Paint the town blue

Chapter III

My life slowly but surely began to turn into a routine - home, work, home. Sometimes the gym is also wedged into this sequence. Yes, I didn't stop going to that very gym - it's the closest to my house and the route to it doesn't pass through at least one of those places that remind me of past events.

On working days, I'm at work from early morning until late at night. It was the best decision for me to load myself with work, because I hardly thought about myself and my life. A couple of times I even volunteered to work as an ordinary officer, because there isn't always a job for detectives. When I came to Fred with such a request, he treated it with some skepticism.

"Charles, I understand that you've decided to completely go into work, and I praise you for that, but understand - there is a life besides work. You're a young guy and you shouldn't be sitting in a dusty office for twenty-four hours."

"I clean it regularly."

"Are you listening to me at all?"

"Yes, Fred, I'm listening."

"You're already spend too much time here, even when there's nothing to do."

"Did Liam snitch?"

"And he's not the only one."

At that moment, I felt like a guilty child, although in fact I had done nothing wrong. On the contrary, some of my delays after work were only beneficial. For example, I finally put the papers in order in one of my cupboards. It's not that I've wanted to clean up there for a long time, it was just better than going back home and wallowing in gloom again.

"It's just that work doesn't allow me to plunge back into that depressive state, as it was after..."

"I remember, yeap."

Frederic tried to dissuade me from additional work, but his attempts were unsuccessful and he, with grief in half, nevertheless signed a permit to work for me not only as a detective, but also as an officer. Although it is only when necessary, but for me it is still a small "victory".

It was fun to feel like an active officer again and go on raids with other guys. It was a little awkward at first, because detectives are still considered higher up the hierarchy in the station, so some young officers treated me with caution. Especially when they found out about my past with my former partner. More precisely, who he was to me, and who he really turned out to be. But time passed, and gradually I became "one of us" for them, and I was very pleased with that.

But as a detective, I'm still working alone, and so now that there's another lull in the station, I've decided to do what I have to do at the station - investigate. Just not some kind of outside business, but again my own, personal one. I decided to find out where the envelope with the sticker was delivered to me, and for this I decided to look at the mail delivery log to the police station. Thank God that recently even such details have been recorded in our electronic journal, so I just need to sort the list by my name. I entered my data, made a couple of mouse clicks and voilà - a small list of all printed correspondence addressed to me was opened in front of me. Having found the date I needed, I copied the address of the post office from where the envelope was delivered. Well, there is no work at the station for today, so I turned off the computer, took my things and decided to visit the post office. Well, I hope that they're still working now.

After leaving the station and taking another look at the piece of paper with the address, I mentally mapped out a route for myself and headed towards my destination point. The weather was good, and it was unusually warm for this time of year, but even these pleasant sensations for some reason didn't cover my inner excitement. What do I hope to find out in that post office? Who sent the envelope? When did he send it? The answer to the first question is obvious enough, but to the second...No, my partner is definitely still serving his sentence, and he certainly won't come out of there any time soon, in the near future that's for sure. Although a review of the case or an amnesty in his case will also not do any good. And he would hardly have escaped - that place is better guarded than the Alcatraz. And if he had escaped, I'd definitely have been among the first ones to find out about it. And not even because I was the one who literally put him behind bars, or because I was the one who handled the case of the infamous serial killer, but because everyone knows exactly how I was connected with this man. Frederick would definitely have put a guard on me right away and wouldn't wait to talk to me about this topic, and the rest of the guys wouldn't have sat idly by either.