This Is Why I Hate You Too

18. Patterns, Patterns, Patterns

"Okay, let me get a few things straight,"

After she returned from her trip to New York, Ivy brought Ashley, Corey and Rachel to an unknown public library out of town—an abandoned one, at that. She was finally starting the investigation into Arthur Lindfelt after a while, and she had everything she needed to do it; the most important thing being proof that he was alive.

"One, any interrogations that happen will happen here," Ivy continued. "This situation is insane, and people overhearing it isn't gonna help, so everything we're doing, we're doing here, or my house, or Ashley's apartment. Two, before any of you say anything, I know I'm not qualified to do this; we'll get to that in a minute. Three, we are going to bring the cops in this; we have to, and if I had my way, we wouldn't need to. Four, and most importantly, we're not making this investigation about Arthur killing his father."

"What is it about then?" Corey asked.

"I'm glad you asked—it's about possible corruption in the Air Force that led to the overlooking of Arthur's crimes."

Ashley, Corey and Rachel all looked back at her in confusion.

"I—I'll let him explain it,"

Ivy made room for her guest—a tall, pale-skinned man in a gray suit draped under a black coat. A lock of his brown hair touched his face, and a tense look appeared in his deep, umber-colored eyes, but there still remained a warmth to them. He didn't smile at the femmes, however.

"This is my friend, Matt Tyler," Ivy said, introducing him. "Matt, these are my friends," she pointed to each of them, "Ashley Chu, Corey Jeffries and Rachel Norman."

"Hello, everyone," Matt said in a low voice.

"If you don't know, Matt's an FBI agent; he helped me investigate my mother's poisoning back in 2013. Spoiler alert, the poison wasn't even meant for her. Anyway—"

"Hold on," Corey interrupted her. "You just told us that your mom got poisoned and it wasn't even meant for her. What the hell happened?"

"I'll tell you about it eventually," Ivy answered them. "Anyway, back to me, Matt and I have been friends since we were both twenty. He looks intimidating as hell, but he's actually really sweet. Right, Andrew?"

"That's true." Everyone turned to Andrew as he said that; he was sitting with his feet resting on a table reading Othello.

"I was starting to wonder where he went," Ashley thought.

"Now, Matt, it looks like the basis of our investigation seems. . overwhelming," Ivy prefaced, "can you explain it more?"

"Sure." Matt pulled a seat for himself. "This investigation isn't going to center Arthur raping Ashley while serving in the Air Force," Matt replied. "It's about possible corruption within the Air Force that led to him being excused despite his numerous known felonies. It's also about possible corruption in the Orange Police Department that led to him not getting arrested for animal cruelty. Him killing a cat in front of Ashley back in Orange County was supposed to put him in prison, so was him raping her, but. . ."

"Nothing happened," Rachel finished his sentence, "they just let him walk around like he didn't do anything to her."

"Exactly. This situation entails that someone in the Air Force, possibly one of Arthur's superiors, was bribed or blackmailed into keeping his arrest a secret. In addition to that, someone might've been able to protect Arthur from being investigated by Southfort's police department for what happened on April 10th. That is going to be our main focus for this investigation—unless we come across anything new on our way. Any questions?"