Chapter 2: Breakfast and the First Clue

"Have you had breakfast yet?" James asked.

"Ah," Samuel's voice sounded. "Not yet."

"There's a great coffee shop not far from here," said James as he put on his jacket.

While James was getting ready to leave, Samuel looked around the house. He immediately noticed the photo of James with his wife. Next, he inspected the exterior or rather, the disorder of the house. The house was well maintained, but it was also noticeable that the house had not been cleaned in at least several weeks. Dust had settled on the crockery shelves. There was also a large pile of clothes on the floor by the washing machine. The couch looked like it had been slept on recently. Seeing all this, Samuel convinced himself that James had been living alone for at least two weeks.

As Samuel looked around the room taking notes, James was ready to leave. He was already at the threshold of the house, about to go out. "I'm ready now, are you coming?" he asked Samuel.

"Of course, sorry to keep you waiting," Samuel answered.

"Is it okay if you don't have a car?" James asked, to which he quickly received an answer.

"No, I took a cab right after I arrived. I hope you can give me a ride."

"Of course, go wherever you want," James replied as he got behind the wheel of the car.

They did not spend more than ten minutes on the road, stopping at a small coffee shop called "Ally's." James had long been used to coming here after his night shifts. He liked the coffee here as well as their donuts. He also learned, after Kate left, that the breakfasts here were also very good.

"Hello," the waitress greeted them. The waitress's name was Emma. She had just turned 19 this year. She was a young college student who worked part-time at the place.

"Hi, Emma!" James answered her and then turned to Samuel. "If you're going to be here for a while, you might want to remember her name."

"I see," Samuel Nuts replied. "Nice to meet you, Emma. My name is Samuel Nuts, you can just call me Nuts."

"Oh," she said and then held out her hand to him.

Samuel was a little taken aback by this but shook her hand nonetheless.

"Nice to meet you, Nuts. I take it you're a detective, like James?" she said.

"Almost," he answered with a small smile.

From James' side, this conversation seemed somewhat ridiculous, especially considering the look on Samuel's face. As before, his face was very tired, and when he forced out a smile, it seemed as if someone was pulling at his face.

"He came temporarily to help our precinct," Dejames interjected into this conversation.

" We needed help, so he was sent to us for support."

"Unexpectedly. Isn't this a quiet town?"- Emma said cautiously.

"Of course it is, but there are a couple of little cases we can't handle, and they have more experience, so he's come to help us."

"You don't have to worry, I'm here if anything happens, I'm here to help." - James said with a smile.

" I can count on you sir." - Emma said with pomp.

"So can I," said a voice from the kitchen. It was the chef and part owner of the coffee house, Oliver, who spoke.

"Of course, Oliver. I'm not going to leave you. Your doughnuts are the only thing that keeps me going during the night shift." - James replied.

"All right, go sit down with your colleague. We'll get you some breakfast in a minute." - Oliver answered.

We followed Emma toward the booth. The booth is small with a table for four people. Samuel and I sat opposite each other.

"Here's some coffee for now. Breakfast will be ready soon," Emma said, and then she left the coffee pot on the table.

"So, how should I address you?" - James asked Samuel.

"You can just call me Nuts, but how do I address you? - He asked a counter question.

"You can just call me James. So, Mr. Nuts. Can you share your information on the case?"- James asked his question.

"Not really, but since it's just the two of us, I will. The main culprit hasn't been identified yet, but we got some clues as to his identity." - Nats said, then took a sip of coffee and continued.

"We figure he's probably either unemployed or working part-time somewhere. He knows a lot about the occult and probably knows a lot about Satanism. He's a devotee of religion, and a fierce one at that. He steals because he needs the money. He sells it on the black market through a middleman, which means he's familiar with that market as well. He mostly kills his victims after rituals."

"So you have to guard someone after a ritual to catch him?" - James interrupted him.

"You have a good memory, James. Like I told you before, we need to find their club and find out who's going to perform the ritual," said Nats. After he said that, the stall room opened and Emma walked in with a tray.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you?" she said with a smile. "Here are two portions of eggs and ham, as well as mashed potatoes and sauce. Bon appétit," she said, and then she left.

"You noticed that, didn't you?" Nats turned to James. "There's a tattoo of occult symbols on her neck. It seems we're in luck, James."

"Oh, I wasn't looking. Let's hurry up and finish our breakfast, and I'll ask her after," James said, to which he got a quick reply from Nats.

"That's all right, I'll make my own arrangements," Nats said as he left the stall. Nats only had to take a few steps to catch up with Emma, who was standing outside the booth discussing something on the phone. When she saw Nats, she quickly said goodbye to the person on the other side of the phone.

"Sorry to interrupt you, Emma, but can I ask you a question?" Nats said with some kindness.

"Sure, go ahead," she answered him.

"What's that tattoo on your neck?"

"It's an Ankh tattoo, an Egyptian symbol," she said, pointing to the tattoo on her neck. The symbol itself looked like a cross, but the top was shaped like the eye of a sewing needle.

"So that's it," Samuel said, pretending to look thoughtful. "May I ask if you're into the occult?"

"Yeah, how did you know that? Though you can probably tell by the tattoo," she answered.

"Aren't you a member of an occult club? I'd like to join one while I'm here."

"A club... Mm. I'm not a member, but I know where it is. I used to go there once, but as you can see, I don't have time to go now," she replied.

"I would like to go there, could you give me the address?" Samuel asked.

"It's easy," she replied. "I'll give the address to James; he'll know exactly where it is."

"Thank you for your help," said Samuel, returning to the stall.

In the booth, James was eating leisurely and browsing through news feeds at the same time. When he saw Samuel enter, he made an inviting gesture.

"Did you get the address?" James asked briefly.

"Yes, she will tell you the address. I would also like to know if your department is busy?" Samuel asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes, but mostly with small cases, such as petty hooliganism and theft. You can put people on the case if you need to," James answered.

"I see. Let's hurry up and finish the food and go."

When they finished their meal, they got into the car and drove to the address given by Emma. They quickly found the building she had told them about. The building itself was two stories high, with an esoteric store on the first floor and the club on the second floor. Upon entering the store, they were met by a girl behind the counter and a guy sitting on the sofa. The girl looked in their direction, smiled, and began to talk, while the guy who was sitting on the sofa continued to look through magazines without being distracted.

"Hello, can I help you?"

"No, thank you. I'd like to sign up for the occult club that's here. Can my friend and I go in there?" - Nuts asked.

"Yes, of course. Go ahead, there's a staircase on the right." - She politely steered us in the right direction.

When we reached the second floor, we saw a room big enough with various decorations and occult objects, and there was a whiff of the occult in the air. At a table decorated with skulls and various pentagrams, a man of about 45-46 was sitting, enthusiastically reading a book, most likely related to the occult. Stepping into the room, Samuel pretended to cough.

"Ahem, ahem." - Samuel let out.

The man behind the desk turned to us when he heard the sounds.

"Hello, how can I help you?" - He said, looking at us intently.

"Hello there. My name is Samuel, and my friend's name is James. We'd like to join your club."

"Oh, so you want to sign up. It's no problem. My name is Alex, by the way," he said, holding out some papers. "Here are some forms for you. Just write your name, phone number, and email. How long have you been studying occultism?" - He asked.

"Well, I just started, and a friend of mine came for company." - Samuel answered. "I would like to know if you have any newcomers like us."

"Why?" - He asked.

"Because my friend and I know very little about it, and I want to learn a lot about it together with other newcomers." - Samuel answered in a lighthearted manner.

"Ah, no problem then. I'll introduce you to them tonight. Since the beginning of the month, we have already had 3 newcomers, and if you count yourselves, that makes 5. I hope you all get along well with each other," Alex replied.

"We hope so, too. So, can we get their contact information from you?" - Samuel asked.

"I can't give you their details, but I will introduce you to them. There's a meeting of the club tonight, and if you're there, I'll be happy to introduce you," Alex said.

"Then it's a deal. What time is the meeting?" - Samuel asked.

"It starts at about 7 o'clock in the evening. There aren't many of us in the club, so you can get to know everyone. Well, a few of the members haven't been around for a while, but maybe they'll come tonight," Alex replied.

"You have a few members missing?" - James asked.

"To be honest, I don't know. There aren't a lot of regular members in our club. Mostly like you, some newbies show up who want to learn about the occult, and then after a few months, they stop showing up here. Those I was talking about, there were 2 among them who have been in the club for a little over a year. Of course, the newbies are also missing, but that's not surprising, since, like I said, a lot of people stop coming here after a few months," Alex explained.

"I see. See you tonight then," Samuel said.

"It was nice to meet you, and I look forward to seeing you at the meeting," Alex replied.

"See you later," said James.

Back in the car, James and Samuel started talking.