?, 2013,
Morning,
"Sir, this is the only child left in here! Are you ready to sign the papers now?"
"Sure! But can you tell me why the boy is looking so sad and angry?"
"I guess it's because of the days he has been through. He was a beggar on the street for around 5 years, you know how that type of life is, Sir. And then a demon of a man took him, made him do a lot of labour for the bare minimum of food. I don't know about this child personally, I'm just retelling you the stuff he told me after he came here. He also knows English and has some basic education, well, I don't know how.", she said.
"Oh!", Zeph said, looking at the child, "Don't worry my boy, you're gonna live fully happy from now on, I'll provide you with everything you'll ever need!"
Zeph gave that child a smile, in return he did too, which was a rare case pretty much.
"Here, Sir. Sign in and give this child a name! It's yours to choose!", the lady at the adoption center forwarded the papers.
Zeph started signing it, and when it came to the naming part, he started thinking, "What should I name him? Maybe the same name I thought of before?"
The lady was still waiting for him to write the name.
He finally wrote it down. "Gary!"
"What's his age now, ma'am?", Zeph asked while holding Gary's hand.
"Oh his age? It's 10 years…yeah that's it.", she replied.
Zeph reached his home, with Gary. Gary seemed really happy, as this was the first time he had a house of his own, a room of his own. Roof on his head that is secured, and a person he can call dad.
"I'm happy now, as I have finally dropped that disgusting job. But..But my hands are still dirty, I can still see the blood of those people I never killed on my hands. I caused their death. I know I don't deserve to be happy, but my kid does..", Zeph was murmuring to himself while sitting on his bed, looking at Gary, while Gary was exploring the house with his sparkling eyes.
"Uncle! So am I going to sleep and eat here too from now on?", Gary's childish voice rose up.
Zeph giggled and smiled to Gary, "Not Uncle, Gary! Call me Dad from now on if you can.", he then proceeded with, "And yes of course! This is your house from now on! You can do everything I can!"
Listening to this, Gary ran straight towards the bed and jumped on it, then closed his eyes, ultimately to sleep for 5 hours.
While Gary was deep in sleep, Zeph was burning some papers. He was in the garden, putting a lot of papers on fire.
"I can't reveal their name, which I don't think I would ever need to. Well I can burn all of the documents I received while working with them. I don't even want to have anything related to them anymore, I'll also donate all of the money I made from there to charity, or maybe a hospital so I can save some people, for the deaths I've written for other people."
23rd July, 2023
Night,
Gary was alone in his house, as the other member is now gone. He was laying on his bed while reading a book. Not a book, but a diary.
The diary was written by his father, and has been read by Gary many times before. But it didn't contain enough words for Gary to see the broader picture.
Now as he is reading it, he can fill the gaps of meaning the lack of information previously made. He always asked himself what all of this written in diary meant. But what was the cost?
He was still weeping all on his own.
Suddenly, a sound came from the door. He put down the diary slowly and approached it.
"Hey. Is this Gary Loxley's house?", the guy on the door asked upon opening it. There was another guy behind him, both in sweaters.
Gary was silent for a bit. Then after trying to compose himself, he said, "Yes, it is. I'm…Gary Loxley. But, who are you? And what do you want?"
"We'll tell you everything, but first what I want to say is, I'm sorry for your loss", Ralph said, sympathetically.
"But-But how do you know about my father's death?", Gary's pale face was visible, his eyes widened.
"We are the secret investigators team, currently working for TGC, The Ghost Case. There are public investigations that happen often, but we are the hidden counterpart.", Ralph continued, "And your father is-was a part of our team. We arrived in Barlow Street just today, and it's unfortunate that this had to happen.", Ralph conveyed regret.
"What's that anger in his eyes? Did he somehow find the reason behind his father's death? Or something else? Well if it's the former one, then I HAVE to extract that info from him.", Ralph quickly thought.
"My father w-was a secret investigator?"-Water started to gather in the corner of Gary's eyes again, but he just welcomed them anyway. After sitting together, the investigation started.
"Look, Gary, I know these are hard times for you but I'll have to continue the investigation no matter what!", Ralph expressed.
Gary looked at Ralph, while he continued with, "My intuition says that 'The Ghost' is somehow related to this-to your father's death".
Just upon hearing this, an invisible flame ignited within Gary's eyes.
"If you can help us with this investigation, it might lead to our mission's success! I'm pretty sure your father, wherever he is now, would be really happy if this case gets solved, afterall that's what he came here for!", Ralph said.
Gary was still silent.
"Are you sure about this?", Karl spoke up.
"I'm all sure about it. Wouldn't his father's sacrifice be a waste if we can't even catch the ghost? I even suspect the ghost himself to be somehow connected with Zeph's death. I'm sure Gary would want to avenge his father, as he should!", Ralph said to Karl, but the words were clearly hearable to Gary.
Gary finally became ready to speak.
"Tell me what do you want to ask, Sir!", Gary's face was full of dedication, all visible.
"Just tell us what you know about your father's death, that's still a mystery to us. But, you, you mentioned your father before we even told you whose death we were talking about, which means you have been informed priorly.", Ralph expressed his mind.
"You're right", Gary's eyes were dry now, but he had fully composed himself, "I'll tell you what my father told me, before he passed away."
"You made the right decision. Please do.", Ralph leaned towards Gary.
"So I was informed by a doctor that my father has been admitted to the Harrison Vanholt Hospital. I went there and found a glimpse of my almost dead father. He told me that he was an assassin in his early life, an assassin at a secret organization..", as soon as Ralph heard the last words, his eyes widened.
"Secret Organization? What kinda organization? Did he tell you the name of it?", Ralph asked quickly.
"N-No he didn't.", Gary was confused seeing Ralph's sudden excitement.
"Tell me, what else did he tell you?", Ralph continued.
"He also told me that as an assassin he was once ordered to kidnap Elias Blackwood and his wife Evie Blackwood, and he did. After he handed them over to the organization, they killed Evie Blackwood. And, and that is why that bastard, Elias, in the name of revenge, killed my father.", Gary recalled the conversation, and told everything, while clenching his fists.
Gary was looking at the wall while telling all of these, he now looked at Ralph and saw a sparkling face, and his presence felt like a shocking twist, felt like a calculator calculating everything it knew from the very start.
"Organization? Was Zeph talking about O3? Hell yes he was. That's the only thing it could be! So Zeph was a part of O3? I never knew that, none of the current members, not even Nicolo made me aware of that!", Ralph was drawing pictures in his head, connecting the dots, maybe with right assumptions or even wrong ones.
"Now it all makes sense! My suspicion on Lucian Cole is now greater than ever! I really believed him fully and thought he was an actual decoy, how dumb was I?!
It was just a plan. He directed all of us, the investigation team, towards Barlow Street, most probably for two reasons! One, to extract information from Gary Loxley after this investigation ends. And the other one requires knowledge of O3, which Elias told him as he is the ghost!
He knew about the revenge plan and killing Zeph was the first step of Elias's revenge, so Lucian helped him by directing us towards here, creating a chance for Zeph and Elias to meet! And for Elias to kill Zeph!
This theory is immensely possible and to me, it almost confirms that Lucian Cole IS the ghost! We are so close…", Ralph quickly reacted after thinking for some time,
"Gary, I've something to tell you, this might break you, but you deserve to know the truth, at least as the son of an investigator. I assume Zeph never told you about our missions, did he?", Ralph went on….