CHAPTER 487: RAID THE ABODE (2)

The case smelled of mold and failure. It was basically a recipe for a fiasco, and Leon knew that, even before he had started any actions on it.

Leon dropped the new case file and practically sat like a dead sandbag in his seat. He was truly tired, but he was never one to let this show.

Leon knew why their Chief had given him that case, but maybe even Evans did not. Most of Leon’s most recent achievements had been practically thrown to him by Ian... from the famous Wendover drug case to that of even the Prosecutor who had handled it, amongst others.

He knew very well that it would be a tough road ahead of him, and it was as if his Chief who wanted to give him a reality check.

’Am I that useless? So much that I cannot do things on my own?’ Leon lamented, wishing that he had handled at least one of the cases on his own, without Ian’s resources, as he opened another file on his desk. The file that he now knew like the back of his hand.

Evans, not far from Leon, yanked his stained shirt off with a large snarl, dumping it in a garbage bin off to the side. Sweat poured off him, not from any exercise but the haywire emotions, especially looking at how his favourite shirt was ruined.

’I’ll note down every single one of them, and when I do get the chance, they will regret it!’

He wrenched open his drawer, simultaneously grabbing another shirt more forcefully than necessary. His fingers paused as the fabric bunched in his fist. He quickly slipped it over his naked upper body and then opened the file they had been given to take another look, still not understanding why Leon had stopped him from lashing out.

It was then that he also gasped as he noted a key element of that case.

"This is an out-of-land case?"

To the precinct, an out-of-land assignment was one, that didn’t even make it to the usual drawing board anymore. It was just a sticky note slapped on a desk as senior officers would brief the relevant parties on what needed to be done. It was usually a flimsy case that was sometimes passed along with a pitying glance and a shrug.

It usually referred to a petty theft or a similar kind of case, but it was usually related to one of the other surrounding islands that no one cared nor dared to visit. The conditions were difficult over there on those smaller islands and that was why most people in the force detested it.

Rookies cut their teeth on it, the greenest ones, fresh out of the academy and still wide-eyed with misplaced purpose. Those were the ones who were happy to receive such.... But after completing or even attempting it, they would understand their seniors’ reaction. Cases on the other small islands were considered an initiation ceremony of a sort.

No one said it aloud, but it was common knowledge — if that landed on your desk, you were done. You’d fallen. It was the department’s silent way of kicking you while smiling. The kind of work that said: You’re not trusted with real cases anymore. The kind that required no badge, just the patience to be ignored and the ego to be shredded.

The file did not make sense in Leon and Evans’ case. This was a cold case that was about twenty years old. How the hell did the chief think that they could even as much as solve that within the given timeframe?

Evans realized it: It was where dead-end detectives went to rot—a job for ghosts in uniform.

Never did he ever imagine that it would get to them .... but now, it had their names on it.

Leon was not paying attention to Evans’ rants. Leon had already made all of this analysis in the short walk back to the office. The Chief wanted to set them up for failure. It was a fact that this was an unsolvable case... but there remained that tiny possibility that they might find something.

Leon knew that the Chief needed something more to bring him down, as the Chief perceived Leon as a threat in the workplace and was jealous that Leon had Ian’s backing and not his.

Leon’s mind was temporarily on the other file on his desk. He looked at the missing girl’s picture in the case they had been investigating - Shelby’s case. As always, Shelby’s startling blue eyes were like never before.

Mrs Thornston was a beauty that didn’t quite belong in this or any world - delicate, haunting, dangerous, but a kind soul, nonetheless. This was the main reason Leon did not believe the nonsense streaming in the main media. No man would leave a beauty like Shelby for any reason... it was impossible.

For someone who could trance a whole room of men and women just by existing, it was impossible for any man to look another way. All other women looked like decorative background to Shelby... so who in even their distorted mind would leave such a woman? And for another ’lesser’ one? This was a fact that Leon firmly believed in.

He flipped the next page to see Shelby’s assistant and sighed, believing that this man had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had met Murray, and from the way Murray adored his mistress submissively, Leon did not for once believe that he would even consider such romantic thoughts against Shelby.

Leon did commend the audacity of the woman calling herself Ian’s wife, for he had met Aliya in the other case of the recovered body. Leon knew... it was a gut instinct, and he was subconsciously waiting for that time, when Ian was well enough or Ian’s forces take action against this Aliya person whom Leon believed to be a witch or bitch... whichever one suited her best!

"Leon, I know you always try to look at the positives in anything, but this case is practically a demotion!"

"So?"

"What do you mean by that? They wan-"

"You know that he is going all out, and you know what he wants to do, so what are you going to do about it?"

"What do you mean? I-"

"Evans ...." Leon run his hands over his tired face,

"Let’s get to work on it."

"But-"

"We owe Mr Thornston... so we’ll use the little time we have to research Mrs Shelby Thornston’s case as well. I think the clue lies in the new woman-"

"Why do you say so?"

"I don’t know... I just have a hunch." Leon added, then took the new case file from Evans and opened it.

"You’ve met the woman ... do you think that she is someone that Ian would adore to that extent as advertised in the media?"

Evans put on his thinking face, "Come to think of it, you’re right, Leon. Anyway ...."

"Since we must go to that remote island, anyway, let’s just familiarize ourselves with the cold case and dig as much as possible. We know we might not be able to solve it, but let’s find a breakthrough so that the Chief cannot use us as scapegoats for whatever he is cooking."

Evans nodded, getting more impressed with Leon with each word that fell out.

"First, book us a passage on the next outgoing boat.... Then...."

Leon barked out instructions and then the two sprang into their respective actions

After a while they went out and into an archive room together. They spent the next few days going through every relevant and irrelevant material to the new cold case but also used the time to go through Shelby’s as well.

They’d been locked in that musty archive room for hours on the third day, making their colleagues scoff at them, when Leon found something unexpected. This was a place that no one ever wanted to be, not to mention sit in.

It held forgotten files, flickering lights, and broken chairs that squeaked in protest every time someone even as much as shifted. They sometimes called it a glorified closet, for it had no windows. It wasn’t their main archive room, but a sub one, which was a closed-door review, holding cold cases that no one cared about anymore.

When Leon was engaged, nothing bothered him, and from spending so much time with him, Evans had also learned it.

But somewhere between the sarcasm and the sighs, that detail slipped out — a seemingly irrelevant, overlooked footnote buried deep in one of the old reports. It was a name.... one that Leon and every other person were more than familiar with. It seemed like an unlikely coincidence, or maybe... a pattern.

Suddenly, the unwanted task wasn’t just an insult anymore.

It was a lead ... if handled right

"Hand me James Wendover’s file ...."

"Why do you need that?" Evans asked, perplexed, but he could still see an excited glint in Leon’s eyes that puzzled him.

"If this is what I think it is, then we might just have stumbled upon a missing piece in the most unlikely of places!"

Evans dropped what he was doing and then turned to leave as the requested files were more in the recent cases and not the cold case room. He thought long and hard on what the dead James could have to do with their current task, but Leon was never one to divulge until, he was sure.

"Evans?"

"You know what you have to do right?"

Evans stopped and then smiled suddenly,

"Of course! I am no fool!"

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