Chapter 7: Guilt

I drove the police car to my and Lieutenant Parker's destination. We were on our way to an abandoned factory near the outskirts of the city. It was a poor area, and the people that lived there were generally civilians that couldn't afford to live in the center of the city. The buildings were not in the best condition, and there were many abandoned factories and houses, where homeless people would sometimes sleep in.

My knuckles were white on the steering wheel. This area made me nervous, because it was a breeding ground for crime. And if my memory serves me, this area was in The Riot's control.

Lieutenant Parker directed me to turn left. "It's there, right opposite that apartment building."

Apparently, a woman from the apartment that Lieutenant Parker just mentioned, called the police because she heard loud noises coming from that abandoned factory. It disturbed her sleep, and she thought that it might have been some teenagers fooling around in there. She said she saw young boys, or maybe men, hanging around there at night sometimes, since she moved in a few months ago.

They made a lot of noise that night, and she had enough. She couldn't understand why no one else thought of calling the police.

I had a fleeting suspicion why not, but I tried not to think about it.

We arrived, and there were a few people standing around.

"Officer Bellingham, I want you to question everyone here. Get as many statements as you can," Lieutenant Parker ordered. "I will have a look around the building and see if I can find a way in. Maybe the offenders are still around."

I nodded, "Yes, Sir."

I did as he said and questioned the civilians that loitered outside of the building. Most of them were reluctant to give me any comment of whether they had heared any loud noises in the factory. Some even denied having heard anything at all. The people seemed a little afraid to talk to me.

One woman, however, was very very willing to vent her anger. It turned out that she was the lady that called us.

"It sounded like loud banging and grunts. I think I heard them swear a lot too. Can you believe the disrespect," she told me.

I wrote everything in my notepad. "Can you describe the banging sounds, Ma'am? Was it like metal against metal? Or did it sound like someone was being beaten?"

"I thought it sounded almost like gunshots, but my neighbor might have been watching an action movie," said the lady.

Her words disturbed me. Although it might just have been her neighbor watching a movie, it might also have been... I gulped.

"Thank you, Ma'am. We will try to find the offenders," I told her with a reassuring smile.

"Officer Bellingham! I need your help to pry open this door!" Lieutenant Parker shouted.

I warned the people standing around to keep a distance from the factory, then ran to help Lieutenant Park. He had stuck a rusty crowbar into a slight opening in the door, and was struggling to get it open.

We finally got it open after a while, and went inside.

I was hit with an intense stench unlike anything I have ever smelled. I gagged and slapped my had over my mouth and nose.

It was so dark that I had to take out my torch to be able to see anything. Lieutenant Park looked less bothered than me, but still had his arm across his face to shield him from the smell.

"It smells like someone died here," he said.

I nearly dropped my torch.

Could my suspicions have been confirmed? Was there a gang fight here? Or worse, what if The Riot killed innocent people here?

Lieutenant Parker found a switch and flipped it, illuminating the place.

The sudden bright light caused me blink rapidly so that my eyes could adjust.

And there they were. Four bodies, under rubble. And there was blood everywhere.

Lieutenant Parker neared them, then looked up. "It seems that they were crushed under the rubble. This building is old and starting to fall apart. Damn, these kids need to stop hanging out in places like this."

I reluctantly draw nearer to the bodies. They were teenage boys, maybe between the ages of sixteen to nineteen.

"Are you okay, Officer Bellingham? This must be the first time you see a dead body," he smiled sympatheticly, "I am sorry, I didn't expect this case to take such a turn."

I steeled myself. I couldn't let myself crumble now.

"It's okay, Sir. As you said, you didn't know." I took a shaky breath. "They were just kids. It's devastating."

"Sometimes things like this happen, and innocent people die. We heroes can't always be there to save everyone," Lieutenant Parker said. He took out his cell phone. "I'll call for backup. Stay away from the bodies, it'll only upset you."

I nodded, and he left the building.

My whole body shook as I stared at the dead boys. Their lives were so incredibly short. They probably just wanted to fool around, like kids did, and ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I was about to turn, when something caught my attention.

One of the boys, the one closest to me had his neck exposed. Or rather, what was left of it. The skin just beneath his left ear was cut out - in a perfect square, at that. It was like it was done for a purpose.

I crouched down near the bodies, swatting flies that was flying around and waiting for their bodies to decay.

I reached into one of the pockets in my belt, pulled out a pair of latex gloves and slipped them on. Carefully, I turned the heads of the other three boys. And sure enough, I found the exact same cut-out square on each of the boys, in exactly the same spot.

The last boy's square looked like it was cut out in a hurry - it was a bit skew and less perfect...

"What's this?" I thought out loud. Whatever were cut out from their skins seemed to be tattoos, because there was a corner of what seemed to be a tattoo that remained on the boy's neck. It seemed to be a flame or a leaf. Maybe the tip of a feather?

Who would do such a thing?

Then it struck me. Each of these boys had missing skin at the exact same spot. Does that mean each of them had tattoos in the same spot? Just beneath the left ear?

Were these boys part of The Inferno?

My hands shook violently. These boys were so young. How could they already be a part of the mafia?

Why were they dead? Were they killed?

I examined the boy to find a bullet hole in his chest.

I gasped.

"Yes, I'll see you tomorrow. Don't worry, everything will be sorted. Bye." Lieutenant Parker hung up with the person he was talking to as he entered the building again. When he saw me examining the bodies, his eyes went wide. "Officer Bellingham! I told you to stay away from the bodies!"

He looked furious as he rushed towards me and threw me away from them. I fell backwards, knocking into some rubble.

"S-sorry, Sir. I just thought I saw something suspicious--"

"I don't care what you saw! You disobeyed a direct order!" he yelled. His demeanor was totally different from what it was earlier. Suddenly, he didn't seem like the warm-hearted, kind leader he was thought to be. His face was crimson, and he looked like he was going to hit me any moment.

"What did you see, Bellingham?" he asked - no - demanded.

I think I saw something that I should not have seen. Something Lieutenant Parker seemed to be trying to hide. The way he didn't even investigate the bodies completely. The way he just skimmed the situation and came to the conclusion that the boys were simply crushed by debris - I think he knew that this was a gang-related case. And I think he didn't want the police to know.

"The man that started everything." That's what Danté said. I took his words very lightly at first, but now... Now I wonder how much truth there was in them.

"Nothing, sir. Just lots of injuries. Probably from the rubble falling onto them," I lied. Until I know what this man was up to and why he was trying to hide the cause of these boys' death, I needed to play dumb.

Lieutenant Parker's face changed completely. Suddenly, he held a soft and understanding expression -- a total contrast to his previous outburst.

"I'm sorry for being so hard on you, Officer. I just didn't want you to delve too deeply into that gruesome scene. The closer and deeper you get, the more the scene will haunt your dreams," he helped me up. "It wasn't necessary for you to investigate. It isn't your job. Leave that to the higher ups, like me. Spare your innocent dreams while you can."

My dreams had long been invaded by darkness. There were other kinds of things that made me scream myself awake at night.

But he wasn't completely wrong. This was the first time that I've seen dead bodies and a crime scene like this. And it will turn into another demon that will keep me awake.

The support team arrived and handled the scene. An autopsy was denied by Lieutenant Park, because of his conclusion that the boys died while fooling around and then being hit by rubble falling onto them. Because he was such a respected member of the department, nobody thought to argue against him. The case was closed as an accident, and the families of the boys could not be notified after they were identified, because they were unreachable. All of this happened over the span of the rest of the night. Before Lieutenant Parker left for the day, he told me that we had to go back to the abandoned factory the following day, just to make sure that we checked everything, then he wished me good luck for sleeping through the night.

But I couldn't go home to sleep because of my troubled mind, so I stayed at the station and handled some admin.

My cellphone buzzed, and I saw that I had a text from Nick, asking me how my day was.

I was about to reply, when he called.

I let it ring for a bit, because I wasn't in the mood for talking, or pretending.

But he seemed adamant to speak to me, so I answered. "Hello?"

"Hi, Vee. Why did you take so long to answer?" his voice sounded playful.

"I was just busy, sorry."

"At this time of night? Didn't your shift end hours ago?" he asked.

I didn't think I would ever get used to how they just knew everything about me, down to my schedule.

"I just finished a case, and there's a lot of admin that needs to be completed," I answered as I typed on my laptop. The hard drive Danté gave me was connected to it.

The truth was that the admin I was doing was actually typing all my suspicions from today on a document, and checking old gang-related case files for something that seemed similar.

"You don't sound too good. Did you have a rough day?" I could hear the concern in his voice.

I almost wanted to just let everything out. I wanted to cry to him; tell him about how sad and guilty I felt about those boys. I wanted to cry about how utterly useless I felt for not being able to do anything. Even if they were members of the mafia, they were still kids.

"It's a long story," I decided to say. I had to try my best not to seem vulnerable with these guys. They can not be trusted, no matter how nice they might seem.

"You can talk about it if you want. I'll lend you an ear," Nick said, and he sounded sincere.

"Thanks," I responded, as I flipped through another file. "But I'll be okay."

Nick hummed in agreement.

"Nick, did you guys... Miss any members recently?" I asked. I thought that I might as well ask him and maybe find out if those boys were in fact members of The Inferno.

Nick sounded confused, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, like, have there been any members that had gone missing in the past few days? More specifically, today."

"Honey, there are members that go missing and get killed every day," he said in an emotionally vacant tone.

I knew they killed many. And that many people died because of them. But the thought of their own, and so many that they barely keep count of them, also got killed was very eye-opening. And it was actually quite devastating as well, considering that many of them could be as young as those boys.

"Oh. I'm sorry," I said without thinking.

Why was I feeling sorry for them? They get what they gave. That is the law of karma.

But the guilt still ate at my stomach.

"Thanks for saying that. Many lives that are lost don't even get the chance to be honored. They just disappear like mist, as if they never even existed," Nick said, and his voice broke a bit. He must genuinely be upset by the deaths of his fellow members. I wasn't expecting that much remorse from a member of the ruthless Inferno. If Nick was this soft hearted, he didn't really fit the bill to be part of the mafia. I recon that Danté didn't even care about his subordinates' deaths.

I wished that I could bring true justice to the deaths of these boys, whether they are in the mafia or not. I just didn't know how.

"We found four bodies today. I couldn't see if they were from The Inferno or not, because the skins of their neck, where your tattoos usually are, were intentionally cut out," I whispered into my phone.

"WHAT?!" Nick shouted, making my hear ring.

"As I said, we don't-"

"Were they young boys?" Nick sounded desperate for the answer to his question.

I wasn't supposed to give out this information, and if anything, it should have gone straight to Danté when I was sure if these boys really were in his gang.

But I had to tell Nick, because the desperation in his voice tore my heart in half. "Yes. They were ages sixteen to nineteen. I can give you names as well, we have managed to identify them." I replied, trying my best to keep my voice stable.

I heard Nick running up stairs or something on his side. "Please, tell me everything you know."

"Simon and Quinn Fray, aged sixteen and nineteen. They were brothers. John Kennedy, aged seventeen. Terry O'Connor, aged eighteen." I said each name and age without having to read from the file. My mind had been mulling over them the whole night, burning them into my memory.

I heard Nick swear on the other side. "Jesus Christ. They were just kids."

"Do you know them?" I asked Nick.

"Yes," he replied, and I think I heard Danté's voice in the background. "And I know who killed them."