The Symbologist

Chapter 18

Every officer seemed to welcome and greet Jones as she stepped inside the station and headed to her office. Although Jones was used to the attention, it still felt odd, but as always, she shook it off coolly and greeted the officers with a nod of her head, something she had observed from the commissioner back when she was just starting out.

"DI Jones, you're back on the case, I hear!" Officer Bridget grinned, getting up to greet Jones eye-to-eye.

Jones nodded, "If you'll excuse me, I should get started on the case right away."

"Of course, of course! My bad," Officer Bridget practically shouted as he clapped Jones on the back.

Wiping some spit off her cheek, Jones nodded once again and headed to her office. Officer Bridget was, by far, her least favorite officer on the force. Opening the door to her office, the first thing she noticed was her missing name-tag. That name-tag had dutifully sat on her office desk for many good years and Jones couldn't remember a time when she or anyone else, for that matter, had removed it. Victims' faces were splayed across her desk and Jones walked over to her desk and took a seat. As soon as she sat down, she felt something was off. Either Sugars had ruined the comfort of her chair or...looking at the victims' faces, a feeling of familiarity struck her. Sure, her mother was there, but there was something else....Ever since Jones had seen the bodies of DI Sugars and Sergeant Carla Lostin lying on the cracked pavement, she sensed something fishy was going on with this case....

After finding her name-tag in the small trash can beside her desk, Jones took out the notepad the commissioner had handed her earlier at the crime scene. Opening it to the first page, Jones began to read all the notes Sergeant Carla Lostin had taken during her time on the case, and let me tell you, it was a lot. Sergeant Carla was one of those officers who wrote their entire thought processes down. Reading it was exhausting...but there was quite a lot of information in it that DI Jones did not know.

Later in the day, DI Jones grabbed a late night snack and went home, Ari's place, to finish going over what she had learned from Sergeant Lostin-Sergeant Carla's notepad. To make it all visually easier, she decided she would write down what was important down on her own notepad that she carried around everywhere, like writers often did. That way, nothing would be repeated twice and everything would be shorter and much simpler, right to the point.

"Back so soon?" Ari asked, looking up from her writing, "You could've called me to come pick you up, silly."

Jones took off her shoes and hung her keys on one of the pink kitty-shaped hooks by the door, "You needed to write your story and I needed the walk to process things."

"If you say so!" Ari chirped, shrugging, "I bought you dinner. It needs to be heated up though."

She turned her attention back to her story and Jones inwardly groaned, "You didn't get it from that place around the corner did you?"

Although Ari's back was turned to her, Jones thought she heard the girl snort. "I did."

"I'm guessing you also got the one dish I hate," Jones stated, knowing there was no point in arguing with Ari.

"That dish is delicious!" Ari countered, "I'm offended that you would think otherwise!"

Jones ignored her and walked over to the kitchen. Food was food and Ari was letting her stay at her apartment, so Jones couldn't be picky. Grabbing a plate and a fork, Jones heaped the spicy noodles onto her plate. Ever since she was born, she had hated noodles. She had no clue why.

"How far along in your story are you?" Jones asked Ari as she set her plate down on the small, two-person dining table.

"Hm...." Ari took a second before looking up, "What'd you say?"

It always took Ari a second to return to reality. "I asked you how far along you are in your story," Jones repeated.

"Oh!" Ari hopped off her chair and practically ran over to the dining table, "So!"

"My main character, Ambrosia-"

"Wait," Jones held up a finger as she swallowed her food, "Why do you name your main character Ambrosia for every single story?"

"Oh! Well, some are sequels...others...I just like the name, I guess!" Ari explained, grinning.

"Anyway! As I was saying, my main character, Ambrosia, is a girl who loves pink and has a best friend who's always serious and all business."

"Sounds like someone I know," Jones said between bites.

"Yes!" Ari's grin turned mischievous, "Ambrosia's best friend, Alacia, makes a big discovery...dan-dan-dan!!!"

"Very interesting," Jones said absentmindedly.

Ari scrunched up her nose and raised a brow, "Aren't you even the least bit curious?"

"Yes...." Jones looked up from her food, "Sorry, there's just so much on my mind right now. I'd love to read your story when you're finished."

Ari nodded and slid off her seat, walking over to Jones and giving her a gentle hug. She didn't give Jones one of her usual bone-crushing hugs. No, this one was tender and understanding. No words were needed. That hug, it said it all.