Two months ago...
She knew what she needed to do for now.
After speaking to the killer, the next thing she did was get into her car, near the entrance of the park, and drive home. Joseph welcomed her. He was home, but she somehow had hoped he wouldn't be, although only love could heal her then.
"Ari, you look tired," he told her immediately as they kissed right after she entered. She smiled sweetly. She didn't know what she was doing to him, and she hadn't noticed what she had been doing to them both, either.
Present time, London...
After Simon Taylor had been arrested, he had been taken right to the central London investigation quarters, where Ariana had been held previously. He was thinking of her, and he was aware he would have to face her and tell her the whole truth, soon. He didn't know what would happen to him, though. He knew that these policemen knew a lot about him and knew about the most precious thing to him, his mind-erasing powers, and he pondered about it and wondered if that was why they tied a black, thick, inescapable blindfold around his blue, controlling eyes. They thought his power worked through his eyes probably, and he smiled inwardly at that, because he still was harboring a wish to escape possible death and freed himself. He would have to lead them to believe that was indeed how his power worked, then catch them off guard and convince them to untie his hands. They didn't know his power worked through a touch of the hand on the forehead. His hands were handcuffed at his back, of course, and that was a problem, but he'd have to find a chance. Death wasn't what he feared but he knew he wouldn't be killed, because of his almost unique but certainly otherworldly power. He didn't want to end up being a lab-rat, experiment prisoner for the rest of his life. Getting arrested was a necessary step so all the truth could come out, but he'd have to disappear... and break Ariana's heart.
In the dark, he felt himself being led through cars, buildings and rooms. He sniffed the different smells, and tried to keep calm at the fact that he couldn't see and was made blind. His power burned in his hands, but he knew he'd bestow it dearly to those cops. That's how he finally ended up being made to sit down in a chair, in a privy interrogation room, watched by a few guards, with a keen investigator, one of London's best, across from him. He could smell them and their fear of him, because they knew he held that power. It was all over the news, and after Bernard Johnson's death, Johnson Electronics' painstaking research about the mind-erasing power came out, followed by the sundry chips filled produced by the company. Bernard had wanted to give himself and his most trusted allies that power, but he died early. Simon smiled slightly at the thought, no caring that the cops could see it. He himself had stolen a dozen of those chips from the company, before Bernard's death.
''Hm, hello, Mister Simon Taylor..." he heard a very deep, gruff voice of an old man. ''Or should I say Julien Stynes."
Simon kept himself collected. He had expected they got all the information that existed about him and his family, by now.
''I am mister Djimon Thompson, head investigatior presiding over the London quarters," the man said in an old, gruffy voice. What an odd name he had, Simon thought. "You are 25 years old, correct?"
The first question. His exact age. How odd. They could've actually asked him what his favorite color was.
"Yeah," is voice came out, delayed, to the darkness he couldn't see. He felt as if he was straying away from himself. He had never been so vulnerable.
"You were born in Big Bucharest to... Richard Stynes and miss Priscilla - that's all we know about her because your parents weren't wed, and when Mister Bernard Johnson sent troops to capture you and your family, she went missing."
His mother, his mother. He clenched his fist angrily, feeling a heaviness in his chest. He could feel the cops' prying eyes watching him.
His story was one of revenge that he could never get happiness with his parents, and a normal childhood, that his father and grandfather were killed, and that his father and mother couldn't be together. All because of Bernard Johnson.
That's why everyone had to die. He heard the cop's intaking of a breath before he spoke:
"Do you remember at all the moment you and your family were captured?"
Simon breathed, pondering his response, then smiled: "No. I've erased that memory myself."
"But we cannot verify that," the old man retorted, hotly. He didn't insist more on the subject, since this was only a first, more general investigation. "Next question. Besides youself, your father, Richard Stynes, and your grandfather, mister Chuck Stynes, are the only people whom you know that have this... amnesya-inducing, mind erasing power?"
"Yes."
"Ok. You were eleven to thirteen years old while you were held in captivity. Do you remember how you were treated, or what was done to you?"
Simon wanted to laugh at that nerve-wrecking question. These cops were being suspiciously nice in starting this investigation from the bottom-up, with what was done wrong to Simon. But Simon could seet this was all made-up, and just a tactic. What the cops were firstly really interested in was his lurid power which would secure jobs for a lot of scientists and staff in the future, would bring in money and fame. Secondly, they wanted to finally solve and be done with the VELLA and Big B. cases, avenge fellow detective Archie Carolan, his half-brother, and finally learn why Ariana Johnson did what she did and what was up with her.
Ariana Johnson's fate and his were one.
"Yeah, I remember a part of it," is what he said.
"Elaborate." The investigator flourished his pen in a forward gesture.
"They kept me in this cellar underground, tied up and blindfolded, and ran a few dozen shitty tests, some of 'em standard and some of 'em more... dedicated. Their tests revolved on seeing what was it that made me have this power- if my brain was different or something. So one day they shaved me naked and drilled a hole in my head while I was completely immobilized...but without anesthesia. They ran tests on my brain and, apparently couldn't pinpoint out the cause of my power. I had a normal, regular brain, they said," Simon explained, in the darkness. He wished he could see the cop investigating him.
"Hmm," Djimon murmured. "You wrote in that mail to Ariana Johnson that you used to hang out with her while you were held there, when her father let you out. How did he trust you outside, with his only daughter, while you had... that power?"
Simon tasted the strange tone the cop spoke in especially when he mentioned the mind-erasing power.
"Bernard Johnson threatened me with the lives of my father and grandfather- whom he killed anyway, nonetheless..." Simon spoke calmly, collected all the time. But he was burning inside.
"He threated you that he would kill them if you hurt Ariana or escaped, right?" Djimon added.
"Yes."
"How, and when did you learn mister Johnson killed them?"
Simon took a deep breath. It was very unpleasant for him to talk about all of this, but that was why he was here. To tell the truth. That was why he let himself be taken into custody, after Ariana's arrest.
"Well, Bernard's plan was, from the start, to kill them, in order to get enough DNA to make those chips, as you already certainly know. What they came to learn in their years' long experiments was the needed substance to transmit the power was the blood. So one day, he came personally and- and told me to my face that they were dead... And his company would produce those chips." Simon trailed off and felt his own heart beating. This was stressful.
"Was there more you wanted to say, Simon? Imma keep calling you that, Simon," the cop said, a note of false kindness in his voice.
"Bernard told me this directly because he tried to manipulate me into being his slave - he didn't want to kill me too, but use me to erase memories of others for him, at least until he would get around to have that power himself. He even tried to throw me a generous deal."
"What was the deal and, did you take it?"
"Yes," Simon said bluntly. "For starters, he promised me that if I would help him willingly, he would let me be more free and let me live in his house, not holed up in a cage..." Simon pondered clearly and deeply before speaking next. He alternated his story to make them really believe the power worked through the eyes, not the hands. "However, he knew he would have to keep me partly restrained, so I couldn't use my power against him. He blindfolded me when I wasn't required to erase someone's memories, and tied me up when I was alone."
The investigator thought over the information he got, having noticed that the killer spoke quite freely. He didn't need to be coerced and he wondered whether he was lying. But he knew, they would get to the bottom of him, and Simon would get the justice he deserved.
"Alstromeria Johnson," he said, then paused deadly. He wanted to register Simon's body language and all else. Simon remained overall unmoved.
"What was your relationship with her before her death?"
Simon thought of Alstromeria. She was a very beautiful woman, naturally light blonde, with deep blue eyes. Ariana resembled her completely, only Alstromeria wore a nice pair of glasses.
She was a scientist, a very smart well-read, and above all, kind person. Even despite her career, though, when she accidentally learned about her husband's secret experiments, about the fact that he killed two people in their company cellar and that he was keeping me prisoner, all for an otherworldly power, she wanted to run to the police and let everyone know her husband was a murderer. She didn't care about this power, and that it could help her career and get her worldwide famous.
"It may sound strange, but I saw Alstromeria as a mother, more than my own mother whom I don't recall... And Ariana as a sister. They were my only consolation from the life I was living. Alstromeria was a wonderful woman, she sometimes invited me to lunch and dinner, when she had the time to be home. I couldn't tell them anything about what I was going through, though, because I didn't want to put them in danger," Simon narrated pleasantly. He liked to talk about Alstromeria.
"Do you remember the time when Alstromeria was murdered?"
"Yes," Simon said, with a smile. "I was up in my room at that time. I had already quite earned Bernard's trust then, I remember. I didn't get to see the murder happen, so you know, but I heard the shot. I remember that I knew, somehow, that it was her. A quarter later, Bernard came up and brought Ariana Johnson to me..." Simon trailed off.
The investigator was thrilled.
"And what happened next?"
"He made me erase Ariana's memory of the crime. I remember now, Ariana's face, she was crying and she was terrified of her own father, and on the verge of fainting. My guard took my blindfold off and so I took away not just her memory of her mother's death, but her memories of me. She calmed down and fainted."
Simon recalled that dreadful day.
The investigator wrote everything down.