Chapter 5 5

Agnieska's point of view

At the masked hotel

I ran out of the restaurant and headed directly to meet my father at the masked hotel, he had texted me that for every minute he spent without seeing me, he would cut off the fingers of the man he asked me to torture and send a picture to me and I certainly knew he wasn't bluffing.

We walked into the hotel to take a room for the night. We had been sour to each other the entire evening since we met. Ryūji was mad that I pushed my responsibility to Conquer-Them. He had asked that I torture one of our men that we discovered has been stealing from us and I left this task to Conquer-Them because he seems to enjoy the exercise

"I believe that as my son you need to carry out certain duties to earn yourself a reputation that people would respect."

"You mean fear?" I protested.

"Fear is respect!" My father scolded me.

"No one ever gained respect from people cowering around them, it just makes them loathe you." I mutter and he goes silent.

Conquer-Them was my best friend, the one person I loved, trusted and cared for most, but to hear my father threaten me that much because I didn't pick up his call was just disgusting to me so I decided to ignore the man.

My father runs a tight shift in all his establishments, he believes there is a particular way that things should be done, and if they are done any other way, then a room for confusion and chaos will be created. He always made sure to pay for the services in all his establishments before or as they were being provided to him and he expected his family members to do the same.

"Good afternoon, Mister Asakura, Mister Asakura, welcome to The Masked Hotel." The receptionist greeted.

"Good afternoon, Minee." He answered her greeting so sweetly.

"Good afternoon, Minee." I replied grumpily.

I met Ryuji's dagger eyes on me, he did not tolerate his staff being treated badly by anyone, not even his son.

"We'll take the usual suite, Minee."

"Of course, Mister Asakura."

"You'll be paying, Aggy."

"What?" I was lost for words.

"Yes. You will be paying for the suite today."

"You know it's your hotel, right? You can just get a room, for free."

"And cause discrepancy during record calculations? I think not. Pay up."

"If you want to be so accountable, why don't you pay?"

"Cause I want you to."

"You cheap ass." I murmur underneath my breath as I reached into my coat, taking out my wallet. I opened the wallet to take out my card but couldn't find it there, then I realized I had given it to Eyre.

"Shit"

"I don't enjoy standing, Aggy. My knees are killing me."

"I can't find my card."

"Yeah, no shit."

"No, I'm serious."

"Uh-huh, who's the cheap ass now." My father said taking out his card, he handed it to Minee to process the payment.

We were walking up the suite when he suddenly asked, "how did you know the journalist would get the job done and not compromise?"

"She already has a record of successful cases and that was convincing."

"Not enough to stake our business on."

"She has this history with drug related crimes and she's much more interested in solving such cases."

"It's good to know you thought it through and didn't just stake our business and organization on the altar of trust."

"What did you tell her you do?"

"That I am a businessman"

"And she accepted this literally?"

"I can be quite convincing"

"I still hope this decision does not bite us one day". He said and walk slowly into his room.

Eyre's point of view

I was at work the next day arranging my table, filing out things in their right order. I always uncontrollably make a mess whenever I'm saddled with tough cases that take up my time and need extra effort. The Victor case which I just finished working on was one of those cases but surprisingly it was not as time consuming as I originally thought it would be.

Isaiah had been giving me a terrible stare from her own desk all morning and I had chosen to ignore her and act unconcerned, but now she was making it too obvious. She would roll on her chair back and forth, whistling children poems like a deranged horror movie villain.

I finally got tired of pretending and echoed,

"Okay! Isaiah, what is the problem?"

"Me? Absolutely nothing." She shrugged with childish innocence.

"Then stop hovering about me like some stalker."

"Orrrr..." She stood up, still dragging her words as she walked to my table, "okay, then. Spill it." She looked straight into my eyes.

"What do you want and what's there to spill?" I asked weakly.

"The balls of this motherfucker!" Isaiah chuckled like a fanatical villain visibly exhausted by my jokes.

"You had a super hot date with a super hot source and you come in here on this super boring day and refuse to raise the spirit of your super sexy yet bored friend: me, about how your date went?"

"Oh my God."

"Uh-huh. Isaiah, we are not friends, we're colleagues."

"Erm, Potato potato."

"No, they are entirely different things."

"Not to me. So, how did it go?"

"I'm not telling you about my personal life, Isaiah."

"Oh come on!" She said almost pleading.

"Eyre!!!" A thunderous voice echoed all over the office complex.

"Oh Lord, save me." I mutter all frustrated and facepalmed.

"The British dinosaur is calling." Isaiah chuckle as she moonwalked back to her seat muttering "you owe me a date report."

I dragged my grumpy self to the chief editor's office, a middle aged man who makes boring jokes and thinks shouting is him proving a point. He'd shout even when the person he's talking to is right in front of him.

"Terry." I called after knocking on the door.

"Get in!" He spoke loudly.

"Good morning, Terry." I greeted while still standing back.

I didn't want my eardrums blown to hell by his microphone-like voice nor to be bathed by the drums of saliva shooting out his mouth as he speaks.

"It's one o'clock in the afternoon and there's nothing good about today."

"Why is that, Terry?"

"Fifteen girls are missing, Eyre. Fifteen!" He emphasized loudly on the last 'fifteen.'

"Oh my gosh, that is awful. Is the police aware?"

"Well, those lazy corrupt wackos aren't going to and cannot do jack. It is up to -"

"Me." I took the word right off his lips. "Yes, I know."

"Don't interrupt me when I am in speech mode, Eyre."

"Sure, Terry. Fire away."

"As a journalist, it is your duty to go the extra mile and find what the police and lawyers can't. It is your calling to be the tongue of fire that burns down the fields of the corrupt and evil. It is your obligation to be the shield that guards the realms of men."

"That's a new one, "Realms of men." What happened to "the innocent?"

"Well, hardly anyone is innocent nowadays."

"So you reckoned you'd just steal a popular line from what is probably the most popular series ever?"

"What?" Terry asked with extreme confusion, he honestly had no idea what I was talking about.

"Nevermind. Where's the information you have?"

"Here." Terry said as he pulls out a thin file from his desk's drawer and hands it to me.

"Earliest disappearance was two weeks ago. Most recent was two days ago."

"This is it?" I asked with so much disappointment as I flipped through the pages of paper in the file, it barely had any lead except the photographs and other details of the missing girls.

"Uh-huh. Remember, you're the investigative journalist. It's your job to investigate and gather details."

"Oh my God." I said in frustration, getting up to begin walking out of the office.

"You can start by questioning the victims' family members!" Terry raised his voice like he was commanding.

"Don't tell me how to do my job, Terry!" I shouted back in anger and banged the door shut as I exited the office.

He stood by the window, shouting "Oi, take Isaiah with you through the investigation."

"What? Why?" I exclaimed looking back at Terry's office.

"She's been a bench warmer. She needs to experience field life."

"And you thought it would be a good idea for her first field work to be with me?"

"You are the best, aren't you?"

"Not at babysitting!"

"I do not care, Cheshire. Go with Isaiah, that is an order."

"Urh!" I grunted in frustration as I stomped my right foot and stormed back to my desk.

The entire office had paused to watch this week's episode of "Eyre vs Terry." Our loud exchanges and quarrels were nothing new to anyone who had worked here for up to a month. We were always disagreeing about one thing or the other but somehow always find a way to resolve our issues. Working with Isaiah certainly meant double the workload, the explanations she'll need and the orientation on how to handle cases such as this will be a stressful thing for me to do.