Red ink
Episode 11: The Opera House
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The crowd was tense as everyone was at the edge of their seats, waiting for the famous Peter Spencer to hit his iconic E5 pitch. With their mouths agape, Peter took his pitch to its edge and held it for about seven seconds, causing most of the crowd to stand up on their feet, cheering and clapping; all impatient for him to give his finish and bow.
After scoring his pitch, he smiled and ended the song along with the instruments playing. Admiring his cheering crowd, all clapping vigorously and some shouting "woah! Wow!"—everyone having goosebumps...
This was his stage, his world. He had been playing in it for eight years since he was twenty and had built a name for himself. He surely had come this far.
He reveled in it for few more seconds before giving his bow; first, from the right, then the left and finally, the middle. And with that, the curtain was drawn, all waiting for the next presentation for the evening.
~~~~~
"When is the act coming up?" Linda asked, tasting out the flavour of her cigarette.
"In about ten minutes." Greg grimaced, obviously displaying his displeasure for the suspense.
Linda turned to the window where she laid her arm, scanning the lights of the city from the opera house. The beautiful city displayed its elegance with different colours of lights, blurring and clear in the dark. So brightly blessed that no one would believe it held so many secrets and felonies. Woe to those who always looked for better days! And woe to those whose days ended in arrant dismay!
With her thoughts going on, she smirked and drew another round from her cigarette. "After the play, what else am I to attend?"
"Your father supposed that you will attend all programs for the night. No occasion missed."
Linda's eyes lightened for a second and dimmed. She turned to look straight into Gregory's, there was something to the way she looked into someone, it was unsettling. "All occasions? What exactly does that even mean?"
"You've been asked to bore yourself to death in this opera house. But if you can't, you will have to go to Ford."
Ford? She thought about her experience meeting the infamous Mr Ford, "Mr little sneaky pervert" whose eyes only wandered around for young blood. There was no way she would drive her ass out for two hours to attend his party. She puffed out smoke from her mouth and nose.
Greg looked away into the opera house where the crowds had started rearranging themselves for the next play.
"My father has been getting on my nerves lately." She said. "Is it me or he has been trying to piss me off with nothing meaninful?"
Greg grinned. He knew her father too well. Of course, he was trying to piss her off but he didn't say anything. They both knew why.
After some seconds of silence from both of them, Linda finally crushed out her cigarette scanned through her bag for her breath purifier and sprayed out a few into her mouth. When she was certain that she couldn't smell smoke in her breath, she dusted her clothes and closed her bag. "Let's head back inside."
~~~~~
Alexis banged the bulk of paper against her desk and whiffed out of frustration. This was beginning to get annoying! She turned to Levi who was working on his computer before but was now staring at her. "Anything?"
He shook his head.
'Arrgh!" She shouted, ruffling her short brown hair and placing both hands on her waist out of habit. She scanned the room and looked at the faces of her other team members who were so dedicated to their work, yet looked tired as hell.
First at Shimon, a girl with short black hair, pen in her mouth with dark circles around her eyes scheming through a stack of documents scattered on her desk. She had been here for three days now.
Then at William and Darwin who were standing close to each other, eyes fixed on the computer in front of them. They had been watching clips upon clips of footages collected from different black boxes and cameras. Nothing. Nothing...yet.
The only person not here was Oliver who had to go home to his sick daughter to check on her since he hadn't been in for three days now.
"James has given us up till next month ending to catch those bastards! Any mishap and failure to do so will result in another cold case. We were so close!" She shouted, placing her two fingers on her head to stop a headache. She sighed. "What's the update?" She asked Darwin. "Anything?"
He shook his head. "It's the same as it has been. We are back to square one."
She frustrated. She wanted to say she hated her job but that would be contradiction in itself. She sat in her seat and started going back to her routine. What was she missing...what was she missing? She ticked her notes and points, tapping and boring holes into her jotter.
There was this man...she saw him that day; he had a wrinkled face...something like that. Who was he?
She heard noise of someone walking into the other empty unit. She was sure their team was the only one around. She swiveled her chair and turned to the entrance, narrowing her eyes. "Who is there? Oliver?"
No answer came.
She stood up.
"Don't worry." Darwin said, holding her back at her shoulder. " I will go."
She was appalled. Not to say what was this knight-in-shining armour movie he was performing in front of her? "What's this?" She looked at his hand on her shoulder. "Get your hand off me!"
Darwin looked at his hand, surprised that they still laid on her shoulder. He slowly dropped it down.
"I am your team leader. Team leader! I didn't go to police academy so I could be babysitted by a bunch of men who think they can knock me down."
"I kno—"
"You don't know! I am not some defenseless woman who can't handle her own shit. Tsk. Treat me like that one more time, I will..." She knuckled a punch and threatened him with it. "I will knock your head in." She hissed.
"Ohh...." William and Levi laughed.
She adjusted her shirt and strolled out of the unit.
"Come and sit down, Darwin." William said to him. "No criminal will walk into a police stationed headquarters to kill." He tapped the chair. "Have your seat."
"Aren't you quite laid back like that?" Shimon asked, scratching her head with the pen in her hand. "There was news from Crookville about three years back where four armed men rushed into a police station with MG3s and started shooting the officers there. About twenty people were reported dead, yunno."
William looked at her, a little pissed that she was reigning on his parade. "You...you are a joy killer. You don't know how to take jokes at all."
"Do you joke in time of distress?" She asked. "Aren't you seeing we are close to having another cold case on our hands. We are the runt of the litter right now and you are here talking about jokes."
"Aren't you being a little too serious right now?" Darwin asked.
"I know right." William said giving her a look. "She's acting like she's the only one concerned about the case. There's a name for that—um, what do we call it? Oh yes!We call that ITK. I. TOO. KNOW."
Darwin smiled and took out a seat and sat beside William.
"And bullies are those people who pick on those weaker than them."
They looked up at the tall dark man who stood by the door, a hand on the handle of his backpack.
"Shouldn't you both be ashamed for picking on your junior?" He asked.
"Shouldn't juniors act with respect to their seniors?" William asked, glaring at her.
She rolled her eyes.
"This mentality is why our team is still far behind. We keep declining everyday. They've demoted us to the lowest ever rank I could think of. They may eventually ask us to leave altogether." He walked in and dropped his backpack on the table.
"We are still in the middle of the ranks." Levi said scratching his head. "Shit! I need to shower!" He stood up and walked out of the unit.
"Where is Alexis?" Darwin asked.
"She is with James."
"James? I thought he went home."
He started unzipping his bag. "The man is known for being a sneak. Don't want him sneaking on you. I brought food." They all stood up at once and gathered around the table. He laughed. "I knew you all were hungry."
"God just sent you to us." William picked one of the packaged plate. "What's in it?"
"It's egg and chicken fried rice. It's still hot."
Darwin collected his plate and removed the packaging. He inhaled the aroma. "It smells good."
"Tastes good too." William mumbled with food in his mouth.
"Ann sends her regards. She prepared it for you all."
"That's so kind of her." Shimon said, stuffing her mouth with food. "How is your daughter?"
"She is okay. I left her with her mom in the hospital. I will visit them again tomorrow."
"You shouldn't have." William swallowed. "Alexis gave you till next tomorrow."
He picked up his backpack and zipped it up. "You see that thingy we call detective radar, it will not be able to hold its own. It will fall." He grinned. "What did I miss?"