Scribbles

2. Sunscreen

The detective on mission:
A serial killer was on the run and Detective Elric was undercover. There was information about the serial killer hiding in one of the houses in the isolated beach area. There weren't discreet whereabouts of any family living with him or if he's kept them hostage so the investigation was a shot in the dark. It could be any house. Anyone.

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Violet was working on her assignment when she heard the doorbell ring. She was at her grandparents' house, paying them a small visit. She approached the door and opened it. There was a salesman standing in front of her.

Unfortunately, Violet was to deal with this Salesman alone, since her grandparents were out for their walk. The salesman had a bag on his shoulder and looked lively and he spoke.

"Good afternoon, Ma'am!"

"Afternoon, Sir. How may I help you?" Violet replied.

"Nothing for you to do ma'am. We have new summer products from our company that I'd like to advertise."

Violet couldn't turn the products down before looking at them, so she agreed and nodded her head. It made her wonder why a salesman would come to an isolated place such as this just to advertise some products. That was kind of suspicious.

"May I... May I enter your porch? I'm sorry for the trouble but I can't really hold up in this heat outside."

"Sure, come in." Violet welcomed. Although, she didn't want to, but she had no other choice. The Salesman entered the porch and put down his bag to unzip it. He took out some of the products and began speaking.

"You see, ma'am. The sun is really hot, nowadays so we especially have this sunscreen. You can use it- oh, right, who lives in this house with you? I mean, these products can be-"

"My grandparents." Violet replied. 'Why would he want to know about the family members, though?' Violet's suspicions may have seem to be paranoid but her instincts gave her doubts.

"So, is your company a new one?" She asked.

"Oh no, Ma'am. It's a well-known company." The Salesman replied, still doing something with his products.

"Must be really hard in this heat. This is quite an isolated location, weird of you to come here." Violet continued the conversation.

"Oh, well I've been doing this for a week now. I just thought my chances to earn profit would be more with the people, even if this place is isolated."

"I see, it's really weird though, you've been doing this for a week but there's no tanning."

There was for a split second of hesitance in the man's next words. "Well, well, I've been using our product." He promptly hands her the sunscreen. "It works like a miracle."

"Oh, I see."

The detective was desperate to cover his lousy excuse and got carried away. "On our products we have some goodies free like pillows and sleep masks which can be really handy for people like yourself."

"Uh- Why though?" Violet's curiosity was now rising.

"You're a college student, you may get back and neck aches, the pillows will prevent it. It will also be useful to you on your flight back-" The detective realized that he had spoken too much. So, he shut up and rummaged through his stuff again.

"Huh?" Violet makes an expression which looked like she was not very satisfied with his words. Her suspicions grew even more so, she inquires him further. "How'd you know I'm a college student and I've to take a flight back?"

"Oh! Well, we salesman know our customers."

"Well, I'm not ready to accept that it was your instincts of a salesman that let you guess it so precisely. That's quite suspicious, sir."

"Sorry, sorry, Ma'am. I guess I should explain it to you." He took a deep breath and began to narrate. "You see, when you stretched out your hands. I could see some ink on your palms, when I looked closer, it seemed to me like a proper symbols and numbers. I realized that it was a problem from calculus. So, if I'm not wrong you must be a Uni student."

"Oh!" Violet looked at her hands and realized he was right; the integrals were on her hands. "You're right." She nodded her head in satisfaction and asked again. "And my flight?"

"I'm in your porch, miss. There is a luggage tag dropped here, I just assumed It might be because of you arriving here since your shoes were right beside it."

"Alright." Violet sighed. "Does your company sell detergents too?"

"No, Ma'am."

"Huh, you clothes are surprisingly new when you've had them on for many days..."

"Oh, well we have been given a pair of shirts from the company. This is my second one."

"I see."

"There are different skin care sets available as well, ma'am. The man presented some of the sets to her. "You seem to be a hard worker, your inspiration might have been your family. What did your grandfather do?"

"He was a software engineer." She replied.

"And what about your father?" He hands over a product to her. She tested the product on her wrist and answers him. "He's a doctor."

"Your family really is filled with hardworking people." The man smiled.

"Your products are great but I'm in no need for them so I guess you should spend your time in other residences."

The detective was a detective after all so he had his suspicions and couldn't completely trust the girl. He tried to stall but just then the girl's grandparents return home. This house was clean. The person he was looking for couldn't have been here. He packed his products and prepared to leave. He said thankyou and walked out of the door. He then heard Violet's voice once again, so he stopped and turned around to listen to her.

"You know sir, you shouldn't be underestimating women. My grandmother is a scientist, and my mother is a detective too. Thank you for your service."

"You're right." The detective smiled as he turned around and left.

Writer's note: I'd like to thank Anna for typing and editing this for me. I was so caught up in my daily life that I couldn't spare any time and had only drafted out a hardcopy of this story. I'm glad I could publish it. All thanks to Anna.