I checked out of the hotel once I cleaned myself up and got into normal clothes. I had grown so detached to this town that the dream last night had come as a surprise. My mind was already trying to reconnect. I couldn't stay long. The only thing I was here for was my sister. I wanted nothing else.
The bag slung over my shoulder was worn. I had been traveling for a long time. The fabric was starting to fade and strain. It wasn't heavy; I tried not to carry too much with me. I adjusted the strap and made my way to the precinct.
The doors jingled when they opened. The normal hum and bustle of work ceased when it seemed just a single pair of eyes recognized my presence. It had been years since I had been home, and it hadn't gone unnoticed.
I walked up to the counter with half-hooded eyes. Slowly, I could sense the feeling of fear trickle towards me from the people in the building. Dread, cowardice, contempt. Deeper than those was the shame and regret. I kept my head held high. I was above this. Nothing could change the past.
"Ma'am! I'm afraid I can't let you back there... Detective Callaway isn't..." the secretary started to explain as if I didn't already know.
"The chief is expecting..." I said lazily. I paused just long enough to reach the peak of swelling tension. You could practically hear the fingers covering their triggers. "Me."
I heard a hidden sigh. "She's fine Hannah. Let her in."
I could feel all of their eyes on me as I walked past the counter. I let myself into the chief's office and shut the door behind me.
Chief North sat behind her desk. Behind her tough exterior I could sense her anxiety. Her hands were folded together as her elbows rested on the table. Her long, straight blonde hair was tied back in a pony tail. Her blue eyes looked at me cautiously from behind her glasses. The dark blue power suit she wore made her look nothing less than intimidating to the ave rage person.
"How did you know?" she asked calmly. "I haven't told anybody."
"I'm psychic, Susannah. You can't exactly hide something like that. You might as well at least tell the father. He's worried about you, you know." I sat down gracefully in one of her chairs. The chair was not soft, but I wasn't exactly supposed to get comfortable here either. "So, you've lost my sister."
Chief North opened her mouth to say something.
"Not that I'm surprised," I sighed. "Emily has always been a bit of a handful. You must not have any leads if you needed me to come in."
"Your sister is an excellent detective, Elenora. She knew how to cover her traces," she said.
"Let me guess. Emily ended up getting a little too close to the Chu syndicate, and you want find out what she knows." This was bound to happen eventually.
"We know..."
Susannah was interrupted by loud laughter from outside her office. The room was filled by extreme annoyance. Hers and then quickly mine.
"Ha! Why's everyone so serious? Look who nabbed the bad guy again! Bow down to your new king, bitc-"
"Detective Prince, get in here! Now!" Susannah bellowed.
I prayed this intense, cocky aura wasn't who I thought it was. Sure enough, barista-detective walked into the office still in his Starbucks uniform.
"I did a good job, huh? Better be holding onto your precious little mahogany desk, sweetheart." He opened his mouth to offer more degrading comments at the chief. He stopped disturbingly fast, and I was bombarded with even more unwarranted feelings of attraction entirely on his part
I applauded Susannah's ability to hold back her anger. "You're late. Detective Prince, this is Miss Callaway. She's..."
"So she's the one who's supposed to be my partner! I thought you told me she skipped town! THAT explains why you showed up at Starbucks, princess! You were probably just checking me out. Impressed?" He grinned at me.
"You have got to be kidding..." I said. I glared at the chief. "I thought you were my friend, Susannah. You can't possibly expect me to work with him. He can't even stay undercover in a Starbucks for thirty seconds without making himself look like an idiot."
"Detective Prince, Elenora is Detective Callaway's sister. She's agreed to help us track her down. Elenora, I promise you, Detective Prince is one of the best detectives in the state," Susannah said.
"That doesn't reassure me," I said.
"With all due respect, Susie..."
"Chief," Susannah interupted.
"Chief, I really don't know how much help she can be. I mean, she's not a detective. Plus, she has a clear bias in this case," barista-detective argued.
"Elenora knows the behavioral patterns of Emily better than any detective here. She has a specific set of skills that are critical for solving this case quickly without stirring up unnecessary drama. As sensitive as this case is, I think it's best for you two to work together."
"Oh yeah? And what sort of 'skills' does she have?" the detective said with added air quotes.
Susannah hesitated to say anything. She looked at me, gaging how much was appropriate to reveal.
I rolled my eyes. I stopped caring long ago. "I'm psychic."
"Seriously?" the detective laughed out. "No really, are you a con artist or something? Rogue Chu, mafia, or anything like that?"
"Trust me, you really don't want me to prove it," I said. He didn't believe me but was childishly intrigued, like I might have some sort of superpower.
"Oh come on, princess. You've got me curious. Hit me with your best shot."
Oh man, how I wanted to knock him down a peg or two. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the connections around me. "Your name is Daniel Prince. Son of Howard Prince, the police chief in your hometown, apparently. As a kid, you always admired him and wanted grow up to be just like him. You never wanted to be anything other than a detective."
"So, you read my file. That doesn't..."
"I'm not finished." I opened my eyes and dared him to interrupt me again. "The first kink in your ultimate plan came in training school when you met Susannah, though she still had her maiden name then. You're surprised to see her married now because she never seemed anything more to you than frigid. Despite her seemingly unpleasant nature, she tested better than you in all fields and prevented you from being first in your class. She chose to come here while you were transferred to a big city."
"Elenora, that's..." Susannah said hesitantly.
"And even then, you couldn't move up the ranks because no matter how hard you worked, there was always some other hotshot there to steal your credit. So you started getting impatient. You wanted to get jobs done quickly. You've gotten several reprimands for jumping to conclusions and using your firearm excessively. You're trigger happy. The only thing that kept you from getting kicked out of the force was your ability to bring in criminals despite your hasty methods. You got transferred to this town because the council thought the change in pace might calm you down, but now, you're thinking your chances are better at being chief in a no name place like this. You're just itching for your big break."
"Elenora, that's enough," Susannah demanded.
I took a few deep breaths. I had been going in much too deep for casual conversation. I had gotten much closer than I intended. I needed more control. "I can handle this on my own, Susannah."
"I can't allow that. If you try to get close to the Chu syndicate, I can't help but believe you'll end up much worse than 'missing.'"
We all looked over when the door clicked open a fraction.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Is this a bad time?" The man was short, blond, and donned a long white lab coat
Dr. Finnigan North: coroner, forensic specialist, and Susannah's new husband. I was still too attuned to the connections around me. Finn's love, concern, and honestly slight fear for Susannah was overwhelming.
"Finn, do you think you could come back later?" Susannah said in a tired voice. Our discussion was obviously taking a toll on her stress levels.
"No, I was just leaving," I said, getting up from my chair.
"Elenora..."
"Don't bother worrying about me. You've got better things to do," I said and walked out.
No one tried to stop me as I filled a cup a coffee and sat back in the barracks. The Chu syndicate member I had the pleasure of running into at the Starbucks sat as far away from me as possible behind the bars, scared speechless. He still had first-degree burns on his face from my previous cup of coffee.
"You know, the coffee here is fairly awful," barista-detective said as he leaned against the wall beside me. The styrofoam cup was just at my lips.
"I know," I said and sipped defiantly.
"Right, you're 'psychic.' That was a pretty cool trick you did back there," he said. "Do I know you from somewhere? You'd think I'd remember someone like you," he said.
"No," I said after I took another sip.
"Hmm," he said as he thought. "Maybe it's just because you know Susannah. Well anyway, I think we should work together."
I turned my head slowly to look up to him. "You want to work with me?" He was more disillusioned than I thought. I hadn't exactly been very friendly towards him, nor did I expect that to change.
"Yeah, I'm sure you can guess my objective in all of this. I want to bring the syndicate down. Finding Detective Callaway is my best chance. If Chief says you know her best, she's probably right. As for why you need me, let's just say I'm more than a pretty face," he said.
I scoffed. He really didn't know anything.
"Apparently, right before she disappeared, Detective Callaway had been in close contact with a Chu informant. We brought in this guy to see what he knows," he said, indicating to the prisoner with his head.
"Hey! Keep her away from me!" the inmate shouted. "I shouldn't have to put up with this."
"Knock it off!" barista-detective shouted as he kicked the bars. "Unless you feel like talking now."
"I told you, I don't want anything to do with the Callaways! The world would be a better place without them!"
"I wouldn't bother with him," I sighed. "Even if the Chus were related to my sister's disappearance, he's not ranked high enough to know." I got up and threw my coffee away. I was only about halfway through.
"See, I warned you about the coffee! You should have just kept the cup I gave you," the detective said. He followed me as I left the barracks.
"Let's get this straight, you don't have a chance in hell of taking down the Chus. Neither do I, and neither does my sister," I told him harshly. "You're damn delusional if you think you can use us to take them down so you can climb up the corporate ladder. Second, don't you dare think for a second that me agreeing to work with you suggests in any way, now or in the future, that I feel anything towards you other than complete indifference. Are we clear?"
"Crystal," he said with an irritating grin. He zipped in front of me and held his hand out. "And we'll just see about the Chus. I'm a lot better than you think. You can call me Danny, by the way. Looks like we're going to be partners."
I brushed past his open hand. "Whatever."