Sunshine

XIX

“WHO'S this?"

“I know your biggest desire, Lieutenant Colonel Catalan. And I can give you exactly that.”

That made Catalan, who is just aimlessly lying around on his swivel chair and fully air-conditioned office sit straight and become wary of his surroundings. He took a look around multiple times and hissed on the phone. “I said who’s this?”

“Someone who knows your greed well.” That was the reply he received on the other end. Catalan couldn’t guess who he is talking to because of the voice changer used. He could have put down the phone, but he couldn’t resist himself after hearing the next words. “The Director position. I can give it to you.”

“Do you really think I will believe in you?”

“I think it’s about time for something to arrive at your door.”

As if on cue he heard a knock on his office door. He watched the door open slightly with a box pushed on the floor. Catalan immediately ran to it and closed the door making sure to lock it.

“That looks quite shabby right now, but isn’t that enough for you to at least put your trust on me?”

The caller must be referring to the Police Director’s badge replica inside the small box on his hands. But what really caught him is the small carved gold next to it. Catalan took the gold out and stared at it in both daze and confusion, and lastly growing greed and desire which soon reflected on his eyes.

“The Queen’s Spear.”

“QUEEN'S Spear. It is only a rumor, but it is said that some higher ups no one knows about sends a small carved gold to a police officer it chooses and guarantees its position on the force. What I mean here is promotions to higher and highest positions. If a queen’s spear arrives at you guaranteed. You will retire with the highest position you could ever think of. I even heard it is actually capable of making someone as the president of the country!”

“Are you saying that there is a corruption happening inside the force?” Adrian pressed his horns again for the nth time. He took a glance on his wristwatch and was told they were stuck in this traffic for 20 minutes now. “And why are you suddenly telling me that? That was so out of the blue.”

“Nothing. Boredom made me suddenly think of it.” Marie, who is at the shotgun seat of the car Adrian’s driving yawned. She did a little stretching after that then yawned again, this time with sounds. “But this is not your first time hearing this, right? What do you think of it? You think it’s true?”

“I don’t know. But it must be only a rumor for a reason. No, don’t you think it was actually considered as a myth instead? Because there’s actually no one who retired rich and powerful at Kahilom Police Station.”

“I think you’re right.” Marie sighed at the crowded cars in front of them. She didn’t see the need to talk about the “myth” anymore. “Will we ever get out of here? Philippines damn.”

MARIE'S complaints about everything in the country could have go on until forever but good thing the car finally managed to move after 10 minutes. Adrian would have thrown away Marie out of the car if the traffic went on for more. At last both arrived at their destination. The sign on the coffee shop read Kapehan Lamian which the owner, Ms. Sanchez lists as the first victim of the mobbing case. Marie and Adrian went out of the car almost at the same time after they parked.

“We are from the police. We are here to investigate the mobbing incident last time.”

That was how Adrian replied to Ms. Sanchez after the latter mistook them as costumers. A questioning look became visible at Ms. Sanchez’ face. “I already told you what I know the last time. I don’t think I can tell new things.”

Marie stepped in and patted Adrian’s shoulders, signaling him she will do the talking from now on. “I am Lieutenant Aguinaldo and this is Executive Master Sergeant Dela Vega. Your case has been reassigned to us. We came here for further investigations and to also inform you of the change.” Marie looked around the coffee shop. Assuming the couple across the street are customers, she excused themselves. “Can we take a look around?”

As if on cue the couple Marie’s referring to entered the shop. Ms. Sanchez greeted them and also gave permission to Marie and Adrian, “Yes, please.”

Marie and Adrian took a chair from the far end corner and located the photos on the case file of the shop. That made them notice the additional security features that was not present in the pictures. “No one will have the courage to rob this again.”

“Well, since they quite did a good job with the upgrades.” Adrian praised. “What about we actually order coffee and wait around?”

Marie’s eyebrows twitched. “For what?”

Adrian titled his head. “To kill time?”

“I thought we’re going to the ne---”

Adrian didn’t let her finish and stood up to get coffee. “No, we’re not. I’m getting you iced americano, too.”

Marie chuckled and rested her back on the soft sofa chair. “And I love that you don’t ask.”

“NOW that we already did our jobs and pretended to focus on the mobbing case, should we get straight to our point now?”

The police station’s main lights are mostly turned off, leaving only the meeting room of the Special Task Force Team alive and kicking with people. Adrian led the deep night’s meeting together with warm coffee and biscuits laid in front of them along with the documents needed. As the caffeine is still not fully sinking in to everyone, just mere nods and sighs are all he received from his teammates. Adrian nodded at the lukewarm atmosphere.

“All right, all right I know everyone’s just too tired to do this. It’s my fault I know we can just focus on the serial killing case and skip all the tiring things we did today. Why did we even went through all the trouble? But you understand, right? Why we have to do this.”

“Just why Captain Rivera is not included in this?” Carlos sipped on his coffee and sighed. “Damn I just hate coffee on midnight.”

“Because he was out of reach during Kim’s case.” Adrian said nonchalantly, as if there were no hints of doubt on his Captain despite the kind of words he said. “And he found out it Olivia and Mayor Costales is connected. I just still don’t know how he got that information.”

“You don’t trust Captain anymore?”

“Do I sound like one?”

Marie looked at Adrian who answered her question with another question. She stared at his face for straight 3 seconds then shrugged. “All right. No if it is.”

“You know, everything’s just so crucial to us since the entire force is clawing on our heads. And I just feel like we should be the only ones to do this since Captain already suffered enough. If this went south, we can just say Captain doesn’t know anything---we can take the blame like that. And besides, I feel like they’re going to dissolve the team.”

Adrian’s last words was quicker to kick in the Special Task Force Team members than the caffeine. “What? Are you sure?”

“Doesn’t the atmosphere reads as that?”

Marie, Juan and Carlos went back to their respective chairs. Altogether they said, “I thought you heard something.”

Adrian clapped his hands in the air. “All right! Are we now all ready to actually start the meeting?”

The three others nodded. Adrian stood and flipped over the white evidence board in front of them. “The truth is… We don’t really have anything on our sleeves aside from our gut feelings and intuitions. Isn’t this a laughing stock for the police force? We are still policemen though and we’re not supposed to do things this way.”

The three others focused their attention on the white board. Marie’s jaw dropped on what she saw. “When did you---”

“Anyways here we are gathered at this deep night to act according to our shared intuitions. We are doing this because I, because you, because like everyone else here we couldn’t really trust anyone outside our team.”

Adrian started explaining his devised plan he spent few sleepless nights for as what his team could see. Marie just couldn’t voice out how “amazing” the plan looked. “Seriously when did you planned all this? You…”

Adrian massaged his nape and cracked knuckles. That made the entire team serious as they start to assign each and everyone roles. “That third person involved, the one who did the killing last time. We have to catch him.”