BBDW 18 [Black Butterfly] - Nevereverland

Section 18.2 (UNEDITED)

“Passenger, would you please come out? Sir?”

It was the dull, dry voice of the stewardess. When the sober Jude got up and opened the bathroom door, she glanced at Alvin and Jude with a slightly subtle glance and recited quickly.

“You can’t do this on the plane, sir. After you land and get off……”

“No, it’s not like that. Well, wait. Well, I’m not good at flying. So…”

“I followed him because I was worried. He went into the bathroom with a pale face. There’s also turbulence earlier. I’m sorry if I made you misunderstand. We'll go back to our seats.”

I could see why there were no credible reports. Oh my god, who on earth would confirm a serial killer and dial 911 when a neat person speaks with such a face, voice, tone and smile? It was clear that whoever did that would be accused of defamation. As he clicked his tongue inside, the stewardess stared blankly at Alvin for a moment and hurriedly turned her gaze a little.

“Oh, well, there are other guests, so please be aware of that, and if you have any inconvenience, please let me know right away.”

“I will. Thank you for your concern.”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

As Alvin smiled and answered, a stewardess collapsed and screamed in front of the toilet over there. The screams that pierced the brain like an awl drew all eyes to it. The stewardess, who sat down, raised her finger, shaking, uncaring at her dishevelled clothes. Intermittent groans came through the other hand-closed mouth as if to stop her from throwing up. With her bulging eyes pointing to something horrible in the bathroom, Jude was the first to move his foot among the frozen people to approach the toilet.

Inside the cubicle, there was a small bag. Inside it are white-cold arms, strangely twisted legs, and an unevenly cut neck. Will it look like this if you force the broken marionette into it? The moment he checked the dead person’s face, Jude turned his head and looked back. The kid next to him who was begging him to open the window.

No way.

The serial killer’s eyes were smiling thinly, making it hard to understand the meaning.

“-Give me the police badge.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m not in the mood for a joke, give it to me.”

As he reached out his hand as if he had climbed to the top of the mountain called annoyance, the delicate-looking young man smiled. As he twirled his hand on the armrest, a dark-coloured police badge appeared. Giving it to Jude in a neat move, Alvin laughed again at the goofy-faced Jude.

“You asked for it, why are you surprised?”

“No, I didn’t expect you to give it.”

“You know it’s not me.”

An uncouth fellow. Yup, tongue-tied, Jude turned his head. The first time he saw the child’s body, he looked back at Alvin, but he already realized that the chances were very slim. This young man sitting next to Jude doesn’t kill people in such an obscure way. If necessary, he would have finished with a sharp blow, and if by interest, he would have put his life out with a full exercise of experimentation. The dismembered body with a dislocated joint was obviously terrible, but it was a sloppy job that did not apply to him.

Crucially, the child’s body was imbued with an emotional expedient as if it was an unnecessary pile of junk. It was not just a ‘dead’ body, it was a ‘murdered’ body. There was no immediate way to know whether the reason was hatred or regret or embarrassment.

“Who, who are you?”

The stewardess standing by the scene asked Jude who strode up, with a small voice. Showing the police badge he had just received, Jude spoke a little blasé.

“This is the New York Police. I’m going to investigate.”

“Oh, hey, are you a cop? Please…”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Oh, my God! El!”

As the stewardess took a deep breath and stepped back like a person who had dived into the deep sea, a desperate scream rang tearing up the air inside the plane. All eyes were drawn to one place.

The red-haired woman standing over there, looking into the bathroom, squatted in her seat. It was the brother of the dead child, whom Jude had seen a little while ago, who hurriedly helped her from behind. The young man with brown curly hair trembled his lips at the sight that unfolded in front of him, biting his pale lips as if he could barely hold back a scream.

You’d better hear the story a while later after they come to their senses. Making a light decision, Jude stepped into the bathroom with his head slightly raised. The red fishy smell flashed through him.

“……let’s get it over with, kid. I’m not feeling very well right now. I’m not mentally relaxed enough to drag the case out for a long time.”

Muttering so quietly that no one outside could hear, Jude looked back and forth at the body. From the deep cut in the neck, the dark red blood was overflowing. Given that the cross-section that was cut several times is not so clean, did he use a letter knife, not a sharp knife? No, the faint ink mark on the neck might have been a pen. Jude, who was looking carefully at the cross-section, soon tilted his head. What is this strange feeling of incompatibility felt in this section? What’s strange about a dead body with a cut in the throat?

The fishy smell wasn’t as bad as he thought. If he had died of decapitation, as Mrs Zegens did, the blood should have filled the whole plane with that disgusting smell, probably enough to wet the bathroom floor. But the bleeding was only wetting the surface of the bag, and when he looked inside, he could not see any severe bleeding. In short, there was too little blood.

“……then, how did you die……”

There is no autopsy, so he has to look at it on his own. Jude grumbled quietly and pulled out the small body in the bag with careful hand movements.

It was literally like a broken doll. A white light fell on the body that had become so pale and turned bluish. Where the joint was broken, necrosis and bruising traces remained. But it’s not fatal enough to lose your life. You could have passed out in pain. Jude, who was lightly sweeping through the skin, looked carefully at the area around the cut neck and the depth of the cut. It was much darker and severe enough to look black than the bruise in the broken joint.

Raising his head sharply, Jude looked at the wide-open mouth of the child. There were bruises all over his mouth. Moreover, seeing the burst here and there, did he get beaten or pressed as hard as he could? The cracked lips were purple.

“……the cause of death is …”

Rattling! As he put his head still on the bathroom wall and combined the situation, the small space shook and hit his head a little. Jude, who was sitting on the floor in a flash while catching his breath, violently rant inside his head about the situation – even getting on the plane is annoying, so why did this incident have to happen? Murder on an aeroplane? Where is it a common occurrence? -He tried to calm the goosebumps running down his backbone.

The smell of blood that he normally smelled casually suddenly irritated his stomach. He doesn’t remember ever throwing up at the scene, but something seemed to stir his brain.

After barely opening the bathroom door, Jude sat down. The sound of a red-haired woman crying from the front and the pouring gaze of people were burdensome, but the first thing to do was to take a breath. As he breathed out loud like a pregnant woman, he could hear a soft voice next to him.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes.”

“Lies.”

“Don’t ask me while knowing, it’s annoying.”

When he heard his voice buried in the woman’s crying, Alvin laughed quietly. With one long sigh, Jude rose from his seat and sat down beside the woman. The teary eyes of the woman, who was gasping for breath, blankly turned to Jude.

His skill in dealing with bereaved families is not very sophisticated. Desperately feeling the absence of the partner who was not beside him, Jude scratched the back of his head a little uncomfortably.

“Fi-First of all, I’m from NYPD. Are you the mother of the deceased child?”

“….yes……. Ro, I’m Rosalyn Travis…….”

“Yes, Mrs Travis. Is this trip, with your family?”

“Well, my husband passed away a year ago….. and I was on my way to my relative’s house with my children….. Roy and El are all here……. Oh my God, I can’t…….. God……! What a terrible thing to happen!”

“Ah-Ma-Ma’am, please calm down first…..”

“Does it make sense to calm down now?”

An abrupt, huffy voices came out. The brown-haired Roy glanced at Jude, holding back tears.

“He’s only 11 years old. Who the hell did this? Who is it!”

His face was flushed, and Roy got up from his seat and shouted as if he would grab Jude by the collar. With such a strong physique, is he playing for a football team at school? When Jude was seen sighing while turning his head in a bit of embarrassment, Roy breathed harshly and clenched his teeth.

“You’re just saying that one little boy is dead, as one of the many cases you’ve been dealing with! Is it annoying? Is it bothersome? You were sighing?”

“Roy, stop…”

“Isn’t mom upset? El……he’s dead….!”

“Stop it!”

A jarring, nervous voice tears the air with it. In a moment of real anger on the woman’s face, Jude narrowed his eyebrow to a small extent. Staring at Jude’s green eyes, Roy chewed on his lips a few times and sat down again. After touching his chin for a moment, Jude turned to the darkened face of the woman.

“By any chance, do you have any idea? Whether a strange person kept looking, or a person with a particular grudge got on this plane…”

The red-haired lady closed her eyes and shook her head.

“No, there’s no one like that. If I had, I would have known before anyone else. I’m sensitive to the way people look at children. How on earth, how on earth is that good boy….!”

Jude glanced at the woman, who was biting her lips and folding her arms together. With short condolence, Jude rose from his seat and returned to his original seat.

It was dubious.

Lowering his head with a slightly dull face, the blond detective irked his hair. He didn’t think his “sense” as a detective was particularly outstanding, but the conversation with the bereaved family, which he just finished, smelled unusual.

Unusual?

Why?

Tears, screams, were just as usual.

What was the first thing you heard when you first met the bereaved family?

What was the first thing Tim says to calm them down when he meets the bereaved, especially the mothers?

-Just calm down for now.

This is what I said.

-The investigation is still underway. Let’s find out more about the details……..

I didn’t say this. What do mothers usually shout before this word comes out?

“It’s not that interesting. Although it is a little bit complicated.”

The moment a low voice rang beside him, Jude paused what he was thinking and turned to Alvin. Like watching a really boring movie, Alvin was quietly holding hands with a face that didn’t come up with any expression.

“What, do you get it?”

“Murder inevitably involves understanding people’s emotions. I’m sure you’ve got the hang of it.”

“……is it that simple?”

“I think so. The cause is probably minor. It could have been an accident.”

“Does the body in the bag look like an accident?”

“Ahhaha, you can say that it’s not an accident in the pure sense of the word, but rather an accident of the mind. It’s not really anything. It’s not that elaborate. You just felt something was wrong, didn’t you?”

“……..I forgot because you talked to me.”

“The smell of murder didn’t go away so easily, Detective. Whether they’re talking out of their minds or with their bodies, they had a faint smell of it, and I could still smell it, and I was a little bit curious about it, but it turns out it’s not a big deal. When I think about it, it’s too obvious.”

“It’s a big deal.”

“Do you want me to tell you? I’m not very interested in ‘solving’ the case.”

“Good. What am I, Clarice Starling? Asking you about the case. Be quiet, I’ll think about it.”

With a clear laugh in one ear, Jude was again lost in thought. The first thing the mothers of the dead victim shout out as soon as they see the police, it’s….

-Who!

A fire broke out in his head. The voices – which he has heard dozens of times – but not so seriously – echoed noisily.

-Who did this! Who! Who is it!

Yes, because I’m a detective. Since I’m a detective, that’s what I hear first. When the detective first visited them, the bereaved family showed strong sadness and anger at the same time. Usually to the police, especially right after the incident, the question of the culprit was at least on average, even if they didn’t show anger. But there was no such thing this time.

It was just a sad remark about a dead child. There were neither fierce questions about the situation nor urging Jude to quickly resolve it. Rather, Roy was the one who got angry. He looked rather normal now. The mother who got mad at him with all her heart was much weirder if it was not weird.

Especially the face, the pensive face which she wears from the start till the end. It wasn’t just a sense of loss. It was as if she saw a ghost’s sudden appearance in her comfy blanket in the middle of the night, her face was all hazy with fear.

There was something invisible. And Jude, who was wondering how to dig out information, rose lightly from his seat and approached the mother and Roy, who was still crying. After a brief conflict over which side to interrogate first, Jude headed for the mother.

“Ma’am, can I talk to you for a moment?”

“…… Ah…… Am I not supposed to talk about this here?”

“It could be a little sensitive question.”

“Oh, I see. But where did you…”

Looking back at the stewardess, she hurriedly said that there was one first-class room empty. Under her guidance, Jude went into the room with the woman – and never forgetting to marvel at the sheer entrails of the plane – and told the stewardess to go to work and then sat down.

“What, the story…”

“I’ll be blunt. Tell me how you’ve been.”

“What? How’s it going…..”

“Simple. Financial status, family problems. It’s a procedural thing, so you don’t have to be nervous.”

“That…….”

As if hesitating for a moment, the lady gathered her hands tightly together and put them on her lap. Several times her lips trembled feebly. The fingertips, which were delicately manicured, also tapered a little.

“I’m ashamed……but after my husband’s death, it’s very difficult financially. My salary is tight enough to pay for my children’s education……and the reason I’m going to my relative’s house for a while is because I’ve sold my house I’ve been living in. Until I found a cheaper house, I had to stay there… …because I was in a hurry to pay for my expenses.”

“I see. Your husband…”

“He died in an accident a year ago. It was a car accident. The children cried a lot.”

“Ah, so are El and Roy both children born from the deceased husband?”

“…….that…”

When the question was asked in passing by manner, she was speechless. Several times looking on the ground, she blinked. The long eyelashes flinched as if wary.

“That’s……why, do you ask?”

“No, I just don’t think they look like, brothers.”

“……Roy is……my first child. I married at an immature age. It was very imprudent…… I divorced my husband and remarried. My ex-husband was married once, so he already had El. But he died a year ago……and now it’s just hopeless.”

“Yes. So, were Roy and El getting along well? If they were a half-brother, it wouldn’t be easy to get close to.”

When she was asked again insensitively, the woman’s eyes jerked. The amber eyes were trembling dangerously.

“No way… do you suspect Roy? That did he did that to El?”

“I didn’t really say that.”

“That’s ridiculous. Oh, that’s ridiculous…… he’s such a nice kid……”

“You aren’t angry?”

The woman, like a dauntless woman, laughed a few times. But Jude’s quiet gaze did not fall from her face, and soon the laughter disappeared from her face. The slightly shivering chin twitched as if it were about to burst into tears.

“No way, no way………”

“In fact, if you think about it a little, you can see it quickly in this situation. Even if it’s a plane with few passengers, it’s not easy to lure a child without anyone around knowing. The only people who can kill a child silently are the people and families that are incredibly close. And I’m going to ask Roy, you know, he might have asked him to go in his bag as a joke and suffocated him. I’ll call Roy later, so I’ll ask him then.”

“What, say…”

“Oh, guess what? I’m sure there was a sign of that, but El’s neck was broken off the joint, and by your strength, that’s too much for you, unless you’re a very well-built sportsman.”

“Oh, Detective…..”

“You can’t usually do that with normal force if you want to tear it up like that with something that’s not sharp. There’s only one person that comes to mind. Would it be more certain if we compare the size of Roy’s feet with the bruise on the neck?”

“Detective…… what the hell are you talking about……”

The woman’s breath quickened and almost ran out of breath. As he was worried about whether he should have brought some heart medicine, Jude added insincerely in his mind.

“I thought it was weird when you didn’t ask me who the killer was. You made a mistake. Bereaved families ask that first to the detective. The next time you’re in this situation, you’ll have to refer to it…… ah, you can’t do it anymore.”

“I….. I’m…….”

“Did you ask him? To Roy? Why, did you have insurance?”

“No way, I killed El!”

A shrill voice rang in the room. The woman, whose face was flushed red, stared at Jude with shallow breath and soon shook her head with a dejected face. Tears fell on the floor of the room. In front of Jude, who looked with a dull eye, the lady flung down on her knees. In the cry that burst like an animal, the words were interspersed in pieces.

“I didn’t know….. so far…… to kill……. that Roy…….!”

“You were with Roy, too, what happened?”

“I just needed money………. I just…… I was so tired……. just a little bit of hurt……. a little bit of hurt… a little bit… a little bit of money….!”

“Is it insurance?”

“I’m sorry….! Sorry, sorry, sorry, honey….! I was really going to do that, like an accident, like a little…! But Roy…! But then…! Roy… no way….. ridiculous…..! Someone……. this is a dream!”

I could see why Alvin said it was simple and boring. Money, simple reason, hatred for the half-brother. Those two things got tangled together, creating a seemingly bizarre incident. Not enough to satisfy Alvin’s interest, in a way, a cliché.

When Jude got out of his seat, saying, “Now I’m going to call Roy,” the room door opened. And what appeared was a brown-haired young man. Glancing through his mother sitting on her knees on the floor, who was crying like crazy, Roy headed for Jude with a strangely calm face. The voice that was throwing out hostile words to Jude earlier, was low. A little nervous about the change, Jude straightened out.

“You must have heard.”

“…… Well, first of all, I’d like you to put your hands behind your back.”

“……. You know, I didn’t really mean to do that either. Like I was really asked to do, I was going to push his head slightly on the bathroom wall. I was going to do that……. When El went into the bag as he was told, something suddenly seemed to explode.”

“Yes, say that to the counsellor later. First, turn your hands behind your back.”

“I hated him…. I just hated him. I’m my mother’s son….but why does she has to take responsibility for him even after he’s dead…….and why he’s sticking like a parasite when she’s already struggling with money?”

“Sorry, I’m not curious at all. So turn your hands behind your back….!”

Rattling! It’s the first-class cabin, but why doesn’t the vibration feel changed at all!- as soon as the plane tilted a little, Jude flopped down to his seat. No, before he could even collapse, his badly trained hand grabbed his arm and turned back. Biting his teeth with a small groan – the vibration of the plane and the pain in the arm paralyzed his senses at the same time – something like a sharp needle tip reached his neck.

As he looked down on the ice-cold tip of the metal ballpoint pen, which gave off a dull glow, it was exactly facing the carotid artery. The trembling woman’s voice sounded thin.

“Ro, Roy……..? Roy, what are you doing…….”

“If you take me like this, my mom won’t be okay. She tried to hurt El for the insurance money, so she’s going to live her life in jail for my brother. Right, Detective?”

“……yes, I guess…”

“If I kill you now and say I did everything, that’s fine too. It’s better when someone who knows disappears. I did it for mom, so she doesn’t have to be punished. So….I’m sorry, Detective.”

Whether it was a strength strengthened by exercise, Roy’s hands, holding both of his hands, did not budge. As soon as the woman swallowed a scream and a ballpoint pen with thin dried blood flashed, a mournful scream rang almost at the same time as the door of the room opened.

Huck! Jude looked back in a hurry as the grip on his hand disappeared from behind his back. The heavy blow to the back of the head caused Roy to slowly collapse with unfocused eyes. As soon as his knees touched the ground, the face, which had been hidden behind him, was revealed.

It was a slightly smiling face.

“I don’t have a hobby of preventing this kind of thing from happening, but if he goes too far, I’m in trouble too.”

“Uh…….you…..”

“Argh! Roy! Royyy!”

The woman lying on the ground stood up like a gale and ran next to her fallen son. Alvin Jones quietly handed him over to the woman who rushed to Roy, who was scrambling off the ground several times.

“I just hit him. I didn’t kill him, so don’t worry.”

“What is this…….! Roy, Roy, Roy…….! Why the hell, why would you……! Why on earth would you……why El, why….! It’s because of me, it’s because of me….!”

“Well, was that the story? It’s a little different than I thought. No, I guess it’s the same.”

“What are you talking about?”

Alvin smiled at Jude with the face of a person who found a bit of fun in a fresh, uninteresting movie. Again, looking at Alvin with a curious face, turning his eyes to the gaunt, tearful face, Alvin spat calmly.

“-Really, didn’t you know this would happen?”

“…….Eh……. Wh…….What?”

“If you wanted to hurt him a little, you wouldn’t have asked this son here. So you really didn’t have a reason to do that? You really didn’t know the darkness in this young man's heart?”

“That, the hell, what, say…”

“So, ma’am–“

Alvin smiled a little deeper and continued to talk leisurely.

“Did you really not expect El to die?”

“What….. that…… you……..”

“At the bottom of your heart, didn’t you know everything? You know that you weren’t very fond of El, that you really loved Roy, that El was cumbersome to raise Roy better.”

“I, I don’t know, I don’t know….”

“I’m disappointed. I thought you knew about it. Well, that’s fine.”

As if he had really lost interest, Alvin erased his smile and turned around. Coming to Jude’s side, who was just handcuffing Roy, Alvin put his hand lightly on the shoulder.

“Didn’t you get hurt?”

“……Ah. Rather, how did you know?”

“From the moment Roy jumped out of his seat, he had a bad look on his face, and I came here because there was an announcement that the plane was going into turbulence, and I was curious about the ending.”

“Yeah. Thanks–“

“You’re not going to do it, are you? I understand.”

Alvin smiled so clearly. Clicking his tongue displeased, Jude still pulled Roy up. Struggling to bear the weight of this burly man, Jude turned to the woman.

Her spirit seemed to have slipped out. Sitting in her seat like an empty shell, she was only repeating “I….I….I…..” like a broken doll. She won’t be able to smile again. A feeling of certainty made the corner of his stomach uncomfortable. In the end, the stewardess’ announcement from the speaker was overlapped over her voice, which eventually burst into screaming tears.

– This flight will soon arrive at its destination, Miami. Passengers, please sit down and fasten your seat belts.

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