Working Cases - Episode 10

 

The week off was good for us.
Gabe was even more messed up than either of us. Natalie was one of the few people who really knew him well. She had died in front of him, and I hadn’t even been there to let him out of the house.
But he was strong. The boy possessed an amazing amount of strength, both physically and emotionally. He had pulled through the pain of her death, grieved properly, and even went on to try and find Carpenter, inadvertently helping me find and arrest him . He hadn’t wanted to see me at first, but we had talked it over, and he had forgiven me. We had spent the first day picnicking on the hill. Then we had gone out of town to the hill village, away from all of it—all of the capital city of corruption and the loss it had caused us.
We ended up finding a new clue up there.
The hill village was remote. The hill was surrounded on all sides by farmlands and fields. A long time ago, the farmers had banded together and colonized the hill. At the foot of it lay their farms, and at the top of it lay their village—a civilization unto itself. They stored produce, processed their harvest, packaged them for sale, made their laws and lived by them all on the hill. The Hill Village Market was then built at the foot of the hill as the singular connection between the Hill Village and the rest of the world

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. Over time, it had grown to become the largest most successful international market in Africa, contributing more than twenty-five percent of the country’s annual internal revenue. 
Surprisingly, the success of the market hadn’t ever derailed the vision the original settlers had for the village they had built. The hill village had remained remote, quiet, a civilization unto itself, a close knit community inhabited mainly by farmers and few others. There was a steady flow of tourists, though. Even though none of the tourists ever stayed, the village had a steady inflow of people looking to escape their own world and technology for a few days. At the top of the hill, where the village was, there was no internet, no phones, and very little conventional computer-driven technology. The farmers had invented their own technology over decades, clever machines and intricate devices that could never be found anywhere else in the world.
The village was a place to disappear. It was where the man in the shadows had been hiding all along.
The farmers had their own security and law enforcement system, very effective and completely transparent, so there were hardly any criminals in the village. The few criminals who did come up running from the law, quickly abandoned their vices and became farmers themselves, charmed by the simple life and greater sense of purpose that seemed to exist on a higher level on that hill.
The man I was looking for had come here for something else. He had come here so I would never find him, so he would never exist.
Amelia and I had been sharing jokes, laughing and lounging near the stream that ran down the hill on the evening of our sixth day there. The sun was setting. I had enjoyed every moment with her these past few days. She had the darkest shade of black eyes that twinkled when she smiled. She helped me distract myself so well, it almost wasn’t a distraction. I was having fun. Not the fun I had solving cases, this was a type of fun I hadn’t had in a long time. 
“What are you thinking about?” She asked.
I threw a rock in the stream and it skipped a few times. “Nothing, really. Just how long it’s been since I've had this type of fun.”
“Yeah?” she squinted up at me. “Me too. I've been indoors too much lately. Haven’t had this much fun since…” she ran a hand through her hair, as if trying to decide how much information to offer, “well, since before I came to town.”
“Well, how long have you been in town?” I asked. But she wasn’t looking at me. 
A figure had come climbing up the hill, the setting sun behind him. The silhouette of a tall, muscular man had ascended the hill and was making his way toward the village when he saw us and stopped. He stood there for several seconds, his gaze fixed on us, the sun disallowing us to see his face. I called out to him, “Hello, there. You can come over, sir. We’re just enjoying the view.”
Then he bolted. And in that moment, I knew it was him. I had never seen a man go that fast in my entire life. His feet barely hit the ground as he bounded down the hill, throwing aside the sack of farm tools he had been carrying. I followed. Using my arms to spring to my feet, I chased him down the hill, trying and failing to adjust to the terrain in pursuit of his seamlessly navigating form. I tripped on a rock, and before I could regain my footing, he had disappeared down the hill and into a field of standing corn.
When I reached the top of the hill, panting and sweating hard, Amelia had gotten Gabe and they were running to meet me. “Are you okay?” Amelia cupped my face in her hands, looking me in the eye.
“I'm fine. Couldn’t catch him. Too fast.” I breathed.
She nodded and held out a bottle of water to me. “Drink up.”
I gulped down the water, my mind racing to understand the implications of what had just happened.
She spoke again. “That was him, wasn’t it?”
I didn’t say anything. She drew in a sharp breath realizing what had just happened.
I shook my head. “I can’t. I can’t let this happen again.”
She froze. “What do you mean?”
“It’s been barely a month, damn it? It’ll be a month this evening. I can’t let it happen again.”
She understood. She always understood. “We weren’t hurt, Nicodemus. We’re okay. Gabe and I are okay.” She tried to reassure me.
“But for how long?” I asked no one in particular. “He saw us together, Amelia. How long will any of you stay safe around me? No one will touch Gabe, but you—I can’t lose you too.”
Her lower lip was trembling and she was looking up at me. “No, Nicodemus, you can’t deny me this. You can’t push me out.”
“I'm sorry. The past few days with you have been far too wonderful to lose. I can’t let you work for me anymore. I'm sorry.”  
I was sorry.