Playing dangerous

Chapter 11 *Max*

I stood by my words when I told her that 'I'm solely doing my job', even without my job it's human decency to help a girl who a guy harasses. I wish I had beaten those men up. No wonder women choose a bear over a man in our society, I'm not even offended by their logic, what I can't seem to comprehend is why I felt angrier than I should when I saw Daphne getting cornered by some creeps and dirtily looked at.

Daphne.

Such a beautiful name for a bold and irresponsible person. I have never dealt with someone like that, so upfront, so cocky, so cheeky, so pretty...someone that rarely questions her actions. Sometimes I want to dive into her mind to understand how she proceeds her thoughts and what goes on in her brain, that is if she even thinks with it.

But today's overthinking topic isn't about her, but about the unsolvable case involving the abuse of children in a mental hospital. Turns out that that mental hospital was connected to an orphanage, if I understood correctly, they would bring mentally ill orphans and normal orphans to proceed in a series of experiments for god knows what and why. 

I'm heading to work to try and link the events and people connected, Jasan begged me for us to do it together, he's my work partner, why did he even have to ask me when I already planned to do it together?

Once I reach my desk, I spot Jasan, who's already there waiting for me.

-"Yo bro what took you so long? You're never late."

-"Late for what exactly? It's not a rendezvous."

-"Yes well, we said to meet up at 2 pm and it's 2:12."

-"It's barely a quarter time late." I sit down and take my file.

-"Were you with a girl~" He smirks, trying to tease me.

-"Yes, I was helping an innocent lady getting harassed by some guys."

-"Damn, the hero of the city, did she give you a kiss~?"

-"No." I reply dryly

-"You wish~" He laughs. "Dude look, you're good-looking, a bit standoffish but we can fix that, I'm sure if you try just a little you can get girls." There goes Jasan, starting the talk I exactly don't want to talk about.

-"I'm not interested, I'm very content with my life."

-"Are you gay? Asexual? You can talk to me I'm an ally."

-"I'm no-" I sigh. "No. I highly suggest we start working on this because we have work to do, if you wanna ramble about love don't feel free." I cut him off and organized all the papers and reports we got concerning the situation. Jasan rolls his eyes and leans on his chair.

-"So what do we have here Officer 'I'm content with my lonely life'?"

I roll my eyes and ignore his comment.

-"Well, Marcus, the man accused by the victim who killed himself in a cell is confirmed to be part of that hospital. Turns out he changed his name and previous profession in fear of ever getting caught, he may have done that out of guilt or fear, we'll never know. On top of that, the victim who showed up last time at the station explained in more detail what they did to them, the abuse was unnoticeable, she said they were just kids and they were treating them pretty nicely, it's only when she grew up and got adopted to a foster family that she started realizing how bad things were, she said she remembered how they would always do experiments on them and sometimes talk weirdly to them. It wasn't clear what their goal was but she suffered from a lot of anxiety and other psychological-related problems. The other team tracked the hospital but found out it was that one hospital that burnt down years ago, later on rebuilding a new one, therefore all potential evidence and documents got destroyed. We still don't know any person related to that hospital or orphanage, the victim said they never gave her any names to remain unknown. I'd say these people were pretty smart doing their sneaky business."

-"Wow, that's a lot to handle. What do you think we should do now? Does that victim know any other orphan to give us more information?"

-"The victim, Shelby Adler, barely remembers any name, but we got a few on a list. Tough part is that she doesn't know their last names,  and we don't even know if these people are still living near here, it can be anyone." I sigh and put my index on my temple. How on earth are we supposed to solve a case like this? We have nothing.

-"I'll do the job of trying to find those people, give me the names and I'll search, meanwhile, you do something else like..." He pauses and devilishly smirks "Finding a girl."

I can't believe he's saying that while I'm using every single brain cell in my brain to solve this unsolvable shit. I raise my head to look at him confused, my hand still on my head as I take a deep breath.

-"I have a job to do, so please stay focused."

-"You are such a boring ass you know that? 'Job this, Job that, Work work work'" He says in a mocking voice. "God, can you shove away work for one second and think about yourself, I know we have to solve this, but we have a life too, I'm talking seriously we're going to solve this case, bring justice to these poor people and be heroes like police is supposed to be. I promise we'll find a new lead, take a break, sometimes I feel like you work alone, chill out there man." He tells me, and honestly, he kind of is right, but I won't admit it, I cross my arms and look back to the file where I wrote everything about the case in a long detailed thesis, I dart my eyes back to Jasan who's waiting for a response.

-"Maybe. You try to find the names so at least we can question some people, friends from that Marcus guy or people connected to the victim Shelby, just anything that can get us somewhere. During that time I'll talk to the two others who are also working on the case, demanding further details."

-"What about the living life part?"

-"I'm considering it, I'll try being less workaholic."

-"Empty words bro, em-pty-words." He looks at the ceiling and then back at me, pointing a finger toward me. "Look, tomorrow night, I'm going out with some friends and colleagues to the bar, come with us, it'll be fun." He finishes with a smile.

-"Okay okay I'll tag along, what time?" I don't beat around the bush, maybe a little break from the everyday routine will do me good.

-"That's right baby! Accepting right away. Be there at 8 pm, do you want me to pick you up you grumpy picky princess?"  He mocks me and laughs, I don't know why but that reminds me of Daphne. 

-"No thank you, Prince Charming." I grimace and roll my eyes.

-"Hey, if you were a Disney prince who would you be? I'd be Prince Naveen from The Princess and the Frog because we look alike and both of us are super duper charismatic. "He says proudly.

-"How would I know, I don't care."

-"Right, because you'd straight up be a villain." I glare at him annoyingly and he continues to laugh. 

However, we're soon interrupted by our two colleagues working of the same case to discuss its details further...