Detective Kareem stood in the crowd, heart pounding, eyes fixed on the boy.
The boy lowered his gaze, shifting uncomfortably under the weight of attention. Kareem noticed the boy's hands—mud-stained, nails bitten. A child hiding something far too big for his age.
"You've seen her before, haven't you?" Kareem asked quietly.
The boy didn't answer.
Kareem stood and turned to the officers. "Clear the area. I need a word with him alone."
The mother stepped forward. "He's just a child, please. Don't drag him into this mess."
"I'm not dragging him," Kareem said. "The truth already has."
After some convincing, the crowd slowly dispersed, leaving Kareem with the boy and his hesitant mother. They sat under a tree near the riverbank, away from the corpse and flashing cameras.
"What's your name?" Kareem asked the boy.
"Ola," he muttered.
"Ola... tell me what you meant by 'like the girl.' What girl?"
Ola swallowed hard. "She was found here. A few weeks ago. Nobody talks about her."
"There was no official report."
"Because it disappeared," he said. "Just like she did. I saw her before it happened. She used to walk by the river... every evening. She liked to sing."
"Do you know her name?"
"No. But the fisherman did," Ola whispered.
Kareem blinked. "You mean the one who just—"
"Yes." Ola's voice cracked. "He talked to her once. I saw them. Then... a week later, she was gone. Then she came back. But not like before. Her body washed up right there."
Ola pointed, and Kareem's stomach tightened. It was the same spot where the fisherman had been found.
"I wanted to tell someone," Ola said, tears forming in his eyes. "But the fisherman said if we spoke too loud, we'd wake something in the river."
Kareem frowned. "What do you mean?"
"He said... the river keeps memories. That sometimes it remembers too much."
A chill crawled down Kareem's spine.
This wasn't just murder. This was a pattern.
And perhaps... a message.
Later that night, back at the station, Kareem dug through archived files. No sign of a missing girl matching Ola's story. No autopsy reports. No news articles. Like she never existed.
But something was wrong.
The fisherman knew.
Now he was dead.
The girl might have known.
Now she was forgotten.
And Ola...
The boy might be next.