Chapter 17: Chapter 16: Wan Nongkran

King's car stopped in front of a small house, although it was half built, since part of the house was covered with zinc.

"Hello."

"Hello." An elderly woman, around eighty years old, opened the door, with a tired expression.

“I am a police officer. I came to talk about Chao Chom Kanree,” just by saying the name of the only grandson who had just passed away, the woman's voice became trembling.

“Yes, he must be here to check his room, that's what they told me. You can come in young man, it's messy, but I couldn't even get in there, excuse me.” After saying that, she went out and sat on the wooden chair in front of her, before looking at the sky as if disoriented, her life and that of her grandson had already been very difficult, it was like a cruel joke of fate.

“The forensic team won't be able to come do their job, so my team will go in, they'll be careful, they'll wear gloves to go through your belongings.”

“I understand officer,” after letting King's team in, he sat next to the old woman, who at that moment seemed very weak.

“Grandma, can I ask for more information?” The old woman looked at him and nodded slowly.

“Before the day Chom disappeared, did he say anything strange or tell any stories? Or did you hear something?”

“Oh well, little Chom used to be a kid who didn't talk much, he was more about acting. That boy was a good boy. Although his parents let him live alone, he said he would stay with me, to take care of me, until we both died.” The old woman raised her wrinkled hand to cover her face. She only had one grandson who acted as an anchor for her, but now, only she was still alive, and her adorable grandson who gave her life was no more. “I no longer see the beauty in this world,” the woman said almost in a whisper.

Then he began to tell King that the day he disappeared, he said he would go sell garlands and then return, even if he was sick, the boy was a tireless worker. He was not like other children, because he earned money for his studies. Her grandmother also had money saved up, which she planned to give out on her next birthday.

The old woman reached into the pocket of her faded camisole and pulled out a transparent plastic bag that contained some money.

“I only collect a senior allowance every month, I have been saving to pay for Chao Chom Ngem's tuition. “He always helped me with expenses with what was left of his salary, oh my poor boy.” King tried to console her, to ease her grief.

Meanwhile, the subordinates who were still inside the house were still searching, and they felt something strange and familiar, “It smells like the house from before.”

“Hm, I guess so.”

“There are only bottles, boxes and cans here.”

One of the subordinates went to King, who was still next to the old woman.

“Boss, what should we find?”

“Something similar to the clay doll with a lion's head that we found in the previous house. If it is not here, we will go to the next address.”

The sound of a loud bang from outside made the three of them turn to look. King sent one of the officers to check the surroundings, and the young police officer went out to the back of the house, there was a small orchard, and next to it an abandoned pond. The sound came from that area, but there was no one there, just emptiness.

The sound sounded like someone hitting the surface of the water, and it was so loud that the officer turned to look. The surface of the water was calm, there was no wind or objects floating around, which made him slowly approach the pond, to take a closer look. However, as he leaned over, he only saw his own shadow. But then, an object emerged, causing ripples on the surface.

"What's that?"

What floated was an upside down clay doll. The young police officer tried his best to reach out and grab it, but failed every time he tried to grab it. When his hand touched the cold water of the pond, he felt a chill run down his spine, and at the moment when it seemed like he was about to grab the wrist, a pale hand with blood and dark nails emerged from the pond and grabbed him by the wrist. . He managed to grab the figure that was still lying face down.

The trembling eyes of the officer looked at the doll, because underneath, the water of the pond that only appeared dark and full of dirt, suddenly showed the face of a woman, with sunken eyes, who had great strength, and suddenly, He drew a smile that could be seen underwater. And at that moment, he used a lot of force to pull it down…

A final scream was heard followed by the sound of splashing water, the officer's body struggled not to be dragged to the bottom of the pond, but nothing seemed to work and he began to sink deeper and deeper. His body was so cold that every part of him was numb, it felt like painful pricks from head to toe. The water was so black that I didn't know how deep I had gone. The lack of oxygen caused him to begin to fade. No matter where I looked, I felt like there was no escape.

Then, he heard a sound and saw a flashing light, and consciousness slowly returned.

“Phi Sing!!”

Everyone on the shore was shocked by the young inspector's actions, as Singha jumped into the water to help his subordinate without hesitation. He swam down until he grabbed the hand of the person who had fallen before.

On the other hand, the people on the shore could only stand and wait anxiously. Thup tried to look for the older man with concern, before seeing what emerged from the water. She was a girl with sunken eyes, the lips on her face were an even paler green, the tips of her ears were severed, but she smiled openly. The young man's body froze, unable to move, sweat dripped from his forehead, and his heart pounded. The closer he got to him, the more and more he seemed forced to move. When he was about to touch it, the smile that was once there suddenly disappeared, changing into an angry face that replaced the image.

“Hey, don't be so careless!!”

Thup felt a chill run down his spine and had to turn around, and then he saw another ghost. It was the same woman he saw in his childhood. His eyes and lips still had red threads cooked in them, they remained the same, without any change. But when he looked closely, he noticed that the thread was beginning to form cracks, and that tears were falling from his eyes. He seemed to have a soft expression on his face, which hid a dark dissatisfaction. He stared at the ghostly girl in front of him. No one moved, until the sound of splashing in the water was heard. Only then did Thup turn around to help the officer out of the water, and after that, when he turned around, the two ghosts had disappeared.

“Phi Sing / August!”

Both Thup and King shouted Singha's name at the same time. But the person who had just come out of the water was approached by the other inspector.

"How are you? Let me see. Does it hurt anywhere?” King caressed the face and eyes of the person who had just emerged from the water. But instead, a strong hand carelessly pushed him away.

“I'm fine, let me,” Singha said before showing the person a clay doll in his hand. Everyone waited on the shore watching, “King, take your subordinate to the hospital for a checkup. That was enough for today. We will meet later at the station.”

Thup ran over to him before putting on the jacket that the older man had thrown at him before jumping. The water fell on his broad shoulders. A pair of beautiful eyes looked at the object in her hand and found that it was a horse-headed doll.

"I will take you." King grabbed Singha's arm.

“No need, I have to go somewhere else.”

“Where else will you go in your condition?”

“I just entered the water, I'm not about to die.” Singha shook his arms in annoyance, before walking towards the car followed by Thup not far behind.

When he got to the car, he reached out and grabbed the cloth from behind and roughly wiped his hair until the water that bothered him no longer dripped onto his face.

“Phi, can you drive the car? Where did you get hurt?”

“ If I can't drive, will you drive?”

"I do not know how to drive."

“I'm fine, let's go.” Singha threw the doll onto Thup's lap again. The young man, who was not used to it, was startled before raising his hand to touch his eyebrows. As he put the doll in the evidence bag, but kept saying non-stop: “What do you say about this doll?”

“This one has a horse's head. Her name is Wan Nongkran, she is the Mae Thuan of Mondays.” After thinking about it, Thup knew what he should do next, so he reached behind him to take the file and automatically opened it to see the victims' data.

“So, Mr. Chom, he was born on Monday, and he disappeared on Monday too.”

Singha looked at the doll in Thup's lap before cursing under his breath. It wasn't a revenge killing. It wasn't a murder because of a past history. It wasn't that he killed for problems. But it was a kind of ritual murder. And if he doesn't catch him this time, the killer will probably make things like this happen again sooner or later.

“Phi,” the figure who still hadn't taken his eyes off August from the moment he got into the car until they left, continued to call the person in a low voice.

"What's going on?"

His thin hand went to the older man's arm, where he saw a cut that reached up to his elbow. Although it was not deep and it was not bleeding, it seemed to burn quite a bit.

“Oh, I guess I got it from some branch when I was underwater.”

"Hurts?"

"No."

“Even if it doesn't hurt, the wound must be disinfected and bandaged. “You can’t let it go.”

“Oh, I know. I won't die from a cut like that. “Can you take your hand off my arm?”

"I'm sorry." Thup withdrew his hand immediately, but not his gaze.

“So where are we going now?”

“The boy named Chom did not disappear from his home. But he disappeared after being hired to sell garlands at a shop near the temple. “If we want to find out how it happened, we have to start investigating there.”

Thup nodded in understanding. “Then you think there might be someone you know who knows about it.”

“That's right, have you already contacted the person who knows about these things?”

"Not yet."

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and contact him, to find out what this is all about.”

“Can I afford to wait first?” August looked at the boy sitting there in the seat next to him, and was met with such a pleading face that he had to look away and say. "Come on."

“He is no longer here. “He lives in Sisaket.”

“Then call him.”

“I can't call him.”

"Because."

“Because he is no longer a person.”

“Are you kidding me, kid?”

“I used to follow Luang Pu to beg and I would always pass by a house. It was an old wooden house. where no one lives. But Luang Pu always stopped at that house before continuing. Until one day I asked Luang Pu about it and he told me that the owner of this house was a magic practitioner, and one day, when he was old, he let things go before he died, but the spirit was not reborn, but remained. “Stuck in that house until his karma was done.”

“So you're saying we should go ask the ghost?”

“If it wasn't that person, I don't know anyone else who could tell us.”

“You and your…” Singha used his tongue to press his cheek and vent the frustration in his heart. Never in his life had he been so upset by a case like this. Villains are not only a headache, but now, he had more of a headache because of other issues inherent to him. He didn't know if what Darin once said about age and how it affected decisions was true or not, but if it was true, then it was appropriate that a person at thirty-five years old would really want to help a young man.

The two arrived in front of the flower and garland shop, not far from there, was the front of the temple. Singha was a little upset as his clothes were still soaked.

It was good that the seats in his car were leather, just by taking it to the car wash later it would be clean again.

“Hello, I'm a police officer. “I would like to ask about Chom’s disappearance.”

“Hello, officer,” a woman in her sixties introduced herself with a face that was not very good.

“Don't you mind talking about it?

“Oh, it doesn't bother me. The truth is that I really don't know anything about Jomman's death.”

“So tell me… the day you came to work did you behave strangely?” Or did he tell you something?”

"Not at all. Normally, I used to hire Jom to help me put together the garlands, and we would have a Buddhist celebration in two days. That day was calm. At first it was fine, but then he started putting the garlands together wrong, and I accidentally called his attention. Suddenly, he stood up and looked at the rose garden and then ran out and disappeared into the temple. After that, I never saw him again. But officer, I swear I didn't do anything to him,” he said hurriedly for fear of being harmed.

“About what time did that happen?”

“It must have been a little more of the Says o'clock.”

“He just ran and disappeared into the temple? And you didn't see him leave?”

“I really don't know, official, because I went back to take care of the garlands.”

“So, could anyone see Jom leaving the temple? “That way I’ll have a better idea of where he went before he disappeared again.”

“Try asking at the grocery store there. “That store has security cameras.” Singha looked in the direction she was pointing. The grocery store is directly behind the front of the temple.

"Thank you."

The two walked to the store and found a man in his fifties lying on a cot fanning himself.

“Hello, I'm a police officer. “I would like to ask you some questions and ask you to let me see the security cameras.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong, officer.”

“Then I ask you to collaborate with the investigation.”

"Oh sure."

“Last Monday, a boy entered the temple between 6 pm and 7 pm. Did you see him?”

“I didn't see it, officer, I was watching the boxing fight.”

“So, can I see the camera recording?”

"Clear. Come over here.”

They went to a room behind the store.

“You can leave us here alone, thank you.”

The owner looked at them, and before leaving them both, he said: “this is the computer, there are the files, you can sit here to see them.” Singha nodded before sitting down in the chair. “Oh excuse me, my clothes are soaked.”

He was about to get up, but the shop owner stopped him. “No problem,” he then took a cloth from the closet and handed it to Thup saying, “each cloth costs 50 baht, you can pay when you leave.”

“Yes, yes, thank you,” Thup replied before placing the bright orange cloth on top of Singha's seat. “Sit down Phi, wait for me while I pay the guy.”

“Hm, okay, I'll pay you back later,” As Thup disappeared, Singha sat down and searched through the files for the CCTV footage. Judging by the angle, there was a good image of the entrance to the temple. He then looked for the folder that had the desired day and month written on it. When he found it, he immediately opened it and started playing the clip of the moment the boy entered the temple, the clock said Says at half past Says, but after fast forwarding to 8 pm, there was no sign of him coming out. .

“He didn’t come out.”

August's intuition made him want to watch other recordings, so he searched for the video files from Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday as well. During noon and 5 pm, there were more people entering and leaving the temple than at other times. This is supposedly because it is the time when food is distributed. But after that there weren't many people walking around. How many people came and went? But the strange thing wasn't that, but that, in the clip from Saturday, the same day Min disappeared, there was a moment when a car drove in and out around 7:00 a.m. So where did Min go? Singha then clicked open and went back to Jom's clip to be sure. Suddenly, a person stopped behind Singha and said, “Phi Sing.”

"What's going on."

“He didn't go in alone.”

“Oh? What are you talking about? I'm watching it right now and I don't see anyone with it…” but then, Singha stopped talking, when he saw Thup staring at the screen without looking away. "Do you see?"

“The same thing I saw today at the pond. “She took him by the hand and led him in.”