Chapel: Man in The Mirror... Part Four: The Mask of Fear.

 

Saturday, September 15th, 7:00 PM.

It was for the past three days when the temperatures rose to the point to where the snow had turned to a bitter cold rain, a steady downpour that would fill every gutter and drain to the brink of flooding. Twenty five-year-old Morris Curl shuffled along the rain drenched sidewalks of Pearl Street, outwardly, he wasn't particularly tall, about five foot eight, with gaunt facial features, and thin wiry body that twitched undramatically as he walked with an almost nervous gait, his eyes carefully scanning everything in his path until they came to rest on the broad shouldered man standing in the doorway, of Mario's Deli, he was tall, well above six feet, muscular, he had a long ponytail, dyed dark blue, his dark eyes looked like they would burn a hole through him to his very soul, the long black leather coat with the upturned collar gave him a more menacing look. Morris shot him a nervous glance without ever looking directly at him. knowing better than to test him, without looking up, he passed him a thick envelope. He opened it and gave him a puzzled look.

"It's from Jinx, he knows what's up. There's $10,000 in there, man, consider it a peace offering to The Order."  Jonas said.

He reached down and grabbed Morris by the shirt and lifted him effortlessly.

"You tell Jinx it's gonna take more than that to bring him and peace from The Order, we're taking over the Columbian Ice trade. If we catch anyone but our enforcers selling that shit? we're going to burn whatever Jinx has to the ground."  He smiled coldly, lowering Morris back to the ground.

"Oh, and tell Jinx that Vladimir Kristoph says hello." He turned and walked down the street.

Morris turned away swallowing the lump forming in his throat, he thought long and hard about what he would tell his boss Jinx, He stumbled along the wet sidewalk ignoring the rain soaking through his clothing. He never saw the large shadowy figuring closing distance on him, and when he'd found himself being dragged up the side of a brick wall, his panicked screams froze in his throat, the rain slowed to a drizzle, as he found himself looking into the menacing stare of Chapel. He scampered to his feet trying to run away, but whichever way he turned, he couldn't seem to move fast enough, he tried to shield himself from the beating he thought would be coming, he raised both hands shaking, covering his face from Chapel's angry stare, he tried to talk, but his voice rose as a pathetic whimper, then the realization of what had just happened slowed him, he slowly looked at the tops of the surrounding building, he was walking on the sidewalk and seconds later here he was. he pointed at the edge of the rooftop.

"H…Hey man! how'd you do that?" He stammered.

Chapel leaned forward.

"I need you to tell me about that man you gave the envelope to, Morris." He said sternly.

Surprised at hearing his own name spill from the lips of a stranger, he looked up stunned.

"Hey- How'd you know my name?" He stammered.

I know all about you, Morris, I know all about your boss Jinx." He leaned forward. "What I need to know is who the gentleman that you gave the envelope to is."

"Ummmm. I- I think his name is Elijah Corbett, he is a street enforcer for the Order, I think."

"The Order of Shadows?"

"Y-Yeah."

"And what can you tell me about the one they call Candyman?"

"That's the guy that snatches kids, man-he makes everybody nervous, even the Order."

"How so?" Chapel stared at him menacingly.

"Well, they're not exactly afraid of Candyman, It's the cops, man." Morris whimpered.

"The cops?"

"Yeah, more foot patrols, more cop cars rolling through all the areas where the Candyman struck, the cops are under a lot of pressure from city hall to catch the guy, they've tripled their presence on the street man, it makes it harder for everybody to do business."

"You tell Jinx, to tell his people to keep their eyes and ears open to anything related to the Candyman, if he doesn't The Order of Shadows will be the least of his problems. Oh- and Morris?" Chapel slowly leaned forward.  "I'll be keeping an eye on you."

He watched as he slowly turned and walked to the edge of the building and calmly stepped over the side as if he were simply walking into another room. Morris crawled over the where Chapel had just stood and peered over the side in shocked disbelief as though he had just witnessed a miracle eighteen floors up, and seconds later there was nothing, no sign that he had even been there, no one walking the alley below, he had just stepped off the side of the building and quietly disappeared.   

 Sunday, September 16th, 6:15 AM, 366 Quarrey Street, Barris Coffee Shop. 

The word along Church Street was that The Candyman was still out there walking amongst them free as a bird, because the cops were clueless, some of the older more superstitious street people even likened him to a ghost who could literally walk through walls and disappear at will. Chapel had heard all the theories, but when he'd gone back to the original tenement, he reinterviewed the first two known victims mothers, and immediately struck gold, the mothers remembered the odd young man who had delivered their groceries, a small, faint, mid-twenties white male with stringy blonde hair, with cold blue eyes and a nervous look to him. Both women gave Chapel the same description, both had ordered groceries regularly from Modern Market on Quarrey street. He immediately went to the office of each tenement, and consulted with both superintendents, they both recognized the description, and told Chapel that the young man had at one time lived in both buildings and did light maintenance in each for a period of six months along with his cousin Noah Drake.

 In addition to this new information and perhaps most importantly, one of the super's actually had a picture of the two young men that they had kept on file along with contact information in case of emergencies, he surrendered both pictures to him willingly. Chapel now had pictures and names, Arlo Jamis, and his cousin's name was Noah Drake. He called and shared the information with Eckley, and they decided to meet up at a small coffee shop near Modern Market, when Chapel walked in Eckley had already seated himself by the rain soaked front window, Chapel sat down across from him, the waitress came into view and slowly poured two cups of coffee, before disappearing back into the kitchen area. Eckley eyed him curiously as he produced and opened a small flask and slowly stirred a dark red liquid into his coffee, Chapel's eyes slowly rose to meet his gaze, he gave him a small wink before pulling the pictures out of his inside coat pocket. Eckley leaned forward, studying them carefully, his eyes widening as they moved across both pictures. Chapel raised a forefinger and tapped the first picture.

"This one, I believe his name is Arlo Jamis, the other is his cousin Noah Drake. I believe that one of them may be our Candyman." Chapel said coldly.

Eckley silently looked down at the pictures, and then his eyes slowly rose to meet Chapel's cold stare.

"I'll take Jamis, find out what you can about Noah Drake, take his picture back to Bettenhurst, Tower Row all the way to Beacon Hill, make copies of his picture, leave it everywhere, show it to the people in the homeless district, if he's connected in any way, if one of them is the Candyman, someone has to have seen him, I'll hit up Modern Market, if either of them worked there, in any capacity, there has to be some sort of employment record, maybe contact information, maybe even a home address. it may give us a place to start."

Eckley rose from his seat.

"What if they figure out that we're looking for them?" He asked.

Chapel looked up at him, still seated.

"Sometimes you have to beat the bushes to startle the snakes." he answered.

"Won't they get spooked and run?"

He stood and fully faced Eckley.

"I'm counting on it, I'll call you  in an hour or so to let you know what I've discovered, if anything."

435 Quarrey Street, Modern Market, 8:15 AM.

The double bells that hung above the door rang out as Chapel entered Modern Market, there was a young man mopping up a mess in one of the aisle's and another behind him stacking cereal boxes onto a shelf, both young men cautiously looked up at him, he asked where the manager of the store was to which they both pointed towards the main cash register, Chapel nodded silently and made his way to the main counter where an older small framed, elderly gray haired woman warmly greet him with a half hearted smile that didn't quite reach her ears. He requested to speak to the manager of the establishment to which she informed him that she was the owner and manager. He produced the picture of Arlo Jamis, she leaned forward adjusting her glasses. her eyes squinted as if she wasn't sure what she was looking at. She looked up at him.

"Oh, that's Arlo, yeah I know him, he used to make deliveries for us, him and his cousin Noah." She told him. 

She told him everything she remembered about Arlo Jamis, being a troubled young man who had just been recently rehabilitated and released from Penbrook, he and Noah Drake were having trouble finding work, so Ella Parks decided to hire them as delivery workers for Modern Market. They left behind one forwarding address, 414 Downey St, on the corner of Downey and Baker, The Oracle Hotel, room 236. Chapel politely thanked her and made his way outside to call Eckley, one hour later they met  in Wicker Park, directly across from the Oracle Hotel, Eckley had his own information to share, several people did indeed remember seeing Noah Drake in the area, some recalled him having a nervous twitch and always walking with his head down, some recalled seeing him getting into and driving away in a small white mini van. Chapel informed him that Arlo Jamis had been recently released from Penbrook Psychiatric Hospital a now closed facility between Kings Harbor and Clover City. Now their last known address was right across the street from them. Eckley called his detective friend and gave him the names at Chapel's request, they decided to sit on the Oracle hotel to wait out Arlo Jamis and Noah Drake.

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