Two Sides of the Same Coin

02 | The Love Letter

"-furthermore, it is believed that Brie Nelson was a victim of suicide. In a room full of two hundred people, she-"

"Shut the fuck up." Ada grumbled. Her thumb pressed a button on the remote in her hand, and the image of Brooklyn disappeared from the T.V screen. The other officers that had been watching either shot her a glare or scowled, then retreated back to their cubicles. Ada simply tossed the remote onto her desk and leaned back into her chair, her fingers lacing together to cradle the backside of her head.

"Did she piss in your cereal or something?" Asked a masculine voice from beside her. The owner was buried deep into the footage playing on the desktop before him, and he didn't need to glance at his colleague to know she was annoyed.

"Oh no she didn't, actually. She just brought an entire neighbourhood along with her to the crime scene. Not that you'd know, since you were busy sleeping at home, Jackson."

"It's Jack." He gritted out in response when he finally moved his eyes towards Ada, who flashed him a grin.

"Whatever, Jacksmith."

"Whatever, Adaline."

Laughter bubbled to Ada's throat. She stopped with tipping her chair backwards and inched forward to rest her elbows on the desk. Her head turned so she could take in the jet black strands that were in a mild disarray on Jack's head. His green eyes had been digging into her features, but he looked away and back towards the computer screen.

Ada felt a hand clamp onto her shoulder out of the blue.

"Listen- oh, hey Jackie." Ryan greeted, earning him an explosive chuckle from Ada. Jack rolled his eyes but didn't say a word to greet him back.

An envelope was plopped in front of Ada, on top of the table. Something was written on the front in a handwriting that was hard to decipher. Ada's playfulness slowly dissipated as she looked up at Ryan quizzically.

"Some sketchy-looking jackass-" Ryan paused to glance at Jack with a suppressed smirk, then looked back at Ada who was grinning once more.

"This guy stopped me and handed it to me, right outside the police station. He said it was for you then ran away."

"A secret admirer, eh?" Jack scoffed. This time, it was Ada's turn to roll her eyes.

"Never. Full offense to you both, but my faith in men has been towards zero nowadays."

"None taken." Ryan proclaimed with a proud smile. He side-stepped in Jack's direction to stand behind him. He had bent his torso to be on the same eye-level as Jack so he could have a look at the video playing on the screen, over and over again. His lips curled in distaste the more he observed the woman shoot at her chest. The entire scene had been filmed from a CCTV of the venue, given from its very high angle.

"Any luck with that?" He asked, and Jack shook his head. Ada was about to unravel the envelope, but her attention diverted and she too peeked into the desktop. The minute she registered what went on, rage overtook her.

"The day you find anything, anything, that shows I'm responsible, I'll hold my hands out for you to cuff."

Ceasar's coaxing grin from yesterday filled her mind, causing her to zone out. Both men had taken note of this and they exchanged looks briefly. Ryan then proceeded to elaborate to the clueless man what had happened. He made sure to do so in a soft tone, so only Jack could hear. Not that it mattered, because Ada was already unable to make sense of anything.

"Can you three quit loitering around and get work done?" The voice of their Captain suddenly cut through Ada's thoughts. Jameson had passed by them all, and without thinking, she shot up from her seat to catch up to him. Ryan and Jack watched her with confusion.

"Sir-" Ada began, making him turn around. "Please put me on Brie Nelson's case.

Captain Jameson was a man in his mid-forties. He was graceful, with a blonde head of hair that turned silver in some places. Unlike the detectives who were supposed to wear dress shirts with slacks, Jameson wore the dark grey police uniform.

"For what? For your own personal vendettas?" He remarked. Ada's forehead bundled up when she felt offended and that slipped onto her features. Her lips opened slightly, her line of sight turning sharper by the second. But she knew anger would do her more harm than good in the current scenario.

"Besides, I have already assigned Detective Ryan and Jack to this. There's no need for a third one." He waved off, but Ada spoke up.

"But there is, Captain. You know just as much as I do that I am the top investigator of this precinct. It doesn't hurt to add another highly skilled officer to such a messy case, anyway. You'll only be guaranteeing success."

Ada held her breath in anticipation after her so-called convincing. Jameson narrowed his eyes in thought. With a defeated sigh, he gave his verdict. Of course, he knew she wasn't lying. Her statement about her capabilities was his own words too.

"Fine."

"Thank you." Ada smiled widely, and the Captain carried on with his journey towards someplace. The ecstatic detective finally made her way back to the desk, where her fellow investigators stared at her with curiosity. Ryan was the first one to pry.

"What did you do?"

"Got permission to go after that Mr. Lozano, that's all."

"Fucking hell, Ada." Jack groaned, his hand raking through his hair. "We really can't have anything."

"Oh please, this isn't about you two anyway." She fired back in instant. Ryan held his hands up defensively for both him and Jack who had just dug a grave for himself. Ada eyed his gesture, and her irritation wavered. She sat down again and twisted in her seat to face the envelope, whose author was still a complete mystery.

Much to her dismay, Jack snatched it away before she could even take in another inhale. With swift movements of the fingers, he ripped it open from one side to pull out the sheet of paper resting inside. Ryan chuckled as he watched him unfold it, and they both made sure Ada couldn't catch a single syllable from its contents.

They had expected to see a cheesy and poorly written love poem. It was quite the opposite.

Ada observed as all the humor evaporated from their faces. Realization settled in, then horror. Bubbling with impatience, she plucked the sheet from Jack's grasp so she could read it for herself.

Cutouts of text were glued to the paper. The words were uneven in both size and font, implying that they were taken out of various magazines and newspapers. It looked straight out of the 80's, but that wasn't what disturbed Ada to the core.

It was the words the letter stated.

'Let us play a game of hangman, my way. For every wrong step that you take, a person will be separated from a part of their body. This will carry on until your final losing move, where someone will be cut away from their head. Of course, it won't just be anyone. I'm not that boring.'

Ada's eyes dragged down to the picture taped below the gut-wrenching game rules. And that was the final straw.

Because it was a picture of her hospitalized mother.