Patience has its virtue

"Damn it!!" Antoine said as he looked at the burning building with an angry expression on his face.

"Someone help me bring detective Antoine back to the station".

"Let's go detective" A policeman said as he gestured to lead Antoine back to the station.

"Like hell, I will!!" Antoine said as he shook off the policeman's arms from his body and immediately rushed into the building.

"NO, DETECTIVE ANTOINE!!! YOU CAN'T!!!!" Officer Gaston shouted at Antoine as soon as he saw him rushing inside the burning abandoned building.

"Damn it!!!" Seeing no other choice than to go after him, officer Gaston decided to follow him soon after.

"BANG!! BANNG!!! CRACK!!!!"

Antoine broke the front door down with his legs as he rushed inside.

Bringing out a handkerchief from his pocket, Antoine used it to cover his nose as soon as the horrible smell assaulted his senses.

And due to the smoke which was caused by the fire, Antoine had to find a way to breathe in it, as he also protected his vision so that he could see clearly.

But unbeknownst to him, officer Gaston followed him from behind as he tried calling out, trying to get his attention.

But the smoke made it hard to breathe. So he could only cough after each sentence.

"Cough!! Cough!!! Damn it!!!! Where did he go sat?" Officer Gaston said as he soon reached the stairs that led to the second floor.

Meanwhile, Antoine who was getting closer to the source of the flames found it even harder to breathe as he soon saw the room that was full of disembodied corpses stacked up in a pile.

"Cough!! Cough!! Where is it?" Antoine said as he searched around the room in a hurry as though the was looking for something important.

"Anything! Just give me a clue!! I need something damn it!!".

Two minutes passed yet Antoine couldn't find anything, and it seems as though everything has been burned in the flames.

Any leads he had on the case had already been burned to ashes.

At this point, Antoine wanted to give until…..

"DETECTIVE!! WHERE ARE YOU, DETECTIVE?" Officer Gaston screamed amid the cloudy white smoke that blocked his vision, while the reddish-orange flames slowly suffocated him as he made his way through the room.

"I'M HERE OFFICER GASTON!!" A familiar voice called out as officer Gaston turned his head in the direction of the voice recognizing it to be detective Antoine.

Walking in the direction as he shielded his face instinctively from getting burnt.

"We need to go right now, detective. If the fire department doesn't come here in time, I'm afraid this building will be burnt to the ground together with everything in it. And I can assure you that neither of us will want to be here for that".

"I still need a clue officer Gaston! Anything.....Just anything would do!" Antoine replied anxiously as he continuously rummaged through the room.

But unfortunately, after several minutes he was still unable to find anything.

"Damn it! I can't do this anymore, we are getting out of here whether you like it or not" Officer Gaston said as he forcefully held Antoine and dragged him out of the room.

"Hey! I'm not yet done" Antoine said as he immediately broke out of his clutches.

Seeing no other way to handle the situation, Officer Gaston forcefully tackled Antoine to the ground as he held him in place.

"Écoutez ici, détective.. Cough!! Cough!!! Tout ce bâtiment est sur le point d'être incendié et comme je l'ai déjà dit, aucun d'entre nous ne voudrait être ici quand ce sera le cas!!"

"Now it's either you come with me or I forcefully drag you out" Officer Gaston said with some anger in his voice as his face slowly contorted into discomfort.

Gritting his teeth in dissatisfaction, Antione slowly exhaled as he sighed saying.

"Yes, you're right. We need to get out of here quick".

Officer Gaston slowly got up as he held out his hands for Antoine to grab unto.

Antoine looked around the burning building and slowly shook his head, deciding to give up as he wouldn't find any clue here.

He stretched his hands and grabbed onto the officer's grip as he was slowly pulled up.

The two immediately got out of the room as they carefully got down the stairs and out of the abandoned building.

"Cough!! Cough!!! Did you find anything detective?" Officer Gaston said as he pressed his hands against his knees, as he tried to get the smoke out of his lungs by stabilizing his breathing.

"Cough!! Unfortunately, I didn't get anything" Antoine who was also doing the same responded.

Officer Gaston slowly sighed in defeat as he said " Well look at this way, now we don't have to have to worry about how we are going to get the corpses to the morgue".

"Yeah, you are right. That solved one of your issues" Antoine responded as he walked away while dusting the remnants of the ashes out of his shirt.

"What are you going to do now detective?" Officer Gaston asked curiously as he saw the detective walking away.

"I'll wait" Antoine replied with a frown as he saw that his black trousers were still covered in ashes.

"Wait for what?"

"I'll wait for the next crime scene to appear. Because whosoever that was capable of doing something like this would surely do it again" Antoine said as he had seen the horrifying things that were in the room himself.

Even though his vision was clouded by the smoke which made it bad for him to breathe, he had seen that the source of flames was a pile of burning corpses piled up against one another.

"Whosever that was capable of doing such a thing would show himself sooner or later. Although I don't know how long it will take for that to happen, but as the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire" Antione said as he pointed at the burning abandoned building.

" If we are patient enough, we will surely get another scene like this".