Pugaliciousdish
The Rookie
Chapter 3
After a week, Claire and Leon were waiting in line at the airport for Claire to get her luggage tagged. They were five families until the front.
"Why does this always take forever?" Leon yawned. "There were no later flights?"
"No, I'm sorry, I know it was last minute and you have to work today." Claire checked her watch, it was six am.
"It's alright, I couldn't sleep anyways. The people above me were arguing again. What time is it?"
"Six, what time do you have to be in?"
"Nine, I'll probably head back after you pass through security." He raised his arms and stretched out.
"Okay, after this want to grab a quick coffee? It'll wake you up." She smiled. After a crying baby and a confused elderly lady who asked every question a first-time flyer could ask, they cleared Claire's bags. "Thank you." She and Leon nodded to the desk worker and headed towards the store outlets.
"Okay are we just going to ignore that? Who asks if they have to take out there denchers during a flight?!" Leon complained. "I probably would've arrested her if she would've asked if she could clean them." They both laughed.
Stopping at a map, they looked for a coffee shop. "There!" Claire pointed to a Rooster mornin' coffee. They made there way over and ordered, sitting at a nearby table inside.
"So, when do you think you're coming back?"
"Well, I have to catch up on work for the next few weeks and help out with my mom so I'm not sure." She took a sip from her coffee and wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Maybe if a certain guy gives me reason to come back soon I will, if not then maybe a month or two. Check up on Chris when I can. Especially with how things with Jill are, I'm sure it won't be long before I receive a wedding invitation." She giggled.
"Yeah that makes sense, I mean my door is always open so feel free to visit." He couldn't really think of an excuse for her to visit. "I have heart problems that require a female's touch? Holy shit that was cheesy." Leon's inner thoughts died inside. "I'm sure that there's some sort of volunteer work that could be done down here though too."
"You think so? I could see a few things in this town I could volunteer myself in." She winked. They both let out a laugh and finished their coffee in a full-hearted mood.
Leon felt kind of down she was leaving, she was the closest friend he'd made in this town. And she wasn't even from here. They walked up to the security checkpoint. "Well, I guess this is it, huh?" He gave her an almost sad smile, she returned the same expression.
"I guess so, I had fun though. The dinner with Chris, the couch move, the criminal chase. Then yesterday we watched that movie at your place. And the day before we got dinner again. All of it was pretty great."
"Yeah, I'm still on edge from the movie yesterday, zombies aren't my thing." He laughed. "If I didn't have to work so much this past week we could've done more." He sighed.
"I'll be sure to come back soon then." She leaned in for a quick kiss and pulled away towards the long lines of security. "That way we can do more." She stuck out her tongue in a seductive matter and winked again, trying not to laugh. "Bye Leon!" She waived and smiled as she got into the lines.
"Bye Claire!" He waived back and began walking back towards the entrance. He watched as all the families passed by him, each either so happy or awfully annoyed with one another. "I wonder if I'll have that someday." He thought to himself and smirked as he stepped out of the airport.
It was nine o' five by the time he walked through the front doors of the station. "Hey Marcy!" He hurried past her desk into his office. Marvin got up from his desk and walked towards Leon who was now setting his stuff down.
"Hey Kennedy, how are you this morning?"
"Marvin, hey, sorry I'm late. I almost fell back asleep. I had to drop off a friend at the airport at six earlier." Leon straightened himself up and adjusted his shirt.
"Don't worry about it, you're almost through your first month here. Don't worry too much about following a routine right now, just make sure to have a good one before the month is over."
"Of course, thank you. Am I out on patrol alone again today?" He asked.
"Yes, you are, wheels up in thirty." He patted Leon's shoulder and walked back into his office. There was only one other guy at his desk, meaning the others were on patrol as well. After half an hour, Leon grabbed the keys and set out onto the city streets.
By lunch time, he'd given out two tickets. One for speeding and the other for parking. Leon was sitting in his patrol when he heard a call over the radio.
"There's a disturbance call on Constant Boulevard in the Quint Apartments, number five o' three."
Leon looked at the map in the passenger seat and picked up the radio. "Kennedy here, I'm nearby, I'll check it out. Over."
When he pulled up alongside the curb, the street was empty. He walked up the steps into the four-story apartment. It was quiet, but footsteps could be heard from the upper levels. He put his hand onto the rails of third floor, shining a flashlight onto the door numbered five hundred and three. It was abnormally dark in the halls; the only light came from outside. It was like everyone turned off their lights except for the door Leon was supposed to check out. He felt the hairs on his arm perk up as the door was already a little bit open, he pushed it further. It was even darker in the room, he waived his gun and light around the room. All the small subtle sounds ceased. He could hear his heartbeat echo.
"RPD! Is anyone in here?!" There was no reply. He moved to the living room which seemed normal enough, there was a couch pillow on the ground but nothing out of the ordinary. There was a glass half filled with what was presumably water on the ottoman. He shined his light to the kitchen, there were bloody hand prints on the walls. "What the hell?" He followed the stains, the victim looked like they dragged themselves down the hallway. He followed. The trail stopped at a door on the left end. He stopped to listen, he couldn't make out any noise besides an almost bubbling pitch. He pushed open the door.
"RPD!" He waived his light around and turned to the source of the noise. On the ground laid a man whose stomach looked like it was erupting with acid. "Jesus Christ." He knelt down to the man's side, his hands were stained in red. "Judging by the marks surrounding his stomach, it looks like he almost clawed out his intestines and everything else. What could have caused this?" The man's stomach was slowly settling. "It must've occurred recently." Looking back at his stomach; he felt his stomach take a turn, but he tried to maintain a game face. Behind him he heard a small rustle, he turned his flashlight and himself back around towards the doorway.
"Hey! -." A figure too dark to see raised there leg and kicked Leon in the face! He was sent towards a corner of the room, against the wall. The right side of his face felt on fire. "Ugh! What the hell!" He leaned his back off the wall and tried to keep balance, the figure was running down the hall. "Hey wait! RPD!" He took off through the hallway and shined his light and gun at the figure who was about to step out the front door. "Freeze! Goddammit! I will shoot!" The figure stopped, Leon could finally get a glimpse of what they looked like. She wore black shoes and tights, with a red short dress. Her hair was short and black but longer than Leon's so just about to her shoulders.
"I'm sorry." She turned around, Leon made note that she looked Asian American. "I wasn't sure what to do officer."
He was still so confused. "Who are you?!" He asked.
"Ada, Ada Wong."
"What's going on here Ms. Wong, what the hell was that in there? Did you do that?" Leon looked at her stance, she looked almost confident but scared. Her body was shaking a little as if she was acting.
She put on a scared expression. "No officer, that's my boyfriend. John. I just got home, and I saw him like that, I think it was something he drank." She pointed to the glass on the ottoman. Leon walked over to the glass, it looked like water but upon closer inspection, it looked off.
"Say I believe you, why the hell did you kick me?"
"I thought you were one of the guy's who did this to him."
Leon took a moment to think it all over. "So, some kind of extreme acid drug burned through her boyfriend and she comes home right at the time of his death. I need to call this in." He reached for the radio around his waist. "This is Leon Kennedy, I need to report a homicide at my location, bring the paramedics and a hazmat suit or something, it's chemical." He turned back to Ada. "As for you, you're going to have to come with me. We need to ask some more questions down at the station." He walked closer to her.
"Of course, officer." She wasn't crying, nor looked like she had been.
After ten minutes a few officers and the medic team showed up. They quarantined the entire apartment. Both Leon and Ada were tested for anything before he was able to take her back to the station.
"You're good to go rookie." Said one of the medical staff. "You too Ms. Wong."
Leon walked her to his squad car where he sat her in the back seat. He got in the front and headed for the station. It was a quiet ride until she spoke up. "You're a rookie huh? Are you enjoying being a cop?" She gave out a small smirk but sighed.
Leon looked in the rear-view mirror. "Yeah but I can still handle myself so no funny business."
"Oh no funny business here, just trying to stir conversation. That's all."
"You know for someone who just lost their boyfriend, you're in pretty high spirits."
"In all honesty, we weren't dating for very long. I was planning on breaking up with him soon anyways. But don't get the wrong idea, the thought of that happening to me. It's frightening. I'll miss him." She was quiet after that, they arrived at the station where the blonde guy from the Stars team was waiting for them in the garage. Leon parked in his spot and walked Ada over to him.
"Stars will take it from here Mr. Kennedy." He sounded arrogant. "Mr. Redfield is waiting to take your side of the story in one of the staff conference rooms."
"What?" Leon took a moment to register. "If Stars is involved then there must be something else going on…" He nodded. "Okay." He turned to Ada. "Go with him."
She gave him an annoyed look and rolled her eyes. Her and the blonde guy went through the door back into the building. Leon pulled out his map trying to remember where the conference rooms were. "Did he mean one of the interrogation rooms?" On a hunch, he made his way through the station towards the back of the first floor, down a few hallways. Chris was outside one of the rooms leaning against a wall with a notepad and a case file. "Hey, Chris."
"Leon, look at you, third week in and you already got a homicide under your belt. We're in here." He pointed to the second door and walked inside with Leon behind him. They both took a seat across from each other. "So, I'm sure your familiar with the drill, I ask a few questions, you answer truthfully. This is all on record. State your full name and Occupancy."
"My name is Leon Scott Kennedy, I am a police officer at the Raccoon City Police Department." Leon tried to relax, he wasn't in trouble.
Chris straightened himself up a little. "Start with the beginning, what happened when you arrived at the residence?"
Leon explained everything that went down in the last few hours, all the way up till he arrived back at the station.
"Good, now going back a bit. You said he might've drank something? Do you have any idea what?" He wrote more notes down.
"No, not anything I'm aware of. Whatever it was though was strong enough to burst through his stomach. He looked like he had been trying to rip out his stomach too."
"That sounds horrific. This woman, Ms. Wong? She said she arrived home shortly after that happened, then when you showed up she kicked you in the face thinking you were one of the people who did it to him? Did you see anybody else?"
"No, not at all. As far as I was concerned it was just us two."
"There wasn't anybody outside? In the hallways?"
"No, by the time I showed up, she was the first living person I saw in the building. All the lights were off except for that room. Maybe it was just because everyone else was out or at work, but it looked sketchy."
Chris folded up his notebook after finishing his last thought. "Well Leon, that's all I have for now. If you can think of anything else let me know and we can set this back up." He walked over to the door. "I think Marvin wants to see you."
Leon walked out into the hallway and turned around. "Okay thanks. By the way Chris, why did Stars take over the case? It was just a homicide, right? I mean surely, we could have looked into it more ourselves. Or even the investigation unit."
"Unfortunately, Leon I can't say too much, were looking into it all right now. I don't know too much either though, the Captain said we had a new assignment, so we got to work. I got to go Leon, I'll see you around." Chris hurried down the hallway and out of sight.
Leon walked back to the office room in deep thought. Marcy was typing away at her computer as he walked by. He stopped. "Hey Marcy, if I wanted to find more information like records for past crimes where could I go?"
She looked up. "Leon, you have a computer. Use it." She laughed at him.
He felt like a fool. "Wow, thanks." He walked into the room in shame. Sitting down at his desk, he turned on the monitor. Then Marvin walked over.
"Leon, sounds like you had a wild patrol today. You still up for patrol tomorrow?"
He nodded. "Yeah, it's part of the job, right?"
Marvin patted him on the shoulder. "Atta' boy." He walked back to his office.
It only took two hours to find what he was looking for. Which revealed nothing. "There's barely anything on her, just her driver's license and a passport. No job data, no recent crimes, no tickets even. Nobody is this clean." Leon leaned back in his chair and remembered the name she'd given him. "… John? But John what?" He started typing his name and about a hundred different Johns popped up. He sorted by recent and deceased. There was a name that was updated from today. "John Clemens? He's an Umbrella employee, isn't that the pharmaceutical company?" Leon yawned and looked at the clock, he was done for the day! Leon popped an Advil for his headache and packed up. When he walked out he witnessed the blonde guy who was probably the Captain of Stars, talking to Ada, over by the front door.
"You're free to go Ms. Wong… The RPD has funded a hotel you can stay at for the next week or so until you can head back to your home."
"No, it's quite okay. I have another place I can stay. Thank you though." She walked towards the door and left the building. Leon hurried out after her, it was raining now too. She pulled out an umbrella and walked towards the front gate.
"Ada, wait!" He caught up to her.
"Oh, it's you." She turned around. "The rookie from earlier. What do you need?" They walked through the gate and a black car pulled up alongside the curb.
"I checked your record, you have nothing on you. Literally nothing. Plus, you claim you showed up to the crime right after it happened. I didn't see a single sole leave the building when I got there."
She opened the back-seat door and tossed her umbrella in. "You might want to get home officer, you might catch a cold out here." She climbed in and shut the door. The car pulled away, leaving Leon alone in the rain with so many questions.