CHAPTER 2

VEL

I woke up to the constant ringing of my phone, I got disoriented for a moment when I opened my eyes and found an unfamiliar surrounding around me. I slowly remember what happened last night and quickly reach the bed beside me. He's gone, no trace of the unknown Enigma that was pounding me all night. I put on my pants in disappointment. After the amazing night we spend together, he could at least wake me up to say goodbye or something,

I can feel my body so sticky, I want to take a shower but first I need to answer the ringing phone. As expected the call is from his beloved brother.

"Hello, P'Sai"

"You, little punk, where are you now!? Why haven't you home yet? Our parents already scolded me when we came home without you last night and you still haven't come back home yet at this hour!" My brother didn't even hold back to immediately scold me.

I look at the clock and it is already past 10 AM, yeah no wonder my parents are worried, I miss breakfast time, the most important meal of the day.

"You told me to find someone for myself while you get busy with your own husband" answered me, clearly not taking his scolding seriously.

"Yeah, but I didn't mean for you to miss breakfast and cause our parents to get worried!" he said "Just come home right now, right this second! Lift your ass from wherever you are now and get here now!"

I laugh hearing his angry tone. P'Sai is 3 years older than me and has been my biggest supporter and protector for almost my whole life. If he gets angry he doesn't mean to really get angry at me, he just worries about me and I appreciate him for that. But really because of that, I never took his scolds and nagging seriously, ever.

"I am now, I'll just take a shower and I'll be on my way home"

"Hurry Up!"

"I can't hurry up if you still nagging on my ear"

Silence for two seconds then he abruptly cut the phone. I laugh again at my brother's antics and murmur "I love you too, dear brother" to the phone before tossing it to the bed.

I was already 3 steps on my way to the bathroom when the phone rang again. I come back to my phone thinking it will be my brother calling me again, but it turns out it was someone completely different.

"Hello, Good Morning, Commissioner '' I answered with my formal voice to a call from the Police Force Commissioner.

"Good Morning, dr. Vel" said the Commissioner with a light tone "I heard you already come back to the country"

"Yes, sir, my flight landed at 9 PM last night"

"That's really great, we have an urgent situation in our hand and we need your service for the county now"

"Yes, sir!"

"And by now, I mean is right now"

"Right now, sir?"

"Yes, you are expected at the Police Force Headquarter immediately for the briefing of this case, you will meet me and the rest of the team there"

I was dumbfounded for a second, so sudden? I haven't even come home yet, I'm still wearing the same clothes for almost 24 hours now. Well, I didn't wear any clothes last night but still, I hope I can have a proper change of clothes at my own home, at my own room, a set of clothes from my own wardrobe before reporting for work.

"I'm sorry, sir, may I know what kind of case we are dealing with now?"

I can hear the commissioner sigh "You haven't turned on the TV, haven't you, doc? Just watch any news and you will understand"

TIN

My precious collection, my precious thumbs collection. I never thought the day would come when they would leave their safe and cold storage place at my hobby house and land here, on my work station at The Forensic Office of The National Police Force Headquarter.

All my subordinates are busy inspecting them, trying to get any clues about the owner of those thumbs or whoever is collecting them.

I did, the one who spent 11 years collecting all of them are here. It is so sad seeing them coming out from their beautiful box and being cut open like this. If I'm not a psychopath I'll probably cry a river right here right now.

"It's disgusting right?" ask Ping, the police inspector that led the investigation of this case. He clearly miss read my sad face as a disgusted face

"Indeed it is" I put on my disgusted face to match the atmosphere "Who collected this many body parts and stored them like some kind of souvenir?"

"A psychopath, only a psychopath can do something like this"

Bingo! You are 100% correct, Mr. Inspector. And you need to find that psychopath which will be impossible because you wouldn't find any clues that will lead you to him.

I didn't have time to answer him because at that time, Ten got into the room.

"Hey, doc, can we talk for a sec?"

"Sure"

I excuse myself from the room and follow Ten to his own work place. He closed the door before we talked. There's a few officers here, including Inspector Ping who is a Special Alpha with a heightened sense ability and this room is the only place where they can't hear us talking.

"Have you talked with your dad?" He asked me as soon as he closed the door.

"Not yet, he didn't even try to call me"

"Classic Daddy Jack, he won't talk to you unless you talk to him first"

I furrowed my brow, "Please don't call my dad that way, I know you have a crush on him but still..."

"Ok, ok, I'm sorry, but correction, there was a time when I had a crush on your dad, but not anymore, my whole heart is owned by my husband now"

"Good to know"

He's grinning stupidly that makes me want to punch him.

"So..." he's back to his serious tone "What will you do now?"

"Find a new place, of course, my dad and I knows hiking tracks will be built near the house and there's a big possibility hikers will find that place, I just don't expect someone will find it before I have a chance to relocate"

"Right, finding a new place is important, but that shouldn't be our priority now"

I look at him in confusion "Then what?"

"Oh, I don't know, not getting caught for example?" He used a tone that he once told me is a sarcastic tone.

I scoff hearing that and he literally widen his eyes seeing my reaction

"You can't just take this thing lightly!" he said in a high tone "The whole police force is on high alert now, everyone's eyes are on this case, the higher ups are in intense pressure to get the one behind this case ASAP"

"Yeah, but what can they do anyway? they won't find anything that will lead to me"

Ten sighs, he must have wanted me to be as worried as him but I just can't. I'm too confident in myself.

"I also heard he's coming back"

"Who is coming back?"

"You weren't here yet at that time so you never met him, but the police force has a very good profiler. A special Alpha with a strong telepathic ability. He was going to New Zealand for a few of years to study and now he's coming back"

"Telepath can never read my mind, you know that"

"Yeah, but he's good not just because he's a telepathy, I've seen his work before, he can catch a criminal and make them confess with almost no evidence at all. In my opinion, you really have to worried about him"

VEL

I'm just thankful I'm not a heavy sweater and my clothes still look pretty presentable even though I haven't changed them for more than 24 hours. I really don't have time to come back home. I hop on a taxi and come directly to the headquarters from the hotel.

I have to call my parents and explain to them why I can't meet them yet. They were more understanding and didn't scold me like my brother did, but with a stern voice mom said I have to come home for dinner. I have a feeling if I don't come home for dinner, they will probably scratch my name from the family register.

Yet, I don't have much time to worry about my parents because the case I'm about to face is probably one of the biggest cases anyone in the force ever faced. I saw the news and read the file on my way to the headquarters. I have to say I have never seen any case like this. 998 thumbs were found in a deserted house in the middle of nowhere. The location where those thumbs were found can only be described as a human slaughterhouse. All those tools that were found there and the condition of the house itself, it looks abandoned and shabby from the outside but the inside is so clean and organized. Too clean and organized that it looks scary. I believe no one ever see anything like this

Where is the rest of the body? Why did they do it? All those 998 victims, how long have they been doing this? And most importantly, who is the one who did it? What's their motive? I have so many questions in my head and I feel like I'll die from curiosity.

Curiosity has been my main drive in life since I'm a kid. I can read people's minds but after that I always want to know what makes them end up having that thought. I am always curious about people's motives, what molded them to have that mindset and what gave them the drive to do what they did. That's why I chose to study criminology and become a profiler. Despite my parents begging me to just live a normal peaceful life, become a professor like them and teach at our owned university. I can't seem to just turn down my curiosity.

I believe the world is not made of black and white, The society does not only consist of bad people and good people. There's all kinds of people in this world with their own circumstances and reasons to do what they did and be what they become. People are more gray than black or white.

I arrive at the headquarters and walk directly to the main meeting room. I met my old coworkers who I haven't seen for more than 4 years because I need to go to New Zealand to study. They all seem happy seeing me here at this difficult time. The Commissioner was also there. Shake my hand personally and give me a look that only can be translated as "Please catch this guy ASAP so I can keep my job"

I also see a lot of new faces in the room, but no one introduces me to them because I guess it's not the right time and place, we need to brief this case first before we go to introduction and such. I sat on one of the empty chairs at the big round table and everyone seemed ready to start the briefing.

"Can we start now?" ask the Commissioner

"A moment, sir, dr. Tin is on his way here with the latest autopsy result" answer Ping, one of the Inspectors I know way back from before I went to New Zealand. We might have a slight history together but we both have an unsaid agreement to choose to act like it never happened.

He smiled at me when our eyes met and I smiled back at him. That's just a polite smile, right? What I heard is that he got married about a year ago, so that is definitely just a polite smile.

I turn my head to the file in front of me to avoid further awkwardness and only lift my head again when I hear the main door is opened and closed, someone is coming in. A young man in a white doctor gown came and I almost fell from my chair when I saw him. I don't even need a second to recognize him, the bastard Enigma from last night, the bastard Enigma who just left after he satisfied pounding my hole the whole night. Now, he stands there, like a majestic creature he is, looking gorgeous as always in that white flawless white gown.

"Sorry, I'm late, the autopsy result just came in" He said in the same voice he used to whisper commands and dirty words to me.

"Ah, doc, please sit, we've been waiting for you" said the Commissioner.

When he sits, he sees me, just a few chairs away in front of him and I can see he is as surprised as I am.

TIN

Why is he here? How is he even here? This is the Police Force Headquarters and a very important meeting too, so why is he here?

Then I remember what Ten said to me, a great telepath profiler is coming back from his study today. Could it be him?

I can see he is still wearing the same clothes he wore last night and still looking as beautiful as he was last night too. It makes my mind drift to last night for a second but I have to focus on the meeting and bring my mind back here, in the present.

I tried to not look at him but I can feel him keep looking at me. Those eyes feel like a laser beam trying to drill a hole at the back of my head.

Thankfully I have Inspector Ping to focus my attention to, he presented their early investigation about the case

"The one who found the house is a couple hiker who found the house while they were looking for a shelter. They saw a black van leaving the house around 1 AM. They entered the house thinking it was an old shelter house and found storage for the thumbs while they were trying to look for food."

I'm lucky because the black van they saw was the van from the organ trafficker's people and I left the house hours before they arrived. But still, how dare those hikers roam around someone else's house like that?

I just hope I didn't look too upset because I feel like those eyes are still trying to drill into my skull. I have a funny feeling, could this telepath actually read my mind?

"Unfortunately, we can't find anything about the van, the witness doesn't get to see the plate number and we can't find the van anywhere after they left the house because there's absolutely no CCTV anywhere around the crime scene. From the autopsy we find out the latest victim was killed just last night around the time the black van was seen around the house, there's a big possibility the black van is owned by the suspect. For further explanation about the autopsy, dr. Tin can explain the details."

"dr. Tin..." the Commissioner called for me and it took me a second too long to answer him.

"Yes, sir"

"Your turn"

I stood up from my chair, put myself back together to be professional and presented an autopsy result on my very own victims to help the police catch me, on top of that in front of my one night stand too. If I can feel nervous, I think now is the perfect time. But I don't feel nervous, I never did.

"There's a total of 998 thumbs and all of them are coming from different bodies. We manage to get fingerprints from all of the 998 thumbs and identify all of them"

"All of them?" asked the Commissioner.

"Yes, sir, all 998 of them were on the database because all of them have criminal records, so after we get their fingerprints, it's easy for us to find them"

"They all criminals?" ask Inspector Ping

"Yes"

There's a loud murmur in the room after I said that. It must be shocking for them to know that someone is out there, collecting thumbs of unpunished criminals.

"Please continue, doc" said the Commissioner, silencing the room.

"The thumbs were stored inside a special box that prevents them from rotting away so it's really difficult to determine their time of death. So we can only predict their time of death from the time the victims were reported missing. The oldest one was from 11 years ago"

Again more murmur in the room. It's hard to believe, right? It's been 11 years and you all just found out now!

"Are they all for sure dead?" I suddenly hear his voice, the beautiful Alpha voice come out in the middle of the murmur. Everyone turned their head to him.

"Sorry?" I really can't quite understand his question.

"You said time of death like for certain the owner of the thumbs are all dead. But people can survive from a missing thumb, right?"

More murmur but now everyone's eyes are on me, waiting for my answer. I have to say, that's a really great question.

"The muscle condition of the thumbs indicated that all the thumbs were cut from the body a moment after blood stopped pumping from the heart. So yeah, I'm 100% sure the victims were already dead when the thumbs were separated from the body"

And I also make sure myself to only cut the thumbs after they are all in pieces, so yeah, they were all dead dead when the thumbs were cut.

"If I can add, the way the thumbs were cut, the precision and the cleanness of the cut, I'm certain whoever did it has medical knowledge"

"Like a doctor?" the beautiful Alpha asked again.

"Like a doctor, In fact, I can be the suspect too"

Everyone laughed hearing my last sentence. I smile seeing their reaction. I just make a confession but these people just laugh. Of course they won't even in their wildest dreams think a respected Enigma who dedicated his life to help the police like me will ever kill and collect people's thumbs like this. See, this is why I'm so confident they will never find me.

At first I thought everyone in the room believed I was just making a joke, until I saw that one telepath Alpha, he looked at me straight into my eyes and I felt like he looked straight into my brain.

I finish my presentation and the Commissioner gives the time to the PR team who is talking about how they will handle the news and wild information. They don't want people to start thinking they got a serial killer roaming around the society for 11 years completely undetected. They also talk about how to give the news to all 998 victim's families, which I'm not interested in at all.

I took a peek at the Alpha that I still don't know the name of and he already swift his focus to the files in front of him, not to me anymore. He's really a mystery. Who is he? Why does he see me differently from other people? I want to think he's paying extra attention to me just because of our 'activity' last night. I mean, I never had any one night stand that I left behind without any words that turned up at my workplace and attending a very important meeting with me the very next morning. This is the first. Maybe he was just angry or offended because I left him without words. But also, why did I feel like he's more than that?

"dr. Tin" the Commissioner called me after the briefing ended and I'm about to escape back to my own office.

"Yes, sir"

"Let me introduce you to dr. Naret Prompaopun, you can call him dr. Vel, he's one of our best profiler, he spend 4 years study in New Zealand and just come back yesterday"

I give him my best friendly smile as the Commissioner introduces us. The Promphaopun family is one of the most prestigious Alpha families in the country. Their main family business is education, they own many universities and schools all around the country and some outside the country. They also do a lot of charity regarding education. I remember the head of the family right now is a Female Alpha. She and her Omega wife have 3 children, so Vel must be one of them.

"dr. Vel, this is dr. Krittin Kitjaruwannakul, you can call him, dr. Tin, he is our new head of the Forensic Office, he took over the position right after you left for New Zealand so you two must be never meet before"

Bold of you assuming we never meet before, Commissioner, but I can never tell him that just last night, I literally saw him naked and invaded his most private part before I even knew his name, so let's just act accordingly.

"Nice to meet you, dr. Vel" I smiled and offered him my hand so we could shake hands.

"Nice to meet you too, dr. Tin" he smile too and shake my hand without hesitation "Can I have your time for a few minutes, I have a lot of question about this case"

"Oh, yes, I think you two must have a lot to discuss" said the Commissioner "I'll leave you two to talk"

The Commissioner left us, but I have a feeling whatever he wants to talk about it's mostly not about the case.

He came closer to me and asked "Do you want to speak here or..."

"My office" I said quickly "Come with me"

Our walk to my office was silent. We greeted our coworkers that we met on the way but didn't stop for too long.

We arrive in my office and the moment I close the door he said this:

"You are a psychopath"

I turn my head so fast to him, what does he even mean?

"I'm sorry I left you without any words, but still that's really not a nice thing to say" I said, hoping that he said it just because of that reason.

He laughed "Yeah, but that's not what I mean, you are a literal psychopath, it's not a question, it's not an accusation, it's a statement. You are a psychopath, that's the only reason why I can't read your mind"

Oh, he can't read my mind, that's reassuring, but wait, he also correctly makes a statement that I am a Psychopath despite the fact he can't read me?

"I meet psychopaths before, their mind is so hard to read because my ability is based on empathy and they can't feel any so that's why I have to work extra hard to be able to read their mind, but still I never meet the one who I absolutely can't read, like you, is it because you are an Enigma? you are the first Enigma Psychopath I ever met so maybe that's why"

That whole monologue sounds like he says it to himself rather than to me and I just stand here contemplating whether I should deny it or just admit it.

"You don't need to deny it, I learn psychology my whole teenage and adult life so I know a psychopath when I meet one"

I smirk "Except the fact that you can't read me, is there any other reason you think I'm a psychopath?"

He smiled again "This reaction of you is one of them. Normal people when they are accused of being a psychopath they will get angry and deny it immediately, because being a psychopath is not a good thing, except for psychopaths themselves. Psychopaths are proud to become one, never feel like there's something wrong with becoming one, they were born that way anyway. The only thing that makes them not announce to everyone that they are a psychopath is because they know society has a bad image of the word psychopath, but if someone caught them. They won't deny it, they just want to know what give them away, like you now"

"But you said I'm a psychopath before I gave you this reaction, so what really gave me away?"

He smiled even wider, he must be happy I didn't deny it "You have a different persona between when we were together last night and when you presented yourself in front of everyone else. You were yourself last night because you think you won't meet me again. You were prideful, you were rough, you didn't care about anyone else's feelings. And at the briefing seeing everyone's reaction when you said you can be the suspect yourself, everyone just laughed, like you never showed them any of your real self infront of them"

I laugh "Just that?"

"Actually I'm just 50% sure you are a psychopath before your reaction, but now I'm 100% sure" he said still with a smile on his face "You give yourself away just now"

Damn! Ten is right, he is a good profiler.

"You got me" I don't see the point of keep denying when I can see he is capable enough to see me even without able to read my mind so I just play along "So what now? you will tell everyone that I'm a psychopath?"

"I don't see the point of that, it's your own right to not tell everyone about it. I meet a lot of psychopaths who are not a problem for society so I don't think there's any need to outed you to everyone. Besides, you must spend a lot of effort not being yourself most of the time in front of everyone, I don't think I have any right to disrespect your effort"

Wow, now I'm interested in this person, more than in sex. He really sees through me and beyond. And I applaud him sincerely for that. I never applaud someone sincerely.

"But..." his tone change when he said the next sentences "It will be a different story if you turn out to be the culprit we are looking for"

I could feel my eyes widen when I heard that. He's too good. He sees me beyond and beyond, this starts to feel scary.

"That's too much of a stretch, don't you think? I literally with you at 1 AM last night"

"Yeah, that's the only reason I didn't say my suspicion at the briefing, you check every box in my suspect's character list but, like you said, my hole is an alibi witness here, you literally inside me when the crime happened. That will be so awkward if I said my suspicious and you put me and my hole as an alibi witness"

"Thank you to make it clear"

"But, we still have so little information about this case and if later we found some more evidence that make you more suspicious we can come back to check you again"

I smiled, this is not a polite fake smile but a real genuine smile. He is really blunt, he doesn't care about politeness when he speaks and he sees me beyond what anyone else can see. This one is really different, maybe not just different but the more correct word is probably special?

"Let's just hope we'll never need to check you again"

"Believe me, you won't"

My phone ding at that moment, a message from my dad came, he finally contacted me first. The message is so simple "Come home before 5PM today"

I think it's time for me to talk to him.