CLOVER

Step 2: Impress the man

He walked towards the doors of the tavern, leaving with a lump on his throat. Now that step one was clear to him, it bothered him more. He couldn't just give up his title to a criminal. If he did so, he would have to declare the Clover case closed, and the title would immediately pass to Jennifer. This way, he would lose both his job and the case, and a criminal would still roam freely around the city. He angrily pushed through the doors, but while doing so, about three men caught him by his shoulder and turned him around. "Let us see. Who do we have here?"-one of them smiled, rolling a wooden splinter around his mouth. "Detective William Trenor, isn't it?"-the other ones asked, placing his arms one above the other. "Yes, gentlemen. How can I help you?" The men rolled their eyes and walked towards him with anger in their eyes. They looked as if they were trying to seek vengeance, and that made William take a step back. Tyler got up from his seat, approaching them in case a fight was about to happen. "You can not help us anymore. We waited enough." William was still confused until the men started clenching their teeth and cracked their knuckles. "Woah, I see what you want, but may I ask for what I will have the honors to this?"- "Does this remind you of anything?"-one of them pointed out a picture hanging on the walls of the tavern. There were four men lined in the picture. Three of them were already standing in front of him, but the other was nowhere to be seen. That is when it hit him. The Wood Brothers. The missing one was a victim to Clover's doings, and suddenly, the remaining brothers were blaming William for his death. "You are terrible at your job, Detective. Our brother never got the justice he deserved." "Look gentlemen, tonight I assure you I will get her at the ceremony ball. Me and my partner have everything figured out."-he tried to explain to them. "You are always assuring us how close you are to getting her, but it has been months, Detective!" -"Since we can not find Clover ourselves, we will make her find us by beating you to death. We heard she is interested in seeing you."-the other brother added. "Words spread like diseases. I must say, whatever you are planning to do with me will go wrong." The men laughed at his words and got their sleeves up, ready to fight him. "Well, I didn't want to be selfish and not warn you!" William flung his jacket over to Tyler's hands and waited for the brothers to make their move. "Oh, before we start. I must say, 3 against 1 is a bit unfair. Although, I shouldn't mind. I am a detective, after all, and you are just some lazy men who get themselves all drunk and nasty." One of the brothers immediately rushed to William, trying to punch him on his stomach. William effortlessly dodged him, making him fall between the gaps of the doors. "Oh, my apologies! I thought he would hold onto himself." The other brothers both sprinted to him, one trying to reach him from the front and the other from behind. He lifted up his left foot, sliding it through the space between him and one of the brothers, and kicked him hard on his neck. The other brother stopped shortly reaching for a glass bottle from the bar and flung it around to hit him on his neck. William quickly picked up the fallen brother to use him as a shield, and the bottle ended up hitting him on his face. He stopped terrified of hitting his brother and tried to reach for another thing to hit William with. "You bastard!"-he yelled. The other men in the tavern refused to get up from their tables as some of them were already too drunk and dizzy to process anything. Tyler tried to stand as far as he could to not interfere with the others in the fight. The brother outside got up on his feet after regaining his consciousness. Just about the time he was going inside the tavern to help his brother fight, he noticed a shadow covering all his body from behind. "It is quite adorable to see gentlemen fight for me on late hours of night. Don't you worry! I have enough lipstick for all of you!"- a voice echoed on everyone's ears. The body dropped from William's hands, seeing her figure outside the tavern. All of them turned their heads in her direction. She was wearing a long green coat along with a hat and mask of the same color. The lights of the tavern reflected right to her lipstick. Without another thought, William rushed towards her to catch her. Clover shuddered in surprise and started running in another direction. William was determined to catch her, so he was speeding his steps to get closer to her. Her coat was floating while she was running, so he hoped on getting a hold of that. He reached his hand closer to the coat, but it was impossible to hold onto it. They both took a shortcut towards the same direction. To the Big Ben. She was trying to catch her breath, but she knew that if she stopped running, it would be the end of her. Clover reached for everything that she could find on the side of the street where she was running. Trash bins, bicycles, she the them all behind her to slow William down. While trying to avoid all of them, William turned to see the brothers following him. "Bloody hell! What are these men on?" He fastened his pace, but shortly after, he stopped by a crossroad. There were two possible ways where she could have run to. He suddenly heard a crashing sound coming from the right alley. This made him run towards it faster than before. Clover had tripped to a loose pipe and fell on her knees. As soon as she saw William coming towards her, she got up on her feet and continued running. William slowed down until he finally stopped. He was losing his breath and could not keep up with the running for too much longer. He bowed down, reaching his knees, and breathed heavily. His eyes caught a glimpse of something being pushed around by the light wind. It was a feather that had fallen from her hat, along with two strings of her hair being attached to it. "What in the world -" "Did you think you were going to escape from us that easily?"-the brothers reached him with bruises covering every inch of their body. "I can keep up with beating you two to death all night, but let me finish my job first." The brothers looked at each other quietly and back at him with disgust. "It was her, wasn't it?"-they asked him. "Yes. Now, will you let me get revenge for your dead brother while you go take care of your almost dying one?" The brothers shook their heads off and gave him a deadly, cold stare before they turned to leave. William picked up the evidence he just got his hands to, to look at it one more time. After that, he placed the feather in the pocket of his pants and started walking to the direction of the tavern slowly. He realized that he was sort of lost after not being able to recognize the streets where he ran to. It was pure darkness, and he didn't seem to find a way out of where he got himself to. After all the running, he felt weakness covering all his body, mostly his legs. Not being able to walk any longer, he decided to sit on a curb to rest for a while, not realizing how he slowly was falling asleep.