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Scam Me If You Can part 2

“Maybe…” Madelin said while standing up. “Thanks for the meal.” She said while heading to the counter, grabbing take out food. She smiled at him then at the cashier. “My boyfriend is going to pay, thank you!”

Then the waitress at the counter headed to the table and presented the man the bill.

“That little…” Upon looking at the bill, Edward wondered to himself. ‘…..food over a hundred dollars? Meanwhile she didn’t eat anything while sitting here…’ He decided to pay it none the less. Although he couldn’t comprehend why the woman needed that much food…

*

*

*

“Another exhausting day today!” Madelin remarked as she was cheerfully met with five children waiting for her. All of them seemed to be between 10 and 14 years old. Behind them was a kind looking older gentleman.

“Big sis! You’re back!” One of the kids cheerfully remarked while the others snuggled close to her.

“Careful! I’m carrying hot food for everyone so go and set the table, yeah?” Madelin spoke casually as she used her free hand to pet the kid’s on top of their heads.

“Let me take those, you seem tired…” The older gentleman remarked as he carried the bags for her.

“Well, the police needed my help again but there were some new guys there that didn’t know me and they held me up in the interrogation room! Super rude, right?!” Madelin spoke carelessly and cheerfully as they all sat across the table. The older gentleman carefully distributing food amongst the kids, himself and Madeline.

“Oh, no I don’t need to eat any. Honestly I’m stuffed, a colleague of mine bought me food as an apology for interrogating me.” Madeline said as she pushed back the plate that was put in front of her.

“Please eat a little more, it’s not good to just sit and watch us, right?” The older gentleman continued and the kids nodded along.

“Big sis looks too skinny!” One of the kids remarked and another tapped him on the head. “That’s a rude thing to say to her!” Then there was a small scuffle between them that Madeline broke up quickly.

“It’s alright, I’m not offended… but seriously, I’m really stuffed! And it’s not good to eat when you’re not hungry, right?” Madeline chimed in once more, she grabbed a cracker from one of the deserts. “This much is enough for a small snack for me, so go and eat.”

The kids seemed satisfied enough and began eating. They laughed and cheerfully spoke amongst themselves, then everyone headed back to their rooms, it had already become quite late, way past their bed time.

“Maddy…” The man that took care of the children was George, a kind old man that was the son of the previous owner of the orphanage. The reason it had so few kids was because they didn’t have the funds to sustain more, and they were going to be shut down several times due to it. The only reason they were still operating at all was because those children had nowhere else to go but at the same time they were much too old for most couples to be interested in adopting them.

It was a tragic situation as the rooftop was leaking again, some made fun of the fact they had to keep buckets to stop the water from going everywhere when it rained. And many kids played around joyfully even when all they had were worn off blankets, they made forts, when they had few toys, they invented games that didn’t need any toys at all.

They were a bunch of creative kids that realized the situation they were in but maybe it was more for the sakes of the adults around them that they pretended to be oblivious.

“Hm? Old man don’t go offering me more food, I told you I’m fine!” Madeline repeated once more but her stomach growled.

“It’s not good to lie, the children might pretend not to understand but it’s true you’ve lost weight again.” George remarked as he inched closer to her, offering her a plate of food that was leftover after the kids and himself had eaten.

“Did you eat well?” Madeline asked him before accepting the plate.

“Ahaha, of course! Do you think I made this belly here by going on hungry?” George remarked with a cheerful expression on his face. “Now please eat and don’t worry me anymore.”

“How are the kids… do you need more money?” Madeline questioned in a careful tone.

“You know how it is… they grow up so quickly it’s difficult to keep up with them. They need new clothes, haircuts and many more expenses…” George continued, “…but it’s not your responsibility to provide for them.” He reassured her.

“Sure but… I want to… so here…” Madeline said while taking out an envelope with money.

“Maddy… this…” George felt guilty but he couldn’t afford to refuse the money he was handed.

“Just take it as a thank you for the food.” Madeline said with a smile, finishing her plate she headed out quickly…

Strolling through the dark city she swayed back and forth idly. “It’s really beautiful… the moon…” She stopped at a park bench and stared up at the sky.

It was a cold autumn day, her clothes looked beautiful and rather expensive, although in truth all of what she wore were second hand clothes she found trifling and all her make up was drugstore quality. Even her beautiful dyed hair was done at home since it was cheaper.

Despite her making a large living, she always saved money and spend it only as much was necessary on her appearance to continue doing the work she did.

Although she enjoyed thinking of herself as being free… she couldn’t help but feel like there were these invisible shackles that entrapped her in this place, this town and that orphanage…

Chapter 3: Next game

***

The following days at the police station there was a huge scene that unfolded…

“What… in the world?!” As the policemen watched the scene, Jennifer was laying down on the ground holding onto her dislocated shoulder and above her was one of her superiors, Damien.

“You dare speak to me again and I-!” Suddenly he was stopped by Edward that held him back.

“Why did you do that? What’s the matter with you, have you gone mad?!” Edward questioned him but the man looked like he was going to hit the woman once more.

“Let go of me… you have no idea what that stupid woman said!” Damien’s eyes had a sharp glimmer as he stared at the man, warning him to back away.

“No matter what she said you cannot raise your hand against her, against anyone for that matter, now back away.” Edward restrained him as much as possible but the man struggled and fought with him, until fists were flung.

One hit… then another… the rest of the policemen on duty watched on the sidelines as if this was their entertainment for the day, no one stepped in to interrupt or stop them, and no one gave a helping hand to the injured woman on the ground either.

“f*****g idiots…” Madelin remarked under her breath as she grabbed a gun from a nearby officer that wasn’t paying attention and fired one shot at a nearby door, lunging into it, and the loud noise and strong odor of gunpowder made everyone stop in their tracks and turn towards her.

“I don’t really care who’s right and who’s wrong here… now back away before you get shot.” Madelin warned the man as she pointed the gun towards him.

Quickly enough, Damien stepped back, however Edward moved closer towards her.

“You’re not authorized to hold a weapon.” Edward the ever so stickler to the rules extended his hand to take it from the woman.

Madeline smiled as she pulled the man in by his arm and kissed him on the lips. “Hm? I do have a license you know?” She remarked in a sickly sweet voice before slapping the man across the face. “Besides you’re useless here…” She turned towards the rest of the spectators. “When were any of you going to help Jennifer get up, huh?! This is why I hate cops, you’re all just a punch of pigs.” She cursed at them.

There were many disgruntled voices amongst the crowd.

“You don’t know anything, that woman doesn’t deserve anything…” Damien remarked as he glared at her all the more.

“That so?” Madeline looked around. ‘…so everyone here has a grudge against her for some reason… she’s the only female cop here as well, I guess I can more or less tell why she’s so hated.’ She figured in her mind and went to help the woman.

Quickly enough she grabbed the woman’s arm and with a loud cracking of bones, she adjusted her shoulder. “Sorry…” Madeline apologized under her breath.

“AGHHH!” Jennifer cried out loud as the pain that coursed through her entire arm was felt multiplied several times as she slowly got up. She was silent as she headed back to change out of her uniform and head back.

“You take a rest and go to a real doctor to take a look at you, alright?” Madeline told her but Jennifer didn’t seem to be in the mood to speak.

“See? She’s arrogant as s**t, not even a thank you.” Damien chimed in once more as now Madeline had returned the gun to the officer she grabbed it from. “What’s the point of protecting a person like that, huh?”

“As if you’d know…” Madeline glared at him, “You’ve always been the strongest around, right?” She questioned him. “So you don’t know what it’s like to be weaker than someone else…”

“So?” Damien couldn’t understand what that had to do with anything.

“I think it’s about time you learned.” Madeline grabbed the man by the collar.

“Stop that.” Edward held onto the woman’s shoulder and pulled her back.

“And why should I?” Madeline turned towards him, now that the crowd was gone, she was more or less allowed to teach that insolent man a lesion.

“Because you shouldn’t do anymore, this is enough…” Edward touched the place the woman had hit him, it was a harsh slap and the place she touched still felt hot a while later.

“Haha… I guess so, I shouldn’t be so rude.” Madeline chuckled as she let go of Damien’s collar and turned towards the man. “So, how about we go to the office together?” She suggested.

“Huh?” Before Edward could realize what was happening the woman began dragging him to his superior’s office with unusual strength for her stature.

“Hey big boss!” Madeline walked in cheerful as ever if not more than usual. “I want this guy to be my partner! I discussed this with you once before but now I’m certain I want him.” She said smiling widely.

“Sure, then it’s settled.” The man said while dismissing them both.

“What? This was never discussed with me-!” Edward’s calm mask shattered in an instant as they were alone in his father’s office. “I have no reason to cooperate with a criminal.”

“Mind you manners, son.” The man responded with a stern voice.

“Son? Ohhh… so he’s your dad? Wow… shocker…” Madeline remarked while glancing back and forth at the two men that didn’t look alike at all.

“I can’t work with her, she just fired a gun she stole from another officer, she’s dangerous-” Edward was interrupted once more.

“Who, me? I fired it super safely though… I made sure it got lunged into a door that had no one behind it just in case! If that’s not safety measures than I don’t know what is…” Madeline remarked while folding her arms. “Give me some credit here.”

“Someone could have gotten hurt, you’re obviously unfit to do police work.” Edward glared at the woman.

“Says you who couldn’t even control one of your buddies while he was hitting a woman? Where were you exactly while this was happening, huh? Good thing I showed up or she might have been injured even worse.” Madeline said while shrugging her shoulders.

“That’s…” Edward didn’t have an explanation, he came to the scene after Jennifer was already on the ground, he had no idea what went down between them and what caused the typically hot headed Damien to get even crazier than usual.

“See? He’s useless on his own but put me together with him and I’m sure I can kick him into gear rather quickly!” Madeline explained while grabbing onto the man’s arm. Edward pulled his arm back but Madeline clung to it like a koala to a tree, they scuffled for a bit before stopped by the man.

“Could you two… not flirt in front of me. I have nothing against young love but this is extremely unprofessional.” The super intendent spoke as he cleared his throat. “Either way I was going to put you two together for the next task… it’s an extremely important assignment but you both will have to be undercover. Can you do it? I ask but in truth we don’t have other personnel we can send, seeing as Jennifer was recently injured.”

“Ohh? So you need a woman for this job specifically… that’s cute.” Madeline smiled as she posed in greeting like a soldier. “Aye, aye sir! I will get the job done.” She then glanced at the man next to her and nudged him with her elbow. “How about you sweet pie?”

“Tsk… I will do it, if it’s work I don’t have complaints…” Edward spoke harshly as he looked at his father. “One more thing, we weren’t flirting.” He spoke with certainly. The old man in the room simply dismissed them and Madelin smiled. “See you tonight partner! Wait up for me, alright?” She headed out without explaining what those words meant to the man…

END of Scam Me If You Can