Better Off Dead

Chapter Fourteen: Who Wouldn't Sign Up For That?

"A murder?" Devon's voice was as blank as his face. "That you witnessed in the form of shadows?"

"Yeah..." Trying to describe the event the next morning, I had to admit that it wasn't exactly convincing evidence. It sounded more like a shadow puppet show than a real crime. But it was definitely murder. I was entirely confident about that.

"Honestly it sounds a bit farfetched. It would take a lot of force to break someone's neck like that."

I nodded again. "But you could do it. Especially with this." I waved my meat tentacle. It had a lot more force than a regular arm.

He nodded back. "Alright. I will look into both of the people you found."

I sighed. This had all gotten so out of control. It was supposed to be so simple. This was not simple at all. It's all fun and games until you witness a spine-snapping murder.

Devon hammered away at his keys for several minutes but finally closed the laptop and folded his hands over them. "I finished looking up our two individuals." He nodded in a calm and reassuring manner. Things were okay after all. "Both of them are missing."

Less okay.

"Missing, or..?"

"Only a day has passed. Missing does not necessarily mean dead." He gave another calm nod. "Although that is the most likely explanation."

"You're really not a comforting person." I said. If he had news like that to share, he should stop looking so damn serene all the time. It was confusing.

His face stayed impassive, but his voice turned sarcastic. "If that was meant to surprise me, you will find yourself disappointed."

My facial expression was a lot less calm than his, but it went unnoticed. My face was obscured by my hood, and besides that, you can't be very expressive with half a face. You have half as much ability to show emotion, but it doesn't even matter because no one is staring at that half. So in a weird way, I guess I had an unreadable expression all the time too. Which didn't make me feel any better.

He turned serious again. "Since the one who shot you had a replaced limb, I looked into it. He lost his hand in an armed robbery. He ended up less armed than he expected."

That might have been funny, if everything wasn't terrible. "What?"

"He was in contact with Dr. Moore, and it looks like money changed hands. I imagine the scientist was making a business of it. A criminal comes to the island, gets a new hand, no records. It has its appeal."

"Paying to have some random scientist inject you with science you don't even understand. So great. Who wouldn't sign up for that?"

I was not excited to learn more about the scientist's plans. Profiteering off of things he didn't understand? What could possibly go wrong?

Scientists were a mystery to me.