Chapter 4
A couple of weeks after Victor told him about his past life as a cop, he received a phone call from him. It wasn't long before he got called into the office for a meeting about his past. He never expected anything good.
"So, you're telling me", Victor stated matter of factly, "that you used to work for the police force. And now that you're back in town to start your career again, you decide to stalk me?"
"You can stop calling me creepy", the criminal replied defensively, "why would I bother stalking someone who lives alone anyway? No offense".
"None taken", Victor said, "so why are you bothering me anyways? I already told you that I am not interested in what happens to me, which is why you shouldn't even consider bothering me anymore."
"Why do you keep saying that?! You seem to know all sorts of stuff", the man spat back angrily, "you must have a lot of secrets. I bet you're hiding something big, like maybe you killed somebody and now you're just waiting for the cops to find you."
"No, I didn't kill anybody," Victor shook his head. He hated lying to everyone. It was bad enough when it came to people he didn't particularly trust, he didn't want to lie to his friends too.
The criminal raised an eyebrow, "then why have you been acting so weird?"
"It's because you scared the shit out of me. You're just really scary!", Victor exclaimed exasperatedly.
"Well, sorry that I don't want some random cop barging into my home, knocking on the door and asking me if I'm a killer", the criminal sneered.
"Well that's what I've been doing! All day long. I thought that I was going crazy!", Victor said, "I'm going crazy".
"Then why are you here, Detective?", the criminal growled.
"Because you asked me to stay!", Victor exclaimed.
"But you could have easily gone anywhere. Why are you still hanging out here, wasting your time with a bunch of crazy people?!"
"You have the strangest definition of crazy, Mr...", Victor trailed off.
"Just call me Jäger", he answered.
"Alright", Victor nodded his head and turned away from the detective, "call me Victor."
Jäger scowled as he leaned against the wall, "whatever Detective. You know you won't ever catch me. I'm going to make you watch me get away and then I'll go and live happily ever after", he laughed.
"Are you serious right now? I swear to god, if you try anything stupid and hurt anyone, I will hunt you down and kick your ass myself", Victor threatened.
Jäger laughed louder.
As soon as Jäger left the room, Victor slammed the front door shut behind him. He breathed deeply before walking over to where Felix was standing, leaning against the countertop, sipping tea.
"What happened?", Hugo asked, furrowing his eyebrows together, concerned by Victor's behaviour.
"Nothing", Victor simply whispered and took a seat next to him.
"Don't lie to me Victor", Hugo insisted.
"I'm not lying", he mumbled.
"Is there something else?", Hugo pressed, noticing that his friend didn't seem to be himself lately.
"I don't want to talk about it. Let's just forget this whole thing ever happened".
"But I wanna know everything Victor", Hugo whined, "please don't make me suffer by not sharing my problems, I need to know them".
Victor chuckled quietly, placing his elbows on the table and resting his face in his palms, "I'm going to make you suffer by telling you everything. Just let me think for a moment. Okay"?
"Okay", Hugo agreed.
Victor took a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly to gather his thoughts. When he finally opened his eyes again, he began to recount the events of the afternoon to Hugo. The young man listened intently, occasionally making comments.
"And then that asshole just showed up at my apartment demanding me to help him kill his ex!", Victor finished.
"Do you think that's what he was talking about?", Hugo asked.
"Of course not", Victor huffed, "how the hell would he kill her, if she was already dead? He probably didn't have time, otherwise he wouldn't have asked me to come along with him."
"You think so?", Hugo asked, obviously skeptical.
Victor narrowed his eyes at the younger man, "don't be stupid. Of course I do".
"Okay... Well, did you find anything?"
Victor shook his head, "he didn't show me any of the crime scene photos or anything like that. I did manage to pickpocket him from behind and I found something that looks like blood", he explained.
"Blood?", Hugo perked up, "does it look like yours? Are you alright?"
Victor scoffed sarcastically, "no. His is way cleaner than mine. It looked fresh, like someone spilled it recently", he explained.
"That doesn't make sense", Hugo stated.
"Yeah", Victor sighed in annoyance, "it doesn't".
"If there isn't any evidence that could link you to the victim's death, then why are you so sure that that was your brother?", Hugo questioned.
"He was wearing a suit", Victor reminded the other man.
"Maybe it's just coincidence", Hugo shrugged.
Victor furrowed his eyebrows as he continued to process everything he just learned. This whole experience had been a complete shock to him, although he should have expected nothing less. Who knew that someone actually existed who wanted to harm him? Not to mention that he had been in a gang, which was apparently the perfect cover story. If only it weren't for him being a cop, no one would have believed that he had killed someone. Now that he thought about it, this entire thing wasn't going as planned. At least, not the way that he had originally envisioned it to go. The fact that he hadn't caught the murderer yet didn't sit well with him either. What if there was another person out there that could have done this? Someone who didn't seem to mind if they were caught and murdered a victim right in the middle of their living room without even leaving a single trace behind. That just couldn't be allowed.
"So what are you gonna do now?", Hugo questioned.
"I don' knooow", Victor admitted quietly, "I mean, how could I go around looking for that guy, assuming that it was really him and not some kind of joke that you're playing on me? That seems kinda pointless".
"It's not pointless.", Hugo assured him, "you are a cop after all. I don't think you can just walk into every place in town and say that you need help finding someone that you never met before."
"True", Victor nodded.
"So what are you gonna do now?"
"I guess I should talk to Victor Plisetsky about this", he murmured, "but I haven't seen that guy around town since yesterday afternoon."
"You really believe that Victor is the same Victor as in the newspapers?" Hugo asked skeptically.
"Yeah. Besides, if it really was just a coincidence, why would I be the one that got jumped?", Victor argued.
Hugo bit his lip nervously as he tried to formulate a response to the older man's question. Victor's answer seemed to make more sense to him than the others. Still, though, he wasn't sure whether Victor would agree with him and if so, it would take a lot for him to accept that. After all, Victor loved puzzles that he liked solving.
"I don't know", he mumbled eventually, "maybe Victor does know something afterall. Maybe he's planning something, I don't know. But if we wait long enough, I think that we're going to start catching up to Jäger. I think the police will find us eventually.", he grinned.
Victor smiled sadly, "maybe you're right. But for right now we'd better get something to eat before he comes back. And I can definitely use a few cups of coffee, too."
Chapter 2
As promised, Victor went back outside later that evening, carrying two cups of coffee with him and sitting down on the bench next to Hugo once again.
"So where did you go earlier today?", Hugo asked curiously, taking a sip from his own cup.
"Oh, um.. I decided to pay Jäger a visit and apologize for last time", Victor said sheepishly.
"Really?", Hugo stared at him suspiciously.
Victor nodded his head vigorously. The detective had barely left his side ever since that day, so if the police were truly hunting down this guy, Victor doubted very much that he was letting Victor out of sight for the rest of his life. If anything, he'd probably be forced to move in with him, or at the very least follow him around constantly. He didn't really mind either way. In fact, he was happy to have Hugo near him for company. Even if he was still angry at the man. And that meant a lot coming from him.
The next day, Victor woke up late. For a brief moment he considered just skipping breakfast, but in the end he made himself get ready for school instead. He ate his breakfast and packed his bag as quickly as possible, rushing out of the door the second he had put on his shoes. It was quite cold outside, as it wasn't summer anymore, so Victor shivered as he walked along the sidewalk towards his classroom. As he approached the building, however, it became clear that the morning was not going to turn out so pleasant.
A large crowd had formed outside, all of the students staring in the direction of the school, trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening. Victor pushed through the crowd to reach the front of the school and as soon as he did he was hit with the full force of the smell of vomit. He frowned and started scanning his surroundings, hoping to find Victor's brother somewhere among the crowd. But when he realized that Victor wasn't among them, he decided to ask Hugo for help.
Hugo appeared beside him a few minutes later, holding his stomach and gasping for air slightly, "what the hell?", he gasped in surprise upon seeing Victor there.
"Someone threw up inside this school and it smells bad", Victor replied simply.
"What do you mean?", Hugo asked confused.
"I saw this disgusting stench coming from the inside of a girl's classroom and I immediately assumed it was coming from the girl herself", Victor answered, scrunching his nose in disgust.
"How do you know it was coming from a girl's classroom?"
"She wasn't wearing a uniform and she wasn't wearing makeup", Victor pointed out, "and besides... that smell is not exactly a good sign for any teacher".
"Huh", Hugo muttered in confusion, "you think she might have something to do with the recent murders".
"Could be", Victor shrugged, "she could just be some sick little girl that's doing her best to pass off whatever it is that she's vomiting."
"I doubt she's that sick", Hugo retorted, frowning, "the only reason I would assume she might have something to do with them would be if there was some weirdo with an obsession with her."
"Exactly", Victor sighed, "if anyone's obsessed with her, it's the killer".
"We should investigate her", Hugo suggested, "maybe we could get some clues on where she goes after class."
"I already called the police and they'll start working on tracing her phone number"
"Good", Hugo nodded approvingly, "now we just need to figure out who she is and why she would want to hurt Victor like that."
***
It took nearly three hours until they finally located the girl's phone. The only reason they even managed to find it was because they found out by asking a few of the teachers and the secretary that she was a senior student. When the group of officers arrived at her classroom, she was nowhere to be found. They searched her room thoroughly, as well, and unfortunately, she was not in there either. They had spent almost an hour searching for her and it looked like they were wasting their time. There was nothing to find except an empty backpack and a bunch of books, nothing incriminating and absolutely none of them looked familiar at all.
They had given up and headed home in defeat. The officers were exhausted, having lost track of time during their search, but nevertheless had gotten lucky. They didn't see a single thing, apart from the backpack they had searched. Victor figured that it must have been dropped accidentally when she ran away. They had been searching for over three hours and hadn't found anything.
Victor sighed deeply as he turned in bed, closing his eyes and trying to sleep. However, his thoughts kept returning to the situation that had happened only that afternoon. It was bothering him for some odd reason. He knew exactly what he was supposed to be thinking, but he couldn't bring himself to actually form an image of her face in his mind. So after tossing and turning for several more moments, he grabbed his gun and crept carefully towards the kitchen, careful not to make any noise. Once he reached the door, he slid open the door quietly and slipped out onto the balcony. A small window had been left open and he peered inside for a few seconds before grabbing the window ledge and pushing it upwards, slipping inside. Once inside, he closed the window silently behind him, making sure that it wouldn't make a sound when he closed it.
"I'm sorry about the mess".
Victor spun around at the unexpected sound to see Jäger standing behind him, holding what looked like half an orange in his hand.
"Forgive me, Jäger.", Victor shook his head, "it doesn't matter anyways. I suppose it would be rather strange if this were my house".
Jäger chuckled softly, "yeah... I suppose so."
There was silence for a while after that, neither knowing what to say. Both men were clearly feeling somewhat guilty at the current situation, both feeling as though things hadn't gone their way. Eventually Jäger spoke up again, "can I make a request?".
"Of course!", Victor responded eagerly, "please tell me anything!".
Jäger nodded briefly, "well..."
He paused once again, then took a deep breath. He didn't look Victor directly in the eye.
"I'm not saying it's my place to ask, but... uhm... I wanted to ask you if there are any places where I could get rid of these", he said pointing towards the orange on his hand.
Victor stared at him. He blinked for a second before replying: "why? Is it dangerous?"
Jäger shook his head slowly and shrugged, "no! Definitely not! Just... erm... I don't know how to explain this", he mumbled quietly.
"Try!", Victor encouraged.
"Alright", Jäger sighed heavily and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "well, you know that I am always here to serve you and to protect your belongings right?", he asked.
Victor nodded slowly, waiting for the other man to continue.
"Well, this is my job", Jäger explained further, "so I have to keep everything safe and tidy. But sometimes... sometimes I forget that I'm working for someone else and when I realize that I have to clean up, I usually feel incredibly annoyed at myself because I'M THE GUY THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE DOING THAT".
"Wow", Victor whispered, completely caught off guard by Jäger's explanation.
"And yeah, I guess... this is just another one of those times I forgot that I work for you. I just... got caught up in all the excitement of finding the killer, so I've just kind of forgotten about everything", Jäger finished off sheepishly.
"You know what?", Victor smiled softly, "that makes perfect sense to me, Jäger. Don't worry about it, alright? You can keep the orange as long as you like", Victor told him, gesturing towards the orange still in Jäger's hands.
"Oh no, no. That's not necessary!", Jäger waved his arms furiously as he began shaking his head, "you don't have to give me that! I just-"
Victor held a hand up, signalling Jäger to stop rambling.
"Just keep it", he repeated, smiling kindly as he glanced up into Jäger's big brown eyes, "keep it for as long as you want".
The two boys stayed silent for awhile before Victor noticed his phone ringing. Looking down at the screen, he noticed that it was his dad calling him. He looked up at Jäger