BBDW 47 [Black Butterfly] - Nevereverland
Section 41, 42 & 43 (UNEDITED)
"-Chad, talk to me. You really did it alone?"
"He won't give me the wings."
"Chad, did someone tell you to kill
these people?"
"He won't give me the wings."
"Do you remember who gave you the
drug?"
"He won't give me the wings."
Tim sighed briefly. Jude, who was drooping
in a lazy position next to him, looked into the pale green blank eyes and said
callously.
"Rationalize it, why he won't give you
wings. It's your speciality."
"I did everything he told me to do.
The angel, to me..."
"Oh, yeah, but what we're curious
about is, was there anyone you saw before you saw the angel? The person who was
with the angel when he appeared. Not an angel but a person. It's better if you
remember the body features."
"Name, say, no, he didn't, my friend,
I don't know his name, he was my friend..."
Tim's body leans forward hastily.
"Friend? So about him..."
"Hey, Tim. Can you go out and get me
some coffee?"
Rubbing his eyes once, the languid words
hardened Tim's face. He looked deeply suspicious, and his voice was low and
worrisome.
"Jude, don't tell me you're ..."
"What are you thinking? It's past
lunch, and I'm sleepy. Food coma."
"......okay."
He grinned at Tim rising in an unwilling
motion, and Jude turned to Chad at the same time as the door closed. Chad's
face turned a little pale.
"Why, why, why, why?"
"Why are you stuttering? Do you have
something pricked on you?"
"You, you, you're scary."
"Huh? What are you talking about? What
did I do?"
"It’s, it’s, it's similar to human eyes.
No, it's not. You, I, I don't smell..."
Shaking to his jaw, Chad draws his back as
if he was trying to run away from Jude. As he stared at the movement, Jude burst
out laughing.
"What the hell. When I first saw you,
you were good at talking."
"Back then, I, I didn't know, but
today, when you caught me, that face..."
"Oh -that's because you were trying to
hurt my partner!"
"No, it's, it's, it's different.
You're not angry, you're not angry, you're a little bit more ..."
Having said that, Chad shut up. Looking at
the carefully peering eyes, it was clear that he was firmly frightened. He
didn't mean to soothe him, and Jude looked at him quietly and slowly pulled the
chair toward his seat. As he leaned over the desk, he noticed Chad's shoulder
flinching. With a face that had nothing in mind, Jude asked slowly.
"Okay, if you're scared, just stay
scared. Instead, you'll have to give me an answer."
"An, answer...?
"Your friend. Who is it? You say you
don't even know his name, but at least you know who he is."
"Oh, no, the angel said I shouldn't
sell my friends out! Then he told me that I would never have a chance and that
I would fall into hell rather than being an angel! No, I can't."
"The angel? It's fake."
"......what?"
The light-coloured eyes are wide open. Glancing
at the handcuffs tied to Chad's hands, Jude spat out without hesitation at his
blank face. He had a tone of striking a bug that didn't even need to be killed.
"Your friend deceived you. He gave you
drugs, covered his face, pretended to be an angel, and he brainwashed you when
you were high with drugs. Since you'd been suffering from schizophrenia,
depression and megalomaniac, it wouldn't have been difficult. When you talked
about the angel's voice to your friend, rationally he would have said it was
ridiculous, but if it was true, he would have said he wanted someone dead. He
should be pretending to be an angel. To obey your friend's words, and kill
those people, you've been foolish enough to do that."
"Oh, no... the angel was real.........
to me, to give me a chance......"
"Ah, it's fake. So if you're caught,
he ordered you to kill yourself. And if that angel is real, why won't he give
you the wings?"
"No, no, no, no, nooooo!"
As the scream turns to whimper - he
probably bit his tongue, and Jude became worried for a moment - Chad buried his
face between his arms and fell facedown as if he was hitting the table. His
shoulders trembled irregularly. A sound like sobbing and crying came out
alternately. All right, this is enough. Tim wouldn't like seeing this very
much. Watching the scene curiously calm, Jude spoke to the miserable Chad in an
unchanging voice.
"So tell me, Chad Lockman. We'll find
that twisted friend of yours and make him pay for his sin. You were just a
victim, weren't you? We have to prove it."
"I'm... I'm just a victim..."
In a distorted voice, Chad recited after
Jude. The hallmark of a human being - with a light, dreary sigh, Jude sat
cross-legged - if you think there is no harm to yourself, or if you judge that
it is time to minimize the most damage, you will open your mouth. Not just
Chad, but the gentleman in the good suit, the homeless on the streets, they're
all the same. He was used to it, but it wasn't fun.
He’s not having fun?
Surprised by his thoughts, Jude relaxed his crossed legs. What do you mean fun? You've never valued interest in dealing with cases. The case is case, work is work. It was just that. Have you been adversely affected by the guy you've been in contact with lately? - He shook his head a couple of times and turned his attention back to the man in front of him. Looking like a deflated balloon, he slowly raised his head. There was a tinge that resembled madness in his voice.
"......his name, I don't know..."
"That's enough; just tell me where you
met him. Like what he looks like."
"I, I didn't have medicine, so it was
hard, I had no money, and I was sick."
As Chad began to open his mouth with
difficulty, the door of the interrogation room opened gently. Tim, holding two
coffee cups in both hands, quietly sat next to Jude. Asking with his eyes to his partner what happened, Jude nodded vaguely and pointed at Chad with his
chin. Chad continued, moving his hands together, making his fingernails bump
into each other.
"Then, I met him. He gave me medicine,
he talked to me..."
"That friend, where did you meet? Where did
you see him?"
"I, I met him at a bar. The bar I met
with you at the time. He's a worker….."
Chad began to stutter to explain his
appearance. Hair colour, eye colour, physique, voice, and age. A strange light
came to Tim and Jude's face as they listened to it one by one. Tim, who turned
his head in shock, saw his partner's shrugging face and confirmed that they
were right. The impression was concise.
"No way."
*
* *
Bam. The sound of the bar door opening was not friendly. The bartender, who was checking
the label of the bottle behind the bar table, looked at Tim and Jude with
puzzled eyes. At the bar the first day he met Chad, the bartender, who told him
not to mind what Chad said, came out of the back of the bar table with a
slightly surprised face and stood in front of Tim and Jude. It was not the time for
dinner yet, and the bar was literally quiet. Only the sound of the baseball game
broadcast on TV was echoing inside quietly.
"What brings you here? I'm sure you're
not done with work yet."
"Larry Rushville?"
When Tim called his name in a stiff voice,
he frowned suspiciously as if he knew something was going on. Larry's face
quickly caught a nasty light when he saw Jude shake the handcuffs out of his
pocket. Tim's voice was still tense.
"You're under arrest for instigating
the murder of Laura Brunner and Noah Barton."
"What...! What are you guys, you can't
- let go of me!"
Reaching out his sturdy arm trying to push Jude
out of the way, the blond detective pressed him on the table with a deft
movement. Jude grinned and spat out into his ears, who were groaning in pain.
"Hi, angel?"
"-So what are you doing now, you
caught me after hearing from that psycho?"
Toward Larry throwing up his cynicism, Jude
answered to him half-heartedly.
"Why, I heard you’re Chad's friend."
"Ha, friend? Don't be ridiculous.
Who's making friends with such a lunatic? I've never met him except when I saw
him briefly at the bar!"
"Well, it doesn't really matter if
it's a friend or anything. But it's important that the dead were all connected
to you. The first woman to die is your ex-wife who used alimony to bother you,
and the second man who died was a man who fought quite hard with you. I don't
believe in exquisite coincidences."
"What does it have to do with me? Do
you have any evidence except that you're suspicious? Do you think the jury will
find me guilty only based on such uncertain assumptions?"
"There's one more thing. The caretaker
there remembered you and Chad going in and out of that super old apartment. He
thought you were gay."
"What? That's ridiculous! No
one..."
Larry, who was shouting reflexively, shut
his mouth. A smile came to Jude's face.
"Yeah, you thought nobody was there,
didn't you? He was repairing his car close by. You shouldn't have thought the
caretaker would be far away because the management office is empty."
"Larry."
To Larry, who was more relaxed, Tim came
closer. Looking straight at his rather grimly stiff face, Tim slowly spat it
out.
"We've already gathered the evidence
we need. You and Chad were in contact. You talked about them at the bar as well
as at Chad's house, right? I've heard from regular customers that they've seen
you speak ill of your ex-wife to Chad."
"Well, so what? Because I tell a
little gossip about my divorced wife and went in and out of Chad's house after,
you think that's why he killed those two? What kind of nonsense is that?"
"Well? It doesn't sound so ridiculous
to me. You were the only person Chad had contact with. Unless the drugs fall
from the sky, it means that you were the one who supplied them. And even if you’ve
done a great deal of favour to him, assuming Chad's delusion of angelism was
purely his own, the reason is obvious if the people he killed were people who
had ties to you. You told him. Even their names and addresses. In the second
case, I believe you were involved in the execution. Larry, think about it, it's
an obvious logical structure. Two people go into the same room and one person
gets stabbed to death and the other leaves the room, it is natural that the person
who leaves is the culprit. It's as obvious as that."
"...I..."
As if to gauge the situation, Larry licked
his lips with a light, rough breath, and he began to speak in a more pliant
tone as he began to alternate between Tim and Jude.
"Okay, I'll admit it. I sometimes gave
Chad some drugs. I indeed told him a little bit about myself. But I
swear I didn't tell him to kill them. It's just that Chad interpreted it
however he wanted, okay? I never told him to kill them! I'm just cursing,
that's what everybody does!"
"What Chad said was different. You
were the only one who could be next to him while he was taking medicine. And
more likely, the second case. Noah is a burly man, and dwarf Chad can't afford
to move him alone and kill him. If there's no one to help."
"What, what, what is it now? Now
you're saying I'm even involved in the murder? Don't be ridiculous! There's no
evidence other than circumstantial evidence..."
"Chad's testimony. He killed him under
the influence of drugs, but he clearly remembered your help in the process. 'My
friend helped me. Larry, Larry.' I think he said something like that."
"Do you think the testimony of a drug
addict and megalomaniac is so convincing? Chad was on drugs. Who knows if he
had an illusion or something? Who knows if he's intoxicated and that he's more
violent than usual? Even if my fingerprints were found on the scene..."
"We found it."
It was Jude's voice that snapped Larry's
self-defensive smile. Tim looked back at Jude with a surprised face, but Jude
continued dryly without looking back at Tim.
"We found it, your fingerprint. I
wasn't going to tell you this if you admit it earlier, but there's nothing much
to do with you being so uncooperative. We found your fingerprints."
"Hey, that's ridiculous! It can't
be...."
"Why, did you work with gloves on? You
thought we wouldn't find it if you threw it in the bin? The police, we have a
professional psyche where digging through the trash doesn’t bother us. We found
a glove with your fingerprints on it, a glove with Noah Barton’s blood.
Oh - you have no idea how hard it was."
"Th, that, that..."
His face continued to turn white and blue. Tim,
who was looking at Jude with a surprised look for a moment, quickly settled
down and headed for Larry. As he looked down at the desk, stared earnestly at
the door of the interrogation room, and shook his head several times with a vain
smile, Larry glanced at Jude with his gradually disappearing smile. Toward
Jude's smiling face, Larry chewed his lips and spat as he grinds his teeth.
"Call me a lawyer, now."
"Do you think your situation will get
better when a lawyer comes? Hey, Larry, let's not do this. I'm suggesting the
best way I've known so far. There's no way out. The best thing you can do now
is for you to just admit it. Murder by grudges, that's not a bizarre story, is
it? The jury isn't going to be that harsh. If you keep behaving like this, will
you go out to the court and give a friendly testimony? How much more do you want to
struggle?"
"Larry, it's not going to do you any
good to hang in there. Tell me what
happened. I'll admit it, that it's a grudge. I've seen it a lot, and it's not
uncommon. It's best to tell us everything now. For your sake."
Larry's eyes shook nervously. He took a few
deep breaths to control his shortness of breath, and then Larry bit his lips.
Larry, who repeatedly touched his forehead several times and put it down, gave
up and let out a low, slightly distorted voice.
"......I didn't really mean it. I
really didn't know Chad would kill him. I was just messing with him, but I
didn't think he'd take it seriously. Noah's part, yes, I did help. I helped,
but I didn't mean it from the beginning. Chad said he was going to kill Noah
first, and something got through my head..."
"-Why did you do such a dangerous
thing?"
As soon as he left the interrogation room,
Tim said in a light rebuke. Shrugging his shoulders, Jude smirked.
"Why, it worked."
"Bloody gloves, I've never even seen
them. What would you do if it didn't work?"
"Well, looking at it, it looks like he
really was there. That's it. Actually, I wasn't sure either, but we didn't even
find any fragments of Larry's fingerprints at the scene. I wondered if it would
be possible for a person with such a strong temper to thoroughly wipe all his
fingerprints. The result is lucky."
"Knowing the truth is great too."
"Isn't that what it’s supposed to be?
We only had circumstantial evidence anyway, and no matter how plausible the
story is, we can't convince the jury if there's no evidence. The only thing I
could squeeze out right now was a confession, and I had nothing to lose. Would
it be worth a compliment if I said I did well?"
Looking at Jude's smiling face with both
hands shamelessly raised, Tim stopped laughing. He doesn't like the method a
little, but somehow it was a big harvest to get a confession that Larry was
involved.
"Yes, good job."
"For your hard work--."
"--What do you want to eat?"
"Oh, as expected of Tim. You're so
good to me."
Giggling at each other, Tim and Jude headed
to a nearby sandwich shop. It was already evening and the sky was dark.
"We're working overtime like this, aren't they giving us a medal or
something?" - Jude shudder once in the cool weather and whined.
"-So we just have to look for those
bloody gloves, right?"
"I've been in touch with them, so the
next shift will take care of it for now. We worked too much today."
Complaining, Jude took a bite of the
sandwich. Laughing in sympathy at his partner's words, Tim put down a glass of
juice that he was drinking feeling the vibrations in his pocket. It was the
voice of the rookie police officer who searched for Chad's fingerprints that
burst out of his phone in a hurry.
[-We're in trouble! Oh, man, I know you're
already off work, but I thought I'd let you know.]
"Wait, wait. What happened?"
[Chad Lockman, Chad Lockman... is dead!]
Holding the sandwich, Tim froze for a
moment. To Jude, who asked what was going on with his eyes, Tim managed to
answer, "Chad is... dead," and Jude's eyes grew round. After a moment
of confusion, Tim shook his head and asked the voice over his cell phone.
"What the hell happened? How?"
[It was suicide. It's not just that,
it's... ]
"Not only that, what else?"
[That….that, before he killed himself, he
killed Larry Rushville...]
Tim's head, for a moment, was really dizzy.
Putting down the sandwich as if throwing it, Tim shouted roughly at his cell
phone.
"What do you mean?! He killed Larry
Rushville and then killed himself? How is that possible?!"
[Well, you know, Chad Lockman, he kept
asking me to let him meet Larry Rushville because he had something to ask. So,
I've heard that he's already done with his confession, so if we keep a close
eye on them, it won't be a big deal, so I let them see each other... and of
course, they did it with permission.]
"But how could Chad do that? Did he
have a weapon or something?"
[.........where did he sneak, a pen...]
When the intimidated voice came out, Tim clicked
his tongue and narrowed his eyebrows. Such a fool, we don't really check
anything like that! As he let out a nervous sigh, Tim spat out irritably.
"Okay, I'll be right there."
When he crumpled his cell phone inside his
pocket and lifted his head, he could see his partner putting down the sandwich
with a slight regret at this situation. Jumping out of his seat as if urging
Jude, Tim grabbed Jude's arm.
"Let's go, we need to see what's going
on."
*
* *
[-Is that angel... really you? Was it you?]
The voice was quiet and trembled faintly.
[I was just kidding, Chad. You know, huh?
Didn't I used to play pranks? I didn't think you'd take it that seriously, I
just...]
A terrible piercing sound rang. Like the
window is being scratched with a piece of metal, Chad rushed at Larry like
lightning. A pen stuck in Larry's right eye, depriving the police on watch any
time to scream in surprise.
[I won't forgive you... I won't... I don't
believe it, the angel should have been real! It was my everything, my wings,
give me my wings ahhhhhhhh!]
[Kuk! Keuhulruk, keuk….]
Powerless to scream violently, Larry's body
fell back. When the police rushed in, Chad ran back to the corner holding a pen
wet with blood and an unknown liquid.
[Chad, calm down! Put that down!]
[I’m over. I’m over. You know that. I don't
have anything left. I'll keep doing this...]
[Chad!]
[Give me wings...]
Tears flowed from Chad's eyes, as he
muttered in a worn-out tone. As the police approached carefully, Chad raised
his dry hand. And in his eyes, where there’s a strange gleam resembling that of
a praying mantis, a dull-looking pen poked into it relentlessly. With the unpleasant
sound of mucus, and the splatter of bloody liquid as if an outlet had been
pulled out, Chad's body broke down.
-Tak, Tim’s hand stopping the
recording was rough. Jude, who was looking at the screen, shrugged his
shoulders and looked at his partner, and Tim shook his head and opened his
mouth.
"......now, what happens to this
case?"
"Well... because they're all dead.
There's nothing to prosecute. I think we just need to fill out the report and
upload it. The cops over there are going to have to write a letter of apology
and suffer a bit."
"Darn it."
Tim sighed deeply as he scratched his head
with a rough touch. As if asking if he was okay, Jude reached out his hand and patted
Tim on his shoulder. Without replying to the touch, Tim looked at the floor for
a while and spat.
"Jude, let's go for a drink."
It was a model answer for a detective in a
troublesome case, and Jude did not object.
* * *
Yikes. I wonder how he got the pen? Man, I always suspect Alvin's involved somewhere lol. Well thanks for the chapter!!
ReplyDeleteHahah although Alvin never appears we somehow always suspect him 😂 I get that 😌 And you're welcome.
DeleteThis chapter was serious and the case was really interesting this is why I hate drugs 😡 it ruins everything. Yeah, where did pen come from? Alvin? Noo i don't want it to be him.
ReplyDeleteHope we have more alvin scenes next ch. And when jude said it wasn't fun i was like 👀😦.
I have so many things to talk about but one message isn't enough.
Thank you ❤️💯
Yeah and let's not forget about Jude's wake up call. Chad is clearly on the verge of breakdown and Jude kind of contribute to the finishing blow. But that's just the usual way he did things. So 🤷♂️ Anyway, you're welcome.
DeleteJude just doesnt like dealing with troublesome things and yeah I think was involved somewhere 😅🥰🥰
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chappie
You're welcome😉 Hahah it's becoming obvious now that Jude will take any chance to reduce his workload😌
DeleteThis case’s ending made me feel quite bitter 😞
ReplyDeleteIt seems that Jude is really being influenced by Alvin.
I’m not sure how to feel about that 🤔
Thank you for the chapter ~ 🌹