🌹~PART TWO~🥀
Knott swiftly sat in front of Kongpob, but the youth still insisted on one condition, "The wound inflicted by Arthit onto Jay is not deep. Jay was murdered by Stud, so Arthit should not be convicted of any crime."
Before Knott could even formulate a response to Kongpob, Kongpob's lawyer interjected, "I understand your concern. Don't worry, if the police officers do level charges against Arthit and attempt to prosecute him, I guarantee that I would be more than capable of mounting a successful defense for Arthit."
Knott hesitated before caving, "What I'm about to disclose is not appropriate given my role as a police officer. However – I just wanted to let you know that we do not, at present, have any evidence on hand which proves that Arthit had injured or murdered Jay. In particular, we are especially lacking in physical evidence."
Upon receiving Knott's confirmation, Kongpob nodded.
He wasn't responsible for Jay's murder.
By the time he had arrived at the hill behind the school compound, Jay was already dead.
He conducted a quick check of Jay's corpse, and saw that there was only one single wound which had been inflicted onto Jay. It was a very deep cut. Aside from that, he was simply unable to locate any other cuts or open wounds on Jay's corpse. If Arthit had used a knife to stab Jay, the necessary inference to be made was that Arthit had, whilst tussling with Jay, unintentionally murdered him.
There was a bloodied hand print on Jay's shirt. Stretching out his hand, Kongpob compared the size of the bloodied hand print against his, and immediately concluded that the hand print belonged to Arthit.
Curious, Knott asked Kongpob what he felt upon making such a discovery. Kongpob responded,
He was extremely calm. For the minutest second, Kongpob wanted to lodge a police report, but that idea was quickly overturned. Involving the police officers meant that Arthit's action of bringing a knife to meet Jay would be placed under extreme scrutiny – the police officers would investigate whether, from an objective point of view, Jay evinced any intention and/or inclination of wanting to murder or cause grievous harm to Arthit, and the police officers would, more likely than not, conclude that there was no such intention and/or inclination – so the argument of 'self-defense' is unlikely to work. Regardless of whether the police officers discovered that Jay was the mastermind behind Arthit's bullying incident, or questioned Arthit's motives in bringing a knife to meet Jay, both of these clues would cause irreparable damage and harm to Arthit's credibility.
Kongpob hurriedly concocted a plan – to disguise himself as the raincoat man. Without a moment's hesitation, Kongpob returned home and retrieved the vibrator which his mae had left in the drawer, and utilized the vibrator to create a false image of Jay having been sexually assaulted. Stud possessed numerous raincoats which were near identical to each other; coincidentally, Kongpob had earlier borrowed one such raincoat from Stud, and simply hadn't found the time to return it to Stud. Kongpob decided to put this particular raincoat to good use, and pressed Jay's fingernails against the raincoat, causing several scratch marks to be left on the raincoat.
Having created sufficient "evidence" of a struggle between the raincoat man and Jay, Kongpob proceeded to transport Jay's corpse to the upper reaches of the Chomphu river, and buried Jay within the marsh – he had hoped that the marsh would assist to preserve Jay's corpse, so that in the event Jay's corpse was discovered in the future, the police officers would be able to quickly discover that the murderer was a male. However, he had little choice but to strip Jay naked – the shirt had to be removed, as it contained Arthit's hand print.
He knew that the torrential downpour that night would cover his motorcycle tracks; he also knew, that there was little to no human traffic in the area surrounding the marsh – the best outcome of his plan was that, Jay's corpse would remain quietly hidden forever.
But, who could have predicted that one of Jay's shoes would fall into the gushing river below; and that the Chomphu Bridge would collapse one night, inadvertently resulting in the construction workers crowding the area near the marsh?
Jay's corpse was discovered, and Kongpob had little choice but to impersonate the raincoat man. Because, as Kongpob, he had no motivation to murder Jay, and the police officers were bound to discover the numerous links between Jay and Arthit. Only by becoming the raincoat man, could Kongpob possess sufficient motivation to murder Jay, and focus the police officers' attention towards himself.
Knott asked when Kongpob discovered that Stud was the raincoat man.
Kongpob replied – the second time Stud committed rape. At that time, the victim didn't lodge a police report; subsequently, Kongpob took advantage of this fact by divulging the victim's name to the police officers, thus offering further, irrefutable evidence that he was the raincoat man.
At that time, Stud had accidentally sliced himself with the knife. Afraid to head to the hospital, Stud had requested for Kongpob to assist in the purchase of bandages and various ointments and creams to stop the bleeding. Kongpob had lashed out at Stud then, and warned him against continuing his crimes. But Stud paid no heed to Kongpob, and when he committed his crime the third time, he continued to ask Kongpob to purchase medicine on his behalf.
Kongpob told Knott, that he could have, in actuality, spared Stud's life.
But, from the moment he discovered Arthit's strange, uncontrollable fear upon seeing Stud, he formed a vague suspicion that Stud was part of the group of perpetrators who had participated in the bullying incident.
Additionally, he was worried that Stud may not be able to control himself, and continue to force himself on other young girls or boys in the future. This would then result in suspicions and doubts being cast on Kongpob's identity as the raincoat man, and his entire plan would come to nothing.
Late one night, Kongpob met up with Stud.
He had no choice – Stud would only cease his criminal acts only when he was dead; and Kongpob's impersonation as the raincoat man would only succeed if Stud ceased to commit his criminal acts once Kongpob was caught.
However, Kongpob discovered, that he was unable to bring himself to murder Stud.
Stud had preoccupied himself with playing video games earlier that night, and had just commenced wolfing down his supper when Kongpob arrived. Stud was extremely excited to see Kongpob after such a long period of time, and enthusiastically placed his arm over Kongpob's shoulders whilst hollering "P' Ai Kong". Although Stud was, in actuality, the oldest amongst the three of them, he had no relatives and friends, and was frequently tormented and bullied in the welfare center. He only had Em and Kongpob, and often consulted Kongpob whenever he encountered a difficult, or sticky problem. Gradually, he began to address Kongpob as P' Ai Kong when they are together.
Although Kongpob was younger than Stud, the latter's habit of addressing him as P' Ai Kong caused him to slowly perceive Stud as a younger brother, and he eventually developed a habit of taking particular care of Stud. He just couldn't bring himself to murder Stud.
Kongpob wrestled with his inner demons for an extremely long time, before finally deciding to give up on his plan. Turning to Stud, he told him to make a run for it and leave Lampang.
He told Stud, that if he continued to stay in Lampang, Stud's identity as a raincoat man was bound to be exposed one day. Kongpob persuaded Stud to leave Lampang, and to leave his life of crime, together with his identity as the raincoat man, behind in Lampang. If Stud continued to commit his criminal acts, it was inevitable that he would be caught and apprehended by the police officers one day – that, was the will of Heaven. After all, although Heaven's net had wide meshes, nothing escapes from it. And even if Stud, being unable to exercise sufficient self-control, one day chooses to continue to sexually harass others, Kongpob warned Stud against using the raincoat as a disguise; and even if Stud was apprehended by the police officers, Kongpob stressed that he should never, ever, admit that he was the real culprit in the case of the raincoat man in Lampang.
Stud saw the sense in Kongpob's advice, and agreed to do as Kongpob said. Wasting no time, he picked up his mobile phone and bade farewell to Em over the phone.
The two youths commenced their final drinking session.
As Arthit was still at home, Kongpob was keen to conclude the drinking session and return home as soon as possible. However, just before he left, Kongpob made a snap decision to ask Stud – whether, on the night Arthit was bullied, Stud had stood by and watched as others tortured him, and whether Stud himself had committed indecent acts against, and assaulted, Arthit.
However, before Kongpob was able to ask the question, Stud spoke, "I will listen to you. But, I must say, I do think that I have extremely good luck. After all, I don't leave behind any clues or evidence which point towards me whenever I opt to commit a crime. This explains why I have managed to remain hidden and out of the police officers' radar till now."
Unable to mask the unmistakable pride in his voice, Stud gloated, "When I was the raincoat man, nobody was able to pinpoint me as the criminal, and even when I subsequently murdered someone, nobody was able to conclusive identify me either."
Jolted from his train of thought, Kongpob asked, "Murdered someone?"
"Yes – Jay."
Stud placed his cup of beer down on the table. He knew that Jay had an extremely fiery temper, and thought that it would be extremely interesting to get it on with someone like Jay. Furthermore, given that Jay frequently bullied and tormented other people, it was unlikely that he would turn to the police for help – after all, it would be extremely embarrassing if word (that he <Jay> had sought the assistance of the police officers) got out, and he would lose his standing and reputation amongst their group of friends.
At that time, Jay had been injured by Arthit, and blood continually seeped out from the wound on his chest. He was about to utilize his mobile phone to call for help when Stud appeared. Stud swiftly gagged Jay with a piece of cloth and bound his hands and legs together before assaulting him.
After, when he was finally done, Stud readied himself to leave. Just that, at that very moment, the piece of cloth which had been used to gag Jay loosened. Jay lunged himself at Stud and bit down on his sanitary mask, exposing Stud's true identity. Despite the loose piece of cloth which continued to gag Jay, Stud was nevertheless able to discern from Jay's muffled words, his promise to castrate Stud as revenge for harassing him.
Not having encountered such a situation before, Stud blanked out for a good ten seconds. However, he soon regained his composure, and slowly reinserted his knife into the wound which Arthit had inflicted onto Jay, before giving it another good, hard stab.
Picking up a tiny, wooden toothpick, Stud utilized the toothpick to stab at a crack in the table. The toothpick pierced the crack in the table for a split second before finally collapsing and lying snugly in the crack.
P' Ai Kong, it's pretty odd, isn't it? The curvature, the length, and even the width of my knife, all of it fit Jay's wound perfectly; it was as though Jay's wound was a sheath for my knife! We bought that knife together sometime back, and I must say, it truly is my lucky knife! Unfortunately, because the knife got stained with Jay's blood, I had no choice but to dispose of the knife in the river. You wouldn't blame me, right? — Ah, the knife really brought me insanely good luck, because subsequently, when I returned to the hill behind the school compound, I discovered that Jay's corpse had gone missing! I suspect that the boy whom Jay met earlier mistakenly thought of himself as the culprit responsible for Jay's death, and got his family members and relatives to assist in disposing of the corpse.
Kongpob was unable to describe his feelings at that point in time.
In the end, the true culprit responsible for Jay's death, is NOT Arthit, but is Stud.
Stud continued gleefully, "If the police officers accuse me of murdering Jay, I will simply pin the blame onto the boy whom Jay met earlier, and claim that I only committed the lesser crime of raping Jay at a point in time when he was suffering from fatal injuries and bleeding profusely. That boy will have little choice but to be my scapegoat, and take the rap for Jay's murder. Oh, although there were several bruises on Jay's corpse, it wasn't caused by me – those bruises were a result of the struggle the boy against Jay the night before, hahaha!"
Kongpob's senses felt extremely dulled from the alcohol. Propping his head up with one arm, Kongpob lapsed into a lengthy silence before continuing, "The night before – what do you mean by that?"
"Ah, the night before, I overheard Jay taunting the boy, and challenging the boy to meet him at the hill behind the school compound the next day."
Stud was extremely drunk at this point in time, and simply shook his head whilst chuckling with laughter.
"I was walking past a dark and dingy alley when, as luck would have it, I saw a group of boys dragging another boy who was entirely naked through the alley, all the whilst hollering that they were selling the naked boy for cheap.
There were a couple of male youths who, out of nervousness, took a few reluctant glances at the boy before leaving, whilst others, like me, felt that it would be a waste not to take advantage of the freebie that had been presented before us. Oh, I even recorded a video of the entire incident, would you like to take a look at it?"
Before Kongpob could respond, Stud had already whipped out his phone and started to broadcast the video. The arrogant and raucous laughter of the male youths rang out in sharp clarity, none of their words betraying any sense of shame, or pity.
"– Bring him over here, I'mma kiss him."
"What the fvck, he collapsed again. Bloody hell, I can't even get him to stand upright even though I'm using my arms to support him – is he playing dead?"
"Did the boys earlier dragging him around inadvertently knocked him into a comatose state? I have been touching him all over for a while now, but he's as unresponsive as a dead kitten. Ah, what a let down."
"Oh wow, his body are as smooth as baby's skin."
Kongpob immediately recognized Stud as the person making the final, lewd comment.
When Stud heard his own voice, he began to shake uncontrollably with laughter, and began to enthusiastically recount to Kongpob, just how smooth and tender the boy's delicate, porcelain body was, and how, just by merely caressing his frail body, and kissing him, the sexually inexperienced male youths were unable to repress themselves from releasing their fluids.
There were a few who were extremely useless and had, during the process of releasing, inadvertently caused a few drops of their bodily fluid to splatter onto their companions' hands. This very nearly caused the hot-headed youths to engage in a fight, and they eventually departed from the alley cross and crabby. Only he, Stud, was the "best" amongst all of them – he had actually managed to splatter his bodily fluid all over the young boy's face.
Stud continued his obscene and vulgar description of the boy's soft skin ad intricate body. He didn't know, that the boy was Kongpob's precious and prized treasure, that the boy was someone whom Kongpob loved deeply, and dearly.
He didn't notice, the gradual reddening of Kongpob's eyes;
He didn't know, that on that fateful night, when he reached home and took out his mobile phone to touch himself whilst watching the video of Arthit's frail and naked body, there was another male youth at the other end of Lampang who was forced to clutch a limp and lifeless boy who continually slid down the motorcycle of the male youth as he drove, howling out in sorrow as the rain unrelentingly beat down on them.
Perhaps it was due to the alcohol, but when Kongpob propped himself up from the seat, his skinny frame rocked with minor trembles.
Stud was entirely focused on the video, his voice raised in excitement as he hollered at the screen, "Force his mouth open!"
He didn't notice Kongpob slowly stooping over the toolbox, and eventually grabbing a wrench from within. When Kongpob finally straightened up and raised his head, silent streams of tears flowed down his face. And, without skipping a beat, Kongpob raised his arm, and brought the wrench down on Stud's head.
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Having finished listening to Kongpob's recount of the entire incident, Knott lapsed into an extended silence.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Kongpob's lawyer inquired, "Why didn't you confess earlier? Why couldn't you simply tell the police, from the start, that Stud is the sole culprit responsible for the crimes of the raincoat man, and for Jay's murder?"
"There's no need to." Kongpob responded matter-of-factly. "The police officers wouldn't believe me even if I told them."
If Stud was still alive, and Kongpob so chose to snitch on Stud, Stud would be placed, once more, in a position which granted him the power to hurt Arthit. He would be able to implicate Arthit in Jay's murder, and cause him to undergo countless rounds of unrelenting, stressful interrogations. After all, Arthit did voluntarily bring a knife to meet Jay that day – this was an indisputable fact which would be extremely tough to explain and/or justify; Jay's fierce and demanding parents would never let Arthit off the hook, and a deeper analysis of Arthit's motives would result in the discovery of the bullying incident which Arthit had suffered at the hands of Jay (resulting, in turn, in a greater number of people learning about the bullying incident). Even if, for whatever reason, Arthit managed to craft an acceptable and understandable explanation, the wound which the younger inflicted onto Jay may be the subject of a separate criminal charge – and Kongpob was simply unable to allow even the slightest blemish on Arthit's records. This was why, even prior to confessing the truth of the entire incident to Knott, Kongpob insisted that Arthit was not to be convicted of any crime.
But, Stud was dead; even if Kongpob chose to snitch on Stud and pinned the blame onto him, dead men tell no tales – so why would anyone chose to believe in what Kongpob said? Rather, people were more likely to be believe that Kongpob was simply divesting himself of the blame in an attempt to mitigate the punishment to be imposed onto him.
To make matters worse, Kongpob was a perfect fit for the criminal profile of the raincoat man which Senior Prem produced – Kongpob's mae was a prostitute, whilst his father was a rapist; given that Kongpob grew up in such a dysfunctional family, it would be nobody's surprise even if he did turn out to be a criminal. His words, unfortunately, would have little to no credibility.
One "single" wound, caused by two different people using identical knives. With Jay's corpse already showing the initial signs of decay (and increasing the difficulty of forensic pathologist making a finding of there being, in actuality, 'two' wounds) who would still place faith in Kongpob's words?
Although Kongpob couldn't care less about the police officers placing faith (or the lack thereof) in his words, he couldn't bring himself to let Arthit bear any risk. Even if the risk that Arthit bore was extremely remote in nature, and was unlikely to materialize into any actual danger, Kongpob was still extremely averse to the idea.
No. Kongpob would rather grit his teeth and deny all accusations and/or suggestions which implicated Arthit – even if so doing cost him a lifetime of freedom.
In the end, Arthit and Kongpob's actions boiled down to two words:- One trusted; whilst the other protected.
Knott couldn't help but admit, that he had been utterly, and absolutely, defeated by Kongpob.
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Kongpob's lawyer heaved a huge sigh of relief. However, Knott was unable to relax just yet; although Kongpob had retracted his confession, Knott still had to crack his brain over locating and amassing physical evidence which helped to showcase Kongpob's innocence.
Just then, Knott's mobile phone rang once more. Knott picked up his mobile phone, and heard Lawan's uncharacteristically soft and quiet voice, "P' Knott."
Mildly surprised at Lawan's sudden change, Knott responded, "What's up?"
"The interns from the forensic department discovered a pair of shoes in Stud's apartment – based on their preliminary analysis, the mud that had been left on the shoes appears to contain faint traces of blood stains. They are in the process of sending the shoes back to the police station for further testing, in order to determine the soil composition of the dried mud, and the identity of the person whose DNA corresponds with the DNA of the newly uncovered blood stains. The chief has already given an order to conduct a new, thorough search of the hill behind the school compound."
Knott clenched his fists tightly together, and heaved out a deep, labored breath.
"Umm...Phi Ittikorn."
Knott turned towards Lawan, patiently waiting for her to complete her sentence. Upon realizing that Lawan had no intention of continuing the conversation, Knott asked, "Is anything the matter?"
"Nope. It's just that I was struck by a sudden feeling – that you have a really, really nice-sounding name. "
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[A/N]: The name Ittikorn represents ambition, independence, strength, reliability, determination and professionalism. A stubborn and passionately willful fighter who can rise mountains with his determination. To Lawan, Knott Ittikorn has really showcased himself as a true personification and symbolization of his determination to achieve justice, and has truly lived up to his name.
What do you think about this chapter? Your comments are always welcomed 💜
29/3/2022