<h4>Chapter 213: Horror</h4>


    "This is... very odd."


    Elias Kramer sat in a small, dimly lit office tucked away inside the city police headquarters, still trying to process what he had just heard and seen. The shock hadn’t worn off, not from the entire discussions, and certainly not from the implications. But strangely enough, it wasn’t just his shock that filled the room. There was someone else, perhaps even more rattled than he was. The two detectives who had thought and firmly believed that this entire case was clear as water... Yeah right! It was as clear as sewage water!


    They hadbed through hours of surveince footage, specifically tracking any sign of Adam’s body or even this woman called Myra who seemed to have taken away Saira...But nothing... not a trace. No entry. No exit. No movement. It was as if the body had never been there in the first ce. It could be seen that he was taken away from the ICU but then, he seemed to have disappeared...even the orderly who had pushed the the stretcher was shocked how the video ended up showing an entirely different body when he transferred it to the morgue...


    And now, to make matters worse, they were dealing with two missing bodies—one of which remainedpletely unidentified ( since it was not Saira, apparently), a mystery with no name or story, and the other... well, the other might not even be dead but had been dered dead...


    Add to that the disappearance of two people: one who was supposedly dead and should have been in the morgue, and the other whosest known location only raised more questions. It was bing harder and harder to tell who was actually missing and who was simply hiding and who dead and who was alive!


    What kind of mess was this! Something like this he had never seen in his life.


    And now, there was another piece of news. Because Saira Vaugn who was missing or dead or whatever, seemed to have never entered the country of Maniwa. The person who hade into the country with Adam was seemingly named Myra Vaugn but when they tried to look for her passport details, they seemed to have disappeared.


    Even the immigration which collected their bio sensitive data seemed to be missing.


    Finally, after almost pulling their hair out, the detective stared at Elias and bit out, "Let’s not dance around it any longer. The key piece in this whole damn mess is your client—Mnie Collins."


    Elias blinked, slowly lifting his gaze from the chaos of papers on the desk. "Excuse me?"


    Detective Harrow, seated opposite him, leaned forward and said, "You heard right. We’ve been going in circles for days. Disappearing bodies, false identities, surveince gaps, biometric failures... But one name threads through it all—Mnie Collins. She’s at the center of this, whether she wants to be or not. And frankly, she should be behind bars until we get the full story."


    Kramer scoffed. "On what grounds? You cannot charge her! You don’t even know what crime you’re using her of. Murder? Where is your victim? Kidnapping? Who did she kidnap se she is already looking for her husband and has been uwfully detained by you for thest few days? Are you going to use her of Witchcraft?"


    Detective Harrow’s jaw clenched as he banged his hand on the table. "You keep acting like she’s some kind of saint, Kramer, but we’re the ones digging through this mess, trying to figure out who’s lying. You think it’s normal for this many people to vanish into thin air? Someone’s orchestrating it. And all roads keep circling back to her."


    "Really? Then you better have something stronger than gut feelings and paranoia. Or is it easier to bully a lone woman than admit your entire investigation is falling apart?"


    The second detective, a quieter man with a tired face and sunken eyes, finally spoke. "She’s not just any woman Kramer. She’s... connected. And whether she knows it or not, she’s in deeper than she ims. Even if someone wants her to be in the...she could even be in danger..."


    "She’s been detained without charge for three days," Elias snapped. "You’ve harassed her with the same circr questions, and conveniently lost the biometric trail of the woman who actually walked into Maniwa under a false identity! And you’re still trying to pin it all on Mnie?"


    "Don’t twist this. We’ve been chasing shadows since the night we discovered the dead body in the hotel And now we don’t even have a body. No security logs that make sense. And now, conveniently, Saira Vaugn—who doesn’t exist on any national registry—vanishes. Doesn’t that set off rms in your legal brain?"


    Kramer scoffed, "What sets off rms is your obsession with Mnie Collins when it’s clear you’ve hit a wall. So, tell me, detectives—why are you so damn eager to put her behind bars? Why the rush? Why the pressure? Unless... someone is leaning on you."


    The detectives tensed. "What’s that supposed to mean?"


    "Oh,e on," Elias said in a voice dripping with contempt. "I’ve been in too many rooms like this not to see the signs. You’ve got no case, no motive, and no suspect you can touch-so you’re manufacturing one out of the only person you can reach. Are you being bribed? Threatened? Or is it just easier to please someone higher up by keeping Mnie quiet?"


    Harrow’s face turned red as he pointed his finger at thewyer, "Watch it, Kramer. You’re skating on contempt and false usations!"


    "Try me," Elias said, practically daring him. "Because from where I’m standing, you’re wasting everyone’s time,and you’replicit in viting my client’s rights. If you’re not on someone’s payroll, you’re doing a very good impression of it."


    The room fell silent. Harrow looked ready to throw a chair, while the second detective rubbed a hand across his jaw, staring at the floor, saying nothing.


    Then, suddenly, the door burst open.


    A young officer stepped in, eyes wide. "Detectives—sir—there’s someone downstairs. Says he knows how to find Adam Collins."


    That froze everyone.


    Harrow blinked. "Who?"


    "He wouldn’t give a full name," the officer replied breathlessly. "Just said to tell you that he has... information. Said it’s urgent."


    Elias turned sharply. "He knows Adam’s alive?"


    "He said he knows where to look," the officer rified. "And that you’d understand once you heard him out."