CHAPTER 5

"Mom, I'll be going to school now," I asked.

"You just recovered, what of you'll spit blood again if you cough, that would be embarrassing." She said.

"I won't, I promise, I'm better now," I assured.

"Don't be an embarrassment," she said

I just smiled at her and went to my bedroom to change into my uniform.

Shit! These tears are not stopping.

***

I honked the horn of my car at Shauntel's house, she went out and a shocked expression is plastered on her face.

"Are you going to school?" She asked with matching crossed arms.

"Yup! So hop in, or we'll be late." I said and she did as she's told.

"This is one big argument." She said and I just shook my head while smiling.

When we arrived at SDC, we immediately went out of the car. And a good timing that Blake and Lance are at the gate. Blake looks at me emotionless. Tss. This guy.

"I told you not to come." He said In his usual cold tone. Tss.

"Huh? I didn't come, I'm still a virgin, I never cum before you know? Duh!" I said, trying hard not to burst out laughing. Hahaha! I saw Lance and Blake's faces turned red. Hah! Guys are so...You what I mean.

Shauntel was laughing hard and said. "That's a nice one!" And gave me a high five.

"Why are you so hard-headed?" Sabi ni Blake.

"What did you say? You're already hard now? Your gross, Dude!" I sarcastically said again. Shauntel burst out laughing again.

Blake's presence is getting high now, I must stop now.

"I'm being serious here Xyryl." Shit, he's giving me goosebumps.

"Okay, okay, chill! I'm just joking, trying to make you laugh or whatever. And to tell you why I came, because I'm all better now okay? So stop being my father, Daddy Blake. Hahaha!" I said. Lance and Shauntel are seriously laughing non-stop.

"Sigh, your already 20 years old still your acting like a 15. I'm just concerned about you, you were badly hurt yesterday. I was there and but I wasn't able to protect you." He said. I don't know why, but he always blames himself when something bad happens to us, he's the leader type. He should be the captain and not me.

"Okay, sorry, don't blame yourself again, you were very far that time, thus, you can't predict the time. Stop blaming your self okay?" I tapped his shoulders and walk to my class.

"Still, you shouldn't have come here. You still injured and I know it." He said. Tss, hard-headed guy.

"Who is denying it? None. But I told you, I'm better now." I just said and split ways with them.

***

"Captain Azumi, why are you here?" Captain Sota greeted us when we both got into the elevator.

"I feel better now. Don't worry." I answered.

"Tss." I heard Hide. Tss, I think these guys have something between them.

***

Our case now is a murder victim that was thrown into the lake. Others thought that she died because of drowning, but our autopsy concluded that there's trisodium phosphate in her body, some water in her lungs. So we started investigating.

"The lethality of trisodium phosphate is low, so that might not the reason why she died, plus, there's water in her lungs, so she's still alive when she was thrown," I said.

"Yeah, that might be right, it's just a cleaning agent, maybe the suspect just wanted to mislead the investigation, or, cleaned something inside her to stall the investigation." Hide said.

"Let's ask the witness first," Rize suggested.

We went to the witness, which also called the police.

"Hi, I'm Detective Azumi, we just want to ask you some questions." I introduced my self.

"Yes, Miss." She answered.

"How did you saw the victim?" Hide stated to ask.

"I was swimming at the lake, and I saw a body floating, I thought it's just another person swimming, but as time runs, she never moved a muscle or went up to get some air, so I went near her and touched her, that's when I realized that she's dead."

"Do you know the victim?"

"I don't know her personally, but I always saw her at the gasoline station." As I listen to their conversation, I looked for a near chemical lab in the area, and there's only one.

Hide stood up and left. Ugh! This man! He doesn't know how to excuse himself.

"Uhm, okay, thanks for the information ma'am, we'll be going now," I said and left.

"So we have a new location, the gasoline station," Armin said and typed at his holographic keyboard.

"Let's start at the river first. Maybe we could find something here." Rize suggested.

We started to look for some evidence at the lake but we couldn't find any, no murder weapon, even footprints are not present.

"The current of the water is fast. Maybe she was thrown far from here and the current just took her here." Rize said.

"That might be right, okay, we'll split up, two of us will go to the gasoline station, and the other two will go to the chemical lab," I said.

"Chemical lab? There's a chemical lab here?" Armin asked.

"Yeah, 10 miles, North," I said and gave them the picture of it through our watch.

"I will go to the gasoline station," Rize said.

"Me too." Said Armin.

"Okay, so that leaves us for the chemical lab," I said to Hide. And as usual, he didn't have a damn. Tss.

We split ways and went to our destination. When we arrived at the chemical lab, it has a creepy vibe but it looks new. The guard halted us so we showed our NBI I.D so he let us in, and talk to the manager.

"I'm Detective Azumi, ma'am and this is my partner, Detective Hide." I introduced ourselves because for sure, this guy wouldn't talk anything.

"Oh, hi! How may I help you?" She asked.

"We would like to question all of your staff here, including you ma'am," I said.

"Sure, I'll just call them."

***

We questioned the janitor first

"How long have you been working here?" Hide asked.

"Since this lab had opened, I think, four years." He answered.

"Do you notice something strange lately?"

"Since the day I worked here, this is the fourth murder victim, that I've heard, that is connected to this lab."

"Why didn't you leave?"

"Oh, that, it's because they pay an absurdly high amount of money, I can't just give that up for my suspicions, this lab could always slip past it because the police don't have enough evidence."

"What do you dislike about a person?"

"Huh? Uhm, I don't like conceited people." He said.

Hide called for the Engineer and started to interrogate him.

Hmmm, there's something odd about this Engineer.