Is it spelt with an "i" or an "e"?

Tenenenenenen....

A monophonic ringtone of an old love song kept on buzzing. As he read the computer screen, police chief inspector Fedora squinted. In his mind, he was reading them aloud, so he did not notice his phone ringing. Right when he used the mouse to scroll down, the screen froze! Frustrated and finally noticing a faint ringing sound, the police chief inspector immediately yanked it from the charging cable behind the mountain of files.

“Good morning, Chrisvan. Need something?”

The chief chuckled when he heard the caller’s hoarse voice. He thought about how grumpy his son might be when the boss gave him tasks this early. As someone who worked for the Teivel famiglia, Chrisvan was accustomed to the night owl routines.

The memory felt like only yesterday when Chief Fedora sparred with Chrisvan in a boxing ring over his decision to become an official Teivel member. The chief inspector wanted to make his son realize how weak he was. But even as he fell onto his knees in defeat, the determination in those eyes never wavered. Chrisvan refused to change his mind, and eventually, Chief Fedora agreed to it.

Rising quickly, Chrisvan joined the ranks as one of the most trusted members by the mafia boss. His role as one of the captains kept him busy all night, and Chrisvan refused to leave any tasks undone.

He replied to his father, “The boss sent a request. Have you seen it?”

Glancing over to his frozen screen, the chief inspector sighed. Then stretched his arm out to grab one of the many whiteboard markers from his mug on his desk.

“My computer just froze. Wait a minute.”

Swivelling his chair back and removing the marker cap with his teeth, chief inspector Fedora added one more name to the long list of names already on it. Finding an empty spot in between delivery numbers of his favorite noodle restaurant and a pizza store that he frequented, the name Ignatius wanted was scribbled on.

Chief Fedora backpedalled a little to have a better overview of the ongoing cases. He was also briefly reminded of his unfulfilled promise to treat his subordinates to a meal to welcome rookies to their department. Between the pizza place and the noodle restaurant, he would call the noodle restaurant as it was the cheapest in the city. Regular or not, the noodle shop always offered fifty percent discounts for a minimum of two orders.

“I have it now,” he told Chrisvan, snapping back into business mode. “When does he need the information?”

Chrisvan did not have a specific timeline, but he mentioned that the boss was rather serious about knowing everything about Leona Sandersmith. The details of why such a woman’s particulars mattered were not disclosed, but Chrisvan did tell his father enough to know the importance of this background check.

“Her brother is involved with the Polerth deal.”

Narrowing his eyes on the wrongly spelt name, the chief inspector assured his son that he would oversee this case personally.

With that, the call prompt ended, and already, the old man could feel his headache coming back. Sometimes he wondered if he should retire already.

Deciding that he needed a small break, Chief Fedora stood up from his swiveling office chair and stretched. He walked past a coat rack where his imported fedora hat and coat hung. It reminded him of the thrift shop he frequented with his son when Chrisvan was still a teenager.

Back then, there was a secondhand backpack that Chrisvan stared at each time they visited but claimed he did not like whenever he was asked. In the end, Chief Fedora bought it in secret and gifted it for his birthday. He could still remember the wide-eyed surprise and subtle joy on his son’s face even though Chrisvan scolded him for wasting money. The good old days were now gone, and the sweet child grew up into someone worthy of walking by the devil’s side.

As he stretched his legs, he stared at the whiteboard full of scribbles. Almost all his subordinates were using laptops that he was not very fond of. His old desktop acted up again as if telling him to buy a new one. Although his right-hand man, a millennial, taught him how to use a laptop, he was still lost in its operation! It was a blessing when he was promoted. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to finish several police reports on a two-day deadline.

Chief Fedora could remember back when his desktop computer was still working great as fast as a blink of an eye. Fedora sighed as he stroked the faded bullet scratches at the side of his monitor, remembering the good old times when he was attacked in his office. The chief felt a deep connection with the old computer, so he brought it with him even after getting promoted.

"Eliminate corrupt officials" was his motto when he was only a police senior inspector. Unfortunately, being righteous has its downside, especially when corruption and money are involved. Wanting so hard to live by his motto, the young Vandolph Fedora collected evidence against his boss, but this only made the corrupted superior furious. He ordered the kidnapping of Inspector Fedora’s wife and son in exchange for the evidence.

That was when Vandolph Fedora realized family was more important than justice.

Desperate, his connections led him to people he never thought he'd sought help from - the mafia.

Coincidentally, the Teivels at that time needed to strip the corrupt official out of his position because he was helping another mafia group. It was Ignatius' late father who offered the Fedoras protection in exchange for serving the Teivel famiglia.

Ignoring the technical issues temporarily, Chief Fedora wrote variations of Leona's name on the board. If there was a downside to not using the computer, it would be the lack of spellcheck functions that he grew to like.

While it wasn’t unusual for Ignatius to do background checks on civilians, Chief Fedora pitied her. While he stared at her name, trying to figure out if it was spelt with an “i” or an “e”, someone knocked on the door.

"Come in."

A young man entered the room, and Chief Fedora admitted he was quite the looker. The young man wore a striped polo shirt that matched his black ironed slacks and dark blue sneakers. Almost immediately, Officer Fedora recognized that shirt from a thrift shop he visited last week. If he knew it would look this good when worn, he would have bought it as a gift for his son!

"Chief Fedora," Alwin uttered, "My apologies for coming without an appointment."

"Please sit down," he pointed at the sofa and took a seat opposite. "What can I do for you?"

Because he was not allowed to view the CCTV footage, Alwin thought the chief would also be very strict with visitors. He was relieved when the man seemed kind and accommodated him. The chief smiled at him, giving him hope.

"Sir, I was the one who requested to view the CCTV footage. I think my friend is missi-" Alwin couldn’t complete his sentence when he saw a badly spelt variation of Leona’s name on the board behind the chief inspector.

Liona Sandersmyth. It sounded similar when it was read aloud, but Alwin couldn’t be entirely sure about it. Giving his boss a curious glance, Alwin pointed at it.

"Sir, may I ask why my friend's name is there?" he asked.

Chief Fedora pursed his lips as he thought of what to say to the pitiful young man. Of course, he wouldn’t tell him that she’s being investigated by the Teivels! He wanted to say something that would make him leave and thought hard for a compelling reason.

"Do not worry about your friend, I will find her... I'm on it," he assured Alwin with a forbearing tone that did not encourage questions.

Hesitating to probe further, Alwin glanced back to the name on the whiteboard. Normally, he would keep his head down and do as he was told by the higher-ups. However, this involved Leona, so Alwin couldn’t give in so easily.

"Sir, there was something fishy with the CCTV footage, right?"

Seeing the desperation in Alwin’s eyes, Chief Fedora could only brush that question aside with empty reassurance.

"I will do our best to find her.”

Not receiving a definite answer to allay his fears, Alwin tried again to appeal to his rejected request.

“Sir, please let me see the video-”

“What’s your name?" Chief Fedora cut him off, unwilling to let this young upstart get ahead of himself.

"I'm Alwin Ermont, sir. A junior officer from team seven," he saluted.

A police officer, huh? That would be troublesome, Chief Fedora thought. When he was as young as him, he was quite a headache for the superiors due to his enthusiasm and willingness to look into all the cases in the world. That starry-eyed view of justice in this world and passion to seek justice for every case wasn’t a bad thing. Unfortunately, corruption was a disease that targeted those who had seen a little too much in this field. Justice wasn’t painted in black and white. There were simply too many shades of gray underneath that the untrained eye could not see.

A faint smile escaped from Chief Fedora's lips as he realized that he saw himself in the young lad.

Patting Alwin’s back subtly, the chief inspector walked him out.

"Young man lemme handle everything. Your friend's name is listed, which means I’m already looking into it. See?" he pointed at the whiteboard.

Alwin tried not to embarrass the chief, but he couldn't leave without correcting his beloved friend's name. He erased her misspelt name with the side of his fist and took the whiteboard marker from Chief Fedora, who only watched as Alwin corrected it, resolving the huge part of the mystery.

Feeling better seeing Leona Sandersmith's name written correctly and legibly, Alwin handed the marker back with an apology. It might come off as rude, but he simply couldn’t stand around doing nothing. At the very least, knowing the proper spelling could expedite the search process.

Seeing how he messed up with her name, the chief laughed. “Well, at least it sounded the same, right? Thank goodness someone knew how it was written.”

Alwin blushed and thanked the police chief inspector for speaking with him despite his busy schedule. Feeling relieved that a higher-up was on the case, Alwin went to the nearby street food stall. His stomach was rumbling very angrily as he only had expensive tea that morning!

As Alwin munched on some fishball skewers dipped in a sweet sauce, he forgot about Leona momentarily.

One man’s meat could be another man’s poison. Little did Alwin know that while he ate, someone else was starving. That someone else was struggling to open a packet of detergent powder as her stomach growled.

Stuck in a luxurious bathroom without a bra, Leona wondered what Alwin ordered in that expensive restaurant he booked for them. At that moment, she could only imagine a medium-rare rib-eye steak in front of her and drool while she tried to get the detergent powder open.