Chapter 34: _It's a haunted house
When the morning comes, he was woken up by Kate's loud banging on his door. He slept very late the night before which was the mother of his over sleeping the next day.
" The cops are here for you again" she barked at him when he was finally able to settle himself on his wheelchair and went to her.
He woke up the next morning and the first thing that welcomed him was this silly girl's rantings.
Also, the cops ought to not give him a chance to get out of bed at all. Why not come very early when it was still dark?
Oh better, come pick him up when he was still in dreamland.
If it wasn't for those damned burnt haven owners, he wouldn't be in an additional mess right now. Maybe if he had just gone ahead and sell them out to Sheriff Blair when the old woman made a report, it'd be better. Luna wouldn't have invited him over for dinner. She would have no cause to do so and he wouldn't have witnessed anything at all.
Zakariah would for sure come back home tonight. He has already been away for three days now and that was about the maximum number of days he stayed away when needed.
He was too eager to get out of the freaking mess that he decided he would come for a proper bath after he was back from the precinct.
All he could afford now was a rushed brush of his teeth and some rinsing of his sleepy face.
The whole house smelt nice when he entered the sitting room. The sounds coming from the kitchen showed Kate was making breakfast already. LSR wondered if the food would taste as good as it smelt.
The mere thought of it was making his stomach grumble. It's been a while since he had a well cooked home made food.
Duncan was already awake but was glued to the TV screen snacking on the leftover packet of chips from the night before.
He was about to spank Duncan who was too engrossed in his object of concentration to notice him when a fact made its way into his head.
He was supposed to be sleeping on one of the couches in the sitting room not on his bed in his room. He remembered vividly how he saw Rune's twin sister jumping off of Old Mrs. John's window, how he got scared and decided to come join Duncan in the sitting room.
How on earth did he get to his room?
Kate couldn't have moved him alone, could she?
Maybe she go Duncan's help or something.
" Good morning boy" the police officer who was with the other one to bring him home last night greeted him with a smile.
There was nothing good about the morning, he wanted to say.
Duncan had finally noticed him. " I will keep some of the lobster rolls Kate is preparing for you!" he called behind him as he exit the house.
Just whose friend was Duncan?
Food and now Kate was his buddy. He couldn't even be worried for him or offer to go with him to the precinct.
He would keep some lobster rolls for him?
He would have sent Duncan's ass home before he could even remember to give him the damn rolls.
After a four minutes drive, they arrived at the police house finally.
He was wheeled by one of the officers into Sheriff Blair's office and just like before, all of Old Mrs. John's family were present and so were the burnt haven owners.
The only difference was that every one of the burnt haven owners was here now and that made the atmosphere more suffocating inside Sheriff Blair's semi-large office.
There was no " Good morning boy!" from Sheriff Blair this morning.
The first thing the man said to him was.. " You better have a proper explanation for this"
His heart jumped at that. Did something else happened again?
As he wheeled himself closer to the Sheriff's desk, his eyes met with Rune's ever watery ones and the smile she gave him was the only illumination he needed to brighten his day.
Shyly, he returned her smile. It was a secret form of communication between the both of them that none other present in the office noticed.
There was a PC in front of Sheriff Blair which he swiveled in LSR's direction over the desk.
" Watch" he ordered.
His desperation birthed by curiosity and obedience made him bury his head straight in the screen.
There was a tape playing and it was that of Old Mrs. John in front of the burnt haven owner's home while he and Devarn arrived.
Relieved that he was no longer in trouble, he sighed.
" That is a tape from the CCTV camera covering from the front of the burnt haven owners to yours. However, the former owners of the burnt haven den have fixated on another CCTV camera just inside the compound which was even oblivious to the new owners" Sheriff Blair explained.
LSR knew not how the rest concerned him or his Sheriff Blair's explanation was of any use to him. This tape just showed his testimony wasn't a false one so, the rest of the situation should concern only the other two parties involved.
However, he allowed himself hear the rest of Sheriff Blair's speech.
The PC has been turned to Sheriff Blair now and he gave a tap on one of its buttons and then swivel the system back to him. " Now, watch this," he said.
LSR was wondering whatever it was that made Old Mrs. John's usually loud family this quiet.
Still, he bent his neck and allowed him to watch the video which was more clearly and zoomed than the former tape the sheriff showed him now.
It carried the same scene except for when Old Mrs.John was about to exit the burnt haven gate, she turned and looked up directly into the camera as though she was posing for a selfie. Except for the face that stared into the camera wasn't old Mrs. John's.
Really, what in the bloody hell happened?
He was sure it was Old Mrs. John he saw. Even Duncan saw her too.
It wasn't just him.
Burnt haven den would always be burnt haven den. It was a haunted old house that has been renovated by these people. They forgot they could renovate the house, not its haunted interiors.
That was the only theory that fits as a proper explanation for him. The damn house was haunted.
If not, how did the face he saw become something else?
" I.. I don't understand what happened" he began to stammer. " I swear, it was old Mrs. John I saw!" LSR's voice was roaring in a bid to explain himself.
This was all turning on him and at the end of the day, he would be the bad guy.
" You lied to these people it was Old Mrs. John when it was actually someone else. Someone who is a stranger in this town and had come to offer them poisoned chicken. Are you an accomplice of the culprit? Who is she?" the sheriff began to throw a fit of offensive questions at him.
If he wasn't trying to do this lowly without Zakariah knowing, he would have asked for his lawyer already.
" Duncan, Duncan was there too. You can call on him to testify too" he was ransacking his brain for ways to get himself out of this trouble.
He could not believe the burnt haven owners only stood and were watching silently as the Sheriff accused him of what he knew nothing about.
Wait!
A detail flew to his distressed him. He turned abruptly to the burnt haven owners. " I called her Old Mrs. John and she answered to that name, do you remember?"
Adding to his dismay, none of them answered.
" Rune?" he called, devastated but even she was mute and was avoiding looking at him as though he was an infested piece of shit.
That has been how girls had made him feel all his life- like a piece of crap.
" Why would she not answer your call when it was all a ploy designed by both you and her?" A woman from old Mrs. John's family snapped at him.
Oh, so they were not in rivalry with the burnt haven owners anymore? They were supporting them all and all ganged up against him.
An occurrence that he knew nothing about and was only unfortunate to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This... This was unfair on his part. Very unfair.
A teardrop dropped on his shivering palm.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone