The Heroes We Weren't

Chapter 20 - Soldier Number One

The cold stairs outside of the mayor's apartment pressed against my coat and jeans as I had taken a seat. I viewed the citizens who passed me by - None of them took notice of me, none of them knew that the police would soon arrive, to search for witnesses.

I had called. Or rather, I had dialed the emergency number several times but never actually called. I trusted Adam to contact the police, I trusted him to have a good enough excuse for them to believe me.

"Felicity!" It was the first time that Adam had called out for me so worriedly . "Felicity, are you okay?"

He had reached my step, squatted in front of me and placed his hands on my knees. The Leader of the Noblemen could squat on the street? News to me. News welcomed.

More hurried steps - Hyun-Soo had stopped by my side. Leaning forth, he huffed between his breaths; it was beyond me that the Delivery Boy was more out of shape than the Detective (who had spent his forever in front of a desk).

"I tried calling." I said, held my phone forth. "911. I tried calling."

Adam shook his head.
"I will take care of it."

"I'll bring her somewhere else." Hyun-Soo huffed as he had made sure that no one else was listening. "Scene of the crime is probably not the best place for her to be right now."

I let out a laugh. The desperate kind.

"I've already been seen." I said. "There's a camera inside."

Adam pressed his hands against his own knees to stand back up. Silent. The detective of righteousness was, for once, silent. He knew what I knew, he realized what I had realized before they had even gotten there – The evidence against me was imminent. Unavoidable.

"The real killer," Hyun-Soo said, "he must have been caught on tape too?"

"It does not explain why she was in there." Adam mumbled.

"I could tell them." I whispered. "I could tell them what I saw."

Hyun-Soo nodded but Adam gave us but a sigh. He placed his hands on his hips, stretched his neck and back out and once again, he sighed.

"Unless the real killer's fingerprints are on the weapon itself - there is no proof that he performed the murder and not you, Felicity."

He was agitated, annoyed, faced with a crime he had not seen coming and did not know how to solve. I gazed up at his awe-inspiring and slightly intimidating figure and for the first time did I see him not as my friend or former crush, but as a detective at his place of work.

That was, a detective who knew better than to let the justice of a victim slip between his fingers - to let it slip only because of his personal connection to the suspect.

"Time." I said, and clenched my hand around the watch in my pocket. "The murderer arrived earlier than I did. You could connect the victim's time of death with the arrival of the murderer."

I had studied (if only for a short period of time) to become a police officer after all. I felt proud to have thought of such a thing.

"I doubt your arrivals were that far apart." Meet Adam, the slayer of said pride.

He walked past me, up the stairs and opened the door.

"I will take care of it." He said.

Hyun-Soo's plan to 'bring me somewhere else' wasn't quite thought through. His own place was out of town and so we had ended up strolling down the streets.