Chapter 8
Third POV
Leah was many things, an all-round popular girl in Lock City's high school, prom queen and captain of the gymnastics team back in the day. She was known for being the perfect girl but now, people give her looks of pity and keep sending letters and messages of condolences. She hated them for it, even if she understood why they did it. She wanted to be treated normally, not like a glass cup that could easily be shattered with one simple push and break into many tiny unrecognizable pieces that couldn't be brought back together without the scars showing afterwards. So, when she was called to the station by Detective Jones, she was mentally preparing herself for another round of apologies and condolences from people.
Fortunately for her, she turned out to be very wrong for thinking like that.
The station was brimming with busy detectives that either discussed with each other or going through the files on their table as they talked to the civilians that needed help or giving verbal warnings to criminals that had been arrested or were to be left to go on probation for a while. They noticed her but gave her occasional verbal greetings, returning their gazes to the countless paperwork on their tables. She looked at the white board at the end of the room after fully entering the room. The board showcased all the murder cases for the rest of the week without stop, which meant that Luis and Bonnie were going to be more busy than usual, which left her a bittersweet taste in her mouth as she realized that fact. She was happy that Luis wouldn't have to interact with her but Bonnie would spend more time with the mortician, leaving her alone to herself without anyone around to treat her normally.
She changed her focus to the names of the deceased on the board and the detectives responsible for the case with their own assigned assistants helping them out.
Cyrus Jefferson – Detective Everett
Sarah Christian – Detective Allen
Maya Timbers – Detective Green
Timothy Michaels – Detective Jones
Mason Brown – Detective James
Dana Grayson and Cody Carter – Detective Kane
"Miss Shane?"
Leah's ears twitched, turning her head in the direction of the call of her name. Michael was next to her, carrying piles of paper in his arms. His brown coat was laid on the top of his seat, sleeves of his cream shirt rolled up to his elbow and a creased forehead indicated the stress he was going through, and the morning had just started, as the sun's rays felt like it was taunting his eyes rather than making things easier to see. Leah's train of thought was interrupted from his words, quickly hiding her panic as her facial expression remained neutral, mimicking Bonnie's behavior in her panicked state to keep herself guarded. She straightened her posture, before making direct eye contact with him.
"Good morning, Detective Jones," Leah greeted him, right after she checked the clock on the wall to tell the time not to embarrass herself in front of Bonnie's senior. "Same to you, but we know I didn't call you to come here to exchange greetings. Especially when we live in the twenty first century."
He replied, leading her to his desk, carefully placing the piles of paper on his near-empty desk. He kept them to one side of the table, bringing out a blank sheet of paper from under his desk, clean and straight with a pen placed next to it. He just needed to write her statement and meet Bonnie and Luis in the morgue to discuss potential suspects. The interrogation was currently full, so he had to settle with this for the time being. He sat up straight after sitting down, moving his chair forward to maintain eye contact with him.
"State your name."
"But you-"
"I don't." He quickly corrected her, as he knew her as Bonnie's ex-roommate and a living survivor of the Shane family. He needed her to tell him her name, as people tended to go with aliases now and he wanted to do the proper procedure by asking her instead to prevent problems in the near future for his peace of mind and to have any regrets either.
"It's Cornelia Luna Shane." The redhead answered, slowly adjusting herself in her seat.
Leah was merely a nickname from Cornelia? Made a lot of sense now. Michael quickly wrote her name down, hinting at her to speak and she did. Telling everything exactly how it happened from her point of view. He tried to hand her a pen, but she withdrew back, hissing softly as she looked at the pen.
"What is that?" Leah asked, as she tried not to rub the hives that broke out on her skin after that.
"It's just a pen made from the usual materials used in making stationaries outside of a pencil."
"I am allergic to wood." She announced, as the hive on her skin grew more and he had to intervene, bringing out some cream from under his desk and handing it to her. He was used to the normal civilians having allergic reactions to normal objects around them. It wasn't long before he stood up and headed towards the morgue, after the hives on her had subsidized. Leah wasted no time following him to the morgue. Luis was eating some noodles away from the operating table at his desk, while Bonnie went through the report from his discovery.
The mortician was currently on his break, taking his time to rest his brain and enjoy some noodles, while enjoying a sudoku puzzle in his hands. How he could eat in front of a dead body was beyond Bonnie's understanding. Yet the brunette didn't deny a free cupcake from him, biting into the pastry in her hand, while reading his report.
"Thomas. I told you to stop eating here. It's unsanitary."
Michael interrupted him, as he came down the stairs with Leah behind him. The redhead quickly directed herself to Bonnie's side and would look at the report in confusion. 'I still hate biology,' she thought to herself, while Luis smiled, moving his chair forward and giving the detective a copy of the report. He skimmed through the paper, before looking at Luis.
"Translation."
"I couldn't find anything on my part." Luis scowled, yet it quickly changed into a smile, as brown cat was softly caressed in his arms.