Claws in the Dark | ✔

XXXII

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Patrick was sitting in his office, looking over a few documents for another case that had him preoccupied for the last few days. While doing so, he came across the word "miles" and his most reliable, resourceful and efficient detective came to mind.

It had been days since he last heard from Miles, or about anything pertaining to Grandville, for that matter. He closed the file shut and picked up his phone to call Miles. Patrick put the phone to his ear and listened for an answer.

"Hey, there," came Miles' voice.

"Hey, Miles, I'm just calling to check up--."

"Yeah, this is Miles Trenton. You're currently on my voicemail, which means I can't come to the phone right now, so please, by all means, leave a message after the beep and I'll get back to you later. Thanks, bye."

Beep.

"What the...?" Patrick grumbled. "He never let's a call go to voicemail." He cleared his throat before leaving his message, "Yeah, hey Miles. It's me, Pat. I'm just checking to know of everything's going okay with the investigation in Grandville. Haven't heard from you in a few days and my mind just ran on you, so I decided to give you a call."

Patrick stood from his seat and proceeded to his window, which overlooked the front of Peskin's precinct. It was not lively, seeing that it was very early in the morning and the sun had not yet shown its face. He ran a hand through his hair as a frown etched it's way onto his face. "You're probably busy, so just give me a call when you get this message, okay? Alright, bye."

He hung up and slid his phone into his pants pocket. His eyes found the sky, filled with grey clouds, and Patrick could see that it stretched for miles and miles. A chilling breeze seeped through the ajar window and sent a shiver down his spine.

"Wow," be said to himself. "The wind is unusually cold tonight." The police chief shut the window and turned to sit back at his desk, when his door swung open and a female officer hastily entered, out of breath.

"Hawkins, what are you doing here so early?" Patrick asked. "And why are you breathing so heavily and sweating so much?"

"Sir, I had to rush over here...as soon as I heard," she said between breaths. She swiped her auburn, curly hair out of her face as she went to sit in the black couch next to the door.

Patrick dashed across the room to her as she plopped down in the couch. She was shaking, her brown eyes filled with fear as she took deep breaths. "What's going on? What is it that you heard?"

Hawkins took the chief's hand and looked him in the eyes. "It's Grandville, sir," she said. "Something terrible has happened."

The man frowned, even more confused now than he was when Hawkins had first run in. "Okay, just breathe and, very slowly, tell me what in Grandville is so terrible."