The Disguised Assassin

“She used the manhole to escape sir,” John argued with his boss. “She must have escaped in a manhole before I even looked under the trailer. If we hurry now and go check the sewers, I’m sure we will find clues that will show that she was in the sewers. And maybe even find out her precise location.”

Richard looked at John keenly and said, “how sure are you about that? You made a conclusion that she was under the trailer and you checked but she wasn’t there. And now you’re making another blind conclusion that she used the sewer tunnel? Can you prove that?”

John paused and dug his hands in his pocket. He could not prove it. He had this intuition that she might have used the tunnels and he won’t know until they checked the sewers.

“You can’t keep on going at this blindly. You need pure proof before you come to any conclusion. If we all go with our intuition, all of our cases would be mere wild goose chases,” Richard said with a loud sigh. “Come meet me when you have something much more important and reasonable to tell me, John,” he said as he waved his hands at John, dismissing him.

John left his office with anger brewing inside of him. How were they going to find the girl? His boss wasn’t even acting like he wanted to continue the investigations. He was just cold feet on the whole matter.

As John walked to his office, his mind was running with different thoughts. He wasn’t watching where he was going as he bumped into someone and he dropped the files he was holding.

“So sorry,” John said as he bent down and helped him with the files. He got up after packing the papers and was about handing it to the person when he saw who it was. He paused on his tracks, lost without words. “D-dad?” he stuttered after finding his voice. “What are you doing here?”

“Hey, John,” he muttered with a small smile. “I came to actually meet your boss and submit some files for the revenue produced for the police department. He’s going to distribute it. And I also wanted to use that medium to apologize for how our last conversation ended.”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“No, dad,” John mumbled. “There’s no need for you to apologize. I actually want to apologize myself for blaming you without cause.”

Damien nodded at his words and said, “it’s alright, John. I totally understand why you said what you said and did what you did.”

“No,” John muttered. “I shouldn’t have even done any of what I did. You’re my father and you’re always looking out for my best. I should not have blamed you for something that you’re not even capable of doing.” He dug his hands into his pocket and brought out the house key his father had given it.

“Oh, the key,” Richard muttered with a sigh. “You can give it back now,” he said as he made to grab the keys but John swerved it away from his hands.

“I didn’t bring it out to give it back to you,” John said with a slight smile. “I’m actually moving into the house now.” Richard’s smiled slowly as he heard John’s words.

“I’m glad you’ve come to see why I did what I did,” he said with a smile. “I will call the moving company to ship some furniture and accessories to the house. When they’re ready, I’ll tell you so you can move in.”

“Thanks, dad,” John croaked. “I have to get going now. Will see you later.” Damian nodded and turned to go while John continued his walk to his office.

“John,” John heard Justin call out to him before he could walk into his office. He turned and saw him walking down the hallway towards me. He had some files in his hands and his eyes were red. Probably from the fact that he didn’t sleep well last night. He had constantly kept waking up and watching TV and now he was paying for it.

“Watsup, Justin,” John said as Justin walked up to him.

“Have you told Richard about it yet?” he asked and John nodded.

“I told him but he really doesn’t believe me,” John said and Justin shrugged.

“He might not believe you but that doesn’t actually stop you from doing something about it though,” Justin said and John looked at him, confused.

“What do you mean?” he mumbled. “There’s nothing I can do about it. He told me to leave the whole thing and that’s what I’m going to do.” He then turned and was about entering the office when Justin held him back.

“C’mon,” Justin said. “I have never known you to be someone who gives up easily. And I don’t expect you to now.”

“What do you expect me to do, then?” John asked. “I can’t conduct a search without the knowledge and approval of Richard. If he finds out, who knows what might happen to me?”

Justin smirked wildly and said, “who said we were conducting a search officially?”

John looked at him with his brow raised and asked, “what do you mean?”

“How about we go play some Sherlock Holmes amd Watson?”

*********

John and Justin took a drive to the place where they had stopped the trailer the other day. They stepped out of the car and walked up to the spot where the trailer had parked.

“This is where the vehicle was parked,” Justin muttered. “See any clue?”

John looked at the ground as he searched for something. His eyes widened as he found what he was looking for.

A manhole.

He walked up to the manhole and saw that it was slightly opened.

“Justin, come,” he said as he motioned for Justin to come over.

“What’s it, John?” Justin asked John as he walked up to him. “What are we looking at here.” John pointed to the half open manhole. There was a bloody handprint on it too.

“There,” he said with a smile. “This proves that my intuition was correct.”