Author note:
Hello, everyone. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy and I look forward to hear from you again. All feedback are appreciated.
Have a nice day.
Never discredit your gut feeling. Over the years, Magnum has learned not to second guess any strong feeling. At that moment, hearing the exchange between the boys, his body was picking up bad vibrations and deep down he knew something was wrong.
"You boys scared the hell out of Mr. Lee," Magnum spoke, standing in front of the boys.
The boys jerked their heads in the direction of Magnum, startled by his voice. They were so into their discussion that they didn't realize Magnum was approaching them. Their face went blank, not able to catch the meaning behind Magnum's words.
"I'm sorry?"
Magnum pointed his hand to the payment counter. "The owner." Then he pointed back to the boys, moving his pointing finger down and up in the short quick movement. "He thought he was about to get robbed."
The boys were suddenly very self-conscious of their appearances.
"Everything alright, Dennis?" Magnum asked, his eyes specifically narrowing towards the boy.
Dennis tensed, his eyes grew wide only for a second, before Magnum saw a sense of recognition in those eyes.
Dennis unconsciously passed the bag back to Kale as he took a step forward closer to Magnum. He was suddenly intrigued by Magnum. "I know you."
Magnum titled his head to the side. He didn't expect Katsumoto's son to know him. They never meet in person before.
"I mean, I have seen you." Dennis corrected himself. "In a picture in my dad's house. It was a group photo but you were definitely in it."
Magnum's eyebrow rose. His picture was in a photo frame in Katsumoto's house. Not my friend, my foot.
"Thomas Magnum." Magnum introduced himself.
"The private investigator. Yes!" Dennis somehow looked relieved. "He talks about you." He shrugged.
"Don't believe a single word he had said about me." Magnum joked a little but then his eyes caught Kale in the background examining the items in the backpack. He took out a digital camera, tried to turn it on but then suddenly unable to juggle the items in his hand. The backpack was close to falling when Kale caught it but not before few packets filled with colorful pills fell on the floor.
All three pairs of eyes went to the packets and then the boys' wide, panicked-filled eyes land on Magnum.
Magnum was at a loss for words because he was not sure if his eyes were seeing right. "Is that drugs?"
Dennis quickly picked up the packets, dumped them into the bag, and turned back to Magnum "Yes?" He didn't bother to lie. He knew there was no point anyway.
The packets of pills and the hesitated confirmation shocked Magnum. All the cases he had worked all these years have given him a fair number of surprises that he had learned to take in but at that moment Magnum's brain just froze. Never in his wildest dreams did he thought that one day he will be seeing Katsumoto's son with packets of drugs.
"Okay," Magnum soon regained his composure. He knew he needed to take the lead in the situation. "You have ten seconds to explain yourself before I call you father."
Dennis was flustered. "It's not what you think."
"Enlighten me then." Magnum's tone left no room for argument.
Dennis and Kale exchanged glances before Dennis spoke. "Our best friend died of an overdose last month."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Magnum conveyed genuinely.
"The problem is he's not the only one, you know." Dennis continued. "There's been an increase in the number of students dying of overdose lately, not just in our school."
"I'm sure HPD is looking into the issue." Magnum lifted his shoulder in half-shrug.
Kale scoffed "Yeah, I'm sure."
"What that supposed to mean?"
"Those guys are selling the pills in school compounds, alright?" Dennis let out a harsh breath. "When they happen to be in our school compound, we tried calling HPD's hotline, and guess what? The thugs will somehow disappear before the HPD arrives. How do you think that's happening?"
"You think these guys have a contact inside HPD?"
"That's our save bet."
"Did you try talking to your father about this?"
"He said the other detectives are working the case and we just have to trust them. He said I'm too emotionally involved to think straight."
Magnum wondered if Katsumoto was right. "So, what? You two thought you can take this matter into your own hands?"
"He was our friend!" Kale rationalized.
"We didn't know he was doing drug." Dennis croaked and then barely whispered. "We just didn't know."
Magnum can feel the hurt. That was something he would and he did …for Nuzo. He didn't stop when Detective Tanaka asked him to stand down.
"Hand it over." Magnum held up his hand, pointing toward the bag.
Kale handed over the bag without any protest. Magnum dug into the bag, there was the digital camera and packets of pills he saw earlier. In addition to the items, there was a mini body camera video recorder. Magnum took the digital camera out, turned it on, and went straight to the gallery. There were pictures of two average height men. They weren't exactly big-sized but both looked fit with average muscular, athletic body structure. Magnum's eyes caught the different setting in the background. "I thought you said they were selling at the school compounds. There are different locations here." Magnum looked up.
"That's their strategy. They start at the school compound. Once they establish a rapport with the buyer, they take it to their secondary location."
"And these are students?" Magnum turned the screen so Dennis could see what picture he was looking at.
"Yes. My school." Dennis confirmed. "We saw them buying in the school and thought that would be our chance. We followed them for a while, that's how we found about the second location. Then, we persuaded them to buy for us, gave them extra cash, so they didn't bother to ask further. "
Magnum was so close to complimenting their detective work when something else crossed his mind. He picked up the mini camera video recorder from the bag. "You try to record the transaction?"
"You can't exactly see the drug transaction in those pictures, so it can be dismissed in the court. We needed something solid, so we thought about a recording." Kale said.
Magnum lifted an eyebrow. Honestly, he thought the boys were acting blindly, trying to find justice to their friend's death, he didn't expect them to consider the situation thoroughly.
"His dad is a cop and my dad's a lawyer." Kale supplied. "We did our homework."
"Huh ah." Magnum hummed. He wondered if they had time to calculate the potential risk of their action.
Dennis continued without missing a beat. "Once we know about the secondary location, the days and time the transaction usually takes place, we came in early and place in the device. But when we went back to retrieve it just now, …" Dennis paled a little. "We might have been made."
"Woah." Magnum failed to hide the shock register on his face. "You're saying these guys are looking for you two?"
"Maybe." Dennis bit his lips. "We split up and tried to lose them. Guess it worked."
Magnum tossed the items back into the backpack, zipped it close. "Okay, time to leave."
"Where to?"
"To the station," Magnum answered. "Your father was there when I left just now, and he said he will be there for some time. I don't think we can explain all these to him on the phone without giving him a heart attack. We will just have to do it in person." Magnum turned and walked back to the front of the store. "Come on. I'll drive you two there."
Mr. Lee was leaning over the counter, trying to get a glimpse of what was happening. "Everything alright?"
"Everything is fine, Mr. Lee." Magnum smiled a little. "I know the boys. How much is it?" Magnum changed the subject.
Magnum paid and turned back to the boys while waiting for Mr. Lee to complete the transaction and hand over the change. "Look, you might have the right intention here, but there are a thousand ways how it could have ended up wrong," Magnum gave a momentary break before he stressed the words. "really wrong."
The boys had their heads down. Deep down they knew how dangerous and risky their actions were. Magnum's back was facing the glass entrances of the store, none of them realize a dark SUV passing by the store.
"I probably will be grounded for life," Dennis mumbled.
Magnum sighed inwardly. He was not sure how Katsumoto will react to the boys' little detective work. He will find out soon enough. "Let's go."
Walking out of the store, Magnum pointed towards his Ferrari parked at a certain distance. "There."
"Cool!" Kale voiced out his excitement despite the situation they were in and Dennis smiled a little. The boys were slightly ahead of Magnum.
Magnum noticed a dark SUV approaching, the window on the passenger side was going down and his heart skipped a beat when he noticed a rifle poking out.
He dropped the grocery bag he was holding, caught their hoodies, and pulled them closer to him. Taking them both in his arms, he threw them down, taking cover over another SUV parked close by.
A series of shots rang, close to the area around them. "Stay down!" Magnum held the boys close to him.
After what felt like an eternity, the sound of the shots had stopped. Being in a half-sitting position, Magnum raised his head to see if it was clear for them to act on the situation. The SUV had passed them and it was at the end of the junction.
"You two okay?" Magnum asked, looking at the boys on the ground.
"Yeah, we're okay." The boys answered anxiously.
"Okay, we need to move right now!" Magnum stood up and realize they will not be able to make it to the Ferrari. The SUV was reversing.
The boys got up and stood beside Magnum.
"I thought we lost them." Dennis was tensed by the sudden change of the situation.
Two men jumped out of the reversing SUV and guns were visible in their hands.
"Guess not."
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