The Unfolding 10

The older policeman laughed even more before finally calming down. ‘Alright, alright. You two are here for something more serious anyways, right? I heard you’re going to get a whole village arrested.’ ‘Except for the children and Katy,’ Meisie blurted out, apparently feeling like it was important to make that clear to the policeman in front of her. Aino raised an eyebrow, amused. ‘Well, why don’t you come with me for the interrogation then, Katy? Witbooi can tell everyone else what she found out in the meantime.’ Meisie looked a little surprised. ‘Eh ….I thought Risa was going to interrogate me…’ ‘Sorry, that won’t work out. Since you’re friends with her, she might end up trying to alter your testimony for your benefit.’ Confused, Meisie turned to Risa. ‘You wouldn’t do that, would you…?’ ‘OF course not. But the police always has to assume the worst,’ Risa gave her a calming smile. ‘And you shouldn’t be so worried about that anyways. If I wanted to alter your testimony, I would alter it for your benefit.’ Meisie pouted, shaking her head. ‘But I want the police to know the truth.’ ‘That’s why I’d never even try to alter your testimony,’ Risa said, patting Meisie’s shoulder. ‘And now go with Aino. He’s very experienced, he’ll take good care of you.’ ‘Alright. I’ll see you later then.’ Nodding in agreement, Meisie hurried to follow Aino into the interrogation room. Meisie’s interrogation took longer than it took Risa to fill colleagues in on the things she had learned in the village. Risa glanced at the clock hanging on the wall with a hint of nervousness, suddenly fearing that Aino might arrest Meisie after all. But one of her other co-workers, Hiram who had just been transferred to this department from a different city a few weeks ago, spoke up after Risa had finished her story. ’So …. You really solved the mystery of all those disappearances just like that?’ Risa laughed bitterly. ’Oh, it wasn’t just like that,’ Hiram. But I did solve the mystery. That is, with the help of Meisie and Katy.’ Hiram nodded slowly, rubbing her forehead. ‘So now we basically have to arrest a whole village…’ In that moment, the door to the office opened and Meisie stepped inside, looking relieved. ‘Meisie!’ Risa blurted out, instinctively stepping closer to the younger woman. ‘How did it go?’ ‘Well… I told Aino everything.’ Meisie replied, smiling weakly. ‘He said he was going to send some people to the village and bring the villagers here then. So ….I guess everything worked out okay?’ Risa let out a heavy sigh of relief and nodded. ‘Good,’ she said, reaching out to squeeze Meisie’s hand. ‘That’s very good.’ ‘We can take things from here, then,’ Aino announced as he stepped into the room. ‘You can take Shida for a walk or something. We’ll get a search warrant for all the houses in the village, and then we’ll take everyone here and arrest them.’ ‘Uhm,’ Meisie cleared her throat and spoke up, a slightly awkward smile on her lips. ‘Can I …see my father when you bring him here? I just want to tell him … that he can’t ruin my life anymore from now on.’ Risa nodded again, smiling. ‘Of course. You can see him when he’s securely locked up in a cell, and you can tell him whatever you want.’ Meisie gulped, seeming a little nervous when imagining her father being locked up in a cell, but then she smiled as well. ‘Thank you…’ It took the police a day to bring all the adult villagers to the city and take them to their cells. They still needed to be interrogated, but Aino, who led the group of policemen taking care of this case, had declared that they would wait with that until the next day because it was such a hassle to arrest and interrogate a whole village. On the evening of the day of her interrogation, Risa took Meisie back to the police station. They had spent the day walking around town, with Risa showing the younger woman the streets near the police station. In the evening, Risa led the way back to the station, lowering her head thankfully as they passed by Aino. ‘Thank you, AINO…’ Aino smirked slightly. ‘You owe me one for taking care of all this.’ He said, but he didn’t sound very serious, Still, Risa took a mental note to at least buy him a cake or something similar to express how thankful she was for his help. She headed towards the cells, followed by Meisie. Meisie’s father glared at them from his cell, and angry expression on his face. ‘So you ratted us out,’ he growled, and Risa thought she could see a dangerous glint in his eyes. For a moment, she was glad that there were sturdy metal bars separating them, even though as a Detective, she shouldn’t be too scared of CRIMINALS. ‘The gods will make sure you suffer for this…’ ‘Dad,’ Meisie spoke up, interrupting him. She frowned, folding her arms in front of her chest. ‘You’ve been hurting innocent people for far too long. It was time for all our secrets to come to an end.’ ‘The gods won’ accept this …’ ‘The gods,’ Meisie cut in sharply,’ don’t matter anymore. Actually, I doubt they ever existed. You were just trying to justify your own craziness…and people had to die for something that was never real. All of that had to finally end.’ Her father opened his mouth to spit out some more words, but Meisie turned around to Risa. ‘Can we go home, Risa?’ ‘Of course.’ Risa glanced at Meisie’s father once more before placing her hand on Meisie’s back and leading the younger woman away form her father’s cell. As they walked through the police station, saying Goodbye to Risa’s colleagues on their way out, Risa suddenly felt a hand taking a hold of hers. When she turned to look at Meisie in slight surprise. The younger woman just smiled at her awkwardly. ’Do you mind…?’ Risa shook her head, a small smile on her lips. That evening, Meisie fell asleep first, curled up on the bed with her head resting on Risa’s shoulder. Risa watched her with a fond smile; maybe Aino had been right. Maybe she really had brought a ’CUTE GIRLFRIEND’ home from the mysterious village. ‘Finished Reading…’