Vexation: Suspicious minds

When William next awoke, he could smell soap and plastic dinners. The smell of the ill.

He was in hospital, and this gave him considerably less freedom.

"Good morning, William," whispered a familiar voice. With pain, William mustered up strength to turn his neck, then he saw it was none other than Mike Kevinson.

"W-what? Why are you here? Where have you been?"

"On vacation in Thailand."

"Okay."

"What happened, then? How did you get here?"

"I don't know," said William, sounding somewhat irritated.

"The truth, please?"

"Look, Mike" - William dared to use the first name of his interrogator - "can't you see that I'm in a fragile state here? My best friend - my only friend at that - has just tragically died. Right next to me! I was there! It could have been me! It... it... it should have been me!" With that, William burst into tears, and vigorously pulled shut the curtain that went around his bed.

Mike Kevinson felt rather remorseful that he had approached this delicate matter so bluntly; for he himself knew bereavement well. From behind the curtain, he said, "I'm really sorry, William. Just tell me everything you know when you're ready, please." Then he walked off to the hospital canteen, to pursue a pretty nurse he had a-spied that morning.

* * *

A couple of days later, back at the police headquarters, Mike Kevinson was sitting in his office smoking a cigar just imported from Cuba by his high school classmate Esteban Fernandez, whilst playing tetris. Suddenly, he got a phonecall.

"Hello, Inspector Mike Kevinson speaking," he tried to sound as professional as possible whilst he lowered the volume on his computer, in order to mask the bleeps from the tetris game, and thus his procrastination.

"Kevinson, have you found out about William Xiu's involvement in that car accident?"

"Yes, I have. The boy says that he was talking about their plans to go into the city later that night, and that Chichang simply got distracted. He also mentioned some.... dark birds, that had congregated in the middle of the road."

"That's all? Sounds pretty legit to me."

"I'm not so sure. I can't fight the feeling that he is trying to hide something."

"Get over here, Kevinson." The chief constable put the phone down.

No sooner had Mike Kevinson reached the chief's office, than he realised he was going to have to do a lot of justification of himself.

"Now, I want to know exactly what it is that you've got against William. He has a flawless personal record, he's a quiet guy... look at this picture, he wouldn't hit a fly. Why is a man of your calibre being so asinine?" The chief referred to a internet news article photo of a grinning William, after having won a district chess championship.

"You seem to be forgetting, sir, that it is often the quiet ones," argued Mike Kevinson, looking at the photo doubtfully. "Even if William did not have malicious intentions, he could still be affected by concussion, or even a mild case of amnesia. I'm just not entirely convinced he's telling the whole truth."

A knock on the door. "Coffee!" said the jovial fat policeman - the same that had examined the case of Albert the bully's death with Mike Kevinson.

"Thanks!" said Mike with a nod.

"So... what's going on here?" the stout policeman asked.

"William Xiu. You know, the one who - "

"Oh yeah. The chief here was telling me about the new William case right now. He said he reckons you -" The chief's facial expression shot darts at him. "I mean.... man, can't you leave the poor boy alone?"

"Not everyone in this world is a fluffy cherub, you know," retorted Mike Kevinson, getting frustrated.

"That's enough," announced the chief, standing up. "I've simply had enough of your suspicions, Inspector Kevinson. You are mad. That is what I said. And do you know what else I'm going to say? You're suspended for six months. That's right. Now leave my office, leave this building, and take your cigars with you."