Chapter 2

Jay woke up by 4AM in the morning, and got right down to business. He started reviewing the case, but as if luck wasn't on his side, it was as vague as it was the day before, maybe even more.

The case was about a mass murder that happened in downtown Sangrove. All the document entailed on information about the case was how it happened, how many people were killed, and that the homicide might have been caused by a suicide bomber. Jay kept re-scanning the page for a bit more clues, but couldn't find any, so he finally decided to stand up and went to the kitchen and made himself breakfast. Hot chocolate and an egg and cheese sandwich.

By the time he was done eating breakfast, it was around 6AM, and Jay decided he'd visit the place to ask for more clues. So he decided to text William, and told him about how he planned on visiting the site, and what time he was planning on going.

When he was done texting him the details of his plan, he decided to go for a walk. When Jay was walking back home, he stopped at the grocery store, to buy groceries to stock up the kitchen. When he walked inside, he heard the TV playing inside the store, and when he looked up at it, he saw that the TV was set to the news station, they were reporting the incident Jay was working on, the news reporter said the same thing as the document he was given, except for the assumption that it was a suicide bombing.

Jay, dismayed carried along with his shopping, and started buying his groceries. On his way out, he felt as though someone was staring at him, masking his alarm, he turned back as though he had forgotten something. And he spotted a pair of eyes looking at him from the far left aisle.

The person that was staring at him quickly hid away when Jay turned to face him. All Jay could catch a glimpse of was a red beanie, and hazel eyes.

Jay decided to look for the person, but by the time he made his way over to where he had saw the stranger, the stranger was no where to be found. Jay would have continued looking, but he noticed the other exit door next to that aisle ajar, so he took that exit instead, and as expected, the stranger was nowhere to be found.

Jay decided to just brush it off, thinking it was just a weird stranger, and headed back home.

After restocking his groceries, Jay phoned William to tell him to start coming to the locus. He had already got in his car by the time he had told William to start coming. And right after buckling his seatbelt, Jay headed for the road, zooming off.

.....

By the time Jay got to the place were the incident had taken place, he met William already waiting there in his car.

When he got down from his car, he waved to William, and they then proceeded further after the caution sign.

The place was desolate, remains of plants where seen everywhere, carcasses of dead animals, bones of either humans or another specie of animals where scattered across the area. Ash decorated the ground, making it black in colour, which in turn kept getting on both the detective's shoes.

Due to the ash, both men had a bit of difficulty breathing. William suggested they looked for eyewitnesses, to gather more intel on the situation.

They decided to visit the closest inhabited area to the area where the incident had taken place. The nearest inhabited region to the place of incidence was a shabby looking neighborhood, named McAllister Avenue.

The houses in the neighborhood looked shabby and tattered, and looked like they would probably fall apart if a windstorm came their way.

The duo stopped to ask different people, and had collectively asked about 7 people, only 2 of which were able to provide some tangible information.

Although their data was quite perplexing, and not to mention, contradicting, One account stated that it was a gang named White Jansi' that got into a beef with a man in the area. Apparently the dude the gang had a problem with was a drug dealer, and he failed to deliver the right stuff to them, the person said he stuffed the bag with stones and put a note saying- don't do drugs kids, It's not good for you, after receiving payment.

Patently, the gang leader was angered, because he felt as though he had been swindled, and decided to take revenge by sending a guy with a bomb strapped to his undershirt to the guy's house.

Seemingly the gang leader didn't think it through, and it resulted in him killing 100s of people.

On the other hand, the second account stated that a martial arts trained clown, went looking for trouble in a man named Bandi's house, the person stated he stole milk and cereal, and bolted out of the house when he was discovered. And apparently Brandi had about 5 grenades in his house for some reason, and a lot of anger issues too. Of course he didn't respect any civilian's lives, or care for that matter, because he started playing theif and police with the clown, while casually throwing grenades around, and as a result, annihilating almost everyone in the area.

Now, those two accounts were obviously very very different. The duo was torn between the two, although they were leaning more towards the impulsive gang leader bombing everybody because of how realistic it was. They were also not certain on whether or not to dismiss the clown theory.

With all the crazy things that happen in downtown Sangrove, sure it might have been a bit of a stretch, but the trained martial arts clown was expected.

The two agreed on going to the office the next day and starting the operation the next day. One of them was going to analyze Bandi's house, and search for clues, while the order was going to try to sneak into the gang and see if they could get any information.

They had agreed on the plan, and were planning on going on their separate ways, just before Jay spotted a familiar hat.

It took Jay a couple of seconds to recall where he had seen the red beanie, and immediately after he had spotted the red beanie, he looked at the strangers eyes, and caught a glimpse of it, it was hazel, the same as the one from earlier in the morning. Then a sudden spark of realization dawned on him.

He didn't want to let the person get away this time, so he started chasing after the person.

But unfortunately, he could not make it because the stranger got into a car and sped off. Luckily though, he was able to act fast and took a photo of the car's plate number, and concluded he'd investigate that later when he got back home.

Just when he had taken the picture, William caught up to him panting, and asked him why he suddenly started running. He just shaked his head, and said it was nothing, and proceeded back to his car, while saying goodbye to William.

When he got home, it was around 5:30 PM, and Jay decided to type in the information he had found out today, and stored it on multiple storage devices.

After he was done, he figured he'd analyze the plate number he took, and try to get more information about the driver. After multiple clicks, the computer page finally pulled up the stranger's information.

What Jay saw next after the stranger's basic information, made his eyes bulge out, and his jaw drop.

Author's note: So guys, do you think the story is interesting, and what do you think Jay saw? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section, and vote for more chapters!

~  Esho Oyinkansola. O