Chapter 3.1 - Silver roulette

Arriving at his apartment after parting ways with Miller, Ben couldn’t help but feel uneasy and turned on his laptop. He wasn’t good at checking information, so he felt burdened by the flickering big screen. Ben was wondering where to start to find out the information and pressed the keyboard with his finger.

He pressed enter after writing O’Donoughue’s name and waited. Some information about people with the same last name appeared, but nothing seemed to be worthy. Even though he thought it was an unusual last name, it was surprisingly difficult to find the information he wanted because there were many people with the same last name.

Making meaningless clicks, Ben became more and more convinced.

It was weird not to get anything on you these days. There should be at least one thing, whether it’s a SNS or a personal homepage, but if you weren’t a human, of course you wouldn’t need it, so it wasn’t strange that he didn’t have it.

As it was becoming clear that he wasn’t a human being, a personal homepage caught his eye.

Ben clicked on the homepage and wondered what kind of crazy guy he would be. Aside from the fact that it classified more than 240 tobacco labels and classified the seawater salinity in the UK, he had a serious delusion to write that someone’s coat and shoes could tell what they did the day before.

‘He’s not even Sherlock Holmes.’

Since Sherlock Holmes was a novel, no matter how absurd a lie can be considered plausible, he was a lunatic if he acted that way in real life.

The owner of that website must be a serious Sherlock Holmes maniac. Or maybe he was a delusional person who believed he was Sherlock Holmes.

Even though he seriously thought he was crazy, Ben was interested in the website. The plausible reasoning processes were quite interesting, and the owner of the website talked about many things as if he were a genius.

Looking at the homepage while considering it suspicious, the owner of the website seemed to have a talent for speaking nonsense. What a swindler.

Ben checked the name of the owner of the website. He identified the ‘detective’ as job and the name ‘Aidan O’Donoughue’ in the introduction section at the bottom of the homepage. Ben clicked the ‘more’ button in the homepage one after another. He stopped at one point. There was a reason why he began searching for the content of the owner of the website. It was just one line in the personal chat section, but in Ben’s eyes, it came in bigger and clearer than anything he’d ever seen.

[Why does Miller always interrupt me when I try to do something fun?]

There may be people with the same name, but it was an unusual last name and it wouldn’t be so common for someone to have the same name and last name. The homepage owner was clearly speaking in a tone of reproach to him.

Ben only read it twice, but he concluded that Miller O’Donoughue was criticized rather than praised by others.

Ben patted his chin with a hm and clicked on the blog linked to the bottom left of the homepage.

That blog was another person’s personal blog, a blog by a person named Daniel Johnson. Daniel Johnson’s blog had a lot of articles that summarized the cases solved with Aidan O’Donoughue.

This blog posted about the process of solving the cases by Aidan O’Donoughue or by the yard. Unlike Aidan O’Donoughue’s blog, this one had really subjective opinions.

Daniel Johnson’s affection for Aidan could be seen everywhere.

Ben vaguely concluded that the person of the homepage and the other one of the blog were a couple, and at the same time, he became curious about the two. More precisely, he wanted to meet them because they seemed to know Miller O’Donoughue.

Ben carefully read Aidan O’Donoughue’s homepage that night. Then again, he was sure that he was out of his mind.

The next morning, Ben visited the address on Aidan O’Donoughue’s website.

Staring at the numbers on the dark green front door, Ben raised the collar of his jacket to block the wind. He found the address on the website, but couldn’t go inside hastily.

Ben snooped around the front door for a long time. He couldn’t easily decide whether to press the bell or not. He was also worried about what to say if he did. He thought he would think that he’s a weirdo if he said that he wanted to know more about Miller O’Donoughue.

Ben began to think again in front of the gate about what he had been thinking all the way in the taxi. It was difficult to plan how to approach this person because he couldn’t predict how he would react.

Standing in front of the door for a few more minutes, Ben looked at the sky and sighed as if he had made a big decision, then reached out and pressed the bell. Soon after, the door opened as it made a short noise.

The door opened and showed the face of a man with an easy-going feeling. The man, shorter than Ben, looked up and down at Ben. Staring at his slightly smiley face, Ben was sure that he was Daniel Johnson.

“Is it a case?”

Daniel asked if the purpose of his visit was a case in a very natural tone. He felt as if there was no reason to come here otherwise.

“Ah, yes. I’m here to request, is that okay?”

Ben made up some lies that overshadowed his worries. Daniel tilted his head slightly. Then, this time, he took time to look over Ben’s head to toe and opened the door a little wider, meaning that he could come in.

The living room was dark as he climbed the narrow stairs along Daniel. The color of the wallpaper wasn’t very bright, and the curtains were closed. The sky of London, which was already cloudy, was completely blocked, making it look like evening even if it was still daytime.

As Ben looked around, Daniel pointed to one side of the couch.

“Sit down.”

“Aidan O’Donoughue-”

He tried to ask if Aidan O’Donoughue was there, but he shut his mouth when he saw a tall man open the door from the opposite room.

The person dressed in a dark green nightgown seemed to have no intention of welcoming the guest. The grumpy-looking man didn’t leave a very good impression. In addition, he had that unpleasant smell Ben was familiar with.

His black hair was long enough to cover his eyes. Whether he had a perm or it was originally curly, Aidan’s hair was winding and stretching freely, which seemed to show its owner’s personality. Ben frowned.

“What’s going on?”

“Ah, it’s the serial murder case. The blunt weapon is used all the time in London these days.”

He briefly explained the incident that he saw in the newspaper a while ago and now he was paying keen attention to the yard. Aidan O’Donoughue was just with his smartphone lying on the couch in an attitude Ben didn’t know whether he was listening or not. Aidan O’Donoughue took his eyes off his smartphone and looked at Ben, who waited patiently after he had finished talking.

As sharp green eyes stared at him, Ben unknowingly swallowed his dry saliva as he recalled the bizarre reasoning he read on the website last night.

Aidan, who saw Ben’s Adam’s apple move, giggled and said.

“You know quite well about it. Only the authorities know that the weapon was a blunt one.”

“That’s because I’m part of the yard.”

Aidan O’Donoughue smiled again as Ben replied slowly, licking his dry lips with his tongue. He let out a clear mocking laugh. Feeling blatantly ignored, Ben clenched his fists on his knees.

“It’s you, right? The one who looked at my homepage from last night to early this morning.”

As it was true, Ben blinked with his eyes wide.

“You have bags under your eyes because you didn’t sleep well. Maybe you hesitated a lot on your way here, so your lips are all dry. On top of that, you’re not good at lying as you keep avoiding my eyes. Well, it doesn’t matter..”

“That’s not-.”

“And I’ve already consulted the yard, and I’m sure they don’t know about it, so that means you shouldn’t.”

Aidan O’Donoughue, who was speaking quickly, stopped talking and looked at Ben.

“You’re a cop, but you’re working in a department that has nothing to do with the case you mentioned.”

Ben, who was about to deny it, kept his mouth shut as he would only let out interjections.

“Then, the case was an excuse. Tell me the real purpose of your visit, or just go.”

Aidan clapped his hands loudly to say he was annoyed.

Ben looked at the pale, tall man with an odd look. For some reason, this place seemed unusual too. His heart had kept beating ominously from the moment he entered this house.

Ben barely suppressed the urge to touch Aidan O’Donoughue’s neck to check his pulse.

Taking a deep breath, Ben closed his eyes and slowly opened them. He looked at Daniel standing by the door and then at Aidan. When he saw Daniel, he was fine, but when he looked at Aidan, he felt uneasy through the back of his neck.

Ben clearly knew the identity of this familiar yet unpleasant sensation. It was clear that the man in front was pretending to be human.

‘Then what about the man he lives with?’

Ben was sure that Aidan was a vampire, but soon Daniel’s presence bothered him. How can he live with him when he was just an ordinary human being?

“Hey.”

The cold voice irritated Ben. Ben removed his hand that was on his weapon and bit his lower lip.

“Miller O’Donoughue, do you know him?”

Aidan said “Oh” and Daniel’s round eyes grew so big that they could no longer get bigger. After seeing their reaction, Ben concluded that he wasn’t completely wrong.

“Unfortunately, we don’t know him. We don’t want to know him either.”

Aidan jumped out of the couch and pulled Ben’s arm up and began pushing him toward the door.

“What, why are you lying?”

Aidan took his hands off Ben’s back as he spoke and moved back and forth in the living room. Aidan, whose behavior changed from moment to moment, was like an emotional anxiety patient. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, but also like a high school student.

“You’re a cop, so if you get out of here you’re going to investigate it. Then, you’ll find out very soon.”

Aidan’s words suddenly made Ben think. He could just access the police DB and find out, but he wondered why he came to see it with his own eyes.

Aidan sat back to the couch flapping his nightgown.

“What do you think?”

Ben’s blue eyes shook while facing him. Ben felt frustrated when a question was asked to him without giving any answer to what he had asked.

“What, what do you mean?”

“Don’t you have a brain to think?”

His face turned red when Aidan spoke mockingly. His stomach started to boil up.

“Aidan, say that again.”

Aiden poked his lips when Daniel saw Ben’s reaction and said that if he didn’t stop right away, he should take care of it.

“Why do you want to know about him?”

“There’s something suspicious about him.”

Unlike Aidan, Daniel asked in a calm voice.

“What exactly do you want to know?”

“Whether he’s… a human or not.”

Ben took a break and then spoke with his fists clenched. He only expected two answers. When someone is asked such a question, they will be dumbfounded and treat Ben as a maniac, and if not, they will be embarrassed and want to avoid it.

But surprisingly, it wasn’t Aidan O’Donoughue who responded, but Daniel Johnson who was calm. He quickly approached Ben before Aidan O’Donoughue could say anything.

“We don’t accept such strange requests. You should look elsewhere.”

Daniel grabbed Ben and pulled him up from the chair. Then he pushed his back with his palm to the door, walked quickly and opened the door. He wasn’t as rude, but he still did it forcefully.

In the end, Ben almost got kicked out through the open door by Daniel.

Ben couldn’t understand Daniel Johnson’s reaction at Aidan’s apartment. No matter how hard he thought, he was just a normal human being, but there was no way to know why he reacted like that. Or he might have treated Ben as a lunatic who simply asked him to investigate whether Miller was a human or not.

Nothing would be gained from agonizing over the cold weather, so Ben looked at the tightly shut apartment with foolish eyes.

“Damn it.”

Ben gave a light kick in the air and spat out swear words. The meeting with Aidan O’Donoughue gave him more headaches. Indeed, a detective and a assistant could not be related to vampires.

Ben grabbed an approaching taxi, leaned on the back seat and pressed down his temple. He hadn’t been in there for long, but Ben felt exhausted all over his body and extremely tired.

It was clear that he wasn’t human, but it was Daniel, who lived with him, who answered. There was no way ordinary people could live with vampires. They were like animals that eat blood.

Daniel stood by the window and watched Ben leave with an anxious look.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I’m just worried-”

“Don’t. Miller will take care of the Dhampir.”

Aidan said the words he didn’t say to Ben. Aiden also knew about Ben because Miller had an interest in Ben for some time.

A week ago, Miller said he had to meet Ben and asked him to make a drug that would make him sleep and then wake up. He ordered it under the guise of asking for a favor, saying he could make it himself, but he didn’t want to pay attention to even the smallest things because he was busy.

He wanted to ignore him, but there was nothing Aidan could do if he asked Daniel. In the end, he made the medicine to wake up after fainting. Miller, of course, asked that it should wake him up an hour later, but Aidan gave him the medicine to wake up three hours later.

He didn’t know how much the drug worked for Miller, but when Ben came all the way here, it was clear that they met and that Benjamin Edgar, the dhampir, used his senses.

“That’s why it bothers me. He came here two days after he met Miller. It’s not usually this fast.”

“Well, it was a little fast, but a Dhampir would have come here one day. What are you so worried about?”

“I don’t know, but I’m nervous, because I think it’ll put you in danger.”

Aidan giggled at Daniel’s words.

“Where did the brave Daniel go?”

“Aidan, think seriously. I’m going to tell Miller.”

“Dan, I’m serious enough. I’m interested, though. Dhampir, someone I would have never expected to meet.”

“Yes. You’re always interested in interesting things.”

Aidan chuckled as Daniel grumbled sarcastically.

“You and the difficult case, aren’t those enough for me? Do you want me to be interested in power like Miller, or be devoted to damn old people of my kind or something?”

Aidan spoke quickly, but Daniel was so focused on sending text messages from his smartphone that he didn’t listen.

Aidan didn’t hide his disapproval of Daniel’s behavior, but that didn’t stop Daniel from sending the messages. He had to inform Miller whether it was late or fast.

Less than 10 minutes after Daniel contacted him, Miller came straight to Aiden’s apartment.

“A dhampir was here?”

Miller sat where Ben was sitting until a while ago and asked Aidan.

Daniel left, saying he would go to the mart when Miller came. The first reason Daniel went to the mart in time for Miller’s visit was that he didn’t want to get involved in the brothers’ childish quarrel, and the second reason was that with Aidan was fine, but it was hard for him to keep his mind when Miller was there.

“I guess he’s not being under surveillance yet? Or maybe that Dhampir is excellent?”

Aidan saw how Miller was a little irritated by the fast-paced Ben, although he didn’t actually do anything. Aidan didn’t miss the opportunity to get his brother on his nerves and laughed.

It was true that Miller was quite embarrassed. It was predictable enough that Ben would find out about him, but it was unexpected that the direction flowed toward his brother so quickly.

“I’m not going to watch him.”

Speaking, Miller brushed his head once. With that, Aidan knew that it meant, “he has a good sense, so I’d better not do anything that might make him catch me.”

“A Dhamphir is definitely treated differently.”

“I’m sure you already know.”

“Of course, I know clearly how you’re going to cook that poor Dhampir.”

Miller made his gaze sharp and stared at his brother, but Aidan continued to say without stopping.

“Oh, maybe you’ll make him a bait for bigger food and won’t cook him?”

Miller glanced at Aidan and slightly raised the corners of his mouth. Aidan sighed lightly at his expression, which was neither negative nor positive.

After leaving Aidan’s apartment, Miller closed his eyes, burying himself deeply in the car seat. He didn’t know how long it had been since he felt it, but he was a little depressed. He had lived for a long time so far, and most of the work had been done at his own will.

It was just a difference of time. The conditions for doing the plan were perfect again even this time. They both had their own goals in the first place. However, if the situation went his way, he had to admit that time was a calculation mistake. Miller closed his eyes and went over his plan.

Step one: Discover.

Step two: Approach.

Step three: Capture.

Step four: Destroy.

Step five: Peace.

It seemed simple if nothing went wrong. According to the plan, he was currently in the second stage, but it was difficult to move on to the next stage due to the part that was overlooked in his perfect scenario. He didn’t know Ben would be so suspicious and wary.

A deep sigh leaked out as he recalled the wary blue eyes of Ben, which were deep and quiet. Although he had only lived for 27 years, the depth of his pupils seemed to have lived for hundreds of years. Miller slowly opened his eyes and touched his chin. It seemed that Benjamin Edgar would take more time.

He had an innocent face and was full of doubts. He really didn’t know how such a suspicious and cautious person would be brave enough to take a person he met for the first time to his home.

What’s the point of living for a long time? Human emotions were full of unknown things with vague reference points.

He didn’t think he would be wary, suspicious, and investigate. Was it wrong to meet him like that that night? He didn’t know he would try to check so meticulously and persistent. Maybe it was him who slacked.

Miller made some changes to his plan in his mind while wiping his face.

Stage 2.5: Gain trust.