Name: John Lopez
Location: Seattle, Washington; USA
Occupation: Owner & CEO of Lopez Dispensary
Splash! The two cubes of sugar dropping into John's coffee reminded him last night's struggle, the turmoil he witnessed. As he stirred it half-heartedly, he opened up the Sunday morning paper onto his desk to have some normalcy. He opened up the comics, something that could transport him back to childhood. Garfield, Better or Worse, Pickles, what would John choose? It didn't matter what he read, just as long as it was anything to make him forget...John was trying to get the memory of last night out of his head and convince himself that he was of sound body and mind. He had some questions and even fewer answers. 'What was that swimming in the pool? Why did it glide in the water? How drunk was I? Did that bartender spike my drink? I guess I will have to worry about that later,' he thought. For now, there was a lady in his bedroom who was waiting for him.
When he got to the partially cracked bedroom door, he saw his favorite redhead he had hired last night, Naomi. She was a work from God himself this woman. Her disheveled hair trapsed down her back in a scandalous yet inviting manner. Her body was curled up lackadaisically, just yearning to be touched. Best of all, on her face was the deep sleep look of pure ecstacy. Seeing all of this put John's mind at ease. He took more than a minute to absorb this work of art before crawling back into bed with her. 'I am such a lucky man,' John thought to himself. 'I don't have any worries.'
John's philosophy on love was this: find a simple woman (low drama is always better), spend the night treating her right, get a good review on his "dating profile" (if one could call it that), find a new woman, repeat. Although this didn't stop John from sleeping around, never once did he have more than one woman in his bedroom. He considered it to be distasteful. Even though he was just one man, every woman should be treated right at least once, even if temporarily. Furthermore, a woman's beauty was to be appreciated, cherished, and kept pure.
John Lopez, a wealthy business owner, started his company at age 8. Well, not really. He sold bouncy balls to the neighborhood kids outside of his mom's sewing shop. From there, John worked his way up in the world. He went from selling those puny bouncy balls to drugs in what seemed like a matter of days. John was highly invested in pharmaceuticals, both of the legal and illegal kind (we'll keep that our little secret). He was hopeful that one day he would cure the illness his dead-beat dad had passed on, schizophrenia.
Because of this mental illness, John did not have many friends growing up. He would often shout obscene things on the playground and turn on loud blaring music if left alone for any amount of time. Almost every day, his peers saw John suffer getting through daily tasks like writing his name. As John grew older, he saw himself being pulled from class by the school's administration more frequently. The staff of Westbury School would take him to a dark room and try to get him to talk about his thoughts. The term 'deafening silence' was a reality for John. Left alone and in a dark place was more of a punishment for John than anything else. When questioned, he would only moan at them and hold his head in excruciating agony. So, the friends that he did have were made out of pity for this very reason.
Imagine trying to learn when someone is screaming at the top of their lungs and trying to communicate with imaginary beings. Essentially, learning is not conducive in an environment like this. Something had to be done. John got shipped off to his aunt's house in Chicago, Illinois, and was told to start life anew. This only propelled his life's career of pharmaceuticals.
---‐‐----------------Meanwhile--------------------------
Name: Jana Ling
Location: Nappa Valley, California; USA
Occupation: Private Investigator
The statement read:
'Case #:15824
Location: Tacoma, Washington; Plant #312
10:15pm- Suspect entered the premise of Lopez Dispensary. Climbed over gated fence and caught the side buckle of their boot as they jumped over.
10:35- Suspect is seen breaking open the laboratory's main entrance using detonation device of sorts.
10:42- 3 vials are confiscated along with a binder. Camera's livestream feeds were tampered. No conclusive evidence how suspect escaped.'
Jana stood over the statement, stewing over its words. 'What does it mean, no conclusive evidence? How does someone just disappear? We're not in the comic books'..
Suddenly, it all made sense to Jana. She called out into the darkness of the station "Mike? Are you still investigating case #15824?
"Yeah, I'm still mulling it over. Not quite sure how we can see someone get in, but not out. You would think it would be easier to get out and not in. Anyways, I'm rambling again. You're the Investigator, I'm Officer Mike. I'm letting you do your job starting now. Okay, what do you need Jana?"
"I need that belt buckle that was removed from the suspect's boot with their entangle over the fence. Now, if we look at the video evidence we will see that there is something attached to the bottom of the suspect's shoe. Do you see it?", Jana asked.
Mike stuttered for a while before answering, "I..I..I see it, but I'm not really sure I'm SEEING what you are eluding to. After glancing at the boot's buckle, I notice that it almost looks like a key."
"Exactly!", Jana exclaimed startling Mike. "I wanted you to bring the buckle here because it IS a key. The key fits in manhole to the building's underground tunnels. Either we have an inside job being conducted here, or someone is tech savvy to find what the cover looks like without even entering the premises. Whatever side you want to learn towards..this isn't someone's first rodeo... "
TO BE CONTINUED-*Let me know what you think in the comments below! Thanks! 🙂