Lyca's Dream

The next morning after their visit at the tavern, the team assembled for a regular meeting and updates on cases they were following upon. Lyca and Miles were seated far apart in one of the conference room chairs inside the precinct while Jorge was standing beside the web board. Miles painstakingly recounted his inquiry's details, and when he dabbled on the supernatural aspect of his findings, it was immediately rebutted by Lyca. Her face could not agree with what she heard as it is filled with so much sarcasm.

"Oh God, am I really hearing some weird stuff here? How can that happen in the days of quantum computing and the Kardashians? This is totally insane, and sorry to say this ..but this is X-files level laughable."

Jorge sighed and felt the situation was going elsewhere. He took a moment to remind Lyca of her condescending manner.

"I am not forcing you to believe Lyca. Everyone respects your point of view. But I expect you to be doing the same to others. All of us here must strive to raise the bar of professionalism this meeting demands."

Lyca paused and later acknowledged her mistake after she realized she just crossed the line.

"I am sorry. You are right; I have to treat this as a serious matter."

Jorge felt relieved.

"Thank you, Lyca. Any more Miles?"

Miles moved back a bit from his chair.

"I got nothing more to say, Jorge." He then closed his folder in front of him. There were still lots of stories he had not told in the twenty minutes he discussed his findings.

Jorge turned back his attention to Lyca.

"Can we move on to the topic of the lost evidence? Lyca, it's your turn."

Lyca scanned the folder in front of her.

"We had a major setback. This is to confirm an IT impostor took the evidence we have. That's a separate investigation we need to do some other time. I suggest we focus on this murder first. I contacted Colonel Riva about the video evidence, but his phone is not responding. I guess we do this our way, and I volunteered to go to the hotel myself. Look around and ask.

Uhm...regarding bugs- I checked every place here, and I did not find any. This meeting is clean. Hopefully, I installed a jamming device just in case one slipped. All they're gonna hear is static."

Jorge stood up and pointed at the web storyboard where Ingrid's picture is clipped in one of the strings.

"What about Ingrid?"

"I need to call her back. She is scheduled for Friday. She's definitely lying, and we need the truth from her."

Jorge wrote the word "truth?" questioning Ingrid and attached it beside her picture. He touched it with his hand, thinking of other things that he might have missed.

"Why not invite her husband? I am sure she must have told him something if she deliberately hides it. "

Lyca nodded her head.

" That's a good point. I will summon him too. "

Miles tapped his pen a couple of times and asked the question he loathed asking.

"Did we establish who Henry De La Vega is?"

Everyone looked in his direction. No one answered. He mused, "we might have a murder victim with just a namesake to someone who is said to be really missing 50 years ago and still wasn't found."

Jorge wrote the name Henry De La Vega on a piece of paper. Then put a question mark beside the name and pin it next to the second murder victim's photo.

"Good point. But we haven't clue where he went, or do we have to be content with an unverified report he died from a plane crash? Have you checked any news of a military plane crash 50 years ago? We need to rule this out. "

"No, Jorge. I still have to include that news inquiry in my research."

Lyca posed a critical question that got Jorge's attention. She was a tad fidgety.

"Ok, this dead person can be a false one and might be using the name of the real Henry De La Vega, right?"

Jorge replied in the affirmative. "Yes, Lyca. It is a possibility."

"Why would he use someone's name? What is his purpose? Then going back, who is the real person killed if he is not who he says he is?"

She surmised, "Maybe this dead person, whoever he is, did something that deserves punishment. And there's a roundabout circle here of questions of why and who...and so on..." She raised her shoulder, "It's just a hunch, though. We can't ask a dead body makes this a terrible inquiry, and we need to rely on questions that would give us the most logical answer to tie everything in. We need to ask every one until we get to the very bottom of it."

Jorge and Miles agreed.

Jorge tried to articulate a response, but his mind went out of focus. He probably forgot to take his medicines for his thyroid problem, and the proof is his sluggish thinking. He tried to adjust his eye focus, blinking a couple of times, stretched his palms to loosen up his tightening muscles but persisted with the meeting's conduct.

"Lyca, can you give us a walkthrough of Henry De La Vega before his discovery?"

Lyca went back to her notes. " First, he went to a bank near Chinatown, withdrawn an unknown sum of money, and then proceeded to a restaurant two blocks away. He met an unknown man there. An exchange of bags containing the money happened. Then he went to ride a taxi and said to have been brought somewhere up north outside the city. Six days later, he ended up dead inside a parked car in a hotel."

"The man he met?" Miles fretted.

Lyca sighed, "We have no clue yet. That's why we need Ingrid to enlighten us." Their meeting was adjourned at 5 p.m.

That same night, Lyca went to bed early because she had to go back the next morning to the crime scene at Hotel D-Lux to investigate further.

She remembers herself walking, and she was back on the day Henry De La Vega was to meet a man inside the restaurant. She followed him as he talked through his cellphone. The rain suddenly fell, and Henry De La Vega covered his head with his black bag as he entered the entrance of A_____ Restaurant. She followed him, and she saw him sitting comfortably on a chair. The man Henry De La Vega talked with had a video head showing various analog TV images. She sat on a chair near Henry De la Vega and casually joined the conversation as if she was a guest.

"Why don't you take your video head off? Let me see your face," she chuckled. The video head showed Jessica Rabbit's face, which turned to her and bantered.

"I'm sorry you would only hate yourself when you see me."

Lyca felt drunk, although she had not touched any drink on the table.

"What did you bring tonight?" she asked.

Henry De La Vega listened to their conversation, his left hand cupped to his left ear, then jotted down every word Lyca uttered.

"You wanna see what I brought?" the video head teased. It showed a gift box with a question mark on it.

Henry De La Vega readied his camera on hand, like some news reporter of sorts.

The video head teased with the speedy voice from a cartoon character "birdy," "Promise you won't tell Jorge about it?"

Lyca laughed. "Who, Jorge Velez? He doesn't know I am here."

"That's good. " The head replied, mimicking the bugs bunny."Why don't you swear an oath that you would not tell anybody about this?"

"Is this our secret? Yes, I pinky swear," Lyca giggled.

Henry De La Vega cupped his mouth, but he could not contain his laughter.

"Shut up!" the video head jeered at Henry De La Vega. An angry face of a madman can be seen in the video.

Lyca was puzzled, "Why would you shout at Henry De La Vega? Don't you have an ongoing deal?"

The video head changed to the axeman's face and voice from the film "The Shining." The crazy face smirked and hissed, "Why would you think he is the real Henry De La Vega?"

Lyca laughed but suddenly stopped and wonder.

"Then...who he is?" she muttered.

The video head showed Batman's enemy - The penguin speaking in a grumbling voice, "That's for me to know and for you to find out."

Lyca shuddered. "You have a lot of secrets."

Then the video suddenly changed to a magician's face. It pulled a magic trick by showing a dime on hand, then quickly threw it up, and after he catches it back, the dime turned into a bouquet.

Lyca crawled then replied, "that's awesome!" The video showed clapping hands and changed back to a box with a question mark on it.

"Are you ready for my next trick? The bag?"

Lyca cackled," yes, I am ready."

"Aren't you looking for Colonel Riva?" This time the video scanned itself for images.

"Yes, do you know where he is?"

The head sketched a smiley on his video.

Then he placed his finger on the lips, telling her to be silent. "He is lost in time and can never be found!"

Lyca seemed confused. "What do you mean?"

The video head man opened the content of the black bag. Like a magic trick, he pulled out Colonel Riva's head, his eyes looking directly at her. Next, he pulled out his arms and legs. Lyca screamed out loud and was about to run when she stumbled on the black bag and at once fell on the floor.

She woke up panting with sweat all over her forehead and arms. She checked her watch, and it was 3:15 am. She slowly sat on her bed and sighed a couple of times as she buried her face between her palm. It was a bad dream.