It seemed that the two police officers were pleased by Mayhew's lies—well, at least the older cop was happy. The younger officer more so seemed indifferent, but still put on a smile because his superior officer was next to him. Now all the detective had to do was convince the two of them to let him go to their report storage room.
Smiling at the two corrupt cops, Mayhew spoke in a natural tone.
"Well officers, it seems that we are all on the same page here. So if you wouldn't mind, could you take us to the storage room please?"
Almost instantly, the middle-aged cop's smile disappeared from his face, and a raised eyebrow made the detective sigh inside his head.
'Looks like this won't be as easy as I thought.'
Looking at Mayhew with his cold brown eyes, the officer spoke in an even tone.
"I am a little confused, detective. I thought that you only came here to get the money and let the case fall to ruin once you made your exit. So why would you want to see our reports? You can just hang out here and do nothing until your limited pass to investigate runs out. Isn't that right?"
Mayhew shook his head, which made the officer raise his eyebrow further.
"Actually, officer—no, I can't just hang out here and do nothing for months on end. When I abandon this case, my reputation will go down just by a little bit. That much of a loss is fine and is something that I can handle. But imagine this: 'Polish citizens in the town of Pustków find out that the famous British detective that came to investigate a murder case was instead spending his time drinking in bars and playing snow with his detective partner'. Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? Well it is—which is why I can't just remain stationary for the whole investigation."
The more he spoke, the lower the officer's eyebrow dropped. And eventually, the middle-aged cop was back to a natural—maybe even understanding—expression.
Meanwhile, Mayhew continued:
"So, what I plan on doing is to at least look as if I am trying to solve the case. That's why I want to go to your storage room, because knowing dates and such would make it seem as if I was really invested in this case, you get me?"
The middle-aged cop nodded, and taking his example, the younger cop nodded as well.
Inside his head, Mayhew let out a sigh of relief.
'It worked out in the end.'
The middle-aged officer turned his gaze toward the young, slim officer. With his wrinkly hand he gestured to the young man something. Mayhew didn't really know what exactly, but he assumed that it was to escort him and Margret to the storage room.
His thoughts were quickly proved correct, as the young cop moved around the counter and gestured to the two detectives to follow him.
Looking back at Margret, the hazel-eyed detective smiled with confidence.
The trio moved past the counter and into a hallway that stretched to the back of the police station. Along the way, they would pass other cops that were in the police station.
None really caught Mayhew's eye, but thankfully his partner was a master at sensing unseen danger with her intuition. Of course, Mayhew couldn't just ask her right now, as the young police officer was walking just slightly ahead of them.
But looking at her face, the hazel-eyed detective could tell that someone or something had triggered Margret's alarm. Most wouldn't be able to guess this from just looking at her expression, but seven years of working with the blond lady made it easy for Mayhew.
After a few minutes of walking, the trio made it to the storage room, which was at the very back of the building.
Walking inside, Mayhew and Margret saw piles of papers—some on top of cabinets, some stuffed inside lockers, and some just laying on the ground. It was completely unorganized.
'Oh boy. This is going to take a while,' he thought with a sigh.
Margret, on the other hand, was a lot less subtle about showing her frustration.
"Hey, Mayhew."
The detective turned hesitantly.
"Yes?"
She gestured at the young police officer that was standing at the doorframe.
"Can you tell this prat to leave us alone? If this shitty police station can't even give us some organized papers, the least they could do is give us some privacy."
Mayhew nodded and turned his gaze toward the doorframe.
However, before he could even say anything, the young cop just walked away without saying anything.
This left the detective to pause for a moment.
Then he turned to Margret with a frown on his face.
"You know, Meg, maybe you shouldn't assume that all Polish people don't understand English."
The blond detective rolled her eyes.
"Who cares if he understood what I said. Actually, it would be better if he did. As you said yourself today: 'Sometimes, being blunt is the only way to make people see what they don't want to see'."
Looking at the papers on the ground, the detective sighed.
"Using my own words against me, huh."
The duo then got to reading all the papers that were scattered across the storage room. Mayhew did not know how much time they spent looking around, but if he had to guess it had to have been at least four hours or more.
By the end, both detectives seemed drained. But they did find the papers they were looking for.
Mayhew and Margret stared at the ten papers in their hands with intense focus.
Ten disappearances across a ten-year period.
Two of these ten were Deven Smith and the Polish girl he had allegedly murdered. The other eight were the missing reports that Deven had come to Pustków to investigate. These eight reports were also the only ones in recent time to have disappeared with no bodies found.
Mayhew could already see a connection, but it was shallow at best.
Going from latest to earliest, the missing person reports were:
Report: January 28th 1984
54-year-old Deven Smith found dead inside Starego Dębu forest, with a single gunshot wound to the head from his own gun. He was last seen running into Starego Dębu forest.
Report: January 28th 1984
22-year-old Anna Brzezińska found dead inside Starego Dębu forest, with two gunshot wounds to the chest and stomach. She was last seen walking around Park Słonecznej Polany near Starego Dębu forest.
These two reports were what Mayhew had come here for, but the detective had a feeling that the other eight reports would come into play to reveal something much darker.
Report: July 22nd 1982
19-year-old Piotr Mazur went missing. Last seen near Park Słonecznej Polany.
Only a two-year gap between the Deven Smith incident and the last missing person report that had no body found. That was an interesting fact to think about.
Report: November 19th 1981
20-year-old Ewa Dąbrowska went missing. Last seen roaming near street Krótka.
Both detectives took a pause at this specific report, as the street that the person was last seen at was the same street that their apartment was in.
A thought crossed Mayhew's mind at that moment.
'That drunk girl that I bumped into this morning. Could she be Ewa Dąbrowska, the missing woman from 1981? Even if she isn't, she might know something about the missing woman. I'll need to find that girl immediately.'
Mayhew really didn't want to believe that the police here were so lazy that they didn't even notice that Ewa Dąbrowska wasn't missing at all and was still roaming the streets drunk. But he knew that it wasn't out of the question.
Report: January 4th 1980
34-year-old Czesław Wójcik went missing. Last seen by his family before leaving the house for a midnight walk.
Report: October 8th 1979
2-year-old Monika Kowalska went missing. Last seen playing with her 6-year-old sister in Park Słonecznej Polany next to Starego Dębu forest.
This report caused both Mayhew and Margret to scowl.
'A two-year-old?!'
If this was the work of a human, then it seemed that they were dealing with a very deranged one—more so than regular murders.
Report: October 8th 1979
6-year-old Agnieszka Kowalska went missing. Last seen playing with her 2-year-old sister in Park Słonecznej Polany next to Starego Dębu forest.
'Got them both without anyone noticing. There is no way that an animal could have done that.'
Report: February 13th 1979
22-year-old Magdalena Czarnecka went missing. Last seen wandering around street Cicha.
Report: September 11th 1978
56-year-old Stefan Zieliński went missing. Last seen playing chess with himself in Park Słonecznej Polany near Starego Dębu forest.
A detail about the missing person reports was already becoming obvious to the detectives.
Report: December 20th 1977
18-year-old Jakub Zawadzki went missing. Last spotted playing chess in Park Słonecznej Polany near Starego Dębu forest.
And then finally, there was the last report. And this one really caught Mayhew's attention.
Report: October 15th 1975
15-year-old Tomasz Novak went missing. Last seen walking into Starego Dębu forest by his younger brother.
'Novak. That's a Slavic surname, more common in Slovakia and Czechia. So this kid was an immigrant.'
These reports already put Mayhew's brain to work and several theories and suspicions were already roaming his mind.
Although unfortunately enough, he couldn't yet share them with Margret, as they had already seen that some of the police here did understand English, and that could lead to trouble if one of the officers found them talking about the case seriously.
He didn't doubt that Margret also wanted to share a lot with him but didn't for the same reason as himself.
So the two detectives silently decided that they would share their thoughts at their apartment. Margret could tell him which person in the station made her danger sense perk up, and Mayhew could tell her about the patterns he saw in the missing person reports.
Intuition and observation paired with deep understanding of each other. This was what made them so effective.
Margret pulled out a small notepad from her breast pocket and began writing down all the details of the ten reports. After she was done, the two detectives quickly made their way through the hallways of the station and back to the main lobby.
Behind the counter stood the young officer that had escorted them to the storage room. Meanwhile, the middle-aged cop was nowhere to be seen.
Looking at the slim man, Mayhew decided to take the time of day to apologize for Margret's mean words.
The young cop did not have much of a reaction to his apologies; he simply nodded with a blank stare. This reaction—or lack thereof—served to make Margret visibly pissed off.
Seeing this, the detective decided that it was a good time for the two of them to leave.
Walking outside, Mayhew and Margret widened their eyes slightly as they looked around. It must have been 2 or 3 pm, so Mayhew's prediction of four hours had been off by a fair bit.
Glancing over at Mayhew, the blue-eyed detective spoke in a natural tone.
"It's already pretty late, we should just get to our apartment now. We'll be able to discuss these cases there."
The hazel-eyed detective took a pause before glancing at Margret with a small smile on his lips.
Seeing that smile, the blond detective sighed and rubbed her eyes lightly.
"You want to look around the town, right? Get the locals comfortable with you before they figure out that you're a private detective."
Mayhew shrugged.
"Better to ask questions now than later when they figure out who we are."
Taking a few steps down the icy road, the detective continued to speak without looking at his partner.
"I am sure you noticed it as well in the missing person reports, it seems that both the park and the nearby forest are hot spots for people to disappear. I am going to go and take a quick look—maybe have a conversation or two with the locals there, and then I'll be back to the apartment in no time."
Margret scoffed and took a few steps in the opposite direction from where Mayhew was going.
"Be careful out there. You hear me, you muppet?! I don't have a gun to save your ass this time."
The detective chuckled.
"Don't worry, I'll be alright Meg."
The two detectives soon vanished from each other's sight, Margret following the path back to their apartment building and Mayhew going toward the so-called Słonecznej Polany park.
'The park's name translates to Sunny Glade Park. Such a friendly name for a park that is littered with missing people's last footprints,' Mayhew thought to himself as he walked between the old communist buildings.