Chapter 8: Detective Nicholas

"Ughh!" Nicholas screams as he was struggling to remove his clothes inside a public toilet in a gas station. As he removed his clothes, he got his bag that was resting on a toilet seat cover. He brought out was a police uniform, but it wasn't an ordinary police uniform. It was his police uniform that he used to wear when he was in his old policeman days.

He was about to wear this to go undercover and interview some of the doctors on the list he found a couple of days ago.

He looks at the mirror after he successfully had wore his old uniform, he sighs in relief that it still found a way to fit on him.

He got out of the rest room with a bag of clothes popping out on his unclosed bag. He put the bag behind the trunk of his car and drove away and over to, Zagami National Hospital.

He arrives in front of the main building and parks his car at the respectful lot beside it. He gets out of his car only carrying a note pad to take notes in the interview.

He enters the building and asks the lady at the main desk, that he was looking for Delilah Hitson. The lady he was talking asks to give her a moment as she call Delilah downstairs. He greets Delilah cheerfully as she was going down the stairs.

Delilah finally arrived downstairs and was delighted to see Nicholas coming over at the hospital, they immediately went up the stairs and introduce him to one of doctor's. The first doctor that Nicholas was meeting is a pediatrician, her name is Dr. Michelle Inka.

Delilah opens the door and brought Nicholas inside her office. When Nicholas first saw her, she was facing her laptop. Dr. Inka looks at them and then back to her laptop screen, Delilah starts to introduce Nicholas. She told Dr. Inka that he was the police officer assigned to interview her. Dr. Inka was continuously typing as Delilah was talking to her, she still manages to reply incomparably. Then Delilah left Nicholas in the room with Dr. Inka.

After she left, the room became silent. Nicholas can only hear the irritating finger tapping on the keyboard of Dr. Inka's laptop. It became like that for a while right until Dr. Inka said, "Whenever you're ready".

Nicholas was confused, he didn't want to be rude so he was waiting for her to finish whatever she's working on. So he asked her if he should start the interview even if she was doing something else, and the doctor says all right.

So Nicholas started with the first question, he asked how was her relationship with this one person who died years ago who was named Clark. She said that her relationship with Clark was pretty close, Clark had cancer and died in the hospital a very long time ago.

Nicholas asked if she knew where his family is now, she stopped typing and starts to ponder for a while.

It took her moment to answer the question. When Nicholas was about to say something, she exclaims and uttered "Oh they still live downtown at Almoner Street with the green gate."

Nicholas was very surprised to hear that she knew where they live, she asked her about how she knew that.

Dr. Inka went back to typing on her laptop and replied, "I went to his funeral". Nicholas asked for the full address of the house Dr. Inka was talking about. She said she had forgotten it, but it he knew it was at Almoner Street.

Nicholas thanks her and leaves the room still being able to hear the tapping of her keyboard.

Delilah was waiting outside when she noticed Nicholas left the office door of Dr. Inka. He calls Delilah over to help accompany him to the next Doctor he was about to interview.

The next doctor was named Dr. Brown Alexander, he is another pediatrician with an arts degree. Nicholas knew that fact because Dr. Brown's degree was hanging on a brown shaded picture frame that was just across the door when he entered the room.

Like what happened earlier, Delilah introduced Nicholas and Dr. Brown to each other. Dr. Brown was talking to his wife on phone when Delilah and Nicholas entered the room.

Dr. Brown put down his phone after saying goodbye to his wife on call. He was nothing like Dr. Inka, he was energetic and proud.

As soon as Delilah left the room, Nicholas immediately went over ahead with the interview. He asks the same questions he asked Dr. Inka, he asks Dr. Brown what did he knew about this former patient that died years ago that was named Ryan.

Dr. Brown's smile disappeared as he faces his head down and breathes heavily. He answers with a different mood and expression on his face. Dr. Brown says that Ryan was one of the best patients he's had. He further exclaims that even when Ryan was clearly struggling on his illness, he responds with joy and humor. Nicholas sighs with a deep feeling of compassion, and proceeds to ask the next question.

He asks if he knew the location of Ryan's family. Dr. Brown grabbing his face, he puts his hands down and pulls of his chair and asks Nicholas "Can police tract the family of deceased members easily?". Dr. Brown's brother is also police officer, he knows a little bit about how police work.

Nicholas heart fell out to his stomach and his breath got faster. Nicholas can't keep a lie, he was thought gradually not to lie. Suddenly in the middle of Nicholas' nervousness, his phone rang from his pocket and gave a small sigh. He took out his phone to see that it was his wife Bellamy calling him.

Nicholas told Bellamy earlier in the morning that he was about to go to the police station after Michael's funeral, and Bellamy would be getting an ultrasound for their child today.

Nicholas excuses himself and leaves the room in relief, he answers the call and asks Bellamy what made her call. Bellamy snickers while answering that she wanted to call because she was extremely nervous, and she wanted Nicholas to comfort her through talking.

What followed was a lengthy conversation of Nicholas trying to calm Bellamy down through the phone. As the call was about to come to a close, Bellamy wishes that Nicholas could've been with her. When Nicholas discern those words, he felt bad for lying to her earlier. He replies with visible guilt that he wished that he could've been there too, even if he knew they were in the same building.

He put the phone on his left pocket and tries to find Delilah around the floor as he looks back at Dr. Browns office. Nicholas realized that there was no way that there could be a connection to the cemetery and the current murders at Star-Mall.

Nicholas leaves the establishment utterly confused and disappointed in himself. He enters the car as sweat runs down from his eyes and way down his nostrils. He took out his arm and swiftly hits the steering wheel out of his frustrated and anxious consciousness. Nicholas threw the folder of files at the passenger window beside him and putted his palm at his forehead as he wipes his eyelids.

He thought that it was useless to try this solution in helping out on Tod's case. After that moment of Nicholas flouncing, he opens his eyes and a piece of paper from the folder of files he threw caught his attention.

He looked at the piece of paper at the edge of the passenger seat that was near him, it was the list of the people formerly buried at the cemetery. As he stared at the image for quite a long time, he managed to spot something he wasn't able to see before.

One of the people in the list didn't have a doctor to take care of them, instead it says that the person was taken care in a chapel by a priest.

The name of that deceased person was McCrain Anderson. The list on the paper said that he was 16 years old when he died. But unlike the people who was in the list, it wasn't written down how did he die. It only states in the list was his name, age, and the name of his caretaker.

There are about over a dozen churches around the whole city. It might take Nicholas an eternity to find McCrain's said caretaker.

Nicholas was considering to go back to the police station to research McCrain, because he was curiously-suspicious of his cause of death.

However, if Nicholas needed to find his file, he would've needed to visit all the chapels in the city.

There weren't any other choices for him to have more convenient options. He went home without having a full plan or any thought of what he wanted to do next.

The mist of the air has gotten colder, all the cars that were on the road has opened their headlights as he drives away the hospital's lot whilst feeling irritated and furious.