Chimera | H.S Mature

13.

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*Samantha's POV*

"Mr Parsons, Sir, any news on the warrant I applied for the other day?" I asked sticking my head around the door of his office. He sat lounging in his chair, his feet placed up on the desk as he flicked through a series of papers in his lap, a pen wedged between his teeth. He shook his head and removed the pen before speaking.

"Afraid not, these things can take some time, the office is baked up with applications at the moment. It could be another couple of week before you hear anything back" he said.

"Weeks?!" I exclaimed, taking a step in to his office and pushing the door so that it was still slightly ajar as I moved further in.

"But Mr Parsons, that registration plate is the only lead I have! If it takes weeks for me to get a warrant to search Mr Morris' premises it will be weeks before I can move forward with this case!" I said, my hands fidgeting in front of me, a habit I had when I was nervous or stressed about something.

"I'm sorry Samantha but there is nothing I can do. But might I say you are handling this case very well so far, I'm impressed". I brushed his compliment off.

"No I'm not, that number plate is the only lead I have. Without it I don't have anywhere else to go. I don't know what to do" I said weakly, taking a seat opposite him. He removed his feet from the desk and put down his papers, giving me his undivided attention.

"Samantha, these things take time, and I know how keen you are to get immediate results and get this case finished and solved as quickly as you possibly can, but I don't know what you would be trying to demonstrate with that. You have no need to prove yourself to anyone in this department, least of all me, you wouldn't be here if I didn't think you had something which would benefit us. As for having no other leads, have you looked for witnesses, people who may have seen the car leave the scene? Witnesses are a key feature in any case. And you still have the DNA sample we obtained from Miss Styles' clothing from the night of the attack, once you start getting suspects that will be key in the continuation of your case, not just a registration plate" he said. I sighed.

"I'm looked at all the footage Nick gave me from the CCTV cameras, there are no other people on the street at that time, no one saw anything" I say.

"At 11 o'clock at night in London, I doubt that. Remember, witnesses don't always have to be on the street were the incident took place, they could be from anywhere. A bar where the car drove past, a take away where he stopped for food, a petrol station where he stopped for gas. It's times like these when you need to broaden your search" he continued, raising a pair of bushy eyebrows at me from across the desk. I sighed once more but said nothing. It was not my place to question him, he knew more about how to handle cases like this than perhaps anyone else in the department. Barbra had told me once that a rape case was one of the very first investigations he took on alone, she said it nearly drove him mad. I was beginning to understand why.

"Trust me Samantha, something will come along that will make everything clear, you just have to be patient and keep looking for it" he said.

"Thank you Sir" I said, rising from the chair and making my way towards the door.

"I'll be sure to let you know as soon as I hear anything from the warrant office" he said as I reached the door, I turned and thanked him once more before leaving, pulling he door to behind me. I sighed and leaned against the wall next to the door, letting my head fall back gently against the plaster.

"Fuck" I breathed, letting my shoulders sag as I assessed the weight of what I had just been told. Weeks. How could it take weeks for a warrant to be granted or denied? More importantly, where was I even going to begin tracking this car again? I couldn't ask Nick surely, he had done enough on my behalf and I knew well enough that he was just as busy, if not more so, than me. No, I would have to do this alone, I would have to track the car across town using the few resources I had available to me. The phrase wild goose chase sprang to mind as I opened my eyes again.

"What's wrong blondie?" Alex smirked from across the hall where he had taken up a similar leaning position as my own. His arms were crossed his chest, the tight sleeves of his shirt stretched thin over his skin. "This proving a bit too tough for you is it?" he asked.

"No, actually I was just checking with Mr Parsons about how long it was going to take for me warrant to come through" I said firmly, standing up straight before him to try and regain a least a bit of my height, but it was no use, even from his slouched position, he towered over me.

"Yeah a couple of weeks didn't he say, bummer" he sneered, his stupid grin still plastered across his smug little face, I resisted the urge to smack it off.

"You were listening?" I asked.

"Nah, don't need to, I have my friends up in the warrant department, they keep me up to date. Did you know they pass all my applications in 2 days as well? It's all about who you know" he continued, he chest practically bursting with self-indulged price and humour glimmering behind his eyes. He was enjoying this.

"Or maybe it's all about being an egotistical, egocentric jackass who will happily belittle and degrade anyone he needs to to get what he wants" I spat.

"No my little Samantha, it's actually all about superiority. You see, Mr Parsons is superior to me, so he gets the final say in everything. Me? I'm superior to everyone in this department, everyone in this building and yes, I'm most defiantly superior to you, so I come next. And you, you're the queen of the blonde haired little girls, who are running around thinking they can do whatever the big boys can do. Well you can't. All you little tarts are good for is flashing your tits and offering guys like me a bit of entertainment on the weekend. So do yourself a favour sweetheart," he said, pushing his body off the wall and leaning down so that his lips were pressed against my ear, "quit while you're ahead" he whispered, before pulling away and sauntering down the hallway and disappearing into the break room.

I stood frozen in place tears pooling in the corner of my eyes as I gazed into a blank space. My hands trembled at my sides and I quickly crossed my arms and tucked them beneath my armpits in an effort to keep them still. All the confidence I held when I started to fight back was lost, squashed inside me like I was a bug under his 'superior' foot. Everything he had said was what I have been facing my whole life, judgements and assumptions made on me before I've been given a chance to prove that I don't fit the stereotype, that there is more to me than some dumb blonde who is trying to make it in a world where she isn't welcomed. His words echoed in my head, quit while you're ahead, quit while you're ahead, it was those exact words that my professor at university had said to me once, back when I barely scraped through my second year exams. But I fought back, I proved to him that I could do it, and yes I didn't graduate with full marks, but I made it here didn't I?

But as I stood alone in the hallway, booming laughter echoing from the break room, I had never felt so weak.

I sniffled as a single tear escaped my eyes and slowly trailed down my cheek. With my hands still tucked under my arms I turned and shuffled back down towards my office and closed the door gently behind me. Tear after tear traced paths down my face, I gave up my futile attempt at brushing them away after the first two or three. Instead, I sat in my chair and swivelled to face the window, absentmindedly watching the people below me, feeling just as small as they looked.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and, with another sniffle, I pulled it out and glanced at the screen. It was Harry. I was of half a mind it ignore it, to sit here for the rest of the day and cocoon myself in my own little ball of self-pity and misery but as I looked at his simple text, with nothing more than the word 'hi' written in it, I remembered that I couldn't afford to cave in on myself once again. Daniella needs me, to some extent I believe Harry needs me too. And I can' let them down.