Criminal Detective

Msomar's

Claire rubbed her hands together violently as she fought against the night's cold. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and glanced down at it then hissed in irritation.

10:30pm.

30 minutes after the allocated time and the "Dickhead" still hadn't arrived.

An hour towards Claire's time off work, Roberto had messaged her with a simple instruction to wait in front of her apartment complex as he would pick her up for their meeting from there.

She replied letting him know she would do just that.

She arrived home at 9:39pm because she had to stop for groceries. But, was quick to settle anything of importance like feeding her cat, making dinner to eat later, amongst other things to ensure that she was waiting at the front of her apartment by 10:00pm.

Unfortunately, her put togetherness was disrespected heavily by the mafia boss.

"I wish I could punch this guy in the face or something. Why the heck isn't he here yet?" Just as Claire's irritation and frustration grew stronger, she watched a black limousine drive towards her apartment. The car came to a quick halt in front of her and the back door swung open.

"Get in" She heard Roberto's bass voice speak and she scurried quickly into the vehicle. Once the door was shut, the car accelerated. The inside of the limousine was clothed in red and the windows were tinted strongly. The air conditioning blew hard and warmed the atmosphere of the car, but that was far from what made Claire feel stuffy and uncomfortable.

"Good evening, Miss Williams" Roberto said and she turned to him. Claire's eyes widened in shock as they landed on Roberto's face. His right eye was sporting a purplish bruise and he had a cut on his lower lip and left cheek.
She looked down to his hands which he was cleaning and found his knuckles bloody and cut open.

Claire could put together a picture of why he was late already.

But, despite how beat up he was, he still looked quite attractive.

Sitting next to Claire was Asha, whose hands were folded together and her eyes shut. Claire couldn't tell if she was deep in thought or asleep.

"She's asleep" Roberto chimed in as if answering Claire's question "We've had a long day"

"Cool" Claire said and turned to the lady who sat next to Roberto. She looked pretty young and really familiar too but Claire couldn't put her finger on where she recognized the face from.

"This is Amanda's sister, Samantha" Roberto gestured to her and Claire's eyes flashed as the face finally pieced together in her head.

Amanda's sister? What was she doing with people like these?

"After I found her video online, I thought I'd contact her. We discussed about how we both believe foul play surrounds the death of her sister and now, we're here" Roberto said and tossed the bloody napkin he used to clean his hands aside, he loosened the tie on his neck then sank into his seat with a sigh.

"I thought it'd be fair for the two of you to become acquainted" He said and Claire turned to her.

"Hi" She said.

"Hey. Sorry for your loss"

She nodded silently.

"So, Miss Williams? What do you have for me?"

Claire stared at both parties that sat in front of her before she pulled her phone out. She opened the picture she had taken of Amanda's broken feet and pointed it at Roberto.

"Here" She said. Roberto took the phone off her hand and stared down into it while Samantha poked her head to see.

"Well, this is something" Roberto said as she stared down at it "But, what exactly can we make of this?"