Banishing Evil

(Chapter 2)

The next morning, Raye returned to the department, headache free with new determination to solve the case. There was a certain feeling in her gut that today was going to be a great day. She felt fresh and clean and was in a pretty good mood. The sun was rising steadily in the sky, slowly waking the world.

When she walked inside, she saw Yaten with his head resting on his desk. Clearly he spent the night here because his hair was a big mess. The same goes for his desk. Papers were scrambled all over the place. The cup that contained his pencils and pens was tipped over, with its contents spread out on his desk and the floor. Numerous drawers were left open and there was an empty coffee mug laying on its side near the edge, threatening to fall off and shatter into a million pieces.

Raye frowned with disdain at all the clutter. She was not a big fan of sloppiness. Then a thought crossed her mind. Maybe if the chief saw him sleeping on the job, she wouldn't have to work with him anymore. She knew it was really cruel, but she didn't like having partners. They either always got in the way, or were too slow.

Trying not to wake him up, she tiptoed over to her desk and turned on her computer. However, when Yaten started snoring, she nearly threw something at him to stop the annoying sound. But the thought of working solo was just too great to give up. So she just tried to ignore it and focus on work. It took Yaten about 23 minutes before he finally lifted his head from his desk, even if he wasn't fully awake. Curse the sunlight for shining directly on his face. Although, it was comical to see him dazed and confused, with a piece of paper sticking to the side of his face. And now he stopped snoring. Raye watched him with an amused expression as he cautiously looked around.

"Where am I? What time is it?" he asked, slightly slurring his words. His green eyes were blinking sleepily, and his mouth stretched open in a yawn. The suit he wore was crumpled from sleeping in it and there were bags under his eyes.

"The police department, and 9:57 A.M." Raye answered, trying not to laugh at his blank facial expression. He really was completely clueless.

Turning back to her work, she started flipping through the papers in the folder for what seemed like the billionth time. After 2 hours of searching through the contents, she dropped the papers on her desk. Raye leaned back in her chair, exhaling sharply. She was so frustrated! She would never solve this case.

"Find anything yet?" Yaten suddenly asked, causing Raye to jump.

"Did you have to creep up on me like that?" Raye demanded. She noted the way his hair was thoroughly brushed, unlike earlier today. The smell of coffee drifted to Raye's nose from his steaming coffee mug.

"Are you going to answer my question? It would be very rude of you if you didn't," Yaten retorted.

"No," Raye said, "I even dug deeper and checked his email account, but there are no threatening emails whatsoever."

"What about cellphone records?" Yaten suggested.

"I don't know. I didn't think of that," Raye admitted with a frown twisting her lips. She could've sworn that a smirk crossed his face as soon as she confessed that she made a mistake. And boy, was it a big one.

"Okay. Does the file say what phone company he had?" He asked, trying to control his joy about thinking about something before she did.

Raye quickly started shuffling through the papers on her desk, as Yaten rolled his eyes and started tapping his foot as she searched. Raye shot a glare at him, aware of his impatience.

"No," she informed him, after finding the right paper.

"What is his name again?" He said.

"Andrew Foreman."

"Alright then," Yaten murmured.

He promptly walked back to his desk. Picking up the phone, he started calling all of the local phone companies, informing them that they were speaking to a detective. After 15 minutes and numerous calls, he finally found the phone company that Andrew had. Not only were they able to fax him the document of recent calls, but they also sent him the current location of the phone. 'Thank you GPS' Yaten thought as he heard the fax machine beep.

Slamming the phone down, Yaten ran to the fax machine and picked up the piece of paper that could very well wrap up this case and find the victim. He briefly searched the document for the address, then jogged back to Raye, pointing to the address.

"There. The victim is in the abandoned warehouse on Boulevard," Yaten shouted, as he ran for the door.

Raye quickly followed behind him, with discouragement written all over her face. She felt so stupid for not thinking of the phone records. Her promotion was all but lost to her prideful parter. All because she was too ignorant to think of phone records.

During the car ride to the warehouse, Raye didn't even have to look at him to know that he carelessly wore a cocky grin. Obviously, he was proud of himself. Who wouldn't have been proud of themselves? He solved this case in a matter of 2 days. It probably would've taken her weeks to find the victim. Possibly even longer.

As they neared their destination, Yaten called for back-up. If the victim was here and still alive, then so would the kidnapper. Most likely, the kidnapper was armed. Even more likely, he wouldn't listen to a couple of detectives. But maybe he would listen to a couple of detectives and a bunch of cops, all with guns pointing at him.

Slamming on the brakes, he abruptly pulled over outside the old, neglected building. The unpleasant car ride was finally over, but that didn't stop Raye's stomach from churning. 'Either all the excitement went to his head, or he's just a really bad driver' Raye thought as she stumbled out of the car. Everything was spinning awfully fast, and her legs could barely walk in a straight line. The whole drive, he was dangerously speeding. He didn't even slow down for a turn. Not once. Every time he did turn onto a different street, Raye was sure that the car would tip over. And slamming on the brakes caused the seatbelt to choke her. 'Yeah, he's just a bad driver' Raye concluded as she leaned against the car for support.

After a few moments, her head stopped spinning and her stomach had calmed down. Yaten had already entered the building to look around. Raye hurried inside the run down warehouse. Sunlight slipped through holes in the ceiling. Crates were left out to catch dust as it fell to the ground. The plaster was peeling from the walls, and various windows were broken. Abandoned was the perfect term for this place.

They both split up, guns drawn. They couldn't take any chances now. This was a perfect place to hide someone. There were numerous crooks and crannies. There might even be secret passages that they might be hiding in. Possibly a fake wall that opened up into a secret room. The possibilities were endless.

Raye opened a door, and quickly raised her gun. Cautiously walking into the room, Raye looked around. No sign of anyone. The room was pretty small. Plus, there was no other exit. If someone did find them, the kidnapper would have no way to escape. There was no way that he would pick this room.

Just as she was about to turn around, the door slammed shut behind her. Unfortunately, there were no holes in the ceiling, leaving the room pitch black. Raye's heart started pounding against her ribs. Her stomach tied into a knot and she started trembling. There was definitely something creepy going on this place.

Swallowing, she tried to stay calm. It was probably just the wind. After all, there were many holes that could've let the wind inside. Yes, it was just the wind. There was nothing to be worried about. Raye tried to laugh her fear away. 'I can't believe that I was scared of wind' she thought, still laughing, until something furry brushed against her leg.

Raye gasped. 'That was not the wind' she thought as she tried to keep from trembling. A strange flapping noise reached her ears as it came closer. She ran for where she thought the door was, and tried in vain to find the doorknob. But there was no doorknob. The door was gone. The eerie sound kept coming closer. Closer and closer, until it was directly behind her.

Desperately, Raye began pounding her fists on the wall in front of her. She started screaming for help, hoping that somebody could hear her. Suddenly, the creature flew straight into her hair. Beating it wings, it screeched directly into her ear. Raye began screaming even louder, terror gripping her heart. Her knees were starting growing weak. Finally someone opened the door.

The person rushed to Raye, swatting the creature away from her. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw Yaten smirking at her. Raye instantly glared at him. That was a terrifying experience that she went through, and here he was inwardly laughing at her.

"You're scared of a poor, little bird?" Yaten asked with a chuckle, "Poor thing. It probably panicked when it realized that you shut the door, trapping it inside."

"I didn't shut the door. Something else did. And I'd love to see you go through everything I had to and stay completely calm," Raye retorted, still glaring at him, "Did you find anything?"

"The victim isn't here, but his phone is," Yaten explained, holding up a cracked blackberry phone.

"Are you sure that it's his phone?" Raye questioned.

"Yes. I checked the contacts list and behold, there was a Mrs. Foreman," he answered, "I think that we should ask her some questions. She might know something about her husband's disappearance."

He headed back to his car with his hands in his pockets with Raye quietly following him. She stared at her hands the entire car trip back, trying to forget the whole experience in the dark room while Yaten sped back to the police department. But waiting at the department was some unpleasant news.

"Ms. Hino, Mr. Kou, may I speak to you two in my office," the chief said as soon as they entered the building. They promptly entered his office and sat in the two chairs that were in front of his desk, waiting for him to speak. Whatever he wanted to talk to them about wasn't good because he sighed sadly before talking.

"There has been another kidnapping. This time it was a doctor. He was abducted while he was getting into his car a couple hours ago. A nurse called him in missing, saying that he was needed for an important operation. Now, you need two to go and find something substantial. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you find whoever is doing this. Dismissed," the chief hastily told them, handing Yaten a file.

Glancing at each other, they rose from the chairs and exited the office. So there has been another kidnapping.

Hey!

I promise to work on chapter 3 as soon as possible. But in the meantime, please review! It will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading!