Chapter 11: Not Letting Go
"What did you say, Chief Jacaré?" Larson said, not believing what the police chief just told him.
"Are you going deaf? Because this is the second time I've had to repeat myself," Jacaré said, looking annoyed. "I said there is no Vanessa Whit assigned to this department."
"Not in any division of the police department?" Larson inquired.
Jacaré shook his head. "If this woman was hired as recently as you claim, I would've met her. Therefore, she must have pretended to be a police detective to fool you."
"But what reason would she have for doing that?"
"That's for you to find out, starting today."
"I was actually hoping to track down Roxana's killer instead."
"You've already botched that case, since you failed to protect her and gave a civilian access to the scene of the crime without permission. So I'm assigning someone else."
"Look, I know I made some big mistakes. But would you please give me a chance?" Larson pleaded. "I think there's something bigger going on here than just a simple murder. Why would Roxana's lawyer order the body to be taken away before the autopsy could be completed? That would imply what I saw inside Roxana's head was real, and the lawyer didn't want us to document it."
"Okay, now you're starting to piss me off," Jacaré frowned. He stood up and leaned across the desk till he was only an inch from Larson's face. "You're jumping to conclusions with no facts to support them, and this insistence that some kind of conspiracy is going on makes you sound like a crazy person! I've already got enough troubles with conspiracies as is because of this ongoing 'Stitchwraith' case."
"Stitchwraith? You mean the hacker who's been spreading wild claims about Fazbear Entertainment?" Larson guessed.
"Yes, that one," Jacaré confirmed. "I've been getting non-stop phone-calls from Freddy's Cafe owners complaining about their employees being harassed by people who follow Stitchwraith's posts that are trying to confirm his claims for themselves. The media calls them Fetchers, after the Fetch dog animatronic Fazbear sells that are supposedly just as loyal as real dogs. So I've got a lot on my plate right now, and the last thing I need is for you to make me angrier. Because trust me, when I get mad I break things."
Jacaré then picked up his star-studded coffee mug and crushed it in his bare hands.
"That's just a taste of what I'm capable of," Jacaré warned. "Do you need a further demonstration, Detective Everette Larson?"
"No, Chief Monro Jacaré," Larson shakily nodded. "I get the picture."
"Good," Jacaré grinned. "Then you'll drop this Roxana conspiracy thing and go find that detective impersonator?"
"Yes, Chief, I will," Larson said, though at the back of his mind he thought his superior's overactive response was suspicious.
"All right, you're free to go," Jacaré replied, waving his bloody hand dismissively.
Larson took this as his queue to leave. But instead of going back to his desk, he went to the records room, swiped a flash drive from the evidence box on the Roxana case, and then he attached it to a USB port on his smartphone. He quickly left the police station, just as the sun was setting behind a thick layer of clouds implying another storm was coming in the evening. Meanwhile, the phone showed footage that was copied from the security room at the racetrack. A few noteworthy moments were recorded, including Roxana being chased into the locker room by her murderer and the murderer destroying Roxana's security robot escort.
"You must be the Freddy guy Roxana was referring to," Larson assumed, looking at the muscular brown-haired young man that ran after Roxana.
He couldn't hear what they were saying, and the distance of the cameras made it difficult to read the lip movements of Roxana and the murderer. But based on their facial expressions, the murderer seemed confused by the things Roxana was telling him before she ran away and he went after her.
"Now that's interesting," Larson said to himself. "In this footage, Roxana looks completely normal. But when I found her corpse, she had wolf ears and her fingernails were really sharp. I'm sure it would've been difficult for her to store fake nails and animal ears into her short-shorts, and the murderer doesn't seem to be carrying anything in his pockets. So where did the extra features come from? Either way, I'll find you, Freddy, and you will be brought to justice."
In the days that followed, Ozzie insisted Fredi should stay in the apartment until things cooled down with the cops looking for Roxana's killer. Luckily, the house-shaped apartment complex they were in was empty due to its rundown state. This allowed Fredi to move the charging station into one of the empty rooms, where he primarily stayed. G, on the other hand, came back a few hours after he left the apartment but he mostly stayed in his room without speaking to Fredi or Ozzie. But it was during this time that Fredi recovered more memories.
He remembered Gregory was hiding from a security guard, whom he didn't trust, and she sent the other animatronics to go looking for him. For some reason, Fredi was inclined to protect Gregory from this security guard and helped him escape the animatronics many times. In turn, Gregory stole parts from Fredi's fellow animatronics in order to make Fredi stronger so he would be a better protecter. There was also a figure in a white rabbit costume that stalked Gregory with the intention of killing him.
Fredi had a major confrontation with this person on the roof of the pizzaplex, which resulted in the both of them falling off. After that, Fredi's memories were a blank until the attack. He could almost remember the names of the two people who were with him, but nothing came to mind. All he knew for sure was that Roxana was Roxy, whom Gregory had a run-in with at the pizzaplex racetrack. The other attackers' identities were a mystery, though he still thought they might be the other animatronics who attacked Gregory.
His first sign that he might be right happened while watching the news one day, and the police chief was being interviewed on his progress with the manhunt. Immediately, Fredi knew Chief Jacaré was another member of Roxana's group. And the chief's shades did remind Fredi of a green animatronic he could almost picture in his mind.
"You're remembering something again, aren't you?" Glenn guessed, now sporting three-toed rabbit feet while his hands and arms were covered by stitched together felt the color of gold.
To be continued…
