Chapter 4: Chapter 4 The Backseat
It was around noon the next day when I walked back to my desk after I got the file about the Cullson case from the M.E. I was getting ready to go over the file with Jones when I saw he wasn't at his desk. I looked around the office to see if I could find him only to find out that he was no where to be seen.
I walked over to Detective Sanchez and Detective Richmond's desks. Richmond was throwing pencils into a cup on the far side of his desk and Sanchez was on his computer.
"Hey, where's Jones?" I asked them when I got close enough.
"It's noon, he's at lunch," Sanchez said without looking at me.
"I just got the M.E report for our case, I was hoping to go over it," I said as I lifted the file to show them.
"You can try catching up to him," Richmond said as he tossed another pencil, missing the cup. "He usually goes to the sandwich shop down the street."
"I wouldn't," Sanchez warned. "Lunchtime he's off the clock. He doesn't do work when he's eating."
"Well now he has me," I said. I started to make my way to the door, calling back to them. "Thanks guys."
"No problem, beautiful!" Sanchez called out to me.
I ran out the front door of the station. To my left were more restaurants and stores, so my best chance was to head that way. I wanted to catch up to Jones. Maybe we could have lunch together, to get to know each other. And also to talk about the case.
But before I could even leave the station's property, someone grabbed my arm. I turned to see a taller, muscular, handsome Asian man with large doe eyes. He wasn't looking at me, instead he was looking towards the street.
"Who are you?" I asked. As I spoke I tried to pull my arm from his grip, but his grip was too strong.
He didn't say anything to me, only pulled me towards a 2020 black jaguar sitting on the curb. He opened the door to the backseat and shoved me inside. He slammed the door behind me.
"What the hell?" I yelled moving to open the door. But the man stood in front of the door.
"Hello to you too, Little Detective," the voice of RM said.
I looked next to me to see the most handsome man I've ever seen. He had slender, sharp mono-lid eyes. His face was round with sharp features. He had cute dimples that didn't match the cocky smirk on his face. And his lips, oh heaven, those lips were full and luscious and looked so soft. He wore a black fitted suit with a black silk shirt underneath the jacket. His dyed blonde hair was styled like he didn't care, but he clearly did.
"RM," I whispered. My heart beat sped up in a way I didn't recognize. It wasn't adrenaline, like how it was when I was shoved in here. It was something completely different, and I didn't know if I wanted to know what it was.
I couldn't believe that the leader of the mafia was actually this young and good-looking. And he wasn't even looking at me. Instead, he was staring out the window at the cars passing by on the street. He handed me a file, not bothering to look at me.
"That's what I found," RM said. "He's a member of the gang EXO. He's their go-to assassin, named Chanyeol."
"You have business with them?" I asked.
"More like they have business with me," RM said. "One of the many businesses I own is real estate. I buy warehouses and buildings and sell them. And sometimes, gangs drive a hard bargain. And what they do in the places I sell them, I don't know."
"Whatever you say," I muttered with a roll of my eyes. I began looking into the file. "Does this Chanyeol have any places he frequents? Anyplace we can find him so we can question him?"
"He's an assassin, Little Detective," RM said as he finally turned to look at me. "He's not going to be easy to catch. If at all."
"Right now, we just need to question him not arrest him," I said as I still looked through the file. "But he is our lead suspect at the moment."
"Little Detective, I think you should start wondering why EXO would have their assassin to kill Cullson," RM said.
"What do you mean?" I asked. I turned to look up at him.
"Think about it." RM turned fully to face me. He put his arm on the back of the seat and leaned close to me. "Why would a gang, one that is pretty high up, want to kill some heiress from the suburbs? If a gang kills someone, it's because that person has done something to them or one of their people. Or they need to tie up loose ends."
"Okay, so if Cullson somehow betrayed EXO, why just leave her in the house instead of finishing the job and getting rid of the body?" I wondered. I looked back down at the files not wanting to look at the handsome man next to me.
"Why exactly," RM mused in a low tone. "Have you talked to her family yet?"
"No, not yet. Her parents got into town late last night. And they've said they're not coming in until they can come in with their daughter who comes back from Costa Rica later tonight," I said.
"I would have the daughter in a separate interrogation and ask her about EXO," RM said. "They left that body there for someone. And the only other person living there is the sister. The sister is the key to figuring out why Cullson died."
What kind of stuff did EXO deal with? What illegal businesses are they into besides assassinations. RM must know. I turned back to look over to RM only to flinch away. He was a lot closer than he was last time I looked away. I wasn't expecting him to be that close to me. He was inches away from my face. Was it possible for someone to be more attractive up close?
"Back up," I said before I placed a hand on his chest and pushed against him to get him to move back. He didn't move, so I pushed harder. "RM, please back up a bit."
"Am I distracting you, Little Detective?" RM mused. His tone was deep and sexy. I just about melted as he spoke to me. How would that voice sound in the morning? Or murmuring against my skin. Or feel against my lips. Or feel against different parts of my body. I mentally shook my head, getting those thoughts to stop before they went too far.
"Not in the way you're thinking," I hissed at him. "I don't do well when people are looking over my shoulder."
RM chuckled and leaned back against his seat, a good distance away from me. I glared at him. He made me loose my train of thought. I was going to ask him something, and now I don't remember because his stupid attractive face and dumb sexy voice caught me off guard.
"I was going to ask something," I whispered.
"Go ahead, then," RM said.
"Well now I don't remember," I confessed. "What were you talking about before?"
"The sister is the key to finding out why Cullson was killed," RM restated.
"Oh! I remember. What kind of stuff does EXO do that would lead to them wanting to kill an heiress?" I asked.
"Why would I know?" RM asked. "I'm just a businessman. What would I know about a gang's activities."
"Don't play me, RM. I can find out from the sister or from you. It would be nice to know what to talk to her about when she comes in to talk to us," I said.
"EXO mostly deals in illegal drugs. They only kill if something goes wrong with their product," RM said. "If someone ripped them off, stole from them, or worse."
"So the sisters could have been mixed up with dealing drugs?" I wondered. That's when I remembered, "The M.E report. I just got it before I left to find Jones. He's at lunch right now. If there were drugs in her system when she died we will know with this." I spoke as I opened the M.E file to read over it quickly. "There was ecstasy in her system. But that's strange."
"Someone around her age, her background, her tax bracket having ecstasy in her system. Is that really strange?" RM asked.
"No what's strange is that there was no trace of drugs found anywhere in the house," I said. "We would have done a complete search of the residence looking for any clues of the murder. There was no residue of drugs anywhere in the house. And the M.E said that there was no drug residue anywhere on her."
"That is strange," RM muttered. "Maybe something happened at the club, then."
"I'll have to get the CCTV from inside the club then," I muttered. "That means I'll have to call Nate. Hopefully he hasn't deleted the footage yet. Maybe I can call Jones and he can go and pick up the footage. Nate isn't very good at being quick when sending things to me. Am I mumbling again?"
"Yes, but it's kind of cute," RM said. I felt a blush rise up my face. I flipped my hair over my shoulder to hide my face. "Well, since Jones is at lunch, why don't I treat you to lunch?"
I whipped my head to look at him to find that he looked directly into my eyes. He seemed serious, like he really wanted to have lunch with me. He was so attractive. And I have never been to lunch with someone outside of colleagues from work. Was this a date? Because I've never been on a date before.
I began to freak out mentally, but RM still gazed at me, waiting for my answer.
"Um . . . lunch? I - I - I don't. I don't usually eat lunch. Just a few bites of a homemade sandwich at my desk," I stuttered.
"You only started working at a desk yesterday," Namjoon pointed out.
"Well before it was my cop car," I snapped.
"So you're saying no?" RM asked.
"Well no - um. I'm not saying not, but um . . ."
I gulped and looked away from him. My eyes found themselves looking out the window. The man who pushed me into the car had moved from my door to lean against the passenger side door with his arms crossed over his chest. I looked away from him to the front of the station. It was then that I saw Jones as he walked up to the doors.
"Look, there's Jones!" I shouted. "I need to go give him this information. Thank you, RM. Let's do a raincheck on lunch, some other time."
I quickly opened the door and went to leave. But before I could get a foot outside the car, RM gripped my arm, causing me stop.
"I'll hold you to that, Little Detective," he said.
"You can call me Barnes," I said. "Or even Ana. But please stop calling me that."
"I think I'll stick to Little Detective, I like it," RM mused with a smirk. "I'll see you around."
I shot out of the car and into the station faster than a bullet. I ran all the way to mine and Jones' desks and threw the files at Jones. They landed on the desk, causing Jones to jump at the sudden sound.
"What are these?" Jones asked. He picked up the files and began to look through them.
"M.E report and the information that RM found out," I said as I flopped into my chair out of breath.
"What did he say?" Jones asked.
"The guy from the club is a member of EXO," I gasped.
"Drug Lords," Jones muttered. "Little-miss-heiress is a drugie."
"Or the sister is," I said. "M.E report says that there was ecstasy in her system. But there was no residue anywhere on her hands or anywhere in the house. It's like someone put the pill in her mouth for her."
"So this EXO member meets Cullson at the club," Jones said. "He takes her home, forces her to take the drug. She runs upstairs to get away from him, grabs her knife to defend herself, but he shoots her before she gets the chance."
"We need to find the guy and get his side of the story," I said.
"Jones, Barnes," a voice called out. We looked over to see the secretary from the front desk. "You got some people asking for you."
"I have five minutes left for lunch," Jones groaned before shouting back to her, "Send 'em over!"
Three people came walking over with tear stained faces and red eyes. There was an older couple and a girl a few years older than me.
"Are you the Detectives in charge of our daughter's murder?" the man asked.
"Mr. and Mrs. Cullson?" Jones asked stood up to greet them.
"Yes," the man said. "Do you have any idea who killed our daughter?"
"We can't release that information right now," Jones said. "Is it okay if we talk to each of you in private?"
"Of course," Mrs. Cullson spoke up. "Anything to catch our daughter's killer."
"Great. Why don't we start with you, sister?" I said. I turned to the girl who looked at me surprised. "You are the one who was living with her after all."
"Sure thing," the girl said. She gave me a sad smile before I led her to the interrogation room upstairs.
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