THE AMERICAN DETECTIVE: JAKE LONG

The Paradise Snare

II

Minimum Wage

Pulling my hat down much more tightly over my head, I could feel a vein on my skull pulsing. It could have been the nervousness that I was feeling, few things made detectives nervous, about anything in general. Perhaps though, it was the fact that I was so heavily invested in this case, the fact that not only my mind had been wrapped around it, but also my heart.

I pushed the doors open to the Grand Vista offices, escaping the dreadful torrent that had lingering into the afternoon. A young three eyed receptionist blinked flirtatiously over at me, she wasn't bad on the eyes itself, but she had too many eyes for me, not really my type. I walked over to her, my hat in my hand, my card between my fingertips.

"Good afternoon, my name is Jake Long, American Dragon," I said firmly, she got the picture almost instantly; she wasn't the same receptionist I had seen a few weeks back when I had first started my investigation. The old receptionist was a siren, bad for business.

"Good Afternoon," she said in response, one of her eyes twitched, instantly I knew that I was on the right track, "and you're here to see?"

"Mr. Godfree," I replied.

"Right, Mr. Godfree," she said, fumbling with her magical computer, "I'll let him know you're coming, third floor, door number-,"

"45B, I've been here before ma'am, thank you," I said, cutting her off. I swore to myself as I stepped onto the elevator. It seemed as if Rose had taken more than just our cat with her when she left, even my patience sometimes. I pressed the button and the door closed.

It wasn't my fault that I was now sometimes cold and heartless to people that I simply met; I had a right to feel the way I felt. Brad's idiotic behavior during out investigation had led me into the mess, and Rose's sudden departure was even a worse blow than the first. Sometimes women could be so heartless.

The doors opened with a chime and I stepped out onto the carpeted interior, the long hallway of doors seemed endless, but there were only twenty on this floor. Mister Gerard Godfree, the Head Delivery Officer for the largest delivery service in the New York District, had seemed quite peeved at our last meeting; being the only Leprechaun with such a name kind of made it quite obvious why.

Knocking lightly on the door to 45b I instantly noticed that the door knob was wet. I thought back, the only reason that it would be wet is if someone had come inside from the pouring rain, with still wet hands, and touched the damn doorknob.

I knocked again, there was no answer.

Bringing forth my dragon tail I poked it through the side of the door, opening it without touching the doorknob. It opened easily, with a loud creak.

I touched my spell blasting fire arm lightly, ensuring that it was clear of its holster. Mine wasn't legal, being modified beyond the Joint Council's agreed fatality ratio, but I couldn't care less. I was a disgraced officer anyway, one they viewed as a dirty cop. Stupid Brad.

The office was empty, but far from organized. It looked as if a whirlwind had passed through, the desk was knocked over, the tall chair was stuck out the window, and papers were all over the place. I made a small calculation in my head, since the doorknob was still wet it meant that someone had entered this office quite recently. Otherwise it would have dried by now. Judging from the humidity from the outside hallway, it wouldn't have taken much time for it to dry anyway.

Either way I was facing a problem. My lead was missing, and you can't question missing people. With another sigh I returned my firearm to its holster, certain of the emptiness of the small office. Walking up to the ransacked desk I sat in the chair lightly, placing my hat on my knee.

"Eye of the dragon," I said softly, allowing magic to take its course once again. The desk's drawers were almost empty, all the papers that were in them seemed to have been dumped on the floor in an attempt to retrieve something. From this I could have guessed either one of two things, Mister Godfree was either in a terrible hurry to find something, or someone was in a terrible hurry to find it for him.

I got to my feet in a fluid step and tossed my hat onto my head. Rose said it made me look like Sherlock Holmes, one of the Human Detectives in a novel. It was one of the few things before our rise to take control of the world, where our natural space now stood. Pure blooded humans were a rarity, a thing of the past. With the integration of magical creatures into society we completely assimilated them. Soon enough there would be fewer pure blooded humans alive, they would simply all be magical.

I turned to leave when something caught my eye, with the Eye of the Dragon still play I noticed a separate compartment below the base of the desk, something that seemed to be completely hidden. Climbing below it I touched a small panel, it was made of a double titanium lead alloy, one of the three things that my Eye of the Dragon could not see through.

"Claw of the Dragon," I whispered, feeling my human hand's form shift into razor sharp claws, edging my claw into the small pocket of space the panel opened with a click, dropping a legal-sized envelope into my claw.

What could a leprechaun possibly be doing with a hiding place that not even a dragon could see through, an offense that was actually punishable by jail-time. Sitting back down on the chair I pouted the envelope's contents onto the desk. There were three single sheets of paper within the envelope; the first had two lone words printed on it within the center, Project Paradise.

I turned the paper over in my hands, it was blank on the other side, and the two papers behind it were blank as well. Shifting uncomfortably on the chair I clicked my teeth together in annoyance, what the hell was paradise? And why go through so much trouble to simply hide a single sheet of paper with information on it that only said paradise?

It made absolutely no sense.

I heard a noise in the hallway and my glance flashed outward, through my Eye of the Dragon I could see a short being walking towards the door. Quickly stuffing the papers back into the compartment I entered dragon form and quickly dove over the desk to by the door, reverting once more to my human form. Just in time as the door swung open and the totally unexpected Mister Godfree entered.

"'s gold!" he swore, Leprechaun swears being one of the few things I picked up during my two month undercover run with a gang in the small town area, "what in the blazes of all that's blimey happened here!" he shouted in a strong Irish accent.

I turned to regard him, and raised an eyebrow, "I was just wondering the same thing Mr. Godfree,"

The Leprechaun turned to look at me, "And who in the hella ware of Delaware are you laddie, and what are you doing in me office?" he shoved his hand in his pocket, "I ought to call the Dragons for ya,"

"No need," I said with annoyance, "I'm already here,"

Godfree paused, he was of the same height of most leprechauns, but he wore no hat. It was something about the green hat that he didn't like he had managed to mention the last time I was there.

"Ah right! You're the young detective person who came asking about Mr. Monroe," he flashed a leprechaun smile and lumbered over to his chair, "have you found the lad? He was my best errand boy ya know," he said, repeating the exact same thing he had the last time I was there.

"I found him Mr. Godfree," I said slowly, observing his face very carefully, "he's dead,"

The leprechaun looked genuinely surprised, but in my line of work, genuine is simply a matter of surprising yourself, "How could that be! He was my best worker, yes he was!"

"How much did he work for, Mr. Godfree?" I asked, leaning against the wall, the leprechaun had neither offered me a seat nor motioned to one.

"Ah…" muttered the short being, "minimum wage,"

I raised an eyebrow, he could read my confusion, "Minimum wage?"

"Yessir," replied the leprechaun.

"And he was your best employee?" I retorted.

The leprechaun shrugged, "Best employee doesn't mean best pay, besides, he was-" he lowered his voice as his eyes darted left to right, as if someone might hear him, "you know, a human,"

Apprehension rose up within my chest as I felt to slam the little man against the wall, I hated human haters, or human discriminators or human againsters, or whatever the Goblin Media portrayed them as. I simply hated them, but I had to keep my head, otherwise a repeat of my Brad incident might have reoccurred.

"I see," I muttered, ignoring his last words, I nodded, "do you think there would be anyone who would want to hurt Jeremiah?"

Godfree seemed annoyed now, and waved his hand dismissively, "he was a delivery boy, who would have anything against him?"

"Mr. Godfree, the majority of murders committed in this city are rarely perpetrated randomly, you must know of someone who had an issue with Jeremiah," I said.

The leprechaun stirred, "Well, he doesn't have enemies, but I do,"

I nodded for him to continue, "Go on,"

He sighed, "I have a problem with Enriik, my goblin competitors in the Haun building, they're three blocks away, they're always heckling my employees, and giving me trouble, especially a bully wagging ninsi called Duro,"

"Duro?" I said, tapping the name into my touchscreen cell phone.

He nodded.

I stretched off of the wall and stepped forward, "I see, thanks for the information Mr. Godfree, and I'll look into who could have been rummaging through your stuff,"

"I told you, the only person who would do such a thing would be Enriik," said Godfree.

I turned the doorknob, "I'll keep that in mind," I stopped as I half exited the door, and snapped my fingers as if I forgot something, "Oh yes, before I forget Mr. Godfree, have you ever heard of anything called Project Paradise?"

The color from his face drained, but he shook his head, "No Dragon Long, I have no idea what that is," he lied quite obviously.

I nodded as I exited, "Thanks I was just wondering," I closed the door behind me and walked towards the elevator.

I could only wonder at my he had not mentioned Enriik and Duro at our first meeting; he seemed more relaxed this time around, even though his entire office had been ransacked. It bothered me.

Of course he had heard of Project Paradise, otherwise he was trying to write a novel of his own with that name. Either way I had someone to investigate at the moment, Enriik the Goblin and Duro his bully of an employee. Something told me that my investigation was simply now starting, and that this was going to be bigger than simply a murder over rivaling delivery runs.

Had I known how this would end, I would have given up right then.

So does this story seem to have enough merit to continue? Please let me know what you think of it so far.

JakeRoss2