A Favor

Officer Grant stood outside the small unit and knocked on the door. His tracker had led him to a midcentury apartment block that was not too far from downtown LA. Inside, he heard the bark of a dog as it warned its owner of an unknown visitor.

A moment later, he heard the door unlock and a woman's face appeared cautiously between the gap of the door. "Uh, hello..." she greeted. "If you're trying to sell something, I don't want anything."

Officer Grant quickly scanned his eyes across the woman with slight disappointment. Brown hair, green eyes... This was not Nova Thomas...

Just as the woman was about to close the door in his face, Officer Grant quickly stuck out his hand to stop her. He then pulled out his badge and showed it to the woman. "I am Officer Alfred Grant from the LAPD. I am investigating a fraudulent number and it led me here. May I come in and ask you a few questions?"

The woman's eyes opened wide in shock. In a panic, she asked, "The police? Am I in trouble? I didn't do anything..."

Officer Grant saw that the woman was genuinely scared and quickly tried to comfort her, "Calm down, Miss. I simply want to ask a few questions."

The woman hesitated, but she slowly opened the door and let the officer in.

Officer Grant scanned his eyes across the small unit as he walked inside. The unit was very feminine and there were no photos of anyone else apart from the woman and her dog. It appeared as though she was single and she lived alone. If someone was on the phone pretending to be a staff member from Lakeside Angels Psychiatric Hospital, then it had to be this woman.

The woman pointed to the sofa and Officer Grant sat down.

"I've received a recent report of someone posing as a staff member from Lakeside Angels Psychiatric Hospital. My investigation led me to a phone from this unit. Are you aware of this?" the man asked. 

The woman shuffled uncomfortably beside the officer and replied, "I...I did it as a favor. I didn't mean to hurt anyone..."

Officer Grant raised an eyebrow, "As a favor?"

"My friend told me his sister wasn't doing too well at the psychiatric hospital and he didn't want her friends to be worried, so he asked me to reassure anyone that called. Did I do something wrong, Officer?" the woman asked nervously.

"What's the name of this friend?" Officer Grant asked.

The woman hesitated for a moment and replied, "Noel Thomas."

Officer Grant wrote this down and nodded his head. "What about Nova Thomas? Do you know her personally?"

The woman shook her head, "I worked with Noel when he was a racecar driver. I never met his sister. I just know that he loves her very much so I did this favor for him."

"How long have you been doing this favor for? And how many calls have you taken?" Officer Grant asked.

"I've been helping him for about a year... But I've only taken 3 calls. One of them, I assume was you this morning..." the woman replied.

"3?" the officer questioned.

"Yes...another one was from a woman this morning...and the third one was from a woman called Anqing Qu, roughly a year ago..." 

The officer's eyes opened wide when he heard this name. "Anqing Qu?" This was the name of the ballerina that was murdered! Did she know Noel Thomas?

...

Meanwhile, in Vegas, Noah sat quietly in the police station as they took a sample of his DNA. A year ago, they had found a tiny bit of skin underneath Anqing Qiu's nails and believed she had scratched the person that murdered her. Since Noah was currently a suspect, there was a huge possibility that it was him.

However, the man looked completely calm. "Let me reassure you. It wasn't me. I never murdered Miss Qiu. It was Lucas Lee. He's evil!" Noah insisted.

The police ignored him. "Mr. Lee's DNA was already tested a year ago, plus, he had an alibi. He's clear."

Noah shook his head and refused to believe this. "He must have paid his way out. Maybe he paid someone to swap his DNA sample, or he paid the lab to provide fake results...or he paid the officer to let him go... It was definitely him!"

The police looked at the blond-haired man. Why was he so persistent? He was like a conspiracy theorist who was set on what he believed even though all the evidence proved otherwise.

"I don't care what you believe, but we have the right to detain you here for 48 hours. If you are innocent, then you should sit quietly instead of making a fuss," one of the officers said.

Noah glared at the officers. All of a sudden, his eyes darkened and he snickered. "48 hours isn't enough time for you to get the DNA tests back, you will have to release me eventually. You might as well release me now. It will make no difference."

The police officers looked at the man and felt chills down their spine. They knew he was right. A DNA test usually took 24-72 hours, but the sample from the victim was currently in LA. The most likely scenario, was for the results to take, at least, 72 hours...

But for some reason, the fact that the man knew this...was quite frightening...

All they could hope for, was for Officer Grant to find other solid evidence against the man during this time.