"I'm sorry". Jim's voice sounded hoarse. Sweat was dripping over his forehead and that wasn't the only alarming thing. His face had a grey shade over it and his eye seem to pop out of it.
"Have you been eating something?"
"You didn't open the door did you?"
"I was in bed, slept...I don't know can it we the infusion..."
His head dove back into the bucket and he gagged.
He felt fine before I left and is seriously ill now.
"How long is this going on?"
Jim shrugged, coughed, nothing useful came out of the suddenly seriously ill man.
"Why didn't you call me?"
"No phone.." The gasping continued
"I'll better call an ambulance"
"No! Please... don't... take... it... out."
Ben wiped Jim's forehead with a cold cloth. Was there anything to lose? What if the guy died in his living?
"Take it out" Jim begged.
Ben knew how to do it and no longer hesitated. He shut the infusion down and quickly removed the infusion.
"I need to inform the police", he said.
"You are the police.."
Jim shivered but at least he was no longer gagging.
He made a quick call to Fidelo who promised to stop by with a doctor he knew and trusted.
"This is going out of hands", he said, " we better finish this case as soon as possible."
"Isn't the case already closed? We know where the lost child is and Jim's back."
"If it comes to these cases I consider them as closed but one leaded to the next and I'm afraid someone is not happy with it. Jim seems to be in his way."
Or her way, Ben thought. It can be she as well.
Mrs. Gordon is a woman and turned out to be far from an innocent, tiny lady. She had way more at hand as sharing her gossips. Her basement was a filled with bodies, bodies bricked in the wallsHow many lost their lives, ended it down there? The woman had said she had seen many come and leave during the past years. They left but he bet it was not out of his own free will.
Jim seemed to feel a bit better, good enough to have some sips of water.
"You want me to call your sister?"
The man nodded. He didn't feel the need to worry her more as she already did.
Their wasn't much for the doctor to do as he arrived. Fidelo had told him what he needed to know and asked him to write down his opinion and test the bags with fluid left and to give the test results plus report to him personally.
"Be careful doctor, I hope I didn't bring you in any danger."
Both men shook hands and embraced before the doctor left.
"A close friend?"
Fidelo nodded "the best there is, remember his name if you might need him. Let's hope he's not in danger."
"Are you hungry? There's plenty of food."
The two men sat down next to Jim's bed and ate in silence. After dinner Fidelo said: "We close the case now and I announce it to the press."
It took them 30 minutes to write a statement and send it to Hella of the newspaper. She would know how to make a good story out of it, fake news but still good enough to fool everyone and make the real perpetrator believe the case was solved and he had nothing to fear. No one would dig deeper, search or ask questions. No one would be charged either.
They didn't mention how a young woman was tortured for years and found buried alive, neither how Jim was attacked and left for dead in a hole with walls made out of bodies. The case of the missing girl was closed. Jim's name would be rectifated and the child became grew up into a fine young woman with a life of her own, the neighbor Mrs. Gordon was helping the police. It was enough.
"The case is closed" Jim asked.
"Yes, this case is but we started a new one. All those bodies..." he swallowed, inhaled deeply to let the fear out, the fear that seems to eat him as he thought of what he had seen. The smell wasn't worst but those bodies... "Do you want to start a case against Mrs. Gordon?"
Jim had asked himself this question earlier. Would he? Was it worth all the trouble?
"Is there any need to if she will be prosecuted for the horror in her basement? I am part of it. In some way I am, perhaps already long ago."
"You knew her, ever been close to her at that time?"
"No. You know me Ben, artistic, not fitting in, being accepted, and a single dad. Not the type most people like to interfere with. Envy and fear for what is different is a nasty thing. I am what they call detrimental."
"Can I leave you guys alone? I need a few hours sleep before I go to the office."
Both men nodded and Fidelo left. At least they were a good team, he hoped they were and he could trust Been, the police officer that had way more qualities than he had ever imagined.
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