My mouth open and shut in a desperate attempt at making words come out. Nothing happened. Natalia pressed her eyebrows together angrily as if she was as irritated, if not more, as I was at the situation.
"Ten minutes earlier." She snapped to herself, "and that could have been avoided. Damn it! Why am I so stupid?" She cursed.
We were sitting in her office now, the majority of the work we needed to get done at the scene of the crime done. The murderer, who had nearly killed me and Natalia both, was now missing once again and frankly I was sure both me and Natalia wanted to wring his little neck.
Natalia's office was small and very cheap. The cubical which she spent most of her time in was surrounded by a cheap plastic, from about ten maybe twenty feet you could mistake it for glass. It was had a bulletin board covering the right wall and the back wall. The surface of the board was covered in maps, résumés, and case files. It probably had some kind of organization to it but whatever it was, it wasn't obvious.
In the middle of her office was a small wooden desk. It took up nearly 80% of the space and you had to squeeze around it on either side to get through the office. But still, this place was almost like a second home to me now.
"Well, I don't know what we could have done differently." I sighed rubbing my index finger and thumb against my temples. Natalia looked down at her lap, her platinum blonde bangs draping over her pale and now crinkled up forehead.
She had taken her hair out of the braid. The platinum locks fell over her shoulders and past her back in waved cascades. She ran a quick hand through the length of the hair and then tapped neutral colored, long fingernails on the wood of her desk. Small dents and gouges in the wood told you that she did this a lot and at some points with a bit too much strength.
"Not gone to my house for one." Natalia snapped, she obviously put a large bit of the blame on herself, although, if anyone, it should have been me that blamed themself. A wizard in that close of an area to me and I couldn't feel a thing out of the ordinary. I'm pathetic.
"It's not your fault." I tried to assure her.
"It is." She growled, I knew she would get over it soon enough but still she seemed so sincere about her frustrations.
"Alright, let's just get this Q and A thing over with so we can both go home and sleep. It's nearly midnight." I reminded her in a feeble attempt to get her out of her pitiful mindset.
"Fine," She said after a long moment's pause. "Do you have any idea who this man could have been?" A very vague question.
"A wizard." I told her sarcastically. She didn't as much as raise an eyebrow at the attempted joke.
"Next," She grumbled, "Any recognition of his magic, his voice, did you see him?" Natalia sent the questions rapid-fire in my direction.
"No," I began to answer, "You can't really recognize one person's magic from another. There isn't a specific color or feel to it. All you really know is that it's magic and you probably shouldn't get to close to it." Natalia sighed and motioned for me to continue, "As for the voice, I've never heard it before in my life. He sounded British or from somewhere around there." I told her, she nodded again this time looking up at me through her long bangs. My heart did a bit of a leap in my chest when I met her eyes. I brushed off the feeling and continued, "No. I didn't see him. Sorry I can't be of much help Talia." She shrugged and stood.
"That's all I have for now." Her velvet voice told me, "I'll drive you back to the bar." I informed me and packed up her items before heading down the hall and down the stairs towards the parking lot.
Cold air, and surprisingly no rain, assaulted the two of us as we stepped out of the old, brick, building. Natalia pushed through it like it was nothing. Living most of her life in Russia probably made her immune to the cold or something like that.
We both stepped into her car and I glared at the door, knowing that deep down, it was glaring back. Natalia didn't attempt to make any conversation with me until we were out onto the main road. Instead she flicked on the radio and sat in silence.
"It starts at my toes and I-" with a quick hand Natalia changed the channel, "You wanna know how to make me smile, take control-" Another quick change in the channel, "-Crazy bitch, but you –" She stiffened at this one and shot an angry glance over at me as if I was to blame.
"Don't look at me." I put up my hands in defense. Finally Natalia decided on pulling out one of her CD's and popping it into the slot above the radio.
Smooth music started out the song and then with a jolt of noise it started in on a loud guitar solo. She looked completely appeased by the music until I reached forward and turned down the sound,
"Hey, Talia?" I asked her, she looked up at me with cold, exhausted eyes.
"What?" She demanded and then flashed her eyes back onto the road.
"What do you do when you aren't at work?" I asked. She let out a long breath but didn't answer. Her eyes still glued to the road.
"Work." She told me. I chuckled,
"You mean you never go out with your friends or something?" I instantly regretted it, I knew she probably didn't have much friends.
"All of my friends are back in Russia." She told me her eyes harsh and empty. She missed Russia and I knew it.
"How long you live in Russia?" I asked, these were questions that I should probably know already. Considering we had worked together for several years now.
"Only 1. I lived in Belarus the rest of the time." She made a quick right turn into the bar's parking lot and stopped the car in the spot.
"Can't get a ride home?" I asked, she shook her head,
"Opposite way then the one I'm going." I smiled at the response and hesitantly reached over to her. I had no idea what I was doing but there was no going back now. I patted her cheek. Her hand flashed up and swatted mine away. Shaking my head I noticed that her hand lingered on mine a bit too long and she swiftly pulled it away.
"Get out of my car, Jones." She sighed her tone venomous. I didn't budge from my spot once I regained my hand,
"Hey, about that friend thing…"
"What about it?" Natalia demanded her eyes finally turning to meet mine.
"Do you want to do something sometime?" I asked, my hopes up and through the roof. Shrugging she said simply,
"Maybe." Playing hard to get, or maybe not playing at all. I couldn't decide.
"Saturday, I'll pick you up at eight?" I asked she didn't answer and I smiled, "See ya then. Drive safe now." I told her as I clambered out of the car and slammed the door a bit harder then necessary. That'll teach the damn thing to mess with me.
I watched as Natalia drove away into traffic. Standing there in the dark, right outside a bar, in the freezing cold might have sounded good for some people, but not for this guy. I turned once Natalia was out of eyesight and made for home.
Thoughts flashed through my head. There was something wrong with just about everything now wasn't there? Murders one after the other, some Spanish chick that probably killed her husband, Natalia throwing a self-pity party and I was the quest of honor, besides that I think I might be getting a romantic feeling for Natalia and even more to add I just asked her out on a date.
I shook my head to clear it, but this did little good. The murderer was two feet away from me! Two! I couldn't even catch him then. I remember his voice, the way he smelt even, but why couldn't I have seen his face? Why were there no fingerprints or even shoe prints on the bathtub or curtain? How did that female officer die while there were so many others surrounding her? It all amazed me. Was I just that horrible?
On top of that I had little to no leads on this missing person.
To top even that I had to figure out a way to impress Natalia in only two short days!
No. I'm the hero! I had to remember this. I needed to get one job done and then the next. My main focus right now shouldn't be Natalia, it should be the murders, then the missing dude and then Natalia.
I pressed my hands together and sighed. I would figure this out one way or another. I just would have to think. I thought about it the rest of the way home, it didn't even once come close to being fixed.
Stepping down the stairs towards my apartment Tony rammed against my legs again. I scratched his head absentmindedly and made to open the door. He rushed in before I could even blink, but then he slowed and backed up to me once again.
Sitting on one of my sofas was none other than Francis. He had a smug smile on and only had one body guard at his side.
"What a home you have here." He smiled falsely and motioned for me to come over. His eyebrows wriggled in an odd fashion and made me even more suspicious,
"I'll take that as a compliment." I said with as much assertiveness in my voice as I could possible muster up.
"You should." Francis moved long slender fingers to join in front of his face. "I'm generally one to sweet talk but I can't seem to find any extra time to further discuss my proposition." I moved coolly to go sit across from him on the opposite couch, my fingers tightly wrapped in a fist in the pocket of my jacket.
"Alright." I said as if prodding him to continue,
"I want your answer for our little deal." Smirking I sat back, attempting to look completely under control of this situation,
"You hardly gave me time to consider it, not even 24 hours." I remarked, Francis looked hurt, another ruse.
"Oh but you see I am all of a sudden being rushed out of town." He winked, "A friend of mine from France desperately is requiring my assistance." A sellable story, but I wasn't in the market for cheese.
"Please send him my best wishes." I told him attempting to sound as cool as possible.
"I shall." Francis nodded, "Now, about that deal." He was obviously in too much of a hurry to pretend to kiss my ass, so I wrapped it up.
"I'm not a monkey that can be torn away from justice by low-life rich sons of bitches like you Francis. I cost more than money. So don't hold your breath about that deal because you'll sooner turn blue and die than me accepting dirty money from a man that would sell his own grandmother's teeth to make a quick buck." I internally smiled at myself, but Francis didn't even look fazed at my sudden furious exterior.
"I see." Francis, "Then we are no longer n a first name basis, Mr. Jones. Please refer to me as Bonnefoy and as well as that you will be seeing a few of my friends few shortly in regards to make you…reconsider this horrible decision." I stood and pointed at the door,
"Get out of my house, Bonnefoy." I snapped, "I hear you have a plane to catch."
"So I do." Francis smiled calmly and led his lackey out the door. Once I was sure he was gone I sat down again and moaned, what the HELL did I just get myself into?
