Paint the town red

Chapter VIII

It's been a couple of weeks since Yuki's arrival, so he's more or less settled in Monaco and started taking courses. Pierre found a job in his professional field and now he and Yuki only cross paths in the evenings, when both are off work. They meet with me even less often, because they are busy with their lives, and I have a job to do. Yeap, I'm sinking in work again, because I don't really have a personal life, and I've successfully failed my chance to have a relationship. Max and I began to communicate again as before, but he no longer offered to accompany me, and he invited me for a walk after work twice: once I agreed, and the second time I had to refuse – Pierre asked me to help him and Yuki install some kind of kitchen set. If Max had offered earlier, I would've gladly agreed to meet with him after work, but Pierre was quicker, and I couldn't say no.

Today is Wednesday, the middle of the week and the most difficult day of the week. It's usually considered that Monday is a hard day, but it doesn't compare to Wednesday. It's on this day that you realize that the weekend is just around the corner, so the desire to work disappears so much faster, and fatigue attacks with renewed strength. So for me personally, Wednesday is even worse than Monday.

I was typing out another petty theft report, and Max was at his desk going through new cases, sometimes commenting out loud on some of them. As usual, there was nothing special there: small accidents where an officer is needed only to draw up a protocol and a statement for insurance companies, a couple of minor shoplifting, a couple of noise complaints from neighbors.

All this makes me wildly sleepy, so I got up from my seat and decided to go to the nearest coffee shop. I told my partner about this and asked him if he would like to drink coffee, to which he agreed and said which one he wanted. Having memorized the "order" and taking my things, I left the office and went for the cherished drink.

I was gone for about 20 minutes, but during that time nothing had changed: officers walked around the station, dispatchers took calls and sighed heavily when another old lady called because of a cat stuck in a tree. I wonder when people will realize that you can't use emergency phone lines because of situations that can be solved without their intervention? What if something serious happens somewhere, and the crew is busy taking the cat down from a tree, from which the animal itself can climb down when it wants to? People's stupidity is sometimes amazing.

I returned to the office and put a cup of coffee on Max's desk, and then sat down at my desk. He reviewed all the cases received and briefly told me what was there, and then we went back to discussing things that had nothing to do with work. I was glad that Max and I were getting back to the relationship we had when he came to Monaco.

About 4:00 PM, Frederick came into the office - he probably brought another robbery case or something like that. But instead, he told us to drop everything and go to the park.

"Murder, get on with it."

He put a folder with the exact address on my table, and Max and I exchanged glances and immediately went to the crime scene. Murder? In the middle of the week? It's very rare here, so I'm both surprised and intrigued by this new case.

15 minutes later we were at the crime scene: the perimeter was cordoned off with the famous yellow tape, there were plenty of forensics and experts everywhere, photographing and collecting evidence, officers drove away journalists who had arrived, along with bystanders who pass by and decide to take a look at what happened here.

The body was lying in the alley of the park. It was covered with a black cloth. For some reason, when I saw this black cloth, I got worried, and I was suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of fear. No, I've seen dead bodies before, and they didn't make me feel that way, but not this time.

I looked around: it's evening and therefore this place isn't as busy as it happens during the day, and it's better for us – fewer bystanders, less press and other curious people wanting to see with their own eyes not only the crime scene, but the corpse itself. It's good that the body is immediately covered with a black cloth so that no one has anything to look at. I went up to Esteban, he's the one of ours forensics, and Max went to the officer who reported about finding the corpse.

"What do we have here?"

"A young man, about 25-27 years old. Killed by a precise stab to the side. Apparently, the tip of the weapon pierced a lung, which caused the guy to choke on his own blood. It's a pity, he was so young."

"What about the ETD?"

"Judging by the stage of rigor mortis, death occurred about 10 hours ago. You'll have more details after the autopsy."

I nodded to Esteban and wondered: so he was killed at night, and the body was only noticed in the morning? Were there really so few people in the park that no one noticed a man lying on the sidewalk? Did no one think to report this to the relevant services?

"What about his ID?"

"He had the documents with him. Now they're at... that officer over there."

Esteban pointed to the officer Max was talking to, and went back to filling out the paperwork with the list of evidence collected. I was in no hurry to examine the corpse, so I went up to my partner. The officer was talking about who informed him about the body found when I approached them. Max had the victim's personal belongings in his hands, and it hit me like an electric shock – I know exactly whose they are. I took the wallet from my partner and looked at the name of the owner. "Pierre Jean-Jacques Gasly". No, no, no, it can't be! I shook my head, and Max immediately came up to me and gave me a little hug.

"Maybe you should go back to the station?"

Max looked at me with a sympathetic look, and I wanted to scream in pain and despair. My best friend is now lying dead on the cold pavement in the park where we used to walk when we were kids. I always knew that my job involved terrible things, but I never thought that someone close to me could become a victim. I was shocked, I couldn't say a word, I was scared, I was angry, I was confused, I was devastated. I couldn't believe it was true and my best friend was killed.

Max took me to the ambulance and asked me to give me something to bring me to my senses. While I was trying to recover, my partner was doing all our job. I am immensely grateful to him, but right now I can't bring myself to hear all the horrible details of my friend's death.

I don't know exactly how much time has passed, but after the crime scene, Max and I went to my house instead of the station. He ordered all the evidence to be delivered to our station, so that we could start working on them in the morning. Max walked me home, but I asked him to stay with me – I can't and don't want to be alone today. I couldn't even find the strength to be surprised when he agreed to stay by my side without any questions asked.

He literally didn't leave my side all evening: we spent almost all the time on the couch, he gave me tea and tried to force me to eat, but I stubbornly refused. I told him about Pierre and what kind of man he was, that he was like a brother to me, and now he's gone. Max listened to everything I was saying and never interrupted. I needed to speak out, I needed to be heard, and therefore I am grateful to Max for taking on this role.

We sat on the couch until late at night, Max sometimes told some stories and joked, trying to distract and somehow cheer me up. He did it well, because sometimes I was distracted from the gloomy reality and occasionally even allowed myself to laugh a little at his jokes.

All this time, Max sat next to me and hugged me, as if to show that I wasn't alone, that he was there and that he wouldn't leave me in this moment of need. We've decided that we're not going to talk about Pierre's death today, but we'll leave it for tomorrow when we get back to the station and do what we've been trained to do all these years. We will investigate this case and bring it to an end, and I swear that I'll definitely find the one who did this, and he'll get his punishment.

This day started off quite well, but the end of it was terrible. But with all the chatter at my house, I didn't realize how tired I was, so I fell asleep in my partner's arms.