A Danger That Lurks In The Darkness | A TPQ AU |

II | Detective Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez is NOT Precinct Royalty

MINI
She knocked on the door, right after the morning briefing.

"Come in," Shakuni's voice called out.

She slowly opened the door, and said, in a meek voice, "Hi."

Shakuni sighed, before looking up, peering up at her through his thick glasses.

"What is wrong, Detective Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez?"

"Nothing is wrong, per se—"

"Mini, this isn't you. Come in, close the door."

"Okay," she muttered. She slid in, like a petulant child, before slowly closing the door behind her.

He removed his glasses, and laced his fingers together.

"What's up?"

"I'm not saying anything is wrong wrong, but—"

"Just spit it out."

"I don't want to work with Rudra."

He straightened up in his seat and frowned, but his eyes betrayed no emotion.

"Why? Did he say anything? Do anything?"

"No," she sighed. "I did something supremely embarrassing this morning."

"Hmm?"

"He looked at me, winked at me, and I, er, walked into my desk."

Shakuni, who had been taking a sip of tea, choked and began coughing, tea spilling on his desk.

"You're laughing," she said, flatly.

"No." He coughed once more, which sounded suspiciously like a snicker, and said, "Mini, what I'm saying now is with as much love as possible, as your uncle."

He took a deep breath.

"Suck it up. You're working with him."

"Wow," she said, sardonically.

"In your life, you'll meet many jerks and assholes who you'll have to work or cooperate with. And then, you won't have your dear great-uncle to pull any strings."

"So what? I have to die in shame?"

Shakuni leaned back, ever-so-slightly. "I shall pay my respects at your funeral."

————

"Hi," Rudra said, his eyes crinkling with his smile. He leaned against her desk, his hands clasped around a cup of coffee, and another steaming mug on her desk.

"Hi," she said, begrudgingly.

His smile faded. "Er... did I do something wrong? Is it about this morning?"

Welp. There went her hopes that he hadn't noticed her.

"Oh, er, no, I don't think so. Just not comfortable meeting new people."

"Huh. Well, then, Detective Yamini Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez, I'm sure you'll find me charming."

"Call me Mini. And, I hope so, Rudra."

"Rudy. Call me Rudy."

Rudy... The name rang a bell in her mind.

As she narrowed her eyes, taking in his looks, she realised exactly why he looked so familiar.

"Are you related to Aiden Acharya?"

His eyes widened. "That's... that's my cousin!"

His eyes narrowed, too. "Wait... Mini... do you know Aru Shah?"

"Yeah. My best friend is going to be your cousin-in-law."

"Huh. It's a small world."

"It really is," she said, picking up the mug on her desk.

She stared at the coffee. "Did you make this?"

He grinned. Her heart fluttered a little. "Yes, ma'am. Since I'm the new guy, I quickly decided to win over the precinct royalty. Best way to do so is coffee."

"I'm not 'precinct royalty'."

"Huh. Things must be different here, then. They usually make the prettiest people precinct royalty."

"Mm." She slid into the chair, ignoring his nonsensical comments.

"Of course, I would have been crowned King the second I entered, if things worked that way—"

He waved a hand in front of his face. "Doesn't matter. I lost track of the conversation. What were we talking about, again?"

"The missing girl, Patricia Lawtons, who disappeared from Fifth Avenue."

"Pretty sure we weren't, but I'm taking that as the cue to move onto more serious matters."

"Exactly. Anyway, we need to go to the scene of the crime, see exactly what was there."

He spun a keychain on his finger, silver keys jangling, as he said, confidently, "I'll be the driver, partner!"

Partner. Nobody had ever really called her that before. Partners came and went, like seasons in a year.

"Do you have the contact info on the girl's family?"

She hit Enter, and watched as the printer spat out several lines of numbers and names.

"On it," she called.

————

The car rumbled along the road, as Mini skimmed through the contact info.

"Okay, so we've got the transcript of the 9-1-1 call by the jogger who saw the blood, and, one and a half hours later, another 9-1-1 call by the parents, who hadn't been able to get through to her."

Rudy tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, and said, "What about the blood? Is it the vic's?"

"Yep. Belongs to Patricia Lawtons."

"Should we canvas the neighbourhood? See what the neighbours know? If there were any passersby?"

"I know a few people in this area..." she said, thoughtfully. "Maybe they could've seen something,"

"And then maybe we could go to the parents' house, see what they know,"

"Yeah," she said, scratching her head.

The car crawled to a stop, and the both of them got out, blinking in the bright, late-morning pickled-sunlight.

They ducked under the police tape, and showed their badges to the patrol officers standing by.

The pool of blood was nearly dried up, evaporated, and other than that, there was nothing around.

Mini leaned down, trying to find anything that the kidnapper had left behind, as, in the corner of her eye, she saw Rudy amble over to talk to the patrol officers.

She squinted at the ground, before balancing her palms on the rough, gravel ground, leaning forward to see if anything had been kicked under the broken cardboard boxes and wooden planks that were leaning against the alleyway walls.

She shone her torch in that direction, finding nothing but rats scurrying across, startled by the beam of light.

She felt someone tap her on the shoulder.

"Mini," Rudy said. She got up, dusting the gravel dust off her knees.

"Hm?"

"Apparently, the kidnapper left this behind," He looked faintly nauseous, before handing her a plastic evidence bag.

She took it, and, rubbing her eyes, she tried to see what it said, despite the flaky dried blood encrusting the paper, and making the inside of the plastic hard to see.

"Is this real?" she asked, her heart falling, her stomach sinking.

"I— Yeah, they think so. And, er, so do I."

In the plastic bag was a note, which only read: Better hurry up if you want this poor girl to survive. Tick-tock.

————