One Hundred Degrees

Chapter 2: Friction

"Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it."

Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad

"What the fuck is going on?! Opening time is in two hours and you lot think you can just take over my restaurant!", the red-faced man exploded.

Del made her way towards the man, "Sir, calm down, this is now a crime scene, one of your staff members died during the early hours of the morning."

The man swiveled to face her, " You think I don't already know that- the media was up in my face as soon as I left my house. Can this not wait for after the rush hour- people have made reservations, let me run my business instead of letting you lot drag it down the gutter where you appeared from", at this point Del could just feel the contempt directed towards her as he glared at her.

"Pops, I've already called and cancelled all reservations for the next two days," interrupted a dark-haired young man who had tailed behind the angry man, " I spoke to Officer Govender and he said they would need at least a few days to try and clear this mess and then they will be out of our hair."

The man called "Pops" turned around, the change in his demeanour was astonishing- his shoulders dropped and his face sagged as if all the worries of the world had been dumped onto his shoulders at that minute.
"My Bell girl!! She's gone Tristan, how can they just take her from us so early- she was just starting a new life...", the man wailed.

Dev dragged Del aside- "That man is the owner- Mr Adrian Popolous- apparently he can have quite the mood swings, but his staff and the patrons say he's a good man from what I gathered."

"Mood swings my foot, bursting in with profanities and what gutter did I wake up from?!", Del spat out, glaring at the scene of Popolous being awkwardly comforted by Tristan.

"Some may just say you are just as temperamental Del- just be chilled the man is clearly affected by the death of Isabella Smith. This is the first big case Chief is trusting us to handle without seniors- we can't be drawing our suspects against us this early in the game."

"Fine, fine , I'll chill Dev- sometimes a little respect won't hurt."

"There's my good girl- now put on your serious face as you have already decided to play bad cop", Dev stuck his tongue out as he headed back to the main kitchen area.

"Just remembered do you have picture of the scene ,Dev?"

"Yep, thought you were never gonna ask", Dev punched in his password and handed his phone to Del- "Take a look before we go over to the guys- I don't think it's something Mr Popolous would fancy looking at"' as he glance in the direction of the distraught restaurant owner.

"Eish, this is intense!", gasped Del as she swiped through the images. A women clad in a white chef suit with an unrecognisable face filled the screen. The skin was peeled of most of the face and bleeding, the lips were puffy and red covered in angry . The eyes were sealed shut by the swelling around the eyelids.
"One damn nasty way to die, and a really nasty way to kill someone", Dev said grimly. "Lets go and start interviewing this lot, who knows our killer might still be in this room."