V - Hunting Evil 12

"Is it only me or do you all feel that this is way too much of a coincidence that 6 girls, known for their bullying ways, died less than a week after Jom's sister left the hospital and was disowned by her biological family?" Sky asked. "Coincidence is bullshit!" Phayu said, succinctly. "Do we know her name?" Rain asked, searching the sites in front of him. "Her birth name is Pensri Kotskin," Pai said. "But apparently, she changed it after coming out of the hospital." "PK.. PK..," Rain mumbled under his breath, suddenly standing up and sending his chair reeling backwards. The other three jolted. "Rain, are you alright?" Sky asked. "PK.. Pensri Kotskin! Her initials! She kept her initials!" Rain said, before moving the files around, looking for something.

"Rain! What do you mean?" Phayu asked. "There!" Rain said, pulling out a file labelled Provincial Police Records. "Praew Kasem! She was with me in the Academy. Although my move to the provinces was not planned, I remember her saying that she needed to go back to her family. She was a mediocre student at best, but she was tenacious as hell. She didn't place well in the tests because she tended to lose focus very quickly," he said, pinning her photo to the board. "She is a woman, and a fucking cop!" Pai said, angry beyond belief. "When did she move to Bangkok Rain?" Phayu asked. "And what excuse did she give?" Sky asked. "She moved exactly when Jom did. She said that her parents had passed away, and that she and her brother wanted to move to Bangkok for a new start," Rain said, staring at her picture.

"Which means she knew you?" Sky asked, a thread of fear seeping into his voice. Rain nodded. "Of course. And we were friends of sorts," Rain said, his sorrow a palpable entity in the room. Phayu put his hand on Rain's shoulder, and though there were still sparks, it was muted, almost as if they too felt the need for it to be comfort rather than attraction. "I need to talk to Ple. I need to tell her," Rain said. "Do what you have to, okay?" Phayu said. Rain nodded and stepped out. "We need to find her, before she harms someone else he loves. You both.. keep at it. Find her location as soon as possible. I am going to call Saifah," Phayu said, also taking out his phone, as Pai and Sky nodded.

Ple stood with the rest of the residents and Dr. Soikham and Dr. Thavisin, the Staff they reported to, waiting for coffee. She absently picked her phone when it rang and everyone was startled at the way her voice changed after the initial 'hello'. "Do you think that's her boyfriend?" Mary, one of the residents, asked, as Ple moved away to take the call. Saifah frowned, but was stopped from answering when his one phone buzzes in his pocket. "Phi Chaai?" he asked, surprised. Phayu never called him, usually depending on messages rather than calls, because it was possible they wouldn't be able to pick up their respective phones. So why now?

"Fah, you have a resident named Ple working for you?" Phayu asked, ignoring all social niceties. "I do. Why?" Saifah asked, a little belligerently. How did Yu know her? "Look, keep an eye out for her. Try not to let her get out of your sight. Her brother must be informing her of the same thing, so please," Phayu said. "Her brother? How do you know her brother?" Saifah asked, surprised. Phayu never said please. He always used the older twin privilege or barked out orders. This was new. "He is a cop with me in my precinct; my partner to be exact," Phayu said. Now Saifah was even more dumbfounded. He had visited Phayu's former partner's funeral. Seeing his strong brother break had been one of the most horrible things in his life. He remembered how Phayu had decided to never have a partner again. So who was this?

"I know you have 10000 questions running through your head. I will answer all of them. Just do this for now," Phayu said, cutting the call. Rain was also back in the room. "Ping every last known location for Praew Kasem as soon as possible. Put uniforms on the alert, also send out word to any and all precincts. I want door-to-door canvasing in both her and Jom's last known address. Get her picture out! ASAP!" Phayu said, relaying instructions. "Did you get this from Jom? Is he psychic?" Sky asked, as he and Rain rushed out as well. "No, it didn't seem like. He has walls, but not like Phi's, so things did trickle out. He had no knowledge of being one," Rain said. "Did you ever feel that from Praew?" Pai asked. "No. Not even a latent. So I am pretty sure no," Rain said.

"Then how are she picking the victims?" Phayu asked, running his hands through his hair in frustration. "Rain, tell us everything about her from when you know her," Sky said. "She and I joined the academy on the same day. We were batchmates and classmates, went through all the trainings together. She was an average student, but she had a habit of disassociating, almost as if she was going to another world. When she would come back, she would be confused and disoriented. She almost failed a mock exam because of this and her team, which included me, almost died. I mean, not in real, but like mock deaths. She was our lookout and did not warn us of the infiltration," Rain said, remembering his days at the Academy.

"Rain, how often were you with her when this happened?" Phayu asked, something cold running through him. "All the time," Rain said, as Phayu stared at him, as did the others. "Does that mean that you were always his target?" Pai asked. "I don't think so Phi. From the other six people who dies, weren't they all girls? And from what the reports said, none was a psychic. Those murders were truly the work of a psychopath," Rain said. "Whose voices is she hearing inside her head?" Sky asked. "We may never know. It's not an ideal situation. Sky, Rain, I want you to go put pressure on Jom. See what you can get out of him. She is his sister, he may give you something that may put us on the right track. Pai and I are going to hit the streets. And Rain, I don't care what it is, you will stay with Sky at all times. No putting yourself as bait, you hear me?" Phayu said, his voice brooking no nonsense. Rain nodded reluctantly.

"Khun Jom, we have some more questions. Hope you will answer them honestly," Sky started, looking at the man. Just one night in the holding cell had changed his entire look. He looked positively haggard, but the fatigue was tinged with an inordinate amount of sadness. "I will," he said. "Why didn't you tell us you have a sister?" Rain asked, watching Jom's mouth fall open in surprise. "How did you know?" he said, his breath stuttering. "Khun, please answer," Sky said. "I.. She.. she is not in our registry. She is my uncle's daughter," Jom said. "But she is your twin, isn't it?" Rain said. "I didn't.. I.. I didn't know. Not until the hospital called and said that her parents were dead and that she was admitted there. That's when I first came to know I even had a sister, much less a twin. My parents refused to acknowledge her, and did not allow me to do it either, letting her live alone in that hell for 6 years," Jom said.

"And you never met her in those 6 years?" Sky asked, already knowing the answer. "I did. She was so sad, helpless. She was my twin! How could I ignore her after knowing that? She stayed in because she wanted to get better, but they hurt her more. Do you have any idea how hard it was for her to finally stand and start walking. If they had gotten their way, she would have been paralysed for life. As it is, they wouldn't clear her psych evals," Jom said, sounding bitter. "How did she clear the psych evals for the Academy then?" Rain asked. "In the six years she was in there, she was so depressed that she started going to the dark sites, underworld sites, where she learnt hacking. She hacked into the Academy database to change her reports," Jom said. "You knew all this and you never reported it?" Rain asked. "She begged me not to. She told me that this had been her dream, and she didn't want to give up on that because of something minor like this," Jom replied.

"Minor? Do you have any idea how important psych evals are for a cop? She could have gotten her team killed if she was not in the right mindset," Rain said, standing up and banging on the table, making Jom jump in fright. "And what about those six girls in her school?" Sky asked, putting an arm on Rain's, trying to calm him down. "What about them?" Jom asked, looking confused. "Did she kill them?" Rain asked, throwing the pictures of the girls on the table. "No.. no.. no.. she didn't. She didn't kill anyone, okay? She is a cop, a good person! You can't put this all on her!" Jom said, now badly shaken and distressed. "Then tell us where she is?" Sky asked. "I don't know!" Jom said. "Then tell us the places she is likely to go!" Rain said. "I am not sure. She just goes to work. My Uncle and Aunt lived in Bangkok, we stay at their current house now. That's all I know!" Jom sounded done.

Sky and Rain looked at each other and realised that Jom had nothing more to give them. They asked a uniform to take him back to the cell, making their way to the conference room to update Pai and Phayu. "This is their uncle and aunt's house. This is the Academy, and that way is her precinct. Almost in a straight line, not more than 15 minutes from each other," Rain said, marking the points thoughtfully on the map on his phone. We checked all the three places, but she was nowhere," Pai said. "According to reports, she hasn't been very regular to work lately, citing illness in the family, and that she has to take care of her parents," Phayu spoke up. Clearly the two of them were on speaker, as were Sky and Rain. "Jom also knew nothing, places she could go to," Sky said. "P'Pat found the records she had submitted at the Academy, and then at her first posting. She wrote her biological parents' names, because they were alive. She never updated they were dead, and she didn't have to, because she was not in their registry in the first place," Rain said.

"So she took the best of both worlds, making sure she has an excuse in place," Phayu said. "Yes, and she is definitely in a place of comfort right now; a place where she can be herself. She needs time to do what she has to do. She has Khun Arthit and that journalist," Sky said. "She will only take time with Khun Arthit. The journalist is dispensable. She is not going to keep her for long," Rain said. There was silence at his words. "Are you sure Rain?" Phayu asked. It was not that he did not believe Rain, he was just hoping beyond hope his partner was wrong. "Phi, she has never taken anyone who doesn't fit her mould. The journalist is expendable; the only reason for her disappearance is the fact that she published a news that was not supposed to be. And the logical being still left inside Praew realised that the other woman was a threat. Threats need to be eliminated as soon as possible, right?" Rain asked.

"Okay, that means we are running out of time. We are looking where we can, but she seems to have turned off her cell phone, knowing we could track her. She is not in any of her usual places, which means we need to find a new place, where she could be. Pai and I will stay out, and you both try and figure out where she could be," Phayu said, and the call was disconnected the moment Sky and Rain said yes. The two of them got to work. Rain pulled out a physical map of Bangkok and put it on the table, marking places where Praew frequented. Sky continued to make calls, looking for any clue or any check-in by Praew in the last few days. Rain stared at the map, and his eyes fell on a warehouse that lay around 15 minutes from the Academy. It was also a waterfront warehouse, and Rain could almost feel the lapping of the water at the ports.

His gaze sharpened when he realised that the warehouse was not marked on Google maps. He immediately pulled up it's history and read in growing horror. The warehouse had been abandoned several years ago. It was purchased 10 years ago by a container company named 'Shavetail' Corporation, another commonly used military term. He looked up at Sky, and then back at the map. He picked up his phone and sent Ple a message. Then he switched it off, putting it on the table. He stood up, and saw that Sky was still busy. He quickly made his way to the door before he lost his nerve. "We may have something Rain," Sky said. "Rain?" He looked up when there was no response. He rushed out of the conference room as soon as he saw Rain's phone on the table. "P'Pran! Have you see Rain?" he asked, sounding mad, and feeling desperate when Pran shook his head with a frown. He pulled out his own phone, still holding Rain's in one hand. "P'Phayu? Rain is gone!" he said.

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