Chapter 4 - Hide and Seek

This day was one of the Federation's hottest recorded in history. Everyone was not doing well under the hot scorching sun. To Dana and Bianca, it felt as if the day would never end. People seemed to be literally losing their minds. It was not even Lunch time, and they had already assisted local police with seven muggings and six domestic dispute cases. Why they were even handling normal cases (as per the Captain's commands) boggled Dana's mind. She was so stressed out about ensuring that the report that they were going to present to the Senators and the brass, was going to be concise, that she got irritated with having to still assist the local uniforms with their cases. Even as they were driving back to the F.O.D Headquarters, Dana was still struggling sense, of what happened on the night that Indomnia's Mayor Cato was murdered in his office. After finally receiving the ballistics report, they discovered that no gun residue was found on the gun that was left at the crime scene, by whoever was the perpetrator. What also did not make sense to Dana, was that City Hall was an efficiently oiled machine, whose Cameras on site and off site leading to the parking bay areas, were always working. Yet, on the night in question, the entire row of cameras leading from the main wing of the City Hall, directly to outside the Mayor's office, was offline. There was no video footage to be recovered in any of them and the janitor that was on duty, as well as the night guard did not see anyone leave nor enter the building, after the last person checked out at 5:30pm that day. There was no council staff working late that night. The rest of the general floor security had done a complete sweep of the entire building by 8pm, an hour before the Mayor was murdered and found him working and in a jovial mood. Another strange and unexplainable issue, was the fact that on this night, the Mayor's bodyguards were nowhere to be seen. When they checked the duty log sheet with City Hall's Protection Services Department, they could not find any name or person responsible, for the protection of the Mayor that night. The supervisor was away on holiday and when they contacted him, he assured them that the entire duty log sheet for the month was done. He even sent them his copy via fax to show them that he had personally signed it off with the Mayoral Committee and the Police Commander, and yet the duty log sheet that was on the notice board at the Protection Services Department, was completely different to the one he did, and neither he nor the Security Coordinator on the Mayoral Committee, could explain any of this. The more Dana thought about all these strange happenings, the more her head throbbed. This was starting to look to her, like some sick and very twisted psychological thriller, with so many twists to the plot that the Director himself could not figure out who the murderer to his own movie was. Bianca stared across at her partner as they neared the F.O.D headquarters; Bianca was very worried about Dana. Lately Dana did not share her thoughts on matters and this was very strange to Bianca, who knew and loved Dana like a sister was starting to think that perhaps her friend was burning the candle out at both ends, and having an obsessive boyfriend wanting her every moment of attention, a boss like their Captain who was permanently fighting with her staff due to the pressure from the Senate and City Hall to solver the Mayor's murder mystery, Bianca did not blame her friend one bit for feeling and appearing to be overwhelmed. In fact, Bianca herself could not remember the last time she had a good night's rest, the facts surrounding this case of the Mayor's murder, were so confusing and so distressing, that it was so hard to separate fact from fiction. Bianca was starting to think and suspect, that herself and Dana, were being set up to take the fall, on an unsolvable case, as to ensure the end of their F.O.D careers. Bianca dismissed all these crazy thoughts from her mind, as she turned to Dana and asked:"Dana are you okay hun? You look tired babe." Dana replied:"Thanks for the compliment lol, it's this damn case, there just doesn't seem to any end in sight to the crazy twists we have to keep face Bia, I don't even know what to make of the already crazy leads so far, now we have the Captain behaving like Machiavelli and the Senators acting like the main actresses, in a bad rerun of cheap daytime soap operas and It's driving me crazy that we just can't seem to get a break on this case. The more we get involved in solving it, the more I'm starting to fear for our very own lives". Bianca brought the car to a screeching halt and looked at her now worried partner saying:" Whoa!!! What just happened Dana, are you kidding hun, why would you say that, has someone been threatening you, I swear I'll….". Dana interrupted her saying:" It's not Bia, it's just a weird gut feeling, call it intuition or what you will, that I'm getting that we are being followed by someone or some individuals we have no idea of. The other morning when you brought me that amazing breakfast into my bedroom, after you left, I went to the bedroom window to enjoy the morning light and the view of that stunning day, remember?". Bianca nodded her head in agreement. Dana continued:" well any way, I was watching the kids play in the park across the road from us, when my attention fell on a weird looking guy in the park. He looked like he was staring directly at our building, at first I dismissed this, but then a while later I looked at him again, and I could've sworn that he was looking directly at me!! It was a lovely sunny day, and yet this strange stocky man, was wearing a rain coat, and I think one of those funny round hats the English wear, you know, I think they call it a bowler hat. By this point I was starting to think that either I was losing my mind, or that this weird looking guy was some perv, who somehow could see me right at the other end of the park, and even weirder, was the stupid grin like a Cheshire cat he had on his face. I turned away a bit and when I looked again, he was gone. I don't know what the hell is going on Bia, but I feel like this guy is somehow connected to this whole mess."Speechless, Bianca just sat staring at her friend, wondering whether she ought to believe her, or call the Captain and ask for Dana to have a few days leave off to recover from what could be an oncoming nervous breakdown. Dana looking to her friend and partner for some sort of acknowledgement or words of comfort said:"Bianca, say something?! Do you think I am losing it? Do you think this guy could be a figment of my imagination or what hun?". Finally snapping out of it and regaining her composure, Bianca replied to Dana's question carefully:"Look hun, I get what you are saying and I think it might even feel real to you, that this strange dude was checking you out like some old dirty perv, but maybe he was looking for the person he was waiting for in the park. I mean, I'm not saying you are hallucinating or not making sense, all I'm saying is hun, is that there must be logical explanation to what went down that morning. But, don't worry, we will figure it out and you know I love you and will never think of you as some paranoid schizoid". Dana feeling relief wash over her reached across the seat and gave her partner a huge hug knowing that together they would eventually crack this case and solve the riddle, if there was any, of the mysterious man with the bowler hat.

It was just after dark, when Bianca got home with Dana. They were completely exhausted after another afternoon of screaming matches with the beloved Captain and Slave Master, Bianca thought miserably. The Captain had just gotten off the phone with the Commander when they both walked into her office, to give her their latest update on the case of Mayor Cato, when she stared them both down asking what their feedback was on the case, how far they were in their investigation, what leads they had so far, new and old, why they failed to mention to her that they had received the ballistics report later than expected, and why they thought she was running a nursery school, where all the kids could just come and go as they please. It ended not well, with them trying to explain all that she had demanded, but as usual with her cutting them short and blowing her lid before they could get a word in edgewise. After which she proceeded to pick up the phone and blast her secretary for not holding calls when she asked her to, and then going out to the rest of the staff and giving them a mouthful too. Bianca was not sure if Dana or the Captain, or both of them needed a few days off, before the entire staff she thought, was going to have breakdowns. Dana excused herself and said she would take a nice soothing long hot bath and that if Bianca wanted, they could just order a pizza, and relax with some wine. Bianca agreed and after settling into some comfy sweatpants and a t-shirt, she placed the order herself. She went to their lounge and switched on the radio, trying to find a Radio Station that would play some decent hits to relax to and threw herself down in a recliner chair. She just sat there listening to Radio Ultra, a favorite among the Federation citizens and started tapping her foot to a catchy new tune playing, that she not heard before. A while later the front apartment door bell rang and she got up, peeping through the peephole she saw it was the pizza delivery boy. Excited to have their pizza delivered so soon she opened the door and invited the guy in. She asked him to wait as she went to the kitchen, and retrieved her purse from her handbag, to pay for the pizza and give him a tip, he thanked her and closed the door and left. After Dana's bath, she had a quick shower and they sat down to dinner and wine and started chatting about other normal things not related to the case. Dana was telling Bianca that she finally managed to corner Richard, into meeting her and that she was going to ask him that they take a break for while, just until after the case was solved, as she did admit to Bianca that she liked his company as maddening as he could be sometimes and was willing to work on what they had later.

After they finished, they washed up the plates and both agreed to go to bed early.