Both the man and the woman stood there smiling and looking at the crowd. The crowd smiled back at them. Gerard walked over to them with a happy face and turned to the crowd. “To those of you who have been too busy in their own assignments to hear the news, these are Charlie and Angel. Our two, best agents! But I guess none of you have been ignoring the news, since you’re all here!”
The crowd roared with laughter. “Of course, we can’t ignore the news. Because we’re FBI, right?” Gerard raised his voice above the noise. The crowd became quiet to allow Gerard to continue speaking. “Even though they trash us all the time, thinking we’re the villains, we still pay attention to them. Those bastards.”
The crowd laughed again, and became quiet again. “No matter how many rumors they can come up with, Charlie and Angel here allow the bureau to enjoy some accolades. Especially with their latest success. Honesto de Sta. Maria. They have put him in our custody. Alive and breathing. Conscious enough to be made responsible in court for all the lives he destroyed in the homeland with his empire of drugs. We --- with the help of Charlie and Angel here --- caught him, even when he was putting up a fight by carnapping different cars across three states within 24 hours and giving our men and woman the chase of their lifetime ... and maybe the temporary loss of an arm.”
He motioned to Angel, who touched her injured arm as the crowd applauded her. “Well, I probably shouldn’t bother you anymore with the telling of a story that you’ve all heard in the news --- and will keep hearing in the news. I just want to congratulate you,” Gerard turned to Charlie and Angel as he spoke. “Charlie and Angel, on behalf of the bureau and all of the people who keep us in operation, congratulations on your bravery and courage. You have showed the whole nation how skilled, trained, and heroic we are and why the government should keep funding us.”
The crowd laughed and applauded. Some men in the crowd whistled and shouted words of praise. Gerard motioned to Charlie and walked to the right to join the crowd. The people became quiet as Charlie began to speak. “I would like you to know that Angel did not injure her arm out of clumsiness or weakness, but out of extreme strength and power. Honesto just kept getting away and we needed to nab him before our energy ran out. So, my superior and I agreed to throw Angel at his car. She clung to the roof and entered from the rear window. She grabbed him from behind to stop him, but he just kept driving and broke her arm. Still, the struggle with Angel made him slow down and we caught up with him.”
Lisa turned and walked to the right behind the crowd. She walked to the other end of the room. There was a doorway at the end of the room with a white sign next to it. The sign read in black letters, “Fire Exit.”
Lisa walked through the doorway.
The doorway led outside the building. She stepped on a metal platform that had elongated holes as design. The platform led to a metal flight of stairs. There was another metal platform above Lisa that led to another metal flight of stairs, and more of them above that. There were many more below Lisa. Each platform was leading from each floor of the building.
Lisa walked down the stairs to the fire exit of the third floor. It had stopped raining. Gray clouds were clearing away to expose the blue sky. The ground of the parking lot behind the building was already dry. The open-air, one-hundred-car parking lot and its white lines can be seen through the holes of the platforms and stairs of the fire exit. The strong winds were making sounds against Lisa’s ear and against the walls. The winds were so strong at the upper floors of the building, blowing against her hair.
Her feet started to get more and more painful. They were in so much pain, that her feet couldn’t feel anything anymore except the pain. She gripped the handrails as she continued to walk down the stairs in agony.
A few minutes later, she reached the ground. Half of the parking was occupied by cars, but they were starting to leave. Blocks of parking slots were divided by grassy islands, and there was a silver lamp post between every five parking slots. It was so quiet. The only things that can be heard were the sounds of passing cars in the nearby road. It felt nice to be walking on the level asphalt of the ground and not going down stair after stair anymore.
Lisa crossed the parking lot and walked toward the road. She stepped on the elevated, grassy edge of the parking lot and proceeded to the sidewalk along the road. A car went out of the parking lot and drove down the road toward Lisa. It was a silver, semi-tinted car. It slowed down near her, and then stopped right next to her. The window of the driver rolled down.
It was Orlando. He had his hair in a ponytail. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.
“To Libby’s. I need a break,” Lisa said, stopping and turning to talk to Orlando.
“Why don’t you come in and have a ride with me? I need a break, too,” Orlando said, looking on the lock of his door as he used it to unlock all doors of his car.
“N-no,” Lisa said, then looked on her shoes. She looked back at Orlando, then said, “Okay. But do you agree to take me back to my car after taking me to Libby’s?”
“Sure. Anything you ask. I’ll do anything for you on your one and only agreeable mood in all of history,” he said with a grin.
Lisa walked across the front of the car and toward the passenger’s side. She pulled open the door and sat on the seat. She closed the door.
Everything inside the car was gray. The dashboard and the car seats were gray. The only thing that wasn’t gray was the car mat, which was made of black rubber. The noises from outside like the sounds of the few cars that passed by them can still be heard even though the doors were already closed. The air smelled of Chinese food. The seat felt hard.
“Why are you suddenly so agreeable today? High on drugs?” Orlando asked.
Lisa lifted her feet and then lowered them back on the floor as she said, “These are the only reasons why I agreed to take a ride with you. I’d rather walk. If I were barefoot, you wouldn’t have anyone with you right now.”
“Don’t be too sure,” Orlando said without looking at her, starting to drive the car.
“I hate how they keep giving the wild cases to Charlie,” Lisa said with a frown on her face.
“I sensed Charlie and his Angel will be arriving soon, so I slipped out of the office before they did while you were at Gerard’s office,” Orlando said.
Lisa did not listen. She continued with what she was saying. “Why do they keep giving me the corny cases? Women who are being forced to become sex slaves on Sauna Avenue? Seriously?!”
“It’s because of your lady shoes,” he said, concealing a grin. They passed by their building.
“Hey, it’s not like I wear these lady shoes every day,” Lisa said, casting an angry look at Orlando. “I just had to look formal for Lina’s trial. It is the first time that my case made it to the court, and I got to look the part.”
“I was there with you and I was wearing my usual clothes,” Orlando said as they passed by another building to the right and turned right. “And they didn’t kick me out of the court for not looking the part. There is no dress code, Lisa. Unless you go to court in a chicken costume.”
“A chicken costume?!” Lisa said with a look of disbelief.
Orlando ignored her and leaned to look up at the sign of the store the car was approaching. “Hey, we’re here,” he said, his car slowing down and then stopping in front of Libby’s.
8:00pm
Lisa stood next to the closed door of her bedroom, pressing the button on the white light switch. She was wearing her night gown and her slippers. Her hair was undone. The light of her bedroom went off.
Street light was shining through her window, on the floor of her bedroom, on the things on her bedside table, and on her room. She walked toward her bed and sat on its edge. Leaving her slippers on the floor, she placed her legs on her bed. She was about to lay her head on her pillow, when her phone rang. She remained sitting and reached over to her bedside table to grab her smartphone.
“Lisa? New case. A young w
oman is murdered along 7th Avenue. Suspect is a retired Iraq War vet, her fiancé. Forensics team is already there. You’re being left behind. Catch up and interview our man,” Gerard’s voice said. There were sounds of noisy people and music in his background.
“Copy,” Lisa said as she grabbed her hair tie from her bedside table and jumped out of bed to run to her clothes closet. As she opened her clothes closet and put her hair tie around her left wrist, she asked, “Anything else?”
“Nothing. Just get there ASAP,” Gerard replied, sounding annoyed, and hung up.
Lisa grabbed a pair of denim jeans, left her clothes closet open, and ran to her dresser. She left her smartphone on her dresser, removed the jeans from the clothes hanger, placed the clothes hanger on her dresser, and wore the jeans. She lifted her night gown up to her waist and buttoned her jeans. She closed the zipper of her jeans as she rushed to her shoe rack. Her night gown fell over the upper part of her jeans like a shirt dress. She opened the shoe rack and brought out a pair of white rubber shoes that had the logo of Nike on their sides.
She ran back to her clothes closet and pulled out a drawer that contained folded socks. She brought out a pair of socks. She put on the first sock on her right foot, pulling up her jeans a bit to wear the sock properly. She did the same as she wore her left sock. She placed her right foot into her right shoe and started tying up its shoelace, then placed her left foot into her left shoe and tied up its shoelace also.
She ran to her bed and reached underneath her pillow, retrieving her keys. She inserted the index finger of her left hand into the ring to hold the keys, and then grabbed her gun and her badge from her bedside table. She ran to her dresser as she put her gun and badge into her right pocket, and grabbed her smartphone. She placed the smartphone in her left pocket as she walked to her clothes closet. She opened her tote and brought out her purse. She inserted the purse into the front of her jeans against her belly and then grabbed a blue, hooded jacket from her closet. She removed its hanger, leaving the hanger on the floor of the closet.
She quickly ran downstairs, her keys making a lot of noise in the extremely quiet night. Crumbles was waiting at the living room. “Bye, kitty,” Lisa said quickly, and the cat watched her run past him as she wore her jacket over her night gown.
She was wearing only one arm of her jacket when she hurried out of her apartment. She turned to close the front door and lock it, and then sprinted to her garage as she wore the rest of her jacket. She opened her garage door, removing her hair tie from her left hand and tying up her hair to a tight knot as she waited for the garage door to be lifted.
She got into her car and drove out of her garage. She put on her blinker. It started flashing red and blue and making loud noises. She rolled down her window placed the blinker on the roof of her car as she waited for her automatic big gates to open. Once the gate was open, she drove out of her driveway. The automatic gates closed as she rushed down her street, the area of her eyes where her blinker flashed still a bit blinded and painful.
Everything outside her car was black, except for the lights and the places where they shone. The road ahead of her were visible only because of the street lights, lights from the houses in her neighborhood, and lights from stores and their signs.
Red and blue areas flashed from the blinker against the places Lisa passed and she can hear its sound. Sometimes, she passed by crowds of people on the sidewalks who were going home, and she can hear their distant chatter.
The chilling, evening winds brushed against the left side of her head as they blew into the open window of her car. She turned left to Cadillac Street.
Cadillac Street was inclined upward. It had walls on both sides. There were walkways next to the walls. Gigantic trees lined the walkways, covering the sides of the street from its street lights and casting shadows on the walkways.
Cadillac Street was just a short street. Lisa turned left to 7th Avenue. 7th Avenue looked just like Cadillac Street, but without walls. Its sidewalks had no concrete fence. There were different types of houses that stood close together on both sides of the road, and most of the properties had lots of trees. The road was crowded. It was like all of the people went out of their houses to breath some fresh air. Many of the people were walking in the middle of the road, and Lisa had to slow down her car to wait for them to hurry aside. The air was alive with the sounds of people talking all at once and the sounds of their footwear as they hurried to make way for her. They stood side-by-side and peered inside the car, talking to each other. Some of the people who had been standing close to their houses pointed Lisa to their neighbors.
There were a lot more people ahead of Lisa’s car, and they didn’t make way for her. They just stood close together and formed a huge crowd in the middle of the road. A black police car was parked beyond the crowd, the line of blinkers across its roof flashing in the darkness and on the heads of the people in the crowd. When her car approached, the people turned around to look at her. The headlights of her car glared against them, but they just stood there and stared at the car.
Lisa leaned and tried to peer in between the crowd. A policeman squeezed his way through the crowd. He was holding a silver flashlight in his right hand. He was saying something. He waved the flashlight in the air, signaling to Lisa. He used his left hand to wave to the crowd to move aside and make way for Lisa. The crowd obeyed.
The crowd was like the Red Sea being cut in half by Moses. All of the people moved to the sides, making enough space for Lisa’s car to move through. The policeman stood on the left side, waving his right arm in the air with the flashlight to signal Lisa to pass. Lisa inched forward. She can hear the word “FBI” being spoken among the people she passed by. She passed by the policeman. He was repeating to the crowd, “Make way for the FBI.”
After some time, Lisa finally made it through the crowd and into a clearer area of the road. She passed by the police car, which was empty. Far along the street, a white van was parked. Printed across the side of the van in red letters were the words, “Crime Scene Investigation.” The van was also empty.
Lisa parked behind the van. She opened her door. She stepped out of her car as she put the keys into the left pocket of her pants. She walked back to the crowd. The policeman was walking from the crowd toward her.
When Lisa and the policeman met, she asked, “Is this the house?”
“Who are you again?” the policeman asked her. His nameplate read, “Gordon.” He was grimacing as he looked at Lisa.
“FBI Special Agent Lisa Cornwell,” Lisa said, looking to the ground and reaching for her badge. That was when she realized her night gown was showing from beneath her jacket and over the upper area of her pants, covering her pocket. Her cheeks went red as she pulled up the side of her night gown to reach into her pocket and bring out her badge. She raised the badge to show it to Gordon.
She caught Gordon still staring at her night gown before looking at her badge. “I’ve heard all about Charlie Goostrapp,” he said without showing any reaction to the sight of the badge. He motioned for Lisa to follow him as turned and walked toward the crowd while speaking. “I thought all FBI Special Agents were huge, scary men who look like they’ve killed a lot of people.”
Lisa put her badge back in her pocket as she followed Gordon. “May I know who you are?”
“Inspector Mack Gordon from Ohio police department, Ma’am,” Mack replied, continuing to walk ahead of Lisa and not looking back. “We decided not to touch the bodies, so the evidence will still be fresh for the FBI. This is definitely the jurisdiction of the FBI. Because he’s a military man, isn’t he?”
“There are two bodies? I thought there was only one,” Lisa said. They walked into the crowd, where all the people became silent as they made way for Mack and Lisa. All the people stared at Lisa, and a few of them had their eyes wandering down to her night gown.
“Yes. There are two bodies,” Mack said, sounding condescending. Lisa held her night gown and attempted to pull it up
to hide it under her jacket as she stared at the people while walking behind Mack, but it only made more people notice her night gown. So, she let her night gown hang there and walked like she was in uniform. Mack continued speaking without ever looking back at Lisa, and his tone of voice changed into a taunting tone. “Her lover is in the living room and she is in the kitchen. Please bring your partner to help you just in case you faint at the kitchen. There’s total macabre in there.”
“So, there’s a third party, eh?” Lisa said as she followed Mack to the left, walking toward the gate of the house.
The house was covered by a tall, white wall. There were two white gates in the wall, a bigger one and a smaller one. The smaller one was open. Mack led Lisa through the small gate. They walked into the property, approaching the house within.
The house had only one floor. It had no second floor or balcony. The walls around it were higher than its roof. It was in the middle of its property, separate from the neighbor houses by around three meters. Beautiful stone steps led across the grassy front lawn to the front door, which was wide open. A silver car was parked on the left side of the house, facing the huge gate. A man in a white jacket was standing next to the car, his back turned to Lisa.
There were two windows on both sides of the front door. They were covered by brown, crisscrossing metal bars. The interior of the house was extremely well-lit, shining out through the door and windows. The property was extremely quiet.
Mack walked into the front door and Lisa followed him. She was about to step on a white doormat that had the words, “Home is love,” but a chalk mark had been drawn around it to mark it as evidence. She avoided the door mat and walked into the house. A smell lingered at the doorway. It was the smell of death. The smell occupied the whole area where Mack led Lisa. The first area was the living room. It was right behind the two windows to the left of the door.
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