Chapter 3

“Sir?” Smith replied, not hearing what he had just said.

“Nothing, Smith, nothing,” he replied and then dropped the first envelope onto the ever-growing stack on his desk. He then laid the second one aside and sat back, his eyes going to the trashcan, no doubt in search of more creamed coffee.

“What can I do for you today, Smith? I know you didn’t just come here to check on my fat ass,” he said and looked up at the younger man.

“Sir, Teddy and I have been awaiting your instructions, sir,” Smith replied.

“So eager, nice. Well, that deal isn’t ready just yet. I’m not ready to waste resources on that nonsense unless I have enough information,” he said.

“Am I dismissed, sir?”

“No, where’s that stupid giant anyways? Isn’t he ought to be here to get a briefing on the mission, too?” Martin asked.

“If you mean Teddy, sir, he is still at the gathering down the hall.”

“Ha, I did good, didn’t I? Everyone loved that speech,” he praised himself with a wide grin.

Smith did not need to answer that, and he reminded himself in time. The man did not need his candid opinion on how he had just sounded in the hallway. In fact, Smith was sure that if he expressed his feelings about that speech and, indeed, every other speech that the man had ever given in the department, then he was going to be disciplined or transferred in a short while. Knowing this, he simply nodded and kept his sour opinion to himself.

“I know, right? Someone has to inspire these people. I see the hard work everyone around here does. The least I can do is appreciate their efforts,” Martin shrugged and then looked at the door as it creaked open, and Theodore, whom everyone called Ted or Teddy, came in, his phone shoved in his breast pocket but still vibrating.

“You have a call,” Martin said.

“It is insignificant, sir,” Teddy replied.

“Pick up your phone, Officer Ted. That’s an order,” he insisted.

Theodore gave a nod and answered the call.

It was a woman, and once again, he was on the short end of the stick, being scolded and blamed and accused and everything that a woman did when she was apparently fed up with you and needed a new man or simply a break from you.

At the end of his call, whatever smile was on his face was replaced with a seething look, and Martin smiled at the man.

“There’s something about you, Officer. I don’t know, but you let these women chew you up and spit you out. I mean, it’s absolutely none of my business what your personal business and life are, but for once, allow me to say this. Not as a superior to his subordinate, but as… Let’s say a man to his son, you are being used. You may think you are using these women, but at the end of the day, they are the ones using you and spitting you right out. Think on that,” Martin said and, with one single sympathetic look at Teddy, turned to Smith.

“Well, since you were all packed and ready for a mission, I can’t disappoint you, now can I?” he said and then stretched to pick up the envelope on the desk. He pulled out a small picture and handed it to Smith.

“She’s 15 and missing. Her parents filed a complaint three days ago, and I think it’s ripe enough that we intervene. These parents will chew my ears off if I don’t,” he said with a shrug.

Smith looked at the picture, which showed a girl who looked attractive. She had plump lips, a heart-shaped face, blond hair, and ample cleavage that showed through her top.

Smith turned to look at Chief Martin and then back at the picture.

“I know, I know. I think she is where she wants to be, no doubt with some high school jock in some abandoned holiday home,” Martin said and sighed.

“You see, I never could understand how these girlies think. I never had one myself—all boys, all three of them—saves me the stress of chasing away boys all the time or maybe getting blue balls when I see them dress up,” he mumbled the last part to himself. Smith heard him all right, but he said nothing, and his facial expression didn’t change, not even for a single second.

“But we don’t know that, and we can’t say it. So, she’s missing and probably in danger. Find her. Her mother is a head surgeon at New Prime Hospital; she pulled some strings to get this directly to my desk. I can’t pretend I haven’t seen it,” he said and turned to Teddy.

“Here’s everything you need to know—her mom gave some numbers, her friends, and teachers. Make them talk; find what you can. Let’s make it seem like we’re working.”

“Did you get anything I said?” he asked when he discovered the blank look on Theodore’s face.

“Very well, sir,” Ted replied.

“Okay, boys,” he answered and swiveled away, his signature dismissal.

“Sir,” Theodore and Smith said in unison and left the office.

***

The office that Smith and Theodore shared was rather small compared to Martin's. The walls were painted a certain shade of green, which made the office even duller than the rest of the building, which was equally uninteresting.

Frankly, Smith had thought to himself more than once that a little renovation wouldn’t hurt the establishment, and perhaps the renovation should begin at their own space. The green was so faded that it was becoming white at the sides, and the walls closest to the door were dirtied to a faint brown.

The rest of the room was either piled high with stuff that needed to be discarded but still had some relevance or big cabinets screwed tight into the wall. The left wall, for example, had a floor-to-ceiling cabinet with over a dozen drawers made of steel and screwed to the floor and the wall. It was a huge thing that took up the whole space and left very little room for the printer that sat by the side of the room, whirring annoyingly even as no paper was there, and the ink had long dried out.

The truth is, there was little to print out. The one or two photocopies were mostly handled at the front desk, and half the time, whatever information they needed was sent to the department’s email and stayed there for months. It was either a dead-end case or an equally unexciting case involving an obvious crime, with the suspect staring right at everyone who knew the story. It didn’t require much, most times just a simple interrogation, and they blabbed and were taken into detention.

But Smith was not worried about the lack of drama at work. On the contrary, he didn’t mind the lack of drama at all because it somehow meant a lack of danger, and he knew that a lack of danger was exactly what most of his colleagues in other cities prayed for but never got. It was often too quiet, but he could live with that.

The memories of his childhood were still fresh in his mind, but that didn’t bother him. They were mostly fond memories, and he often smiled at them.

One of the memories he had of his mother was of her scolding him and warning him never to join the force for any reason. Smith had always been a problem child, either getting into street fights or being beaten up for trying to beat up someone twice his size. He wasn’t a bully, but he didn’t miss any opportunity to flex the little muscle he had gathered from the small-sized weights behind the garden at home.

Most of the time, Smith was roughed up, and his mom had to nurse him back and heal the bruises. Smith prided himself on being smart, and as he grew older, he no longer engaged in street fights, at least not with kids who looked twice his size and were ready to bend and break him. Instead, he began to form a small team of capable men, which he controlled, and they fought for him without even knowing.

Subsequently, the whole gangsterism thing became really harmful and almost landed him in prison. Since he was never one to chase after trouble or even own the balls to stand a day in jail, he abandoned his gang and began being smart all by himself. The first year he had the idea of joining the force, it was a simple thought after he had seen a certain crime thriller on an evening show. He could still remember the title; it was “Perch,” a Korean series with a lot of good-looking men who acted as cops and a horde of women who needed saving.

That night had planted the idea in his head, and it had grown for a few months before he told his mother. In her own words, it was a death sentence and a cowardly thing to do.

To be frank, Smith knew he was slightly a coward. Now that he had enjoyed the benefits of being fought for and not having to do his dirty job alone, it was addictive, and he believed that the force would still give him the protection and backup he needed to settle scores and walk the street with his shoulders held high. So, despite what his momma had said, Smith joined the force anyway. But in his defense, she didn’t get to see him do it; she was dead and cold when he began training.

“Are we really doing this babysitting again?” Teddy asked, cutting in and distracting his train of thought. The bigger man was on his chair, tapping his fountain pen on the desk.

“Like we have a choice,” Smith snorted and picked up the picture to stare at it again.

“She looks like some child prosti—”