Chapter 21 — Signs of Madness

After her last day of work before vacation, on October 11th, Esther returned home and dropped relieved onto the couch in the living room. At last she could relax without worrying about work. During her vacation, Esther could also mute the phone, because they should not call her, knowing that she was resting, the more that it was Esther's first vacation since she started working at the Cardiff Central police station.

For starters, Esther was planning to go to where she spent Sunday with Leo, near Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve. After she had eaten a decent meal, took a shower and called her mom and grandma to talk calmly with them, Esther sat down at the computer and booked a room in St. David's Hotel for a week, because that much she could afford and didn't want to get rid of all her savings. Besides, Esther decided not to spend whole 3 weeks of vacation in one place. Maybe she should go to Penarth afterwards to visit Mom and Grandma? Yes, it was definitely a good idea, because she hadn't seen them in person in a long time.

Suddenly, however, Esther stopped her thoughts, because after closing the browser, she noticed an icon of a special search engine on the desktop, the same one that gave access to the Deep Web. She looked at this icon for a good five minutes, not understanding what was happening, after all this search engine disappeared from her computer, right? Eventually, however, the newly awakened curiosity took over, and Esther opened this search engine, quickly finding the address of the Scarlet Angels blog. However, she was disappointed—the website no longer existed. Esther took a deep breath and found the chat where she was talking to the_scarlet_truth, however he was not there, and when she asked other people in the chatroom about him, no one seemed to know who she was talking about. Finally, Esther closed this search engine, then opened the regular one and entered her e-mail inbox. The message from the_scarlet_truth was removed from here, of course, but luckily the e-mail address was on the contact list, so Esther wrote to him asking to contact her, but when she sent the message, soon received a message from the server that the e-mail could not be sent, because the user of the selected e-mail address deleted his account.

"What the hell?" Esther asked herself, but finally gave up. After all, what did she expect? Even if that search engine somehow magically returned to her computer, she should expect that someone who previously deleted it must have taken care of deleting the Scarlet Angels page, perhaps even reached the_scarlet_truth user himself and this person had to disappear, if nothing worse happened to him. The thought of putting someone in danger to satisfy her obsession terrified Esther. But she shook her head as if to get such thoughts out of it. After all, Esther should rest now, not come back to this confusing matter. She had to completely let go of this private investigation into the Scarlet Angels before something really bad happen to her.

Esther closed her browser and then the hatch of laptop, then got up from her desk and went to the closet to start packing, because the next day she was going to Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve for well-deserved vacation. First Esther took out a small travel bag and packed a few changes of clothes, just comfortable things, then a few books, essential hygiene items, then left the bag on the dresser in the hall, along with the car keys. Then Esther put her phone on the desk, plugged it into the charger, turned on the alarm clock as well, and went to sleep.

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The next day, October 12th, Esther texted Leo that she was leaving so he wouldn't bother her with the phone calls as well. On the morning of October 19th, Esther returned home visibly refreshed and happier, at first planning her trip to Penarth, which she also mentioned to Leo, also promising she will call him after arriving to her hometown.

However, when Esther did not call Leo on October 20th, as agreed, he started calling her, but to no avail. Then he decided to visit her apartment after work and hoped that everything would be fine. When Leo had spoken to Esther on the phone earlier, she seemed to be feeling much better, so the sudden change worried him greatly.

When Leo got to her apartment, Esther opened door for him a few minutes later and let him in.

"Is everything all right? Why didn't you go to Penarth? I thought you wanted to visit your mom and grandma as soon as possible?" Leo asked as he sat down on the couch in the living room.

"Overall I'm okay but just today I didn't feel strong enough to drive, so I will go tomorrow. One day won't make much difference." Esther calmly replied, bringing him a cup of coffee, then she sat down on the couch next to him.

"But you don't have to go by car, there is also a train. Besides, I can give you a lift, it's not that far, and I can take a day off." Leo suggested, holding the cup of coffee tightly in both hands, the temperature of which warmed pleasantly and he was a bit cold after getting out of the car.

"Come on, Leo. I'm not going to use you like that, after all, when I'm gone, you are all the more needed at the station." Esther refused politely, smiling slightly, but it was a bit artificial, as if she wanted to hide something under that smile. "And I won't be going by train if I have a car." she added with a little amusement, although it didn't come out too naturally for her either.

"Esther, are you sure you're okay?" Leo asked, clearly worried. "You don't look any better than before." he pointed out.

"Jesus, Leo... Of course I'm fine. I feel much better than before, really." Esther replied, slightly annoyed. "I'll go make some coffee for myself as well. Would you like something to eat?" she asked, getting up from the couch and walking slowly towards the kitchen.

"No need." Leo assured, and when Esther disappeared into the kitchen, he put his coffee mug on the table by the couch. Then he got up and headed towards her bedroom, wanting to check something. Leo had some bad feelings about it all, and wanted to see if Esther was hiding something, like that she was still dealing with those damned Scarlet Angels.

When Leo opened the bedroom door, he saw a very disturbing sight—the room was a complete mess. Yes, Esther was not quite as much of a cleaning enthusiast as he was, but she always kept her apartment in order, even the bedroom. However, before he could go inside to get a better look around, heard Esther's angry voice.

"What the hell are you doing, Leo?" she almost raised her voice at him, but she was clearly trying to stay calm.

"Esther, I just..." Leo spoke up, but didn't know exactly what kind of excuse to use in this situation.

"By what right do you look into my bedroom without my permission?!" this time her nerves were clearly letting go, as Esther literally yelled at him, looking furious. "You've definitely abused my hospitality... Get out of my apartment immediately." she growled, clenching her hands into fists.

"But Esther, listen to me... I had no bad intentions, I swear to God..." Leo wanted to explain, walking up to her and placing his hands on her shoulders. "Calm down, please..." he asked in a pleading tone.

"Take those hands off me and get out, am I speaking indistinctly?!" Esther yelled at him again, even more angry, brutally pushing his hands off her shoulders.

"I'm sorry..." Leo said quietly, then headed for the exit door.

"Go and do not come back. I don't want to see you until the end of my vacation. I want to have a good rest." Esther told him goodbye venomously.

Leo left the apartment, slamming the door. Yes, maybe he shouldn't have looked into her bedroom without permission, but Esther was clearly overreacting. Her words hurt him badly, and he felt angry himself.

"Great, I'm not going to visit you at all." said Leo, more to himself, as he was already in the corridor, staring only at Esther's door, then turned and headed down the corridor toward the stairs.