The footage

Back at the police station, everyone was busy doing one thing or the other, when Tanya came barging in through the front door. She did not waste any of her movements. She threw her coat over to Luke, who caught it, even though he had a latte in his hand; so there was latte spilled on the ground. Luke regretted catching the coat and went looking for a mop—not that Tanya cared. Her swift movements continued as she jumped over people and officers to grab the seat in front of Billy. Upon grabbing the seat, she said nothing. She stayed silent for a very long time as she stared at him. Billy felt awkward in the tense atmosphere and was the first to crack.

"Okay now, what do you want?" Billy asked even though he knew the answer already. The only reason why Tanya comes to the station was for getting evidence and making fun of the police after she does something that they couldn't do with that evidence. Billy sighed. "Sure, you get that night's CCTV footage! Let me just get a drive to copy." He then took a pen drive from Luke's desk.

"Wait, I'll do it. I don't believe you—you might try to hide some shit from me." Tanya looked at him with doubtful eyes. Billy just had to give in again.

"You win. Just take what you want, not more than that." Billy gave a stern warning to which Tanya smiled.

"You know me, right? Don't worry!" She said in a slightly cringe cheerful voice that didn't suit her demeanor.

"Yea, that's exactly why I said that!" Billy thought to himself. He had his doubts but decided not to put much thought behind it, since he was sure that there was not much Tanya could do with any of the CCTV footage.

There was this tension built up in the station ever since Tanya came barging in. However, for the regulars there, this was not a big deal, but part of an everyday process. The ones who were the most confused by this development were the newcomers and the interns. They were puzzled about Billy's actions towards Tanya since Billy had always been a dominating figure for them. A few of those who were in dire need of answers went to Luke for answers, who was sweeping the floor due to the mess that he created earlier.

"Oh, those two? This is supposed to be a secret—but everyone knows. Billy likes Tanya. She doesn't though. Poor Billy!" Luke laughed. His dear friend was just naïve.

Over at Billy's desk, it looked like Tanya's job there was over. She got up and took her coat that Luke placed in his chair. She walked towards the entrance. She stopped midway and looked back. "Thanks for the flash drive! I promise that I'll bring it back."

Billy laughed. "Don't worry! I know you won't bring it back." He waved her goodbye. Tanya smiled and exited the station.

Everything looked fine and dandy until Luke noticed that Billy gave her the flash drive from his desk and chased Billy with a mop stick for hours. The newcomers had a good laugh of it—so did everyone, except Luke and Billy, who looked exhausted.

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"Chuck, where is she?" Tanya came back to the office to see that her mother was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, she got a phone call; and I heard her say that she'd drop by immediately. So if I have to guess, she probably went where she said she'd go. Basically, what I mean is that I have no idea." Chuck replied as Tanya walked over to her desk. Whilst doing so, she was able to get a sniff of something aromatic. Chuck was quick to explain. "Ah, she made some food for you too."

Tanya turned herself to the makeshift kitchen that she set up in the office. She looked around and found out the cup noodles that she bought yesterday was the food that Alice made. "Hmph, I thought she'd make something else. I could've made this myself too, you know!" She scoffed. But Chuck knew better. She would've just starved herself to death rather than cooking something.

"So, what'd you got?" He asked while Tanya literally gobbled up the hot noodles in its entirety, rendering her tongue tasteless for the next few days. Chuck decided not to bother himself with her stupidity and thought of checking out the files she brought himself. "Oh yeah, I forgot. I'm a freaking ghost! So get your ass over here so I could look at these files too!"

"What help is that gonna do now?" Tanya questioned Chuck's willingness to look at those files. But what she said was a valid point—in her perspective.

"Hey! Who's been your super cute sidekick this whole time? Come on now!" Chuck tried to show off his cuteness appeal even though he died a forty-five-year-old man. But he was a ghost now and he did have a particular charm of his own.

"Super cute? Says the guy who doesn't even have a detailed face. You do know that it won't even take me five seconds to draw you, right?" Tanya's statement made Chuck really frustrated but he chose to remain silent. He knew about her capability of riling up people for no apparent reason. So, he waited patiently until Tanya settled down after she drank the cold milk in the fridge. Chuck was surprised that Tanya didn't pop another beer open instead of that milk.

"Move aside!" Tanya swatted Chuck away like some sort of a bug. Chuck complained but Tanya didn't give a damn about his concerns. She went over to the files, read through them, and tossed them aside. "Not good enough. It's too vague. So yea—useless." Tanya sat on the desk beside her seemingly lost in thoughts. Chuck placed himself beside her after he briefly went through the tossed file.

"So, what are we gonna do now? We headed straight to the dead end, didn't we?" Chuck let out a sigh. He didn't know what to say to her.

"An alley—late night disappearance; happened in an instance, with no visible evidence. Too little information." Tanya muttered as she looked towards the ceiling. "Meh, it's not like I expected much from the reports anyway. So, this flash drive's the only thing we got." She inserted Luke's flash drive into her system. She decided not to bat an eye towards all the penis images that were in it. She also brushed off over the questionable porn in that drive.

"I don't understand! Who saves their dick pics in a flash drive? That's just plain weird." Although Chuck was disgusted about the slightly disturbing images, he was a bit intrigued about the porn in the drive.

"None of our business, Chuck. I should've checked the drive beforehand though. But, it doesn't matter—we got what we want." Tanya clicked open the CCTV footage and watched it.

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