Chapter 8
The mystery of the pill
Atlas ran and stood beside Josephine to get her attention as Smith was getting closer to the group. Coming closer he heard them discussing all these people who got together and the man with glasses, standing before asked:
“What even are they here for?”
“You don’t see it? They’re fans rushing us to find her.” – said a woman standing by Josephine’s side.
Josephine looked over seeing Smith coming over and eventually looked over his shoulder at the new trailer where he just came from.
“Who’s that?” – she asked first, putting her hair back.
He could hardly hear what she said and got closer so she could hear him.
“The new detective, the old one got fired – wasn’t the best at his work.”
“How do you know that?” – she said and looked at him squinting her eyes.
“Got the information from the locals while someone was still sleeping.” – he said and looked away.
“You still haven’t told me about what I saw at that house where we went. Also, I know I didn’t pick up your call yesterday – but something really disturbing happened.” – she said genuinely distraught.
Isaac standing in the field and already gathered a lot of people around him, shouted:
“Let’s go, only couple of days left! We’re going on the east side of the forest today!”
“Let’s go and talk it all while we’re on search.” – Smith said and with Josephine they left to the group.
Suddenly a guy in glasses came by Smith’s side, a little shorter than Smith. Black shoes that he had on were very clean and well-polished.
“I’m sorry about the question, maybe it’s kind of inappropriate, but why are we searching in the forest?” – he asked.
“This is the last place someone saw her – Margo entered the forest and disappeared.”
He was confused as Smith looked at him after finishing.
“What?!” – Smith exclaimed.
“What if she never even wanted to be found? Have you thought about that?”
He asked, looked away; Smith glanced at Josephine who was perplexed by what was happening.
“What kind of question is that? You’re telling me she went missing and didn’t want to be found?!”
“I mean, anything can happen, don’t you think?”
Smith suddenly exploded.
“Hey, why wouldn’t you get the fuck out of here before I smack you, huh?!”
He wasn’t surprised by his hostile behavior at all.
“And who even are you?” – Josephine asked.
“Alex.” – he commented shortly and left.
“What was that?” – she asked as they reached the dark entrance to the forest.
Smith looked at her and then around for a moment then said quietly:
“I don’t know, some smart ass probably, thinks that he knows something.”
Josephine changed the subject:
“Yeah… By the way.” – she said and took a small bottle of medicine out of her pocket. – “I’ve been taking these pills for a couple of days; they really helped me with insomnia. You should take them too.”
There was an orange bottle of medicine in her hands, Smith still in thought looked at the bottle:
“Oh, wow, really?!” – he said and took one on the spot. – “Can I keep it?”
“Yes, of course! Take it.” – she answered.
“Thank you, I appreciate this.” – he said and proceeded shortly after. – “That guy was questioning me like it wasn’t me who found the house here.”
She got confused:
“House?! Which house?!”
“I didn’t tell you? Then listen, there’s a house near here, it might be important. We’ll talk about it later. I hope the new detective can do something about the situation or at least care about it.”
“Let’s see. I think I saw her outside – she’s very pretty.”
“She’s not here because she’s good-looking, she has a job.”
Smith said and looked at the distance, then around.
“Don’t act too tough. You know she is.”
An older man spoke from behind them – they recognized his voice, a stranger living in these woods who was just really happy that people came here after all this time.
“Y’all talking about that new young detective girl?” – he asked with a rusty voice. – “With the kind of ass she got she has all the rights to ruin my life. You know those kinds of girls?” – he asked, giggling, and tapping on Smith’s shoulder. – “It’s a gift – a gift that enables them to do anything.” – he sighed and continued.
“Look, I think you managed to ruin your life without those girls.” – Smith answered.
“Eh.” – an old man sighed and walked away.
“You wanted to tell me something important?” – Smith asked Josephine as the old man sat on the wood behind them.
“Yes, I watched the tape – it was me filming my kids in the backyard.”
“What?!”
“Yes, but why would it be outside of my house and who put it there? Who even got it in the first place?”
“Maybe you got tired these last days and was hallucinating?”
“I don’t know; I just don’t think so.”
Silence arose. The wind picked up, it was a little colder and grass swayed. He picked up his head, with squinted eyes and face full of care.
“Look, I’m not a psychiatrist, I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe someone's really out there, doing some weird shit.”
She sighed. “We’ll see. Do you want to tell me about her, what’s up with those feathers, you were saying some fiction novel fantasy shit.” – she said and seemed confused and curious slightly.
“She could always fly, that’s the truth. Since she was a child, she found out that about her – she had wings and could fly high with the birds.”
Even though he was saying a very non-real and controversial thing he was very nonchalant.
“So, you’re really in it, huh?” – Josey said and had a confused mocking face. – “You really want to tell me you believe that she can fly?”
“If you don’t want to help me and start arguing again, the document is in the car – you can leave whenever you want.” – Smith stated.
“Don’t start again, please.”
Suddenly people were in a hurry somewhere and everyone around them, where there was about 50 people rushed into one place. Alex came up from behind and screamed:
“They had found something! Come on, faster, let’s see what it is.”
Atlas ran behind Smith and Josephine as they started fast walking towards it.
“Look, I’m not forcing you to believe me, it’s not easy to believe in it, sounds like nonsense. But make your decision after I show you some pictures.” – Smith said as they were walking fast in a lot of noise around – people were pushing, sighing, and looking at each other. They came closer and Smith pushed everyone out of the way with Josey by her side and got to the front. It started pouring lightly as the two approached the site. Smith looked down at the same time as her and stood there without any movement, he felt the presence of the detective to his left, doing the same thing as him – analyzing what was there in front of them. Detective jumped into the hole in the ground, it was quite deep as everyone sighed and came closer to it – almost fully the hole was filled with dead birds, but all of them were owls. They seemed like they were not murdered, but just fell into the hole. She started picking their legs with one glove on and searching for clues around. Smith saw something – there was a glimmering gold coin, but weirdly with silver details which lay on one of the birds near the center. As Smith opened his mouth to say it, Josephine shouted beside him:
“There’s a coin there, in the middle.”
She carefully turned her head around for some reason and looked at it, picking it up slowly after with a tool and put it in a pre-opened plastic see-through bag. As Smith looked around there were no other signs of anyone in the hole – nothing was left behind. No one was there. An owl hooted three times above the hole.
“Let’s go, I need to talk to you right now.”
Smith said and they rushed out of the site immediately with Josephine. The detective emerged in her work saw in her peripheral them rushing and continued working, stopping for a moment. The crowd stood speechless staring in the hole as the weather turned into gloomy even though it was May. Josephine looked around nervously to not look weird and suspect.
“What is wrong with you? You can’t tell me that while being less attention-grabbing?” – she said visibly mad.
“I’m sorry, but do you remember when I told you about her flying?” – they were standing close away from the group about 10-15 meters as he was almost whispering. – “I told you about the birds, remember? Listen, I think it’s all connected…”
Josephine interrupted him:
“OH man, come on. You’re reaching at this point, don’t you think? I think this is just the job of a weirdo living near the woods. That homeless guy, maybe he did this, you want to go ask him?” – she said and pointed somewhere, where the homeless guy was sitting in the distance. Smith for the first time seemed okay with her taking the lead.
“Okay, I don’t think it was him, but let’s talk to him.” – he answered without any enthusiasm and interest in this what he thought pointless interrogation.
Detective who got out of the hole and was filling documents put her head up and glanced at them for a second and seeing them go over to the homeless in a mysterious manner decided to examine them further not looking away, just staring at them, but doing it so that they don’t see her. It was quite easy; she was far away. They walked over quite fast, and Josephine tripped and nearly fell as Smith catches her and they walked up to the man sitting on a piece of wood. Weirdly he uttered very fast, as soon as they came up to him:
“So, they found it, huh? Do they think it’s connected to her case?” – he said with big round eyes like he was shocked.
“Relax, freak. We’ll ask you questions.” – Smith said.
“Since when are you a detective?”
“I’m sorry, go ahead.” – Smith said to Josey.
She turned her head slowly to the man sitting on a wood and asked, slightly moving forward:
“Hey, by chance, could you have made… that hole with birds inside?”
He didn’t answer, just kept looking at her then looked away at the site.
“Hey, she’s asking you a question.” – Smith said with a raised voice and came closer. Josephine stopped him and looked at him in a way that he would get the message to relax.
“Yes, yes, I did it. That was all me. No lie told, I like putting birds in that hole.” – he said and not once looked them in their eyes, just wiggling on the wood.
“Yes! Good choice of words.” – Josephine thought to herself.
“Are you on…drugs by any chance as well?” – she asked.
It evoked something in a man as he went on a rant:
“What are drugs? Drugs is life, drugs are everything around us, I’m not on drugs. God is on drugs; how otherwise could’ve he created this.” – he said and spread his arms showing everything around. The forest was a little less gloomy on the east side, more Sun got to the surface as trees were a little smaller; grass was dancing on the surface dressing the forest almost in a carpet – big green carpet with brown dirt spots and flowers here and there.
“Wow, he said something right there.” – Smith thought to himself with his face softening up a bit. An old man looked at him and recognized it and a smile slowly started appearing on his face amused by his word’s effect, but Josephine suddenly interrupted the moment.
“Stop with this nonsense, did you take something today?” – she exclaimed, but not angrily, almost like she stopped playing along and turned deadpan. He lost the smile on his face and answered calmly.
“Yes, I smoked a little weed.” – he said and looked away, getting shy, not being able to look into their eyes.
Smith’s face tensed up once again and he said:
“Okay, let’s go tell that to the detective, she seems quite competent.”
Josephine stopped him as he started to walk towards the site. Atlas ran forward, stopped, and looked back, waiting for him to continue patiently.
“Do you trust her? Be honest, we don’t even know her.”
Smith looked at the detective far away as she reacted fast and looked back at her papers again.
“Josey, do you hear yourself? She’s a detective, she’s not here to pick fucking grapes. She’s our help, almost only help to find out what’s going on here.”
“You’re right,” – she said and put her hand on her forehead. – “I’m sorry, just kind of losing my mind with everything going on around, not getting a lot of sleep.”
Smith looked at her with his face changing once again to being less tense and serious as she was looking down.
“Look, I appreciate you even being here and doing this for me. I know that it’s hard for you, especially after the hard divorce.” – he said and hugged her. They hugged for quite a long time.
“Kiss already, it’s getting boring.” – a homeless man said falling in a hysteric laugh that was continuous seeing their reaction to his words. They walked back to the hole with Atlas running in front. Walking around the crowd with quite a difficulty, they got to the detective who seemed to be already ready for them and greeted them with an inviting face.
“Good day, detective. How’s it going? This is Josephine.”
Josephine went forward and shook her hand with a smile from both sides. The detective was quite serious, as she turned the smile slowly faded away and Smith continued.
“How’s the search going?”
She looked down for a moment to think, then continued:
“I just started, and I got to say – there’re a lot of weird details about the mission, would be great if someone helped with any information.” – she said and carried on looking around casually.
“Well, yes, we want to give you information actually about this hole.” – Josephine said.
She looked at them both standing in front of her, and the leader of the search group could be heard in the distance:
“Let’s move on! The day’s nearly over!”
The Sun was slowly setting down to the west and although it was still high in the sky, its light was slowly dimming.
“Let’s go sit down and we can discuss what you have for me.” – she casually and calmly said, pointing to the bench on the left right next to the hole.
…
“So, you’re saying the homeless man of this forest is the one who made it?” – the detective put her leg on another.
“Yes, that man.” – Smith said looking behind and pointed at him turning around.
The detective looked in the distance and looked back at them smiling.
“What?” – Smith asked curiously.
The detective looked at Josephine as she nodded in a conforming manner, shortly to confirm something only Feline and Josephine understood.
She looked back at Smith and said:
“Okay, that homeless man behind me is the one who built the hole? Am I understanding you right?”
Smith nodded positively. She put her legs normally.
“So, Smith, where do you think she is?”
“Why’s she talking to me like I’m a child?” – he thought to himself.
“I don’t know, I wasn’t here. I have the information everyone has.”
“Right.” – the detective answered, looking right into his eyes inscrutably – “So, thank you for the information, I’ll definitely look into it.”
They stood and walked away back to the village while group was finishing the day. But before going too far, Smith remembered and went back. He sat down once again making her put her head up from the papers.
“Hey, I almost forgot,” – he said and proceeded without a pause. – “There’s a house near the forest, on the west side which is connected to the case. I believe that’s where they kept her for some time.”
The detective turned serious and looked at Josephine for approval while she nodded to confirm.
“Why do you keep looking at her, I’m talking to you. You think I’m lying?”
“No, no, I’m sorry. Please go on.”
“The previous detective made some improvements on the case, and we were close, so he told me these details that he didn’t put into official documents for some reason, that’s how I know if you’re wondering.”
She was amused by this detail, but at the same time shocked.
“Wow, I’m pleased by the fact that you want to share this with me. Thank you.”
Smith answered with a stale face:
“No problem, I’m just trying to make it quicker, not saying it because I like it or something. Do you know why the other detective didn’t want to put the information in the official documents?”
“I mean, there are a lot of reasons why – maybe he didn’t like the system. Maybe…” – she answered and looked away, in thought.
“What?” – Josephine asked standing nearby. Atlas was lying in the grass opposite the bench.
“I need to think about it more, so thank you for your information. I hope I’ll see you in the village.” – she stated, still in thought and rushed away in the direction of the village. Looking at each other as the top of the trees buckled under the will of the wind and the Sun was still trying to give it its last try to light the forest and was slowly fading away suffering a loss on the horizon.
“Well, that was weird. What was she thinking?” – Smith asked.
“Who knows, she was thinking of something. It might be anything, we’ll catch up with her in the village. Let’s go.”
They walked away in the distance, to the south-east to catch up with the group who were probably by this time getting ready to return to the village.
…
“She betrayed him. That’s interesting. But those kids needed to be saved, I did a good job with that tape, now she’s more careful and aware.”
…