It was already past 7, Timmy had left for home. Vicki stayed back, that case ate up her time, she needed to concentrate on that file.
Her past taught her how ruthless people can be, from High school to office, people sneered at her, they would talk how deplorable she is because her father was a damned criminal. In high school this involved her in numerous fights, she would often returned home with a cut or bruise though her adversaries sustained greater injuries. Her office was a different story, here the back-biting was shruder , people talked with her with as empathetic face, their true emotion of distrust and hatred were masked by that pseudo empathy. Her previous boss was so wary of her that he won't sent her out side the station, to him her DNA was criminal. Only two persons in the force behaved normally, Ricky and Chief Hamada.
She was yet to disclose this darker past of her to her newest partner, she didn't expect anything from the twerp till yesterday but his smartness has changed her opinion a little bit.
"Timmy is yet to be tested, I'm not sure whether he can be trusted or not, but this case has nothing to do with that. For the time being Timmy doesn't need to know about that. Monica Petrovic, who the hell are you?" Vicki whistled to herself.
Vicki flipped the file of Richard Valentine, "Hmm...let's see about the witnesses, uh..no Monica here; man I heard the name around that time." Vicki threw the the file over the desk due to frustration, suddenly a thought rushed through her mind. A old memory played in front of her eyes just like a movie.
(Captured in her eyes)
Just like a devout home maker, Nicky Valentine's daily routine was cooking, cleaning, sending Vicki and Tootie to school and making love with her Husband Richard Valentine. That day wasn't a very normal one, Vicki had never seen her mom so upset in her 14 year old life. As a kid she had no idea about her mom's mental situation or its reason. Now when Richard came back fro work, she didn't greet her like usual, instead took him to the bedroom and closed the door. Vicki being Vicki put her ears on the locked door and she listened their conversation.
It wasn't even a conversation first place, infact a violent and loud altercation
"Richard, are you cheating on me?"
"Yes, what're you gonna do do about that? You live on my money whore, so shut your mouth."
"Why should I? Monica, Monica Petrovich, Tootie's maths tutor saw you with do you have to say about that?"
"She fucks better than you, old hag. Be grateful that I'm also feeding those to pig-daughter's of you. They can't be mine for sure."
"What did you say? My daughter's are pigs? They are not your's I'll file a divorce suit now."
"No, you'll do 'll just do nothing, you bitch..."
"Ahh...leave me, you fucker, mother fucker, fucking leave my hand."
"Die slut, die."
A freezing scream came from the room, the door burst open. Tootie also started following her sister and eavesdropped on the door, the sisters was thrown back due to the impact, a drunk Richard with blood shot eyes came out, blood splattered all over his body. A bloody knife on his right hand, she looked lustfully at his own daughters.
(Back to present)
"Okay ,so Monica Petrovich was a maths tutor in Dimmsdale middle high. Only then she could tutor maths to a 10 year old girl." Vicki reasoned, as the incident happened when she was 14 and Tootie was 10.
Vicki looked relieved, "Now all I need to do is to find whether this Monica was that person or not."
Vicki opened the new case file (Monica Petrovich murder), "Oh..fuck, she is an ex-teacher of Dimmsdale junior high."
(Timmy time)
Timmy was returning home with a happy mind, he solved his first case and made some peace with Vicki. Timmy patted himself on his back for his "Towering" achievement.
"A little beer party to me, ahh...perfect celebration, there is that Tandoori bar, I would surely have Tandoori with my beer." Timmy entered Tandoori bar, a bar famous for it's Tandoori and Kebabs. He didn't expect to run into anyone here, but with Timmy Turner expectations seldom realise.
"Hey Inspector Turner, so what brings you here?" Heather was enjoying her beer with kebabs. "This place is best in kebabs in the whole city." Heather blurted out as her mouth was full.
Of all people, Heather? Over here? Timmy was astonished, though it wasn't that bad "Having beer with a hottie like Heather, so lyrical."
"Mind if I have a seat?" Timmy was always polite with attractive girls( cough ,cough).
"Yeah, why not?" Heather patted the empty seat next to her to emphasize her point.
Timmy obliged, a waiter came to take his order. Timmy ordered Chicken kebab and Beer.
"You were so great back there, you solved the case so easily." Heather flashed a typical fan girlish demeanour.
"The clues were there, so it was quite easy; but my partner figured it out at least 15 minutes earlier, she is a superb detective."
"She seems a little mature and more hard boiled than you, still her aura is frightening." Heather closed her eyes in mock fright.
"Yeah, sometimes I also think so, but if you aren't in the wrong side, you won't need to be afraid of her." Timmy tried his best to cover up.
"Hmm, Veronica must have understood that, especially after that judo throw. Still I can't believe that a simpleton like her can carry out such a brilliant planning." Heather looked little disapproving of the reality.
"Well, she herself said that once she was a professional call-girl, so one have to be smart to survive in that environment." Timmy reasoned.
"Still, Veronica was a straight lace, she might have street smarts, but planning a murder on psychological diversion, to me it's beyond her capabilities." Heather still looked distraught.
Timmy for the first time looked at Heather from this close range, her blonde hair, lightly tanned skin, well shaped face and those sparkling hazel eyes; "She is surely a catch, still..." Timmy was pulled out of his train of thought when a he heard, "Um..Hello are you the detective who solved the case in the Stars and Universe mall?"
Timmy looked at his right and it also caught Heather's attention, a pretty girl of late teens , with two fashioned pigtails and a stylish spectacle, was talking to him.
"Yes? and You are?" Timmy was little surprised by the teen girl's sudden interest.
"I'm Charlotte Holmes, I was there at the mall after the incident occurred, Samuel told me how easily you unearthed the crime." Charlotte stooped to take a breath.
"Charlotte Holmes, sounds dangerously familiar to the female version of a famous mythical detective." Timmy thought in her mind, "Let's blow this lass over with my deduction, shall we?" the more immature part of his brain commented to its mature partner.
"Well, Your cloths are pretty much neatly ironed and You are yet to take a seat, that means you have just arrived, Your dress code suggests that you are on a date and you overheard our conversation, that's how you deduced that I'm probably that detective who solved the crime." Timmy stopped to breathe.
"Wow, you are such a great detective, actually I'm waiting for my boyfriend, that guy is clumsy, he never shows up on time." now Charlotte was blushing and giving those fan girl looks to Timmy.
Suddenly an sms arrived in Charlotte's phone, "My boyfriend has arrived. So may you excuse me?"
"Absolutely, have fun."Heather added, Charlotte almost hopped towards another table, a young guy in pink baseball cap and pink jacket was waiting over there. Timmy shuddered as it brought back old memories, on his first date he wore the same dress and the date was disastrous.
"Wow, you are becoming popular." Heather smiled at Timmy in a teasing manner.
"Ah, come on, she is just a fan-girl , you don't need to read more from this, that's my job." Timmy countered the witty jab.
Meanwhile Timmy's order was served and he was relishing the exquisite kebab with beer.
The duo finished up, "Would you mind if I call you Timmy?" Heather asked sexily.
"No, no, absolutely not." Timmy blushed a little bit due to the girl's directness.
(Her dreams)
Vicki was eating her dinner, "Tomorrow, I've to investigate in Dimmsdale Junior high, the key to this puzzle lies in there, I might find something. But the murder of Monica has a higher chance of being unrelated to that case."
Her father's memory brought only rage and disgust in her, still it attracted her, as if there was a missing piece as if there was a a hidden truth.
"This is enough, I need a complete rest, I have to hit Dimmsdale Junior high in early morning." Vicki was finishing the clean up.
There was a big green steppe, Vicki was wandering in it, suddenly she felt a slight pull on her left hand, she looked down. A very young boy with fiery red hair and reddish brown eye was looking at him. His eyes were glittering yet they conveyed melancholy.
"Vicki, please don't leave me alone." the young kid clung to her left leg as if it's a life and death matter.
"I won't leave you, Ricky." Vicki smiled while patting the little guy's head. Suddenly she heard a thunderclap, the next spectacle shook her cores, she was holding a lifeless Ricky, his heart is pierced by the bullet, blood came oozing out, her hands were bloodied, Ricky opened his eyes, "Vicki, please don't leave me, I love you, please don't leave me."
Vicki woke up , panting. She went for the nerve tranquillizer.
(AJ and Chester's overly specific advice)
"Boy, it sure brings back our old memories." Chester exclaimed while slouching in the couch, it was a sunny Saturday morning. The three childhood friends have gathered in AJ's living room for their customary hangout.
In their young ages, these hangouts meant gaming, loitering in Wall2wall mart, playing pranks on unsuspecting neighbours, plotting on how to propose the hotty of the school, then getting chased around by the stud boyfriend of the aforesaid hotty.
Now these hangouts meant occasional drinking, stress busting, discussing on the issues of professional hazard, devaluation of the Dollar, etc. As it was a morning hangout, Beer has been replaced by Cola.
Timmy and AJ have locked their horns in a game of chess."Yes, I envy you, being the most sought of personal fitness trainer has it's perks." Timmy replied.
"Aw come on, most of my clients are over forty and I don't do milfs, yo AJ, do you know what happened on Thursday evening in the gym?" Chester looked at AJ who in return looked at him.
"I guess you got some blackmail material regarding the erstwhile pink baseball cap wearing guy?"
"Damn it brainiac, no hitting below the belt." Timmy shouted in mock concern.
Chester continued, "The hottie of kick-boxing arena, Vicki; on that day she knocked our cop friend out cold. And guess what Timmy is her new partner."
"Haa...haa... that's a killer man, you got knocked out by a girl?" AJ was barely holding on his joyful tears.
"Well she is no girl, she is the devil in a female humanoid form and she hits like a sledgehammer." Timmy retorted in his defence.
"I know you want to hit her back, then practice and aim for the G-spot." Chester and AJ high-fived while both ROFLing on the expense of the brunet.
"She is super hot, red hair, pink eyes, creamy white skin, he surely is jacking off in her name." Chester's comment made Timmy blush.
"She is a great fighter, she also kicked the crap out of Chester, so she is better than me." Timmy tried to salvage some pride.
"Stop changing the topic, she sparred with me but she thrashed you. I guess she fulfilled one of your darker fantasies." Chester smiled triumphantly, Timmy knew about Chester's sense of humor, his sarcastic comments are good enough to annihilate anyone's self confidence. Timmy's wasn't anyone.
"Hey stop man, that's enough, look at his face, it's redder than a beet." AJ tried to stop the onslaught, Chester obliged, he knew where and when to stop, even friendly joking has it's limits.
"She has a traumatic past and recently lost her old partner, who probably was also her lover, and very unluckily I take after his dead partner." Timmy sighed.
"That's an interesting scenario, Timmy. Probably whenever she sees you she is reminded of her dead lover, she wants to judge you in his image, that's why she is so abrasive towards you." AJ concluded.
"On a brighter aspect, I guess she is now a little less abrasive, she acknowledges my talent now, after I solved a case in record time." Timmy announced with a bit of pride.
"Oh yes, Timantha murder case, I've read it in the newspaper in the morning, it was a commendable deduction; But my dear friend you need to perform better..." AJ trailed of with a cheeky smile. Chester concluded "You need to perform better in the bed only then she will acknowledge your talent."
"Shut up, you funny rascal." Timmy threw the pillow towards Chester.
It was almost an eternity when Timmy smiled like a carefree kid, this morning was a much needed reprieve for the stressed Brunet.
(She wasn't alone)
Though today was an off day for Vicki, she had some business to take care of. "Yup, gathering the informations about Monica might throw some light on it. Ricky interrogated them but the details seemed rather unimportant, no harm in cross checking again."
Normally Vicki would have taken out her car for this sort of investigation procedure. She would have gotten the reimbursement for the fuel, previously umpteenth times both she and Ricky took advantage of this policy, going on drive dates while showing them as investigation procedures. Vicki chuckled in her mind, "Man, those were the best days of my life."
Vicki felt the need to use public transport, the idea of being around people doesn't bother her much now, much lesser than that day when she saw his handsome body lifeless.
Dimmsdale Junior high remained open even on Saturdays, though only extracurricular activities were scheduled on Saturday though, she herself was an alumnus of this institution.
The school building looked fairly quite, "Probably due to the impending holidays, there isn't that much rush.", the gate man stopped her, she flashed her id card. The Gate man stood up and saluted her, she nodded in reciprocation.
She strode towards the office. There was a middle aged clerk typing something, the name plate read Kelly Ings. "Excuse me." Vicki flashed her id card, Kelly almost stiffened. "There is no need to freak out, Kelly."
"I'm here to gather some information about your erstwhile employee Monica Petrovich, she was murdered almost a month ago. " Vicki replied.
"Ok, I will try to pull up her file, we recently digitized all our records, so it won't be a problem." Kelly said proudly.
"Here, take this." Kelly handed a printout, Vicki looked it closely "It was the same old information, her date of birth, address, marital status, name, employee id, specialization, etc." Vicki mentally cursed herself.
"Um...I guess police has already took the same piece of information about a month ago." Kelly looked a little annoyed.
Suddenly Vicki asked out of blue, "Did anyone else asked about the same information? Like before the murder?"
Kelly thought for a while, "Now that you ask a peculiar incident happened two months ago. A woman came in and claiming that she owed money for Monica and that we should give her, Monica's permanent address, she sparked up a racket, so to stop her we gave her the address, Monica had this habit of lending and defaulting. "
"Why didn't you inform this in the first inquiry? How did she look?" Vicki asked sternly.
"That detective, what his name was, Ricky...he never asked us this 's why. I'm sorry I can't recall her face but she had black hair, a stylish spectacle and a ponytail." Kelly retorted.
"Damn bitch, if you had told this my Ricky would have been still kicking." Vicki mentally cursed the clerk, "Fine." Vicki left the school building.
On exiting she noticed that the gate man was still there, she called him. He came running and saluted her, "What can I do for you, Mam.?"
"Around one month earlier did a woman came here and created a racket in the office?" Vicki asked.
"Yes Mam., she was a very foul mouthed person, I can't believe that someone of her age can be such disrespectful." The gate man snarled.
"Hmm...how did she look? what was her approximate age?" Vicki was down to business.
"She was not very old, somewhere around thirty, she had black hair, stylish glasses and a ponytail. She had...u know Mam..." The gate man was stuttering and his cheeks gave away his blush.
"Having attractive bodily assets?" Vicki prompted.
"Yes Mam...she had a great body."
"These particulars don't help much, only one thing is sure, somebody tried to sniff out Monica before she was murdered. I guess that is a lead, but is it a tangible lead?" Vicki was brought out of her trance when she felt a light tug on her right hand. A brunet boy with a pink baseball cap and pink tee shirt with puppy eyes asked her "Would you buy pink lemonade from my stall ,miss?"
On any other day Vicki might have declined but today she was having a lighter mood so she obliged.
She was again dumbstruck on seeing the girl handling the lemonade stand, she was as old as the boy, that is around 10 years, but her looks, her hair style, her glasses, looked exact like her deceased younger sister.
The young girl welcomed her, "Thanks for choosing our lemonade stall, our speciality is pink lemonade, we charge only 20 cents a glass." The boy let go of her hand and ran towards the girl.
"I'll take one glass." the kids filled up her glass, she drank it in a gulp. It wasn't a very tasty but what else can be expected from fifth graders.
She threw them a buck, "Keep the change."
No sooner than she turned around than a ball of paper collided with her forehead. Vicki's trained body instantly alerted her systems an she gave a chase, she had caught the glimpse of the attacker, likely a girl in a hoody.
Vicki rand towards her with full speed, but that girl was also athletic enough to keep the distance between them. A mother was pushing her child in a perambulator, the attacker shoved the mother and the perambulator got overturned on the road. It was green signal and a car was approaching with good speed. Vicki stopped her pursuit and pulled of the perambulator just in time to save the baby.
The mother was spellbound, she quickly snatched her kid out of the perambulator and hugged him tightle, tears streaming down her cheeks, "Thank you, Thank you very much, you saved my baby, thank you..." The passer by's also joined in the thanksgiving and praising of her gallantry.
"Bastard, pushing a baby to slow me down, wait till I catch you." She opened the paper ball which was thrown at her, "Like father, Like daughter." "She wore gloves, I saw that, taking prints won't matter, this is a printed page, so the person doesn't want me to see her handwriting." Vicki was already in her detective mode.
Vicki asked a passer-by who also witnessed the event, "Did you see her face?"
"Not, exactly. Her face was hidden under a scarf. But I saw sunglasses."
( A call from the defence lawyer)
Timmy's phone suddenly started ringing, it was an unknown number. "It's not from office, neither from mom or dad, who the hell is it?"
"Hello can I speak with detective Timothy Turner?"
"Yes, speaking."
"I'm Maria Smith, the defence lawyer of Veronica, she wants to give testimony to you."
"Ok,..."
"Actually I"m waiting for you in the Detective department's office."
"Ok, I'm coming."
"Fucking nutjobs, they all must have conspired to ruin my cherished off day." Timmy cursed his luck again.
On entering his office Timmy noticed a gorgeous woman sitting in front of his desk.
"Hi, I'm Maria Smith. " she held her hand out.
"I'm Timothy Turner." she shook her hand with real hurry.
Timmy and Maria reached the police station where currently Veronica was kept, when Timmy and Maria entered , they came across McCarthy.
"Good day, Detective Tuurner, I guess you came for..." suddenly his eyes bulged in astonishment, "Hey You left only seconds ago." McCarthy was pointing at Maria, who was as surprised as McCarthy.
"Where is Veronica?" Timmy knew he had to act instantly, if his deduction is correct then...
McCarthy led them to Veronica's cell, the trio almost ran towards it. Veronica was sitting on her knees, clenching her throats with her both hands.
"Open the cell, damn it." Timmy cried, McCarty ran out to get the key from the junior inspector.
Veronica looked at Timmy and Maria, crawled with great difficulty towards Timmy and through the cell bars grabbed Timmy's t-shirt's right sleeve. Within seconds she breathed her last. Timmy checked her pulse, there was none.