Murderer
CHAPTER 37 - The Drowning Boy (Revised)
The boy stumbled, trying to find a hiding place. Her tiny body was trembling.
Flashlight was faintly visible from behind the bush where he was hiding. The rustling sound of dry leaves being stepped on sounded closer and closer. The boy clenched and hugged his knees tightly, he trembled.
The opportunity he used to escape, not enough to save himself from the pursuit of the thugs with his hunting dog. The sound of the dog barking increasingly made cold sweat pour down the forehead of the boy.
With great difficulty, he got used to seeing in the darkness of the pine forest. The cold air pierced through his skin and pierced his small bones. He tried to find an opening to get away from this place before the dogs found him.
The little ear of this boy caught the faint sound of water rustling, if he was lucky, there was a river near this forest and he wished that the river really existed. If the water is not strong enough, it can swim upstream.
Slowly his feet moved. As much as possible he did not make a sound that lured the dogs towards him.
Damnit damnit! He accidentally stepped on a dry twig that let out a loud crackling sound, hunting dogs with instincts and sharp ears immediately ran towards the sound. This boy was forced to run as hard as he had.
Armed with confidence in his ears, he followed the sound of water getting clearer and clearer. Just as the thugs were getting closer and closer to the hunting dog, a large river with quite swift water was in front of the boy's eyes.
"Stop you!" order one of those thugs. The boy did not want to be caught again. So, he chose to jump in that rushing stream.
The tiny body of the nine-year-old boy was trying to survive in the midst of the swift currents. Eventually he got tired and let the water carry his tiny body either alive or dead.
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The white Nissan Juke Haris stopped at a hospital. Ever since his commanding officer searched for the homeless boy named Anto, he started sketching and spreading it.
A hospital that he happened to sketch the boy, contacted him this afternoon. Because a body of a homeless child with traits such as in the sketch was found dead in an old cinema building.
Haris does not know about Anto's face, so he invites the commander to come with him to the hospital.
"There was a mother who found this child lying behind the old building in the Raflesia area. When he was taken, he was still alive. But we were not able to save him who seemed to be poisoned with drugs" explained a doctor who drove them to the morgue.
The legs of Citra were like treading soft ground, she was unable to walk upright, but her steps were in a hurry. Several times he almost fell.
Anto was not just a witness for him, because he and the boy were both unwanted by their biological parents. Only the fate of Citra is better, because it was adopted by the Hutabarat family.
They finally reached the mortuary. The doctor pulled a body cooler. Citra's hand trembled as it opened the yellow canticle.
When the body bag was open, tears welled up in the eyes of Citra. His legs felt limp, but his heart was quite happy because the corpse was not Anto.
"It's not Anto." Citra said relieved.
"Thank God, Ndan!" sahut Haris's.
The three of them came out of the morgue earlier. Just as he was about to walk back to the hospital lobby, several nurses were seen running around the corridor in panic.
"Set up the operating room! There was a child found floating in the river and in a critical state!" One of them called out to his other friend.
Citra, Haris and the doctor came running in the direction the nurses went. Not to play surprise Citra when she saw who was lying in the hospital bed. Anto!
"Di—dia the kid we've been looking for all this time! Please save him doctor!" citra said as she pushed Anto's bed in a panic.
He and Haris were forced to wait in front of the operating room. The amount of water that entered Anto's lungs put the boy on the verge of life and death.
Almost three hours they wait, the team of doctors who handle Anto was out. They explained to Citra and Haris about the boy's critical condition.
"Can we refer to S hospital in Manggala doctor?" ask Citra.
"Maybe, but you have to wait a few days" replied the doctor.
The image nodded happily. He can entrust Anto to Andrian's doctor. His finger rubbed the phone screen and contacted the doctor who had treated him after being shot by Banyu Aji's bullet.
"Hello, Dr. Andrian ...."
"Call me Andrian, I've said many times we're the same age!" There was a loud upset voice from across the phone.
"okay, sorry. Andrian, I'll bring a child who's been affected by pulmonary edema from drowning and unconsciousness. Can you help us prepare for the child's care?" ask Citra.
"It doesn't matter, when are you gonna bring him here?" Andrian asked back.
Three days later
Ambulance carrying the small body of Anto who is still unconscious moved to hospital S in the city of Manggala. There was waiting for Dr. Andrian the anesthesiologist.
"Great boy, can survive in these conditions" Andrian praised.
"Please save him!" pinta Citra's. Andrian never saw the fragile side of this woman cop. Even when he had a shootout with his partner who was a serial murder suspect, he was not very sad.
"Is this kid your family?" ask Andrian curious.
"No. But she was the same as me being dumped by irresponsible parents, only that I was thrown into an orphanage with Raka. While this kid was dumped completely in a landfill ...." Citra explains the origins of Anto.
"He can live up to this size, because of the affection of fellow homeless people and outcasts in the slums of Antara time" Citra added.
Andrian's heart was filled, he was also an orphan. The doctor's eyes continued to look at Anto's long sleeping shady face. After handing Anto over to Andrian, Citra asked Haris to order a member to look after him.
"What's really going on?" ask Andrian curious.
"Sorry the SOP investigation should not divulge information to outsiders!" firmly Citra. "Just help me to keep this kid until he's conscious."
Andrian slicked his shoulders. "To keep him I will promise, but to make sure when he comes to, I dare not. Because we haven't checked the whole situation. If he was brain dead from drowning, there are only two possibilities, God gave a miracle or God sent His angel of death,"
The image looked at the still unconscious Anto with a look of pity, he hit Andrian's arm softly. I don't know since when he became very confident with the doctor he once suspected as the suspect.
"I believe you!"
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The day after Anto was transferred to hospital S, Citra, Jaka and Haris investigated the river where the boy was found stranded.
That morning they went along the long river bank, somehow how many kilometers Anto dragged by the river currents are quite swift. It was a miracle because he was able to survive.
"And there is nothing strange so far" said Jaka, beside whom Haris was still busy combing the banks of the river step by step.
The image looked around which was a concrete wall. It was in his mind that Anto was playing and slipped down into the river. It's just that, it can't answer the question of where the slum's disappearance is.
His finger massaged his temple which suddenly throbbed hard. What is it with the homeless? What made them victims? The image sat up while walking for clues.
From a distance, a man was fishing on the river bank. The image accelerated his pace.
"Good morning, sir," said Citra. The man turned his head, he looked at the woman who greeted him from head to toe.
"Morning," he answered short and returned to concentration on his fishing rod.
"We're from the police. Are you a resident around here?" ask the image again.
The father just nodded.
"A few days ago, a child was found stranded on the banks of this river, do you know?" Again the man in his seventy years just nodded.
The image sighed, trying to hold back the emotions. At least answer with words! grunts in the heart.
"Where is this river at its end, huh, sir?"
With a finger signal he pointed west. "The length of this river may be fifteen kilometers, yesterday's child must have died because it was dragged so far," he said.
"The end of the river is branched. One flow from the Duampanua mountain range, another from Alehanua" continued the old man.
The three of them exchanged looks. It looks like this case will be a long one before Anto wakes up.
"Hopefully the boy will soon wake up. So that we can find out what is going on," said Jaka.
Citra and Haris just kept quiet, then the three of them returned to their original place. They decided to go back to the office. Citra chose to visit Anto at the hospital.
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