did you see him go out alone?”

“I saw a woman leaving with him. He seemed to have been scolded, I thought he was a little drunk.”

The other party's response made Singha let out a sigh.

“Um…could you describe the woman's characteristics?”

“Black hair, maybe he was wearing a sarong? You ask a lot of questions, police. What's happening?"

"Thanks for the information." Singha stopped paying attention to the young man next to him. Then he went down to speak with the condominium's administrative department. He asked to see the closed-circuit camera footage from the previous night, and requested the footage files from the past two weeks plus information on the building's employees.

What the man in the next room said was still etched in his mind, because he seemed to have described the same woman Thup had mentioned. A pair of sharp eyes looked at the image that appeared on the screen as planned, and it was true, just as the boy next door had said. But there was one thing that did not match that statement. Thup was seen leaving the room, heading to the elevator. He was then seen leaving the building and taking a taxi in front of it. But I only saw him. There was no young woman, so what did the man see?

“Here you go, officer.”

"Thank you." Singha went back up to the room. When he opened the door, he saw the young man dressed in a hoodie and gray sweatpants, sitting and curled up on the couch.

"Inspector!" Thup shouted in a happy voice. The young man's eyes lit up. “I thought he was gone and wouldn't come back.”

“Do you want me to be attached to you?”

"No."

“Go pack your suitcase.”

“Where will it take me?”

“Would you rather stay here?”

“And if I go, will I be able to stay with you, inspector?”

"Because with me?"

“Every time I'm around you... I don't see any ghosts.”

"Do what you want."

“I'm easy to live with, I don't eat much, and I can cooperate with anything.”

“Okay then, grab your things and let's go.”

After putting together a small bag with your essentials. Thup followed Singha to the lift, while glancing at him repeatedly. Ever since they started spending time together, he admired Singha. He noticed that he was a very talented person. Although he looked cold and fierce, there was still some kindness left. Although he spoke and acted straightforwardly, he did not seem evil at all.

As soon as they reached the parking lot, Singha said they would first pass the crime scene before returning to the office. Whether he liked it or not, Thup would have to follow him and stay close to him until he found the necklace Luang Pu had given him.

The shiny motorcycle headed towards the forest on the outskirts of the city. Although it was still early in the morning, the atmosphere of the forest on both sides of the road was no less terrifying. Thup reached out and grabbed the hem of Singha's shirt when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw only the ghost of a fat man, standing behind a large tree. His face was pale and covered in blood. One side of his skull was open, showing his brain, so he assumed that an accident had occurred here and he must have been the unlucky one. After keeping his head down the entire ride, the motorcycle finally stopped at the same spot where the taxi had dropped him off the night before.

Singha was surprised to see Thup's face so pale. But the young man said nothing. Then the police officer asked him to tell what he did last night after getting out of the taxi.

“I saw an old woman holding a lantern there.” Thup pointed to an empty area to the left. “So I followed her.”

Singha told him to walk and the two slowly entered the forest. Although morning was approaching, the height of the trees and the dense foliage did not let in much light, making the atmosphere tense, causing Thup to have to turn towards Singha every two minutes.

“At that time there were many branches. I'm not sure, but I think I fell here. Then after that, I started walking again.” Thup pointed to a piece of wood that came up to his shin. Singha checked it and found scratches on the bark of the tree and that appeared to be what caused the injury to the leg of the man next to him.

“You are afraid of ghosts, but you went out at night and walked into the forest. And you said you were following the person holding the flashlight, then you ran and fell?” Singha glanced at Thup from the corner of his eye.

"Yeah." Thup was not surprised that Singha did not believe him.

“Let's continue,” Singha walked into the forest until he found the crime scene. Now the area has been cleared, only the yellow police cordon remains to prevent anyone from approaching the place. It had rained heavily last night, causing the ground to become wet. And if they were to look for additional evidence right now, it would probably be of no use. “All the victims were murdered elsewhere. Bringing them here and hanging them will not have been an easy task.” Singha said as he walked.

“Be careful where you step,” Thup grabbed the policeman by the shoulder, before the man could step onto the ground that had turned into a puddle.

"Because?"

“It might make someone angry.” Thup lowered his head and looked at the ground in front of him.

"As?"

“This place… is not an empty area. “This place has an owner.”

"What are you talking about? Where is the owner?”

Thup didn't answer his question, just looked ahead with trembling eyes. But when Singha looked in the same direction, he found only emptiness and big trees.

“I think the murderer had his reasons for choosing this place.”

Thup accidentally squeezed Singha's shoulders tightly, because what he was seeing were several spirits, men and women, looking directly at them with dissatisfied expressions on their faces, one to two, two to three. Until he saw dozens of spirits looking at him. Through a large bush not far away

“This place must have been a cemetery before.”