The Rhode Incident - Ch 6

The detective had already gone back out to Rhode for a couple of questions for anyone who was at The Village Pub, which was the place Michael went to most often. There was no set time for these interviews, only that he should do them today. Even though he was excited, he saw no need for rushing; "It's nothing to kill yourself over" he thought to himself.

He parked his car on the side of the road and approached the pub. It wasn't much to look at, just a small, pale building with a sign hanging off of it that said "The Village Pub". Eamon walked in and found himself encompassed by a golden dimness that felt warm and welcoming.

He approached a man sitting alone at a table drinking what appeared to be a glass of Coke. "Hello" Eamon called for his attention.

"Good afternoon" the man replied.

"And you would be..."

"Patrick. My name is Patrick but you can call me Pat. Would you like a drink? It's on me."

"Heh, why not? I'll just have a Coke."

"Sounds good to me!"

A few moments as the detective is drinking his coke, he asks "How did Michael act when you last saw him?"

"He was acting all kinds of normal when I last saw him except, he could barely hold his beer this time 'round, a couple of sips and I had to bring him home. Other than that, nothing different that I noticed. Should've looked deeper..."

"Don't worry about it. Is there anything he did or said that was a little bit off to you while he was being driven home?"

"Not that I can... wait! He did act rather oddly but I just thought it was the result of his drunkenness. You see, he's usually quite talkative when he was like that, but this time, he just stared out the window with his head bobbing, didn't matter which, and he never said a word. To be honest, I didn't think much of it until you asked me about it."

"Mmm-hmm." 

"Anything else?"

"Nope, that's it. Thank you for your time and I hope you have a good day, oh and thanks for the drink."

"No problem."

Patrick was just a starting point. The detective got out of his seat and sat on a stool at the bar next to another person.

"Hi" she said.

"Hello, how do you like coming here?"

"It's a place to relax" she replied casually.

"Did you ever know Michael O'Higgins?"

"Oh yeah, he told a lot of stories. He seemed nice, I wish I got to know him a little bit better."

'When was the last time you saw him?"

"About a month ago."

"Did you notice anything different about him?"

"Besides being a little more tired than usual? No, not really."

"Okay, thanks."

"Your welcome."

Eamon moved to another stool. "Yeah?" the guy next to him sneered.

"Your name?"

"Heh, Jim."

"Do you know Michael O'Higgins?"

"Everybody knows O'Higgins especially now that he killed his family and ran off with some other people like a fucking cult!"

"Uh-huh. Did you notice anything strange about him last time you saw him?"

"He was slow as a fucking snail and he couldn't hold his beer. Fucking pathetic..."

"Alright then. thank you for your time."

Detective McDonagh talked to everyone in the pub and more or less everyone said that the only thing that seemed off about Michael was that he didn't seem to be thinking very clearly and that he had gotten drunk at an impossible rate. It correlated to exactly what had been said in Michael's journal which wasn't really surprising to Eamon since he figured that a man is brutally honest to himself if he is writing to himself about himself.

He finished off his coke, tossed it into the nearest trash can, walked to his car, and drove to Edenderry to talk to Michael's former coworkers, see what they had to say.

He knocked on the door and a man opened it up revealing a rather small office for 6 people. "Hi, what are you here for?"

"I'm detective McDonagh and I wanted to talk about Michael O'Higgins."

"Right. Come on in, there's a small room in back that we use for storage but still has enough room for at least 2 people to stand." He pointed to a man sitting down, focused on a screen. "No need to talk to him, we just hired him a couple of days ago."

They shuffled into the room doing their best not to knock anything over. "How long is this going to take?" "It's only going to take a few minutes for each person, I only have a couple of questions."

"Good."

"Alright, your first name?"

"Liam."

"Ok, how well did you know Mr. O'Higgins, Liam?"

"We've worked together in this room for 5 years, so I think I knew him pretty well."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"About a week before it all happened."

"What was his behavior like?"

"Very unlike himself. He was talking to himself, kept coming in and out of the office, never made any eye contact, and he looked around every few seconds like he was paranoid of someone watching or following him. I eventually had to give him a few days rest. Is that it?"

"That's all, you can go."

Liam walked out and Eamon called in another person. In the room, he asked him for his name which was Thomas. "How well did you know Mr. O'Higgins, Thomas?"

"Not that well."

"How long were you coworkers?"

"Only a few months, a very strange person he was."

"How so?"

"He was muttering to himself and he threatened people when anyone talked to him. He also always looked so paranoid to me."

"Thank you for your time."

He asked another person to come. "What's your first name?" 

"Garret."

"How well did you know Mr. O'Higgins?"

"Pretty well. He changed, he changed completely. He went from friendly and hardworking to a lazy arsehole; it's a wonder he wasn't fired."

"Next person. What's your name?"

"Sarah."

"How well did you know Mr. O'Higgins?"

"Well enough, worked with him for 3 years."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"5 days before "shudders" what he did. I walked past him on a street and said hi to him but he just kept on walking. He was also constantly looking over his shoulder and talking to himself."

"Thanks."

"Your name, son."

"Doug, sir."

"Did you know Mr. O'Higgins?"

"Not too well."

"When did you last see him?"

"About a week ago."

"How did he act then?"

"Like a schizophrenic, sir. He shouldn't have been working."

"Thank you for your time."

It had become evening as Eamon said his goodbyes. He was walking back to his car when he got a call.; it was from a member of the team. "Yes?"

"You're probably not going to believe this, but we found them."

"Who?" 

"The missing people, we found them."

"Where were they?"

"Rhode. You need to come down here ASAP."

"Why?"

"Just get down here, you can see for yourself."

"You don't sound too-" the call got cut off. "-Well. "Sigh"".