Friends

Chapter t w e l v e . f i v e

He follows me over to my desk, and he sits down in my chair before I can.

"Such a gentleman." I say, rolling my eyes.

"Oh, did you want to sit in this?" He says, pointing to the chair.

"Hm, I don't know. Would I want to sit in my own chair?" I retort, sarcastically.

"Fine, needy woman. Is it that time of the month?" He asks. I give him an infuriated glare.

"I am not-. Why would you say something-? You know, I'm not even gonna try."

"Good. You're learning." he says with a playful smile. I swear if this guy doesn't shut up, Cora won't be the only dead body.

"God, you are so infuriating." I say, rubbing my temples. "I'm starting to get a headache just talking to you."

"I think that's because you're hearing the sound of your own voice." He says. Does this guy ever run out of quips?

"Let's just focus on finding out what happened to Cora." I say, giving up on him.

"August one, Amy zero." He says. This guy does not give up, I swear. "Let's start off with finding Cora's husband." He says.

"How do you know Cora has a husband?" I ask him. He never read the file.

"Oh, it was an old case." He says.

"What? Why did Morgan think that it was recent?" I ask.

"Sorry, let me clarify. I got it three days ago, but it was boring so I decided to give it to someone else."

"I'm sorry, a murder was boring to you?" I ask, indignantly.

"What do you think I've done for the past four years? I don't understand why this woman is such a big deal." He says, staring at me. "People die all the time." He breaks eye contact; focused on a something distant. "And people lie about their mothers dying."

"You totally deserved that." I say, crossing my arms. He shakes his head and opens the folder.

As he's reading it over I decide to ask him, "Why did you take this case if it was so boring?"

He shrugs. "When the company becomes interesting, so does the case." I blink in shock.

"You took this case because you thought I was interesting?" I ask. He doesn't respond.

"Shh. I'm trying to do police work." He finally replies. I swear, this guy.

"Have you found anything, or are you observing the gruesome death of an innocent person?"

"A little of both." He replies.

"I was joking about the latter." I reply.

"I know." He says, grinning slightly. He gets out a pen and sticky-note from my stationary. He starts to write on it.

"Hey," I say, unhappily. "Don't touch my stuff." He finishes writing down whatever he was writing, and stands up. He puts the sticky-note on my forehead, and starts to walk, putting his jacket on. I look up at it, and take the note off of my face.

It has an address written on it. I look at him, confused. "Who's address is this?" I ask.

"Ray Thompson," He says. "Come on, let's go." He throws me my jacket, and I put it on, glaring at him.

I walk over to one of the police cars. "No," he tells me. "We're taking my car. I don't like the colors of the police cars." Picky, much?

I keep walking, but turn back when I realize he's not walking anymore. He opens the door of his car, and my eyes almost pop out of my head.

"What the crap is this piece of crap?" I half shout at him. He glares over at me.

"Don't. Insult. The car." He says, angrily. I found his weak spot. I grin to myself as I get into the car. He looks warily over at me.

I brush my fingers over the dusty dashboard. "How old is this car?" I ask him. "Thirty years, forty? My bad, the ice age." His glare is venomous.

"Don't worry," he says, suddenly smiling. "It can't be any older than you are."

"Um, excuse me," I scoff. "You do not insult a woman's age."

"I didn't," he says cockily. "I insulted a little girls pride."

"This little girl has a gun in her pocket." I say, threateningly.

"Could've fooled me." He says as he starts the car up. The car sputters to life, and I clutch onto the handle on the roof of the car.

"This is actually a death trap," I say to him. "Are you trying to get me killed? Were you the one who killed Cora?"

"You got me." He says sarcastically. "Drat. I thought I could get away with helping you solve Cora's murder by taking you to her ex's house."

"Speaking of which," I say as he pulls out of the station. "How did you know this was Ray's address?"

"My awesomeness." He retorts. I look at him, unamused. "I looked at her addresses, and saw she had only lived in four places." He pauses to shift lanes. "One for where she grew up, one for college, one for her current- well old address, and one for where she used to live with Ray."

"How'd you know his name was Ray?" I ask him.

"Oh, I actually have no clue what his name is. The file didn't reveal much information about him. I wonder if he even knows that he has a child." He pauses, looking out the window. "I'd want to know if I ever had a child."

"And I want to know why?" I ask him, raising my eyebrows.

"Nothing." He responds.

"You're strange." I retort.

"And you are, too." He replies. I look up from fiddling my hands in my lap. The car slows to a stop. I'm surprised it even lasted this long without the engine failing.

"Let's go." He says, opening his door. I follow him out of his rust bucket, and onto the sidewalk. "After you, m'lady." He says sarcastically. I look up at the scary looking house, and roll my eyes. I should've known he was a scaredy cat.

I pull my badge out of my pocket, and look back at him. "You know, maybe I should go first." He runs a hand through his hair. I step aside, and let him knock on the door.

"Who knew you had a backbone?" I say, repeating his earlier words. He looks back at me and chuckles. He knocks on the door, and we wait impatiently for an answer to the door. He looks up suddenly, and I look up too. Oh, no.

[Part two of the chapter coming soon. Also, thank you guys so much for over 200 reads. Whoever you are, silent reader, you're awesome. Keep reading.]