Vivi found Charlie pacing. Besides her initiation, Vivi had never seen him so agitated. This made her even more anxious.
"Hey, Charlie… what's up?" Vivi managed to say once she approached him. Charlie let out a deep, hard, sigh before slamming down a newspaper.
"Read this." He said through gritted teeth. Vivi quickly did just that. Her anxiety giving partly away to curiosity as she wondered what could put Charlie so on edge. She did not like the answer.
Her eyes grew wide as she read Cupid Killer on the top of the page. And as she read down not only did her eyes become wider, but her mouth also began to hang in horror and disbelief. Because according to the paper, there is a serial killer on the loose in Nocta Nova. So far, five murders have been confirmed. All women and all killed the same way; with their hands and feet bound and their eyes gouged out. Which meant, according to the police quote, most were left there to bleed out after losing their eyes. But as gruesome as the details were, Vivi could not help but focus on a more subtle detail. That the word "most" was used when describing the murders. As if there were some deviations between the murders. The paper did not elaborate on what the investigators meant by that, but she figured it was something worth keeping in mind. Either way, while this was certainly unsettling, Vivi knew it would not completely unsettle Charlie. Let alone piss him off. Vivi knew something else was bothering him.
"Ms. Webb wants us to investigate this, huh?" Vivi asked uneasily. Charlie just nodded in return. (Try again)
"If that's the case then… why are we just now hearing about it?"
"Exactly!" Charlie shouted, throwing his hands down in frustration (bingo). He then reached his hands up to hold his face and groaned an apology.
"It's alright," Vivi looked at him concerned. "I totally get the agitation."
"Uggghh," Charlie groaned again, removing his hands from his face. He turned to sit across with his clean-shaven cheek resting on his fist.
"We should have been known about this shit three murders ago. I don't know why Ms. Webb loves to wait so long before we can take action. Shit pisses me off." Charlie frowned.
"Have you ever asked her about it?" Vivi questioned.
"Tuh," Charlie scoffed. "As if I could. I rarely get to see her and when I do its just to be given more orders. And when I do ask questions, she hardly answers. Like "Hey Ms. Webb, this little fucker that sends death threats to IG models never leaves his parent's basement. How should we get to him?" and then she'll say some shit like, "Quietly." Like yeah, no shit, but that doesn't tell me HOW… working for her can be such a fucking pain sometimes. Like yeah, she gives us everything we need to get the job done but for fuck's sake a little direction would be appreciated. I don't know, maybe it's because I'm a military man that this shit gets so far under my damn skin."
"No, they're completely valid complaints. Just sucks that she doesn't listen to them."
"Yeah… I get there's a method to the madness and yeah, we can't save everybody, but damn man there has to be better ways," Charlie let out another big sigh. "But whatever, for now let's do what we can now and find that freak before he can hurt anybody else," Charlie turned to Vivi with a much softer expression. "You ready?"
Vivi's teeth clenched hard as she began to feel a tense stir in her gut that rippled wickedly throughout her body. She balled her fists before nodding her head yes.
"Alright," Charlie said as he stood up. "Then let's head to the city morgue and learn what we can about our victims." Vivi nodded again. She took a quick breath before standing up herself and following behind Charlie towards the roof exit.
"Oh, and Vivi," Charlie stopped, turning his head to the side to look at her. "Try to ease up, okay? Besides, I'll be the one pulling the trigger this time."