Parasyte Roach (part III)

Arriving at the airport I tried to contact Chapman again as I planned, but of course, to no avail. That bastard...

I put the phone back in my pocket, and then Joey and I went up to the second floor, in front of the departure gates. We saw Sarah alone at a table at the agreed-upon venue.

I'll be honest: I'm not much a fan of the Boutique Lily's. Their menu is too limited, and the few variety they have is basically kid's food. The dishes are poorly served and take too long to arrive. I don't see what Sarah sees in it. But the again, as I said, Sarah does look like a kid from the outside, so that place kinda matches her.

We all sat at the same low round table. The atmosphere was noisy outside, but quiet inside. A friendly waitress took our orders and left us. After frivolous talk about plane schedules and everything else, we started exchanging ideas about the cases:

"Listen..." Sarah began, "do you have something to reveal about the Cooper house?"

"An alien detected... By the scanner."

"So at least we know what race we're dealing with... It's no surprise that paranormal beings are involved. The fact that it was just an attack on Arthur Cooper made that clear from the start. Their objective is clear."

"Their objective is clear?" Joey interrupted, "Cap'n... Did they want the envelope or Arthur himself?"

"Taking in account the possibilities of finesses concerning the bodies of paranormal beings such as aliens, lizardmen or the like... What matters less is to capture the owner of the signature alive. The invitation paper is of unique material and endowed with serials and passwords everywhere. Signatures are impossible to falsify properly. The ink and the paper can only be produced in Arena. However it is very easy to fake an ID card. Or worse: Cooper's own face."

"Hmm." Did Joey, "so, as I imagined: this attack was directed at the real Arthur Cooper, the politician, but was carried out by someone who knew nothing but his full name, and therefore targeted the wrong person."

"It's the most probable." Sarah admitted.

Lucky that old man who wasn't there at the time.

"Speaking of Cooper..." I asked, addressing Joey, "why didn't you and Ewalyn find this other Cooper the first time? When you browsed through the archives about the existence of the invitation recipient here in Sproustown? Why only later the name found a corresponding identity and only there in Rothershore?"

"That's a point..." Sarah considered.

The waitress first brought Sarah's order and our drinks. Not alcoholic drinks because I had to drive to the office. We only got one juice each. Sarah got a cheap combo that looked like ant food. There was a miserable sandwich and the portion of potatoes was tiny.

Joey answered:

"Er... I don't know... Because he's autonomous and thus isn't in the records? The agencies only register the data of important people. I mean... important to them."

"Maybe... What a coincidence..." Sarah commented, "if I had met Arthur Cooper B before that I would've been set on the wrong track? Or maybe I'd be already on the right one and would have prevented this last attack? Anyway it can't be denied that it was a great coincidence... Yes... Great coincidence..."

I wanted to light a cigarette, but I saw the forbidding tag hanging on the wall. Sarah changed the subject:

"Did you get an impression of how many robbers there were? The report stated there were two and that as soon as they entered the house the police were notified and reached the scene of the crime as soon as possible. It was a competent time: Thirteen minutes."

"They were two robbers. And yes... That was written in the report." I answered.

"I know what was written in the report! I want to know if 'you' agree, analyzing the clues, if there really were two. Wouldn't it have been three?Like in three robbers who took the envelope from the office a day ago?"

"No. Definitely only two. Two different types of mess inside the house, two locations searched simultaneously and separately."

Joey added:

"There was also very little time for them to search the place. So little they only took the valuables which were most in sight. With so little time, if they were in more people, as the lieutenant said, we would have seen more than two rooms where everything was scattered."

Sarah pushed her tray to the center of the table and started to get up. We heard the electronic voice announce the time of her flight.

"Another point to consider would be... All this is just a façade to mask the attack by making both Cooper and the newspaper believe it is an attempted robbery. In fact this is almost certain. That was either an attempted murder or kidnapping. The goal was to get the hands on the fake Cooper himself and not just household appliances."

She got up and shook the crumbs of her clothes.

"Why is the captain is so sure and has so much information about this paper type thing and stuff?" Joey asked to Sarah "Was it a previous experience? Of when you worked at the Arena?"

"You can say so. Does not matter. We continue to investigate. Anything new, get in touch."

"Aren't you even packing the rest of that for the trip?" I nodded at the rest of her snack.

"I'm not very hungry."

We walked Sarah to the entrance and said goodbye. For there on the department was counting only on me.

"What are you going to do now?" I went back to Joey "Ewalyn and I are going to meet to visit Crane... Wanna come along?"

"With you and Lowe? No... I'll pass," Joey took the phone from his pocket, "I think 'I' and going to meet 'my' girl instead."

"Your girl? What was her name again? Brigitt? Brigitte?"

"Are you still in that one? No, lieutenant. The name is now Vanessa."

"I don't think I'll ever learn more than her name, anyway... Well... Good luck, good night or whatever you wish it to be good."

It was there, before saying goodbye, that Joey recited the saying in a curious way, that same saying from over twelve years ago:

"They are small. They eat little. They don't talk much about the past. Hum..."

It was that phrase that stuck in my head for the rest of the day until I decided to share these events. That's why I chose the parasite roaches to present this time. That sentence was intriguing. It was placed like that, no more, no less. Out of place. Out of context."

"But above all, they eat humans," I completed, "that was the saying. Why are you saying this all of a sudden? Do you suspect one of the robbers is a parasite roach? The remnants found were from aliens, and we goy almost no information of the other bloke."

"No... I was thinking of something else. Forgets."

"Then it's ok. But the bastard is certainly an alien! And I tell you, I hope it's the same thing that did that to Crane. I want to get both of them. He who did that to Crane and the one who sent the poison later. These two won't escape me!"

"You are the exemplary cop, Lieutenant," he mocked, "don't tell me you still have the idea of her boyfriend in your head?"

"And who else could it have been if not that Galloway? Would anyone else send the chocolates? He was her boyfriend!"

And above all he was friends with Chapman.

A lot of people could have sent chocolates. One just needs to know the boyfriend's address and name to pretend to be the addressee... Well. Just try not to talk about it later when you two are in front of Emma, please. Let her rest. Me, I'm going to take a bus and go home. Good luck with Lowe.

"Good luck with her? What do you mean?"

He looked at me facetiously.

"Forget it, Lieutenant... And if you want to, you know you can smoke here, right? We left the store."

"Then... I'll accept your suggestion. See you tomorrow. God willing we'll have more news then."

"God willing. Goodbye, lieutenant!"

That day was a pile of crap. But at least it was over.

After that all that happened was that I met Ewalyn and we went to visit Crane at her house.

On that day I was too stressed with all the episode with Crane, so my head wasn't working properly. Little did I know that a lot of what Joey mentioned had some meaning. And that meaning... I would come to understand only later.