5: Rosemary Street

"Are you going to be alright?"

Adriel rubbed a tired hand over his face as he stepped out of the apartment door to the balcony. The bustle of cars and dwindling people talking in the night could be heard below. Adriel felt the cool air on his neck.

"Don't worry about me, Asia. I need you to stay focused on the business. You made for a great CFO, this is a mild promotion at best."

The woman's voice paused in deliberation. Adriel sat on the ledge, feet dangling four floors up from the dusty pavement, staring out at the lights on the skyline. He knew it would take much more than to soothe his sister's concerns. 

"Damn it, Adriel."

She took a deep breath.

  "The business isn't what I'm concerned about right now. Yanire-"

Her words broke in hesitation and a tinge of despair. She knew her own feelings were hardly a fraction of his- but it didn't change the fact that all of this was bothering her. His silence on the other end was too thick to cut through and she feared she had scared him off entirely.

"Asia."

The woman paused.

"One of us has to keep a level head and secure Alvarsson Inc. I can't do that right now, not with what's happened. I need you to take care of it. Don't worry about me, or Yanire, I'm going to do everything that I can to find her, just focus on keeping our operations running."

"Can you do that for me?"

The line crackled from a movement of some kind.

"Okay… But promise me that you'll reach out if you need help."

Adriels's fingers instinctively pressed at the cigar in his pocket. He had never been a smoker before, but lately he was considering it. The only thing that stopped him at all was his awareness that Yanire hated the smell of it.

"I promise."

The words were unconvincing and hollow, even to Adriel. If he had been on the receiving end he would've very plainly not believed them.

"Good."

The line clicked and Adriel glanced up to be met with the home screen of his phone. Asia very likely knew his words were bullshit- but she'd never been the sort to push matters if it was clear the other person didn't want to be pushed. With the matter settled, he stepped back into the house and slipped his phone into his pocket. 

"Who was it?"

The young man inside of the apartment didn't look up from the table as he asked. Adriel shook his head and approached the workspace. They'd identified twelve of Adriel's business enemies who could be responsible, three enemies of the Alvarsson family, and one unidentified person who was spotted at two different Alvarsson Inc facilities two months before. All of these individuals were spread out on the right side of the table with all the information the two of them could find beneath.

The other space of table contained the young detective's notes and observations- most of which Adriel left alone. He had no idea what to make of the half fleshed out sentences and quick sketches frankly.

"What are your thoughts so far on the Kokei family?"

Growden looked up through his circular frame glasses with focused hazel eyes. As of late he looked more aged and tired than usual, which was strange being that Growden had only just turned twenty one.

"We've yet to get a ransom call- it's unlikely they would take her without having a financial motivation."

"What about the Shuss?"

Growden flicked back two pages in his red notebook, skimming its contents.

"Their issue was with your father, have they expressed any ill intent towards you?"

Adriel shook his head. The Shuss had sent him a congratulation shortly after his father's funeral- but aside from their dark humor there was no semblance of anger.

"Then I don't see why they would do such a thing either."

Adriel breathed deeply, fingers fiddling at the cigarette through the thick material of his trousers. It seemed like no matter how much information they dredged up, they got nowhere. Every lead landed at a dead end, every enemy was eliminated for one reason or another. 

"Adriel?"

The older blonde looked at his companion, eyes exhausted.

"Remind me what street corner the explosion happened on, Rosemary and…?"

Adriel furrowed his brows, thinking hard. Following the chaos, he'd woken up with an aching headache and completely disoriented. His body was laying on the sidewalk beside the half destroyed vehicle, the driver entirely slumped and not moving. He hobbled quickly to the passenger side of the car and upon finding it empty, became animalistically frantic. He ran to the driver, head still throbbing in pain and his left eye blurred. When he saw Thomas slumped awkwardly over on the steering wheel it struck him that they needed to call the police. His fingers fumbled around the floor board until they landed on Yanire's cell phone, cracked just beneath her seat. 

He opened the device and dialed the number for police immediately, stumbling back to the sidewalk to identify his location. His eyes landed on the blue street sign as the police operator asked about the emergency.

"Rosemary and Thyme."

The words shook Adriel from his memory as he looked back to Detective Growden. 

"It was Rosemary and Thyme street. Why?"

_____________________________________________________________________________