Chapter 39: Witch Detective Claudia on the Move

Today, is just another cloudy day. With heavy qualms of skipping class, the great weather makes it harder not to feel guilty. However, today the Witch Detective Claudia is going to have to step up her game if I want to expose the truth. 

            If you're wondering what I'm doing right now, then the answer would be stalking. Who am I stalking you're wondering? Well, off course it's none other than Jessica Hutslesky, Lora's mother. This is my fourth day stalking her. 

            Apparently, she works daily at a diner, and occasionally nightly at a bar. For a single mother, getting a good pay job isn't easy. I've been watching her for hours but the most unusual thing about her is how normal she is. 

            After seeing what she did to Lora, her reaction toward the skeleton, and the way her room was, I doubted she could work as any other upright social worker. However, even though she doesn't smile, no doubt her work didn't leave anyone to give any complaint. What's up with her gap conduct? 

            Thanks to Zilla, although I found one part of the truth, I'm still far from knowing the corpse identity. Just in case, I had Zilla search for missing children in the area for the past few years and search thoroughly for their traces. I skim through the list and honestly I felt doubt that any of them is the corpse, considering the last place they were gone and the lack of connection between them and Lora. 

            That's why, desperate for clues, I began to watch over Lora's mother. For these few days, nothing unusual happen, and in the house she has a very unstable emotion. At some point she would silently make meals for the two of them without breaking a conversation, most of the meals were made by Lora though. However, at times she would have a fitting rage and takes it out on Lora, she only began to calm down when she began to embrace the skeleton again, gross. 

               There has to be reason for her actions, what I'm immensely curious is the role she play in all this other than murdering that child. 

            A sudden thought enter my mind, at the same time, that woman came with my order of vanilla latte. She might have given me suspicious look if an eight year old order that, that's why I've been tailing her with different outlook everyday with my Shapeshifting Spell. Right now to everyone in this diner, I look like a woman in her late 30s when her real age is mid 40s, a short neck hair, a height of 170, tan skin, and stern obsidian eyes. 

            That's right, today I'm disguising as my mother. 

            Putting aside on my looks, there was a sudden thought that question my other thought that I should have question long ago. 

            Did she really kill the child?

            It's indisputable that she is hiding the corpse, but I couldn't help found it strange that she cherished it so much, afraid that someone else might take it. Why would she cherish so much someone she herself hurt. There are cases of people loving someone so much that they ended killing him/her, but it didn't make much sense toward a foreign child. 

            No doubt that child has a connection to her, but what? 

             The tea ended up getting cold with me lost in thought for a while, but nothing came into mind. I guess this is the extent of a detective wannabe. I drank my cold tea in deject, it was then that I heard a scream that it had me choke on my tea. I turned and saw that woman, Jessica Hutslesky strangling an old man. Is she crazy? Well, I know she is, but didn't she just do a good job acting sane in public? 

            I rushed toward them, the woman tried to pull away Miss Hutslesky away from her son, she and the other staff panicked and shouted at her to stop. Jessica Hutslesky turned a deaf ear to them, or right now, it could be that she truly lost all sense and focused only on her objective. Her eyes unlike the days I had observe them, was lit with life yet clouded by what she thought is seeing. The strength in her arms was absurd and her expression was angry yet desperate. I tried to hold on to her shoulder and lean on closer to her ear as I whisper. 

           "He's not who you think he is"

            Thank God I made the right choice of words, the strength she had left her slowly and stood dumbfounded, the man pulled himself away and began to cry for air. 

             Jessica Hutslesky looks at me as if asking for some kind of answer, yet not even I could give her an answer. I only randomly guess what I should say.  Afterward....you could imagine what happened next that involves angry screaming, apologies, and taking responsibility. In the end result, she got fired. 

           Miss Hutslesky's expression didn't give out much change. She only said her apology and in the next hour is finding a new job. I had a hunch this isn't the first time she went berserk at work. I'm surprised no one had ever turn her to the police....or maybe no one was able to. 

            I went back toward the diner and incidentally went toward the back door instead. There I saw the manager talking with a bulky man, the man gave the manager a small envelope, the manager checked inside the envelope and looked satisfied at the bundle of cash. They were talking about something so I enhanced my hearing with a spell and hid by the corner. 

            "I thank you for the retribution you're giving me, but I don't plan on re-hiring her, that last action of her has gone the limits so I hope you understand."

             "I fully understand, my only wish is for you to not spread her actions too much, especially to those in authority." 

            The manager nodded then went back inside. When the bulky man walked toward the opposite way, not long after, I called him out from behind. Since we are on the side on the main street, there should be nothing weird on me calling out to him. He turn toward me and saw me smiling innocently at him. 

            "Sorry to bother you, but I couldn't help notice some thing sticking on the back of your hair" the man couldn't help but try identifying the foreign object behind his head, seeing he had no idea where it is, I came in closer to him and gently touch the back of his head. 

            [ Pry ]

            I chant a spell that was the first spell my master conjured on me so he could read my memories without me having to recall what happened. I slip out an old used stickers and show it to the man. The man said his thanks and went on his way.  

            I stood quite a while, trying to digest the things I saw from his memories. I couldn't find any memories that led his meetings with Jason Omala, but there were frequent memories of him watching over her and Lora. Hushing up people whenever she gets in trouble, and memories of him messaging who I presume is his client but not even he knows who it is. 

           For now, the most probable person to be suspiciously watching over her behind would be Mr. Omala, but what I don't get is why. Since they broke off long ago, there's no reason for him to secretly watch over her, and with the high probability he knows the skeleton hidden if anyone's that intent to spy on her. I wonder if there's anything to do with 'that' incident, I already had Zilla checked through her records so there might be something useful. 

           I feel my phone vibrate inside my bag, I took out my phone and saw the screen that said no number but the name 'ZILLA' appear. I answer the call and called out what was wrong. 

           "Lady Claudia, I'm terribly sorry"

            That was the first thing she said to me, she said in a loud and frantic tone, afraid that she'd disappoint me. "I tried to dig out her phone record but oddly other than the recorded call and message log, all her other files mysteriously disappeared. "

            "Zilla, you skip too many explanation, firstly calm down!" She did as I said and went silent for a moment, showing her calmness. "Now let me ask, why are you fixated with her phone records? I'm fine if you could find any other information"

            "Because, her call logs tells me that she never used her phone for the last 2 years"

            Certainly something is wrong for someone not to using a phone at this day and age. "Moreover, the last call she ever made was a call to her husband, Gregory" 

            I was stunned for a moment before I gulped my own saliva, so while calming my already irregular beating heart, I asked when was the last time she had call him. 

           "The day Gregory Howard died."

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Sorry for the slight delay, hope you enjoy!

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