[Chapter 4] of [Book I likely won't finish]

It's a bit of a slow day today. I reached chapter 12 by now and it's slowing down a bit towards the middle. I'm not sure if I can make it or if I should take a break and try again tomorrow but motivation is a bit meh today. I had to edit some stuff in chapters 9 and 10 so am a bit confused. But let's see!

Riz dropped the boy off at what she hoped was his school (You could never know with teenagers these days) and then sent a message to the headmaster where he'd been found the other night. If he chose, the headmaster could involve the boy's parents, but she wanted to give Ekko a chance to come clean himself. He'd said his parents weren't awful (like many other parents) but that didn't mean they'd appreciate a call from the police about their son being found in the woods where just the day before an accident had happened.

Then she went back to the police office and sought Detective Huber at his desk.

"Are they ready yet?"

"Good morning to you too, Clarisse."

"The Pipers," she said. "Is Mrs. Pipers ready to be questioned?"

"You make it sound awfully harsh."

"Detective -"

"Why don't you take a seat?"

Riz sat. There was no doubt she should be talking to Huber with more respect (He was her superior after all), but he was German, or of German descent, and while he was meticulous with his methods, he didn't often care to reprimand any of his deputies for their lack of etiquette. Today, however, seemed to be a day where he did care.

"I heard you went up to the Blackwater forests yesterday night."

"Mel told me?"

He gave a short nod.

Riz shrugged. Why couldn't Mel have stayed quiet? Huber must be thinking she was crazy now as well. "I thought I'd check out the crash site."

"What of the other part of the report?"

"What part?"

"Come, don't play games, Riz. We both know you know what crash sites look like, and as Mrs. Pipers wasn't injured, I don't think there was any need for you to drive there, never mind in the middle of pitch dark night. No? You don't want to talk about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about. I found tyre tracks like at any other crash site, nothing else."

"Mel says you seemed afraid."

Riz snorted. "Afraid?" Me? Have you seen me? Almost 5'7' and quick with a gun or rifle (and donuts) - why would I be afraid? But even his words sent a chilly shiver down her spine.

"And the boy?" he said.

"Ekko? He's a police work enthusiast." Or something like it anyway. Why else would he have been in that forest in the night? As if in answer to her question, the image of the leshen he'd shown her on his phone popped up in her mind, but she pushed it away. Leshen belonged to Geralt the Witcher, not Blackwater.

Huber stared at her a moment longer, then glanced down at his desk and pulled out a file from a stack. He held it out to her.

"The Pipers?" she asked as she took it.

He shook his head. "A certain Mr. Han."

Han.

"Sounds familiar."

"Indeed. He is the survivor of the three person crash last week up near Blackwater Creek."

Ah, that was it.

"What do I want with him?"

"You want to talk to him about what he's seen."

"What he's -" Riz groaned. "Not the yeti again."

"Precisely the yeti. If there's someone going around in an animal suit, on two legs, scaring our citizens half to death, or to death in Mr. Han's friends' case, then we ought to know, don't you think?"

Riz couldn't argue with that, so instead, she stood. Han didn't live too far away and if she was quick about it she'd be done in time for (donuts) lunch.

"And Riz!" Huber called after her as she left his office. "If you need any help let me know. Whatever you find out."

At the whatever his eyes lingered on hers, and she had to work on her sneer to keep it up.

Did Huber really believe in this supernatural thing? He was German, and she'd always thought Germans were reasonable, detached, what was the phrase? Down to Earth. (This same efficiency was the reason she felt safe in Huber's presence too although usually she preferred to avoid men) Then again, maybe he'd meant something completely different when he mentioned the animal suit, a killer in hiding, something like it, and she could really count on his help if she needed it.