Familiar Foe √

2. Scaredy Holmes

   

  I dialled Charles' number the second I walked out of the COD's office.

"Kaima." He said sleekly.

"We are on." I told him

"Figured."

"Doesn't this case scare you?"

"Every case does but we always pull through."

He was right. We always pulled through, Charles and I. I would never say it out loud but sometimes I doubted I'd have made it that far without him.

"What's wrong?" I could hear the worry in his voice.

"Why?"

"You stopped talking. What did COD say?"

"Looks like I have a new home."

"Wait, what?"

"Meet me at my place."

"On my way." And he was gone.

In my few years of service I had never had to lodge in a crime scene, never even knew it was a thing until now.

As a kid I didn't have future dreams or a career set in mind but I knew I hated it when my immediate elder brother got punished for the things our eldest brother did because he threatened him and we were all scared of his buff body.

I wanted justice for my brother and every other bullied sibling and when I said that to him, his reply had been;
"Why not just be a lawyer?"

It was a good point but words weren't really my thing, I liked action.

"I've never seen you this tense since your mom sent you that picture of her flight ticket to Nigeria." Charles said from the bed, watching me throw clothes into my emergency backpack.

"Don't start." I warned. The thought was enough to put a smile on my face.

My mom had been so worried a year ago when my granny accidentally told her I had come down with typhoid, she got plans tickets immediately but cancelled because Pinky's diabetes shot up. If she ever saw the way I live here, she'd have me bundled and thrown back to Columbia.

"Seriously Kay, what's up? Do I really have to use the 'you can talk to me' line?"

"I'm just stressed."

"You spent the last week napping and treating yourself. Try another excuse." I sighed and dumped myself unto the lone chair. He wasn't going to let it slide.

"I'm scared." He blinked repeatedly.

"Sorry I think I zoned out coz I heard you say something that sounded like I'm scared."

"That's what I said."
Once he got over his shock, he leaned towards me.

"Why?"

"This case screams wrong. We had to cancel our leave for it, the victim was passionately murdered, possibly by her own daughter and now I have to go camp in a murder site, it's all wrong."

His brows scrunched together in thought as they always did when we were comparing clues.

"I can see how this scares you and honestly it does scare me a bit too but we can't run away from it. Even if we turned in our resignations COD would still manage to get us on the case. Kay, you are not alone in this, I will be there with you, as usual." A faint smile appeared on his lips as he said the last words.

"Shut up. You are just grateful that you aren't the one who has to camp there."
He shrugged.

"Why don't you take today off? Gather your bearings and start tomorrow. I will handle things there for now."