We failed in our duty

Crystal who was up all night working, felt hungry and came out of Elysian's room to grab something to eat.

When she entered the hall, he saw Elysian sleeping on the couch and on the floor she saw two people sleeping under the blanket. Then when she walked towards the dinning table, she saw Chris sleeping on it so she thought Ji Chang and Jonathan were both sleeping together.

In the kitchen, the lights were off and she didn't turned them on thinking that she only have to take the food out of refrigerator and besides, the refrigerator was visible in the dark so she walked towards it.

And suddenly, she tripped and fell over Jonathan who was sleeping on the kitchen floor and was having a nightmare in which he was being chased by a ghost and as soon as she fell on upon him, he screamed thinking the ghosts got him. Crystal also screamed in return scared by him.

"Please don't kill me, please don't kill me..", Jonathan curled up into a ball and kept repeating. Chris was the first one to reach there hearing screams. He turned on the light and saw Crystal sitting on the floor looking blankly at curled up Jonathan. And soon the others also came.

Chris and Crystal both looked at each other and started laughing. Others were confused about what exactly was going on there.

Jonathan peeped from between his fingers when he heard familiar laughing sound and he also joined Crystal and Chris when he saw them laughing.

"You scared me!!!", he said to Crystal, laughing.

" Hahahahhh! What were you doing here on the floor ?", she asked him.

"Obviously I was sleeping!!!", he replied as he stood up and offered his hand to Crystal helping her stand up.

" I came here to eat something.", she said taking his hand.

"Hahahahh wait guys, why were you both screaming then?", Chris asked holding his laughter.

" I screamed because he screamed first.", Crystal pointed at Jonathan and all of them looked at him.

"Stop looking at me, I was having a nightmare and when she fell upon me I thought that the ghosts caught me. So I screamed...", Jonathan explained but he was a little embarrassed.

And all of them burst out laughing once again.

" Wait, If you were sleeping here then who was sleeping on the floor with you?", Crystal asked looking at Ji Chang.

"I.. that... actually it was my pillow.", he replied averting his gaze.

" Then wasn't Chris sleeping with Jonathan? He was here already when we came. You didn't saw them both?", Jennifer asked Crystal.

"No, Jonathan was here alone. Chris was sleeping on the dinning table.", she explained.

"What??? That dining table???", Ji Chang asked pointing the only dining table in the house.

" Isn't that the only dinning table in here, bud?", Chris said smiling.

"You...", he grabbed Chris by his ear and started twisting it.

" Oww, oww that hurts.", Chris said laughing.

Then they all went to the hall and sat.

"How are you feeling, mam", Jennifer asked Crystal.

" I'm fine. It wasn't because of yesterday's incident, I was upset because we haven't reached anywhere in the case yet and it's almost two months after the first abduction.", she replied sighing.

"I agree. The one and only suspect we got was also killed in the prison itself.", Chris said.

"No one else is to be blamed but us.", Jonathan said in a calm voice. " We failed to do our duty as cops. Elysian, I'm sorry but while we were busy saving him, the criminals out there might be executing their plans."

"I agree. At first, I thought you all were with them but now I see that I was wrong.", Elysian replied before Crystal could say anything.

" But we had to save him too. He might have been killed if we had left him there.", Crystal said.

"I know. But still, we could have split up into teams and...", Jonathon was stopped by Ji Chang," Don't argue. We are not getting anywhere with these arguments "

"Fine. Last night, I prepared something. Come", Crystal led them into Elysian's room.

" Please, sit.", she said and all of them sat either on the bed or on the couch.

Then she displayed a presentation over a white board with a projector and handed all of them some printed papers.

"I think I should wait outside", Elysian stood up but Crystal stopped him saying that he needs to know everything about the case since he is now with them so he sat down.

" So, the first abduction occurred two month ago and the people who had been abducted are there in the list I gave you. Please check.", she said and they all looked at the paper and nodded.

"We will now talk about the suspects. First was Nicholas, who is dead and the second is Teffie, Shelby's room mate.", Crystal told them as she displayed Teffie's picture.

" Why do you suspect her?", Jennifer asked.

"When I went to Shelby's house, I saw a cut on Teffie's palm and she said she got hurt while cutting an apple but I suspect she is lying. And yes, she claims to be Shelby's close friend yet she don't know anything about her.", Crystal explained.

" But the cut you are talking about must have healed by now", Ji Chang said laying back in the couch.

"Yes, we need to keep a eye on her and catch her red handed if she commits a crime.", Crystal said.

" I'll arrange to keep an eye on her", Jennifer said and others agreed.

" These are the paper cut outs we found from Shelby's room. I think there is something important about these cutouts that we aren't getting. Elysian, since you'll be staying in home I need you to study these cut outs during that time.", she gave those cut outs to him and he nodded.

"Next, we have that necklace or you may say a pen drive we got from Melissa's backyard garden. We need to find out about those 300 subjects mentioned in it and yes about the orphanages too. Jonathan, we need you to look into it and since this case might include the fire incident case I think you're the only one who can handle it perfectly.", Crystal said and Jonathan agreed.

"But isn't that Officer, Ryan. Isn't he handling that case?", Chris asked. " And if that is the case we have to give him all these information."

"I'll let him know. Don't worry ", Jonathan patted Chris's back.

" Next, we already know about the group picture that we found in Bob's study. One of those students is Shelby and if Bob was having that photograph then there are chances that he might be knowing Shelby. ", Crystal said pointing out a six year old girl im the photograph.

" Or may be Bob is one of those children.", Elysian said in a low voice.

"Yes, that is also possible.", Crystal said to him.

" Wait a minute, Then according to that CCTV footage from the hotel, Shelby and Melissa are also connected with each other.", Chris said looking at Crystal.

"Exactly. In a way or the other, I think all the victims are connected to each other.", she said.

" One strange thing that I saw in the hotel's footage was this man dressed up as the cleaning staff. I think he was there when Simon was being abducted.", Crystal showed the footages of hotel and Simon's room.

"He... I saw him!!!", Elysian yelled when he heard Simon's voice in the footage. And everyone turned to look at him.

" Where?", Jonathan asked.

"When they took me to that place for the first time, I heard him screaming. I don't know where but I'm sure he was there.", Elysian's hands were trembling because of fear.

" You didn't saw anything?", Crystal asked.

"No, they blind folded me and my head was spinning because of the thing they injected in my neck.", he told.

" Okay, calm down. It might be the same thing they injected Simon with.", Crystal said looking at the footage. And Ji Chang rubbed Elysian's hand to make him calm down.