Chapter 2 2

Eyre's point of view

I woke up after turning and tossing on the bed without getting much sleep, picked up my phone from the lampstand beside my bed and realized it was only 3am. I knew trying to sleep would be unfruitful, so I got up and decided to start writing the report on my last case.

The case was about a lady who was kidnapped and tortured by her boyfriend because he found out she was cheating on him. I personally have a strong opinion about meting out punishment to people for their crimes but only that this should be done by the law, and unfortunately cheating in relationships isn't really a crime.

I was still trying to finish up the report when I got a message from my mom inviting me for a family dinner, checking my phone I realized the time was racing ahead and it was almost 9am. I hastily ran a bath, came into my bedroom, looked through the pile of clothes and couldn't find what to wear. I finally decided on my go-to pieces of clothing: black pants and a top with a jacket paired with long boots. I loosely tied my hair behind my back with a band, I took a minute to look at myself in the mirror and thought it too late to make a few adjustments to my look. My mother had told me on several occasions that I reek of someone who pays less attention to her appearance.

I packed up my work essentials and took a final look around, it would be nice to take a day and clean up my apartment, I thought, stepping out of the apartment into the street only to realize that the city had woken up much earlier than I expected, I normally would have a breakfast of sandwich and coffee at home before leaving but I was far behind time.

After waiting for almost an eternity I finally flagged down a cab with no passenger, and headed to my workplace. A fifteen minute drive brings us to the building complex. I got out of the cab and muttered a "thank you" to the driver who zoomed off almost immediately. Why I do that was still a mystery to me but then it doesn't hurt to be appreciative at least that's what I was taught.

The building held a café, firms, top companies, housing apartments including the media house I work for. I walked in briskly with long strides, mom had always told me that my long legs can not afford me to take slow walks and I have never really had a reason not to appreciate them as the legs have proven quite useful in this line of work: they've helped me out well when I needs to hasten my movement.

I walked into the café to get breakfast before taking the elevator up to the part of the building that her office is in.

"Good morning, Miss Eyre"

"Morning, Leslie"

"The usual?"

"Yeah, can I get a sandwich with it too?"

"Any special way you would like your sandwich?"

"Nah, I'm fine with the regular"

"Alright, Ma'am, I'll have your order ready in a minute"

I paid and left the café, heading to my office. I met my colleague, Isaiah, a beautiful lady in her mid twenties with beautiful, sharp features and an insatiable curiosity for gossip, she welcomed me with queries and a queer look.

"You look like a mess, did you get any sleep?"

I stared at her roughly and said

"I'll get to sleep long and hard when I'm gone but right now, there are a lot of crimes to uncover."

"There will always be crimes to solve, you only have to be healthy to solve them."

Isaiah handed me an envelope containing a wedding invitation from one of my distant cousins.

"I thought to brighten up your morning with this and I hope you will actually go for this one, the days off work will do you much good and it's a wedding in Sicily!"

I opened the envelope, glanced through it and threw it in a bin, looked up and saw Isaiah's piercing look.

"We'll just send her a gift and a nice excuse." As a lover of weddings that she was, I said this hoping it pacified he.

"You don't have to be so cold, a lot of people would jump on this offer, think about it this way; it's a chance to take a tour and best case scenario you find yourself a nice, romantic Sicilian man"

"On a wedding trip? Isn't that too short a time to find love?"

"Nah, love happens when you least expect it and on no specific timing."

"Yeah, it does, in movies. Besides I don't even remember what this darling cousin of mine looks like, it's been ages since we last spoke too. I'm certain my mom has a hand in this."

"You just need to appreciate love more, the universe has a way of bringing you what you need."

"I'd appreciate a cup of coffee now, universe."

She rolled her eyes and trots back to her desk leaving me to settle in.

It was mid afternoon and I was making final touches on the report I had written this morning about the last case I handled when Isaiah walked in and handed me a file.

"I'm sure this will gain more of your attention," she said, still sulking. "The boss is out, says it's an emergency and he specifically asked I give this to you."

I gave the file a quick look and proceeded to open it. In it was the profile and picture of a man in his fifties with a stout look,

"Victor Itsuki," I slowly muttered the name to myself.

The job was to investigate this man whom just after reading his profile I could answer a thousand questions on money laundering and drug trafficking. From the detailed profile, I knew Victor owned conglomerates across America, and was a wealthy and successful businessman.

These cases were tough and slick, one would need enough evidence to convict them before making any formal report of the case, and the perpetrators know just how hard it is to find these evidence against them since they owned multiple streams of income and investments, anyone could easily excuse their crime in the name of them being honest entrepreneurs. And I knew that any wrong move could harm not just me but my getting to the truth. I decided that caution and precision would be my approach to this case.

I vividly remember working on a similar case when I was barely six months into the job and it almost cost me my life, I dove head in into with the investigation with naivety, questioning the suspect's employees, making formal reports and I even went as far as interviewing the man in his office, or in other words , blatantly accusing him of the crimes. But unknown to me, he had gotten the news about the investigation, concealed and destroyed most of the evidence even before I got there. It almost cost me my career too because the suspect filed a case after for defamation of character, slander and a lot of words I cannot remember, then the case had to be closed for lack of evidence, I barely made it out unscathed. This was one major case of my career that I wish I had done better in but still it served as a lesson for I learnt not to make a complaint without enough facts.

I closed the file, set it aside and went back to finish up the report. I did and handed it in to Terry's office since he was out on a family emergency. I met Isaiah at the corridor while heading back to my office

"What will you have for lunch? I'm going out to grab something and I can get yours too." She asked

"I would like to have... how about we just go together and I'll eat out today. Lunch is on me."

"You're okay, right?"

"Yeah?"

"You barely eat outside of your cubicle, what happened?"

"Let's just say I'm finally warming up to your ideas."

"Is this because of what happened with Jeff? I know people started behaving weird after a break up."

She hit a nerve but I ignored it

"I'm just going out to grab lunch with a co-worker and there's nothing weird about that."

"I heard there's a new restaurant a few blocks from here, how about we check it out." I added trying to change the subject

"Yeah, there is. But you being eager to check out a restaurant makes this more unusual."

I know I had failed and just decided to be quiet till we get to the restuarant.

I came back to my office after lunch, picked up the file and was still going through it, working on the best strategy for the job when my office phone rang, jerking me. I had not realized how deeply I was concentrating on the file until the phone rang. I picked up the phone, half cursing and hoping it was not one of those spam calls.

"Hello, am I speaking with Miss Eyre Cheshire?" A calm and overly confident voice asked.

"Yes, you are. May I know who is calling?"

"Not yet. I'm calling to set up a meeting with you at the café next to your office by 4pm. It's about the Victor Itsuki's case"

And the line went dead

"Hello, hello!"

I dialed the number back but I was told the line was out of service.