Film of Love

Quarante Sept

Two men walked towards the path to the station holding such a dramatic and old-fancy sketch of the town. It was handmade and was kept for years by the man he is with. Luckily for them, the town’s streets didn’t change a bit for the past few years. It was a rough draft sketch and Han was thankful that he sketched the way to the office pretty well at the same time it can be seen clearly. He is obviously not the best artist but at least he tried to make a map that is handy for him. Some in his department always teased him for being too old-fashioned for his age but it doesn't affect him because he love the way he is.

The paper Jace is now holding is been folded, secured, and hidden for ages before it finally came out to breathe. Han, the investigator, can’t handle silence shits so he finds a way to entertain or more like bother someone to kill time—so he asked Jace. “Why the street is so empty, if there will be leaves here we can just see them in motion, falling,” Han said, noticing how empty the street is except for the cats in the muddy, icy alley.

“Well, have you noticed those but didn’t know the reason,” Jace said.

“What is it?” he asked. The latter looks dead serious which is hilarious but at the same time, he speaks garbage.

“Are you for real? It’s snowing!” he snaps at the young man.

“Ohh!” he exclaimed looking innocently to the man beside him who has this irritating face cause of asking such a dumb and obvious question.

“Yeah.” His pace was a bit faster, he is done. Jace thought that he will be in good care of his private investigator and turns out he is such a headache. He is somewhat regretting, but it doesn’t look like he hired him with that extra. Well, guess that’s the charm point of this mini-trip.

“Here we are!” Han announced. “Route 8, Police Municipal of Bayeux.” He read out loud from the sign that is barely seen as it was being covered by thick snow, or he just memorized the sign on the other hand.

“Shall we enter?” Jace asked and Han nodded. He breathed in and out hoping that their trip from here will not go to waste.

“Good morning?” he hesitantly asked as he don’t see any sign of personnel at the front desk.

“Where is everybody?” he asked Han who is busy looking at the billboard. “Hey!” he half yelled to catch his attention.

“I don’t know!” he said, glancing to the hallway. They are still in the door and a meter away from the office desk as they are afraid that they find them suspicious.

“Don’t tell me this place is abandoned,” Jace said

“well, about that…” he fidgets as he is about to explain. Jace gave him a “what?” look. “I didn’t know about it because it’s been years since the last trip here.”

“Really? Not even a phone call to your friends here?” he questioned him. “We are in the goddamn 21st century my friend and don’t tell me that you don’t have a phone or any contact.”

“I do have a phone and a sim,” Han retorted respectfully.

“And the just what you don’t have?” Jace asked.

“I don’t have…friends here,” he answered low-key sounding sad. What a lonely man he is, Jace thought. He felt bad for actually asking him about that.

“My bad!” he apologized.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s my nature and I live with that life!” he responds to the quick apology he has gotten in his whole life. At other times, he is the only one who apologized even for someone’s mistake. People are quick to judge, what they know about him is 1. He is weird. 2. He has no sense of style. 3. He just has the dry humor. He all knows about it, and they also make it obvious to him.

“How ironic is it that you asked me that in my hometown.” His mouth curved into an ironic smile, and on how the turn of events went strangely connected. Jace was shaken by the sudden information.

“You guys are noisy!” someone interjected. It looks like the police were asleep behind the desk. They fixed their clothes and went back to full formal mode and asked.

“Can we know if Police Officer Eugene Bonnet is on duty?” Jace asked, hoping that he will answer yes.

“He is inside,” he said. “I will call him, so please wait in the meantime.” He added. Jace and Han thanked the desk officer and went to the waiting area to sit.

“I am so relieved that he is here!” Jace said while rubbing his hands. The station is pretty chill but can feel a bit of warmth from the heater underneath who knows where it is located.

The officer who is named, Officer Cobin, was now walking towards them and gesturing that they can enter the premises.

“Oh!” Mr. Cobin exclaimed as they are in the mid-way of where they are going and continued. “I forgot that you must log in first.” The three take a U-turn to the desk area again to fill out the necessary details they should put.

After all of that, they are now seated in front of the police officer. Jace knows that he might not remember the face of one of the victims but he will also take it as an advantage.

“So, what can I do for you, monsieur!” He said. “By the way, I am Police officer Eugene!” he added as he reached out his hand to the two and they did it also.

“I will ask you directly,” Jace started. “I want to know if there are leads that were left in the case of January Ashton and Jace Kaiden Martin, March 25, 2013?” he continued. “I wanted to know also who closed the case.”

The man gulped as he was not expecting the question to be directly said. “Well…For what I know is that there is a document here but the document that I have and kept is countable.”

“That’s alright,” he said. “Can I see?”

“Sure!” Eugene said as he stands up to get the files on the shelves with his name on them. He got a yellow, old folder out of the box and gave it to him.

“As what we investigate, the warehouse in the scene was built to process any kind of hollow blocks and concrete. It was like a factory for that but it was closed due to environmental reasons.” He explained as Jace and Han skimmed thru the pages.

“Do you happen to know who is the owner of the said warehouse?” he asked.

“It was from a Chinese man but then it was sold for a cheap price for someone we can’t identify because as I said it was immediately closed but then we can’t trace anymore, but what we conclude is that the owner is someone who has power and has a business who also have that because we are luckily interviewed a former employee said that they are continuing the business even with the risk in the environment.” As he sighed as he explained all of what he knows and all the information he gathered with his former team.

“The Steel and Concrete Incorporation!” Han exclaimed and we all looked at him.