The Infatuation
1450 Words
By nightfall, Aiden arrived at the prison interview room, and as soon as he entered, he saw that Daley, the witch he had entrusted with a surveillance mission, was lying on the iron table and snoozing soundly, with crumbs of butter berry pie still sticking to the corners of her mouth.
The corner of Aiden's eye twitched as he looked at the other's sweet sleeping face.
He turned back to the door and reached out towards the prison guards guarding the interview room outside the door, "Lend me your baton."
With the baton in hand, Aiden returned to the table and stared at Daley for a moment before slamming the baton against the steel table.
There was a loud "bam" and Daley woke up with a scream, instantly straightening up as if she had springs in her body.
"Good morning Daley, did you sleep well?" Aiden stared at the witch in front of him with a leathery smile, tapping his baton against his palm.
"Warden, Warden?" It took Daley a moment to realise who had woken her up, letting out a long breath with her shackled hand to her chest, "Don't scare me like that, my heart went into cardiac arrest."
"Wipe the corners of your mouth after you eat." Aiden reminded Daley as he nodded the side of his mouth.
"Oopsie-daisy, that's undignified for you to see." When Daley heard that she stuck her tongue out and licked the side of her mouth, but it was still ever so slightly lickable.
"You didn't get it clean, wipe it with your hand." Aiden frowned.
"Then warden wipe it for me." Daley pouted at Aiden, stretching her pale neck and lifting her face at him.
"Yeah, okay."
Aiden gave a 'kind' smile and slowly raised his right hand, five fingers together, above his shoulder, looking ready to deliver a stunning slap.
"Fine, I'll wipe myself, I'll wipe myself!" Daley hurriedly changed her tone at the sight, wiping the corners of her mouth with her fingers.
"If my memory isn't off, it seems like I have entrusted you with a surveillance mission, right?" Aiden squared his face and took the seat opposite Daley, placing his baton on the table in a very intimidating manner, "Having you leave your spell-casting privileges alone in the interview room for an entire afternoon, and running errands to get snacks for you, only to see you asleep on the table as soon as I walked in, you better not be amusing me."
"How could it be!" Dai Li hurriedly compensated with a smile, to jabbing her index finger, carefully and discreetly defended, "I'm just too tired, using Enchantment Spells for a long time is very mentally draining, and I'm not able to look at the target right now ah."
"What do you mean?"
"I can only possess an animal to watch him, but he went into a venue that I can't enter." Daley spread her hands a little helplessly.
"What kind of place?"
"A nightclub called Midnight Rose in Fireworks Lane, led in by a fat man ......"
"Wait!" Aiden responded immediately, "Say that again."
"He went to a nightclub called Midnight Rose ......"
"No, the other half!" Aiden's eyes burned into Daley.
"He went with a fat man."
"Wasn't that the biker with the moustache on his face who kicked me out of the parlour this morning?"
"Well ...... it seems to be him." Daly thought for a moment and answered in the affirmative.
It was Jarron Rawdon, Aiden was convinced in his mind.
"When did they meet?" Aiden pressed.
"Around 8:30 p.m. I think the fat guy asked the brat out."
The two of them actually got mixed up together, so it seemed that he was roughly right in the direction of his speculation.
From the information provided by Veronica, it seemed that Jaron Roden was currently the most likely true culprit of the murder, and Bruce Kane had disposed of the evidence in order to cover him up, planting the crime on Veronica.
If this reasoning held true, these two men had certainly formed an accomplice relationship, and with one of them being investigated, the other would certainly be nervous to learn of it.
Today he asked Bruce to talk, Jaron rushed to the parlour to interrupt their meeting, and then asked Bruce to come out for a private chat later that night ...... Was he trying to warn him?
If that was the case, what exactly did Jaron use to get Bruce to perjure himself?
Was it money to lure him, or did he use his power and background to coerce him ...... Or, was it both.
To find a break in the perjury Bruce had committed, this had to be clarified.
"Tell me about the kid's schedule for today." Aiden instructed towards Daley.
"I've written it down on paper for your perusal." Daley handed over a piece of report paper that was sitting on the table.
Aiden took it and suddenly frowned, lifting the paper up and shaking it, "Why is this paper wet?"
There was a large puddle of soaked wetness on the report paper, and a small portion of the words written in ink had melted away.
"This, this well ......" Dai Li pursed her lips and smiled somewhat awkwardly, "I accidentally spilled it when I was drinking water ...... "
"It's the harumph you drooled in your sleep, isn't it!"
Aiden punctured bluntly, before spreading the paper out on the table and starting to read the top carefully.
"Leaving the police station at 2.10pm for a patrol uptown, queued up to book two tickets at the door as we passed the Royal Opera House ...... Hmm?" Aiden thought for a moment, "Tickets aren't cheap there as I recall."
The Royal Opera House is the most luxurious theatre in the entire Silver City, and when a popular play is staged, a ticket must be at least a dozen shillings, which when converted to Aiden's original world can basically be compared to the kind of celebrity concert tickets that are normally sold for close to a thousand dollars, and double that when put into the hands of scalpers.
"It's supposed to be for a date with a girl, Warden, as you'll see down the line." Daley smiled meaningfully.
Aiden continued to read down the page, "Returned to the police station at five in the evening, left work at five-thirty, travelled to the Queen's Hotel, sat in the window seat, a female companion arrived just after six, and the two of them dined and ate until seven ......"
He lifted his face towards Daly and asked, "How old did the female companion look?"
"Mid to late twenties, young anyway."
"Lovers?"
"A bit of a subtle difference, if you ask me, it would be the brat who's courting her." A smile of ulterior motives came to Daley's lips, "You can see there's more below, they went shopping after dinner, and the kid bought the girl a coat, but he didn't even hold her hand the whole time."
Aidan was once again in deep thought, the per capita consumption of the Queen's Hotel was about ten shillings up and down, almost the kind of per capita four or five hundred in Aidan's previous life was a little bit expensive restaurant.
Bruce was earning about a pound a week as a trainee police officer, and even with his recent promotion, the increase wouldn't be that big. Hard to say, the economic strength and the kind of monthly salary of four or five thousand office workers is not much difference.
If Bruce came from a middle class family, this level of expenses would be understandable, but according to Veronica's words, this guy seems to be from a poor family.
Really, if that's the case, he's spending money so lavishly to chase a girl ......
"This is either a fortune or a dead l*****g dog." Aiden muttered.
Hearing this, Daley smiled coquettishly at Aiden, "Actually, I'm your l*****g dog too Warden yo, woof woof!"
She gestured with her hand in the shape of a dog's paw and struck a cute pose.
"Heh, you?......" Aiden raised an eyebrow at her, "should be considered my lapdog."
"Sad, thanks to people being so fond of you." Daley slumped down on the table in mock sadness.
Aiden ignored her and continued to stare at the report paper.
He was uniformly disbelieving when prisoners said such things to him.
In his eyes, there was no emotion to speak of between him and these female inmates he was using, there was only a transaction of interest.
After all, the most taboo thing in this line of work was to easily trust the prisoners.
- Writer
