Paint the town red

Chapter IV

Weekends have flown almost unnoticed, it's already Monday, and I'm sitting in my office, which I recently shared with a guy from the Netherlands. The working day starts at eight in the morning and exactly at this time Max appears on the doorstep of the office. Apparently, punctuality is not only my "specialty". We greeted each other, exchanged a few words, and I offered to help him get settled in the office, and then to conduct a mini-tour of the precinct – I showed him the city and told him about the work, but the place of work itself remained "unexplored" for him. Although, come to think of it, Frederick could have shown him around the precinct on Friday instead of waiting for me to come back from busting the fake "sugar daddy".

I helped Max put books and still empty folders on the shelves, put stationery in the lockers, and then showed him how the archive and the whole system of the police department worked on his desktop computer. Although the system is new, it's very easy to log in and understand – the main thing is not to forget your personal access code and badge number. Max turned out to be a smart guy, so I didn't have to explain the same thing a hundred times, which makes me incredibly happy. I showed him in more detail how to work with the archive, how to find a particular case, how to check its status and see who worked on this case, and also how to find a dossier on this or that employee of the precinct in the system.

Having dealt with the working aspects in our office, I offered to show him what and where is in the station, which he readily agreed to. We went around the whole area, I showed him where Frederick's office is, where the officers' desks and the control room are located, where are the offices of other detectives and specialists in other industries, such as IT, for example. I also introduced him to some of my colleagues: Logan from the IT department, Esteban - our medical examiner, Mick – our investigator with a very deceptive angelic appearance, Kevin, Nico and Fernando – our detectives from the Special Victim Unit, and Alex and Zhou from the cybercrime department. We have many young, gifted and talented employees in all departments, but among detectives there is only one such person – me. But now there are two of us, because I'm already working with Max.

After going around the station and introducing the Dutchman to some of the employees, we returned to the office, where we began our routine task: checking new cases that had come in the morning to the department. Maybe there is something among them that may be of interest not only to the officer, but also to the detective. While Max and I were scrolling through the records of accidents and petty thefts, there was a knock on the door, and before I could answer, my old friend Pierre entered the office.

"Hey, buddy! Long time no see!"

I got up from my seat and Pierre, in his usual manner, came up to me and hugged me. After all, I haven't seen him for a long time: after school our paths parted, so we practically didn't have time for meetings. And then he went to practice in Japan and, judging by his elated mood, the practice went off with a bang.

"Hi. I didn't know you were back from Japan."

"And believe me, I have something to tell you."

Pierre was literally glowing with joy, as if he's a real light bulb - if the light suddenly goes out in the room, then we won't even notice it, because Gasly would light up everything around him without any problems. My friend was about to start his story when I stopped him, because we're not alone here. Max, judging by his look, was very uncomfortable to be with us, and even more so to listen to stories about the adventures of a stranger to him.

"Max, I'm sorry, I have to introduce you – this is Pierre, my childhood friend."

"Oh, how rude of me. Hello and nice to meet you... Max?"

Max got up from his seat and he and Pierre shook hands. I told my friend that he's my partner, so he better not break into our office like this - I'm not working alone anymore. Pierre seemed to misunderstood my words, because he cunningly smiled at me. Sometimes I don't understand this Frenchman and his strange hints.