= ONE =
1824 Words
The clock was ticking in the office.
It was precisely 8:45pm but still, Detective Megan Wolf didn't feel like it was time to wrap up and call it a day. It was dark outside, with the glowing city lights illuminating the streets of the small town. The busy men and women were rushing around, all trying to get back home after a long day… But she was not in a rush whatsoever…
The office was a mess.
A bunch of files, scrapbooks, pens, pencils and scissors lay cluttered on the office desk. The half-filled coffee in the black mug had turned ice cold. But she was too engrossed in the file to fetch some more hot coffee… That could wait…
She took a sip and went through her notes from the scrapbook used in the interview earlier that day.
An interview with a pedophile, Tensen Truce.
Through the whole interview, he seemed evasive and gave short, rehearsed answers. He kept claiming he was not guilty through the whole interview. But, don't all perpetrators?
She believed that Tensen was a violent pedophile, who lured little boys, tied them up with ropes, r***d them and drowned them. As if that was not sick enough, he left their naked bodies beside the river banks for dead.
Tensen had a history of s****l assault and violence. His ex-wife had complained about this and he had served some time in prison for the sodomy of his step-son.
After serving a five-year sentence, he was released. The police had started receiving complains about missing kids and dead bodies when he was set free… Which couldn't be a coincidence…
But none of the recent deaths and disappearances proved it was Tensen. There was no solid evidence tying him to the recent cases. Time was not on her side. She had to put cuffs on his hands before he tortured another innocent, little boy. She had to make sure he would rot in jail, not walking free in the day of light.
A knock on the door startled her back to reality.
"Yes!"
Detective Darren.
He was the last person she expected to see.
He poked his head inside the office, grinning at her.
"Can I come in?"
She plastered a smile. "Sure!"
Why was he here? It's not like they talked much nowadays. Their friendship had kind of drifted over the past few years. After what had happened…
They had grown apart. They did the best they could to stay away from each other… Especially Megan…
So, she did not understand why he was here.
It's not like they were working on a case together. Infact, the last case they had worked on was a decade ago… The department had not paired them up for a case again because the lieutenant suspected romance between the two…
Darren fell on the wooden chair awkwardly and sighed.
"Hey!"
She took a deep breath. "Hey!"
"It's a bit too late to be working, don't you think?"
"And yet here you are when you should be home," she scoffed.
"Just closed a case."
"Yeah! I heard… Congrats on that!"
"How's the pedophile case going?"
"I see you've been keeping up with me on my reality show…"
"Yeah I have… I think you're an interesting star… Haters must be burning with envy…" He stared at her for a moment, his brown eyes sparkling.
She huffed. "I think your girlfriend… Sorry, fiancée would love to hear those words from you."
He hesitated. "I see you've been keeping up with my reality show as well…"
"How can I not when she came to my office to flaunt the ring. It's a beautiful giant. You're so generous."
"She came to show it!"
"I would show it to anyone and everyone too if I was her…"
He frowned. "That ring would have been on your finger… You should be the one flaunting it…"
She glanced away, biting her lower lip hard. After a few seconds, she fixed her blank stare on him.
"Why are you here?," she asked coldly.
"There's something I want to tell you…"
"What's that?"
The door busted open.
The new good-looking, tall Detective in the building, Levi, stood at the doorstep, his dark eyes looking at Megan. He strutted in with his hands in the pockets of his pants.
"I knew you were working late!" He grinned at her. "I see you have this cool guy here! Hey Darry!"
Darren scoffed. "It's Darren."
"My bad…" he shrugged and turned to Megan. "I need a ride home. I heard women are careful drivers."
"I thought your car was already fixed."
"Yeah. But I haven't gone to take it from the repair shop."
She groaned. "I swear this is the last time I'm giving you a ride!"
"Is it?," he chuckled. "That's what you said last night."
"I mean it this time."
"You said that too."
She rolled her eyes as she closed the files on the desk and tried to put everything in order. It was time to wrap up and go home. Furthermore, she was more than exhausted.
She turned to Darren.
"Sorry… You were telling me something?" she asked him, narrowing her eyes.
He sighed. "No… It's nothing really…"
He stood up, a frown on his face. "I should get going… See you two around…"
Darren left the door open and Levi had to close it on his behalf.
"He must be on his period. I've never seen Darry that grumpy before," Levi retorted.
"I wonder what he wanted to tell me," Megan said lost in thoughts.
Levi groaned.
"And I wonder when you'll pick your damn car keys so we can leave!"
===
The lights went off In The Gilbert house.
The three kids felt it was a little early for bed time. They wanted to play some more but their mother wouldn't let them. Instead, she forced them to their beds because they had to wake up early for school.
The twins who were eight, Derek and Daryl, decided to hide around the house, giving their mother a hard time finding them. This was like a game of hide and seek where their mom was the 'seeker'.
Their little sister, Emilia, decided to betray his big brothers and tell her mom exactly where they were hiding.
Voila! There they were Inside the lower cupboard in the kitchen.
"Can you stop it with the games already!" The mom of three demanded. "Game over! Bed time!"
The twins crawled out of the cupboard, growling and scowling at their little sister.
"You're Judas Iscariot in the flesh!" Derek snorted.
"Hey!" she pointed at her son. "Watch how you talk to Emilia. She's your little sister! Now all of you! To bed!"
The boys growled as they followed their mom to their bedroom.
She tucked all her three kids safely in bed and read them a bed time story.
The Little Red Riding Hood.
The boys kept yawning at the beginning of the story and by the time she was done, they were both dead asleep. They found the story boring and 'girly', they always complained. That's why they always got to the end of the story dead asleep.
Except Emilia.
Fear glinted in her wide adorable hazel eyes as she clutched onto the bedsheets.
Her mom pecked her forehead, quite puzzled by her daughter's strange behavior.
"Is something wrong, doll?"
She nodded. "Yes mommy…"
"What is it, baby?"
"The big bad wolf in the story… He's really really bad…"
Her mom chuckled. "It's just a story baby… Stories aren't real…"
"But the big bad wolf is real, mommy…"
"What makes you say that, little doll?" she fondled her little daughter's perfect face.
"He visits me in my dreams…" Emilia added.
A cold chill ran down her mother's spine.
She continued. "And he takes me and my brothers. And he leaves you all alone crying. He says you deserve it."
She froze on the spot.
"Is it true, mommy? Will you let the big bad wolf take me and my brothers?"
She took in a deep breathe and pecked her daughter's brow.
"Listen, doll, No one can take you and your brothers away from me. They will have to go through me first. I will be with the three of you forever. And nothing will ever tear us apart… Not even the big bad wolf, okay?"
Emillia nodded.
"It's just a bad bad dream… Now get some sleep."
===
The shower stopped making the pitter-patter noise.
Caleb Gilbert stepped out of the shower, steam escaping his tanned, built body. Nine years and his body still looked like something from a movie. Seeing him half-naked, someone would ostensibly think that he worked out after every thirty seconds.
Something he didn't do.
Infact, he didn't even go to the gym.
Never stepped even once in a gym all his life.
But here was his unreal body telling a different story…
His wife, Nina Gilbert, sat on the bed with her pajamas and glasses on, a laptop lying on her lap. She was dug deep in work when she tilted up her head to look up at him.
Her husband.
He was still the most handsome, sexiest man breathing in her eyes. There's not a day she regretted ever tying the knot with him.
His personality was as lovely as his face.
All these years and he was still her one true love.
A man that made her happy…
A man that cared for her.
A man that loved her.
And she loved him.
"I'm so jealous of your body!" Nina grumbled, putting away her glasses and the laptop. "How do you still look that hot after a whole decade!"
He smirked as he wiped his body using the soft, white towel. "Coz' I'm the sun in your life duh!"
She rolled her eyes, sinking deep in between the sheets.
He jumped on the bed and kissed her brow, trailing down the kisses to her lips.
She pulled away with a frown on her face.
"What?"
"It's our daughter, Emmy."
"What's wrong with her? Is she sick?"
"No… She's having nightmares…"
He scoffed. "They are just bad dreams. She's a kid. She'll get over it. You shouldn't worry yourself."
"Remember that time she dreamt about your mother dying?"
"My mother had been sick for a long time. Death was obviously around the corner. We all knew it."
"But still…"
He pecked her forehead.
"Stop worrying… She'll be fine…"
"It's not about her nightmares…"
She paused.
"It's what she said about me…"
===
The alarm went off.
She growled as she crawled out of bed in her buggy pajamas. She was still groggy with sleep, her eyes very heavy. She had barely gotten some sleep the previous night but this is the career path she had chosen and she was used to this kind of pressure.
She went straight to the shower and stood there, half asleep and half awake. It was a hot, scalding shower that left her skin roasted.
She stepped out, quickly put on a simple white shirt and a pair of gray suitpants. Heels would be great for the outfit but she went for the black flats instead.
Nothing she loved more than comfort.
In the kitchen, she swiftly made herself some breakfast : Toasted bread and fried eggs with some hot coffee, ofcourse.
She had her breakfast slowly in the livingroom as she watched The Morning News. She had plenty of time before work.
She skipped from channel to channel using the TV remote till she stumbled on some shocking, breaking news on the local news channel.
A NINE-YEAR OLD BOY, RAY RIPPER MISSING!!!
The news startled her.
But what even shocked her more is the little boy's name…
Ray Ripper?
That surname reminded her of someone…
Her heart dropped.
===
- Writer
