His Life Without Her (5)

I arrived at work Monday morning feeling groggy. We had gone drinking that Saturday night with my brother, Dan, Jeff, and Mel. I could have passed after several rounds of hard drinks. JP has gone out for lunch when I woke up at one o'clock in the afternoon. Grandma said we arrived home four o'clock in the morning.

"That's record breaking then!" I smiled at my grandma after she lectured me about how worried they were for us being not home at midnight.

That Sunday afternoon though, I talked to my grandpa about how I should get back at Agnes. He assured me that his elite men will make sure that woman or anyone working behind her will live in regret. I trusted my grandpa's words leaving the matter to his own wisdom. After all, he has been doing all this stuff all his life and there were no traces of anomaly in his actions. I myself don't even know all his elite men. He just meet them outside casually or call them without probably when we're not at home.

Anyway, today at work, I was greeted by an order from the chief of national police that there were rampant drug smuggling in the South City. South City is a port city about 500 kilometers south from Central City. I was ordered to be transferred in two weeks time. 'Why do I seem to be going farther and farther away from my love?' I asked in my mind as I put down the notice order.

Being in a military though, our mandate is to preserve and protect the citizens of the country from any harmful elements of society. Thus, we dont have a choice if we are ordered by the our higher ups to go here and there as long as it is duty-related order.

This would mean also that I won't be able to go home every after two weeks. Most likely, once a month or once in two months.

....

I arrived at the South City headquarters on the first week of September. The following day, there was a simple welcome celebration prepared for me by the city mayor. This mayor was one of the suspected drug lords in the southside although there were no much evidence gathered against him to really charge him as a smuggler.

"Hello Major, welcome to our humble city! We heard you are an outstanding and excellent investigator. Hope we can work together hand in hand." Mayor Buk said as we shook our hands.

"Thank you Mayor. Looking forward to that.! I might need to dig up first the records before getting my hands on to the current problems " I replied.

"Of course, take your time Major. After all,this drug problem needs extensive investigation and precise action. We want to uproot the cause first before tidying up the mess." The Mayor said.

"I understand. Thank you for the warm welcome." I said as I accepted the glass from his hand which he just grabbed from the server.

"Toss for a greater cooperation and success!" Mayor raised his glass as he smiled.

"Toss for a clean and drug free city!" I said twitching a smile as I drunk from my glass.

Being a graduate of psychology, I noticed his demeanor was quite pretentious and nervous. Nevertheless, I pretended not to have noticed at all and raised my glass as well.

"The dinner will be served in a few minutes. Meanwhile, please allow yourself to get acquainted with my staff. This is my vice, Nichole Buk, who happens to be my daughter. She's looking young at the age of 33, isn't she?" Mayor Buk said with a meaningful grin.

"Nice to meet you vice-mayor. How are you?" I said formally as we shook our hands. I felt her hand was cold and her facial expression was rather nervous.

"Nice meeting you Major Arevalo. I'm as fine as my dad." She answered with a reserved smile.

Mayor proceeded to introduce everyone of his city council members and staff before we were led to a luxurious dining hall. I was seated right next to Mayor Buk while his daughter vice mayor sat at his left side. Every now and then, I catch the sneaking glance of vice -mayor Nichole at me but I didn't give any reaction at all.

I just put aside every points of observation I had that entire evening. I still needed to dig up their records so it was so early to conclude.

That night as we were returning to the headquarters, my escort driver laughed while looking at me by his front mirror.

"What made you suddenly so happy?" I asked.

" No no, not exactly happy sir, I just cant imagine that vice mayor acting so tamed tonight.!" Wilman continued to laugh under his breath.

"Tamed? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Nothing really, you will get to know how they run the city in a short period of time. But one thing I'm sure sir, she will use all her charm and every possibility to distract you from your investigation. " Wilman knew the Mayor and his family well. He has been himself a police here for ten years.

"Hmmmm....How have the previous Major dealt with them?" I asked.

"Well, it's may not come as a surprise to you sir, you shpuld have known the reason why they assigned you here." Wilman lectured on me.

"Of course, I was asking was there any personal links between them?" I clarified.

"It's all around the market sir, you will hear it not too soon." Wilman tried to be elusive but his words confirmed my suspicion.