Conrad

***

"This monster is so ugly!"

Yamilet grimaced, her fingers instinctively playing with the knife in her hand.

She tossed it back and forth, the glint of silver still visible in the darkness before a new one replaced it with a clean, sharp sound.

"Even if it's ugly, it's still a gift for you," Bryce walked to the bed and kissed her once she had put away the knife. "I think this little monster is pretty cute, just like you my little crazy lady."

Yamilet threw the teddy bear at him and laughed as she cursed him out. "Get out of here!"

Bryce went to the door and pulled out the throwing knife from where he had left it embedded in the door panel. He weighed it in his hand and suddenly turned around, hurling it towards Yamilet who didn't even flinch as it grazed past her dripping hair.

Thud!

The throwing knife landed on the headboard again tonight after being used as a makeshift dart. Yamilet grabbed her Duffy Bear and threw it back at Bryce just as he slipped out of the room.

The bear hit against the closing door with a pitiful thump before falling to the ground with its head drooping.

Bryce chuckled as he made his way down the narrow and cluttered hallway filled with sweet bean paste smells mixed with fried foods.

He paused for a moment trying to remember when was last time he ate street food but couldn't recall any memories, so he continued walking into the silent darkness of an unlit staircase.

Yamilet got out of bed and picked up her handbag that had been thrown aside by Bryce earlier. She took out a handgun and an old-fashioned mobile phone. From the mini-fridge, she grabbed a bottle of iced Coke, popped it open with a snap, and took a sip. Humming to herself, she opened her phone to find only one text message in her inbox.

"Good." The message was concise as usual; her boss never wasted words.

At the moment, another smartphone was being charged by the computer and its screen was black from being turned off. She turned it on, connected to the internet, and immediately received a call. It was Dot.

Ah... Yamilet suddenly remembered that she forgot to turn off the body temperature sensor. For those two hours just now, Dot probably received an alert every second.

She spun around lazily in her computer chair while taking another gulp of Coke before finally answering the phone: "Hello..."

On the other end, Dorian exploded with curses: "Finally! Damn! You..."

He gritted his teeth, trying hard to suppress his anger as he felt his pulse racing in his temples. After taking several deep breaths he continued: "You've finally finished your job! I almost remotely activated your phone's monitoring function!"

The main reason for this fear was that if he listened in on Yamilet's conversations, he could become even more angry.

Yamilet lazily apologized: "Sorry about that. I forgot to let you know I'm safe."

Dorian wanted to criticize her but all he heard was Yamilet's coquettish voice saying: "I don't have any missions tomorrow so I can stay at your place all day."

"....all day?" Dorian raised an eyebrow.

"Yep. You told me you bought a new game, right?"

He couldn't help but smile at Yamilet's teasing tone though he still sounded angry when he replied: "...fine but this won't happen again."

***

Outside the "Tang's Club," a police cordon blocked the entrance, and police car lights flashed red and blue, piercing through the 4 am night sky. The distant mountains stood quietly over the city as they watched the ants scurry in and out of their nests.

"Captain, you're here!" Emmy greeted Conrad with a nod while he smoked his cigarette rapidly.

Conrad turned to Welk behind him and said, "I'll finish this cigarette before going in. You put on your shoe covers and go in with Emmy first."

Conrad had just rushed back from outside of town. Tonight was windless, but he had already started sweating profusely after being out of his car for only a short while.

They had been investigating drug trafficking gangs in this area of the city. The previous night they arrested some of Butch's henchmen and other subordinates. After interrogating them for an entire night, they found out that Butch was planning to escape by waterway from a small wharf. A large team of people and cars rushed over there to keep watch for quite some time when news came that Butch died inside the club.

It was suspected suicide?

Ha! Impossible.

Using his thumb knuckles to scratch an itchy temple, Conrad picked up the burning cigarette butt but was stopped by Emmy: "Cap! Don't do that!"

Emmy handed him a paper cup and gave him a disdainful look saying: "Dump it here."

Conrad yawned and threw the cigarette butt into the cup, making a sizzle sound as sparks were extinguished in the tea water.

The forensic team had already arrived, and Butch's body lay in dried blood. The corpse was stiff with lividity on the face and eye muscles, and there was a trace left by the burnt gunpowder on his temple where the bullet had entered.

Conrad took the gun that had been bagged by the forensic team, and Emmy said beside him: "His subordinates said he had several guns; his favorite is..."

"Sig Sauer P226R." Conrad finished her sentence.

He passed the gun and bullets to Welk: "Arrange to send these back for ballistic testing."

Butch's blind eye wore an eyepatch while his other eye remained open. Conrad walked over to the medical examiner and asked, "Doctor, what's your preliminary report?"

The medical examiner shrugged: "Currently, no conclusion can be made. We need to perform an autopsy after sending him back. Collected fingerprints, footprints, and hair will all need to be compared."

Conrad nodded then called out to Welk: "Go interrogate Butch's subordinates again. Ask them who usually comes into this office; anyone still alive needs their fingerprints taken for elimination purposes."

"Got it, Cap," Welk replied before leaving.

Conrad turned to Emmy: "Have you checked the surveillance yet?"

"We've only seen this one from outside of this corridor," Emmy pointed towards a camera outside of the office door beside a large sign that read 'Tang's Club': "We've only captured Butch entering but nobody has come out since."

Although the office was spacious enough, it didn't have any windows.

A young detective rushed in hurriedly saying: "Cap! We found a secret door behind the club!"

Conrad nodded once in response: "Good work. Show me where it is."

They call it an emergency exit door when in reality it looks like a cement wall door that can't be seen from the outside. There's no lock or handle on the door, and an electronic lock is installed on the inside that requires a remote control to unlock it. That controller was found in Butch's pocket.

It seemed that outsiders wouldn't have been able to enter through this door.

"Cap, do you really think it's not suicide? Maybe revenge?" Emmy pulled down her mask: "But their gang was selling drugs so they would have had enemies with conflicting interests."

Conrad took off his mask and searched his pocket for a cigarette box before biting one and holding it between his lips: "Butch was always arrogant and never suicidal. Revenge is possible though; there could be other gangs, or even black-on-black within their own group."

He lit up the cigarette in his mouth, pointed towards a camera on the wall, and said: "We need to check this surveillance footage as well as any other cameras in the area."

"Got it," Emmy replied.

She was about to head back to the club when a shadow darted past her feet, causing her to scream: "Ah!"

"What are you screaming for? You're already a detective, yet your courage is still so small." Conrad mocked while holding his cigarette, pointing towards the black shadow that had already run away: "It's just a black cat. It scared you that much?"

Emmy patted her chest: "Oh my god, I thought it was a big rat."

"You go send the collected evidence back to the bureau and get some sleep earlier," Conrad said.

"I'm not tired, Cap. You're the one who's been working hard for over half a year trying to break up this gang." Emmy muttered softly while looking at Conrad's dark circles under his eyes and messy hair feeling heartache.

"I'm just a single man; what's there to mind? You're still young, staying up late isn't good for your health," Conrad waved his hand: "Hurry up and finish your work then go home."

After Emmy left, Conrad stood there and finished smoking his cigarette.

Still no wind. The air felt thick as if it couldn't be pushed away even as he exhaled smoke that seemed to trap him in place.

Conrad felt like he was trapped. There was white mist in front of his eyes that he couldn't disperse or push away. He couldn't pinpoint what exactly went wrong but had an intuition that something wasn't right.

The cigarette burned out quickly leaving only the butt behind. Conrad walked towards the trash bin in the corner of the room and extinguished it before hearing a cat meow from behind.

He looked down at it for several seconds before pinching himself between his eyebrows and heading back towards the club.

He thought he must have been hallucinating from staying up late, because why else would he feel as if that black cat was smirking at him?