Louisa's p.o.v;
After a week, Ace dropped me in front of my house and said, "All the best."
I smiled at him and said, "Yeah." Then I started walking to my door.
While I was getting things ready for tomorrow, I heard knocks on the door. 'Didn't he leave already?' I thought as I opened the door. I saw Raphael standing in front of me. When did he come? Did he see Ace dropping me and leaving? But before I could ask what he was doing there, he walked in while asking, "I thought you'd come tomorrow." He still thinks that I went to see my parents. Let it go with the flow then.
"How did you know I returned anyway?"
"I was driving past your street and saw you getting out of the car so I drove here?"
So, he only saw me. I let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh right!" He exclaimed. "The thing is, I was here to ask how things went with your parents."
Well, if he wants to know how things went so bad then I'll tell him…
"They're good! We had breakfast, lunch and dinner together."
"Eating is all you did for a week?"
"Yup! We went out before coming here though. They took me to a flower field though. It was beautiful."
"That sounds like your parents."
"They've always been like that."
Since my parents don't take me anywhere, he was convinced with what I said. "Alright, that's it! I'm going back to patrolling. Take a rest today since you'll be starting to work tomorrow." With that, he left.
When I got to my room, I opened my phone and saw a text message from Ace.
From Ace: Have a good night.
I grinned after looking at the message I got from Ace and went to bed with a big smile.
At the police station, since it's been a while being working here, it felt different when I walked among the police officers who are my colleagues.
Eduardo asked me, "Hey, Louisa, how did your treatment go? Are you alright now?"
I nodded and asked, "You look like you lost a pound."
He shook his head, grinning and said, "I'm good. It's been a tough week, I guess. We'll be done by Saturday."
"That's great." I told him. "Have fun."
"And the same goes to you, miss. I know this has just been a rough month for you." he said kindly.
"Thank you, officer. I really appreciate what you're doing."
He smiled at me, then turned back to his desk. I made my way around the desks, looking at the officers that were sitting there.
I noticed Elisa was writing on a piece of paper , but she wasn't talking to anyone. Instead, her eyes were focused on something else.
After getting a welcoming greeting, I took my desk and looked for work. Then someone came up to the counter. It was a young man with long brown hair and pale blue eyes. He wore an untucked black shirt under a denim jacket over a white turtleneck sweater and grey jeans. His dark blue eyes scanned the room before locking onto mine. I stared back, surprised that this guy knew that I worked here, which is odd seeing as this is a small department we usually only get newcomers or those that don't know their surroundings.
"Is Elisa here? She's a friend from high school." he said politely.
"Yeah, she's over there." I said while pointing at Elisa's desk.
When the guy walked over to her table, she got tense and walked out with him after informing me that she needed a minute.
Eduardo gave a file to Raphael while asking, "How long are they planning to talk about this? wasn't it already a week since it happened?"
Raphael, "It's not just a common guy who died. I bet they'll broadcast it for another week for sure."
Eduardo sighed and said, "You know how these cases get... They won't stop until we solve this one."
Raphael shrugged his shoulders. "We'll just have to find that killer."
I interrupted and asked, "Who are you talking about? who died?"
Eduardo, "Didn't you see the news channel? It's been over a week since it happened but they're still talking about the whole city."
"Was that guy a big shot?"
"It's not some guy. It's Paulo Cruz, the head of the Pandora gang. He died in a terrible way and no one knows who killed him."
I nodded slowly.
He continued "The last time I'd heard of Paulo Cruz was during his trial. He was accused of murder, and got imprisoned for a year."
Raphael interrupted him and said, "She's the one who got him arrested."
Eduardo, "Yeah, I forgot."
i asked "Wait a second, didn't you find a lead in his case for a week?"
"No one knows yet, but we found out that it was one of his own men so far." Eduardo explained.
"How are you sure about it?"
he shook his head, "Not everyone's capable of murder like he was. There must have been some reason why someone wanted to kill him."
I crossed my arms and asked, "So we should let them catch whoever wants to kill him?"
Raphael scoffed at him, "Then you should include Louisa on the list since she's the one who arrested him. maybe she got mad when he got released and plotted a way to kill him." and laughed which made Eduardo laugh along with him. I rolled my eyes and continued working.
* * *
A week later and all the detectives were called to investigate a new murder in New York.
They went to a house that had been recently bought and investigated. The victim was an elderly woman named Elizabeth. She lived alone at the apartment complex where she spent most of her time. She was a single mother who had two children. She was found dead in her bedroom, stabbed multiple times.
The cause of death was unknown. The detectives decided to take a break and go home.
I was walking down the street when I saw a familiar face.
"Hey, Louisa!"
I stopped and turned around.
"Hello!"Eduardo walked towards me and put his hands in his pockets. "What brings you here?" he questioned.
"Oh, nothing much." I said , shrugging slightly.
"Really?"
I raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing, just curious." he responded and started walking again.
I followed his pace and waited until we reached the car park.
We both opened our doors at the same time.
"Thanks." I thanked him.
He nodded and looked away from me.
I watched his figure get smaller by the minute as he walked through the parking lot. Then, I realised he was leaving. I ran after him. "Wait! Eduardo!"
He stopped and looked over his shoulder. "What is it?"
"Are you busy right now?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"If it's anything illegal, then no, not really."
I chuckled lightly. "It's not."
"Well, whatever you want to ask can wait till later." he told me.
"It's just..." I trailed off. "Can we meet up somewhere tomorrow morning? Like breakfast or something."
Eduardo blinked twice. "... Sure."
I smiled softly at his answer.
"See you tomorrow then,"
"Yep."
I waved at him and turned back around.
When I walked to my car, I had to talk to him about Paul's case tomorrow.
A day later, at a cafe,
Eduardo asked after taking a sip from his americano, "What is it you want to talk about?"
"I want to talk about the Paulo case."
"Paulo Cruz?"
I nodded, "Paulo Cruz."
Eduardo put his cup back on the table. "I don't understand what's going on."
"Why would you think I've got something going on?"
"Because you're acting like there's something wrong with you."
"I'm okay. I just want to know more details of his case."
he sighed deeply, "Alright."
"What was the first clue you got about him?"
Eduardo leaned closer on his elbows on the table, resting his chin between them. "He went missing after he got released from the prison, after some investigation we found his dead body floating in a river with multiple stabs and cuts on his body but he died when he got stabbed right through his chest."
"Didn't you get any clues out of the surveillance camera?"
"Nope. Everything's wiped out clean. There aren't any witnesses who saw what actually happened that night either." he said while looking directly into my eyes.
"Do you have any doubts about someone?"
"I don't think I can help you with that even if I know. Because I'm glad that he died too , I'm sure he died because he deserved it."
"But it's none of your business if he did or didn't deserve it, though. All that matters is what happened afterward. Moreover, we're cops. we shouldn't take sides."
"There was a girl that was involved in Paulo's case," he added.
"Oh yeah? What was her name?"
"Don't know. but there is some information that he contacted some gang and asked them to kidnap her. We got this information through his messages. we don't know her name or whereabouts right now."
"Goodluck on that."
Eduardo nodded in response and then said "Any other clues about his case?"
"Just that he seemed to be in love with another girl and killed her. That was the last thing in his note."
"I see. And you think there might be more details about what actually happened?"
"It could be anything."
He drank the rest of his coffee.
"Well, anyways thanks for the coffee and chat, but i need to go. Got some stuff to work."
"Okay. Thanks again."
I watched as he left and thought, 'I wonder how Ace got every surveillance footage wiped out that even cops couldn't retrieve it.'
I came to the house after finishing my work. I was exhausted and just wanted to lay down. However, when I walked into the hallway there were no lights on except for one light that illuminated the kitchen area. When I walked in it wasn't empty and there was a man standing there. He turned towards me with a surprised face. "Louisa!"
"What are you doing here?" Even though it sounded harsh, I still asked him.
He walked to me and gave me a kiss and said, "Ofcourse to see you."
He took me by my hand and led me to the living room where there was a small coffee table with two cups of tea already sitting there. As we sat next to each other he poured us both a cup. "Thank you," I said as I picked up my tea cup and sipped. It was nice and hot.
Ace asked, "How was your day at work?"
"It was good," I answered.
There was silence for a couple of moments before he broke it. "Did something happen today?"
"They're investigating Paulo 's death."
At this, Ace went completely rigid. His face became grim and cold, eyes narrowing.
I continued, "And there have been reports of some girl involved in his death. They said it in front of me without knowing that it's me."
"How?"
"There were some messages in his phone that he asked some group of people to kidnap. There wasn't any name mentioned."
Now Ace's mood changed drastically, anger replacing his expression.
I took another sip of my tea and continued, "It's fine. They don't know me."
He gave a nod and said, "I've prepared dinner for you. Eat and go to sleep. You look tired already." He gave me a kiss on my lips and he left the house.
After that, I got ready for bed and climbed under the covers, but I didn't fall asleep immediately. I tried not to think too much of what they had said to Ace and how much trouble it would be if they figured out who I was. If someone else found out then it would get even worse. And that thought scared me.