Death, Murder, and Suicide

Chapter 2 - Isla

I walked into the station with Jasper closely following. There was a quite a few people buzzing around. Some holding clipboards, some carrying too much papers so that they flew everywhere, and others bringing late afternoon coffee and sandwiches to colleges. It was just like any other day. We headed toward the front desk where we saw Darbee quickly typing away.

She glanced up quickly, but soon resumed her typing. After a couple moments, she let out a big sigh and spun around in one those gigantic rolly chairs that you find at Office Depot.

"Isla! Their back again!" She called to the back of the room in that chain smoker voice she has. But as soon as those words left her mouth, Jasper's face turned from white to purple in 0.83 seconds. Meet Jasper. Someone who can look at a street gang with a smile, but is scared of an 11 year old girl. A girl. In his defense, she kind of scares me too. I never thought that a girl who was 4' 11 would be so scary.

"Who's back?" A girl I knew only too well peeked her head around her father's office door, her brown straight hair falling over her shoulders. Her eyes slowly wandered up to me and Jasper's. Shivers ran down my spine and, judging by Jasper's look, I could see Jasper had the same thing happen. Almost like a switch her eyes turned from a innocent 6-graders to a she-demon's. Isla walked slowly toward us, deepening our fear.

"What are you doing here?" Isla now stood over us, her voice booming loudly, everything seemed to be bathed in flames. "Didn't I tell you to never come back here? You're being a nuisance." Her eyes glared down on us (which is a talent considering that she is about 9 inches shorter than me). Jasper and me were on our knees begging for forgiveness before I even could even process anything. The glint in Isla's eyes could break glass.

Trying to stand up, I said shakily, "I-I think I have a valuable input on the investigation about all the drug abusers."

"Well, we don't need your help." replied Isla venomously. "We're busy enough as it is, we don't need you to mess up our momentum."

"But if you would just-"

"Just what? Lead us in a wild goose chase? We all know-"

"That's enough, Isla." A calm grown man's voice came from behind her. Great. Her one weakness. Her father. "We all know that Neal here is super smart."

"Thank you s-" I started.

"But we just don't have time for anyone to get in on the investigation." He turned to look at me. "I'm really sorry. I know that you could help us, like you have done in the past, but we only have time to bring in and question eyewitnesses." I felt my body turning into a blender, my guts becoming a smoothie. I've been let down before, but I still feel my heart drop when being told I can't partake in a case. It was like teasing a dog with food when it hasn't eaten in 4 months. "Now, I suggest that you leave before I have to call reinforcements." He was towering over my lame 5' 7" body.

Jasper looked at me, waiting for my move. Tsk. I looked at his concerned face, back to the chief's calm one. I let out a big sigh, turned around sharply, took Jasper's arm, and (tried to) calmly exit the station. The sun had gone down quite a bit since we entered, leaving us blasted with a cold breeze. Great. Just bloody great. I hated that I left the station empty handed, but to make matters worse, I also hated how cold and dark it was getting. Daylight savings time just passed recently and I'm still getting used to the time change.

I hate the bloody cold.

Jasper obviously saw how ticked off and mad I was, because the whole walk home he didn't say a word. I was thankful, but sometimes I had to check if he was still there. It was kind of lonely.

We were walking through the complex when another cold blast hit us. It would have been a nice evening if not for the wind. I started to regret not bringing a jacket along. I crossed my arms around my chest, letting out a shivering breath.

I hate the bloody cold.

Jasper, on the other hand, always were that "Metallica" hoodie, so he wasn't bothered. He looked down at me (I hated how he was a couple inches taller than me, everyone seems to be taller than me and I hate it) and let out a big sigh. He put his hands out of his pockets, zipping down his hoodie, and shrugged it out his shoulders. He placed it around mine and proceeded to put his hands in his jean pockets.

I gave him a cold stare but all he did was smile. He knew how much I hated the cold. I gave a short smile and pulled the jacket close to my chest.

~

"UUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH" I slammed my face into my keyboard. There was another suicidal drunk case in the time me and Jasper were gone. Just bloody great. Another bullet to add to the list of things that were going wrong today. That was when I noticed I still had Jasper's jacket on. I didn't bother taking it off considering how cold it was in my apartment. My mom doesn't have the money to afford a heating bill. She has night classes and is barely keeping me and her alive, so I usually go to bed with an empty stomach. I looked over and checked the time.

"11:30 already?" I let out a big sigh as I closed out of the news page on my computer. I jumped into my bed, staring at the ever-so-silent ceiling.

"This is going to be a long night" I thought as me and my mind sat in one of the few silent moments of the city.