The Raid

He always went out of himself to eat well, so even when Lisa sent him five messages to come to work an hour early, Ravi reached to the other side of the town to buy a shawarma.

It was not like he did not wake up early but he had been watching a video on social media and had been so influenced that he had gotten up around 5 a.m. to make the trending tangerine wine.

It looked so delicious that Ravi had no way of resisting it. He had always loved wine so he harvested some of his tangerines in the cold morning wind. It was colder than the forecast had predicted but Ravi braced the cold for his desire.

Once, he had been sent to Elteimum, the land of snow. It had been so cold there, so freaking cold but he had completed his task, compared to Eltenimum, the chill of Earth was so minuscule.

After feeling his basket with tangerine, he returned to the kitchen. He tied an apron around his waist and set out to work. He washed the tangerine and peeled them before he extracted the juice.

He took a sip and his eyes widened slightly, it was delicious. He poured a little into a container for him to drink later and began to dissolve the white sugar to create a simple syrup.

Making wine was easy, all you needed was time and patience. Ravi combined the tangerine juice and the simple syrup in his wine keg. He added rock sugar and some ginger slices before putting in the Wine yeast.

He kept it at the corner of the kitchen table, he would stir it daily and then weekly for the next six weeks before he buried it for six months. It will be ready in autumn, another thing to look forward to.

The thought of the wine made his lips twitch as he held the shawarma bag and a flask of rose milk tea in his left hand.

The door to the police Department opened and he walked through. Immediately the clock chimed 8' o clock. The office was scattered and the only officer around was Draco who would otherwise have something scathing to say was sprawled on his desk, his face looking like he had just finished a marathon.

Ravi nodded a good morning greeting to him but Draco was too tired to respond, "Is that coffee?" He asked.

"No, tea. Decaf." He said and headed to his seat. He took a sip of the rose milk tea, so delicious, the floral aftertaste was just the right way to start the morning and the shawarma was the perfect topping.

The meat was well marinated and the chicken was all so tender, its juices filling his mouth as he bit into it. The lettuce, the ripe tomatoes, and the red onion added a kick that made each bite even more addicting.

Ravi loved food, he loved good food.

It was really satisfying and the sauce, he wanted the recipe, he could taste the garlic, the tahini but he could not quite tell what other ingredients were in the sauce. But whatever it was, it was amazing.

"You are eating, Ravi? Alone?" Lisa's voice came from the left door, she was followed by the Captain and the old woman who had been crying yesterday.

Ravi dropped the shawarma wrapping on the table and stood up to salute.

"Good morning, Captain."

If Draco looked tired, then Arlen looked exhausted, he seemed to have a five o'clock shadow but those blue eyes were impossibly bright. Has he even slept at all in the night?

"Good morning, Officer West. Mrs Parker, we will be in touch. I hope you are not leaving any other thing out."

Arlen's voice was a little clipped and strict, oh! It turns out that Mrs Parker must have done something to annoy their Captain. Did they find out that she was lying? He was not surprised, to say the least.

"No, Officer." Her tone was more subdued this time and this time, her eyes were rimmed with red.

Lisa came over to Ravi's side, her hungry gaze on the shawarma, "Tear a piece for me and I will bring you up to speed."

Ravi removed his gaze from Arlen who had gone to his office and was looking through some documents in his office.

He tore a little piece and passed it to her. Lisa complained that it was little but she still wolfed it down.

She stretched her hand for his milk tea but Ravi pulled it away from her reach, handing her a bottle of water instead, which she finished, tossing the empty bottle straight to the trash.

"You went house to house with the Captain yesterday, didn't you?" When she said his title this time, there was a dressing of respect in her tone.

Ravi nodded, "Yeah, we discovered that she is a gambler. Is that the reason the Captain is upset?"

Lisa was confused, she looked into the transparent officer where Arlen was making a call, "Upset? He is just tired. He took a nap from 4 to 5 and he has not slept since. The woman is a gambling addict. You can't even imagine, gambling is outlawed in Avalon but there has been a gambling ring running under our nose." She whispered, her voice had a gossiping quality to it.

"That is expected but as police officers, our duty is to stamp out such illegal activities." Ravi changed his words when he felt Arlen's gaze on him.

That was not the reaction that she had been expecting and she turned to look at where Ravi was looking at. Arlen had dropped the phone, he leaned back on the chair, his gaze was on them.

"The Captain is amazing. We joined the Night team to raid the gambling center."

Ravi was surprised, the police office in Davenport was mostly for show, "You raided the gambling den."

Lisa was so proud, her eyes were glittering, "You are the one that refused to work overtime, you missed out. It was so much fun. Suit up! I do not think we would ever use the suits and guns."

"We already have guns."

"Not this kind, the one that the Chief keeps in his office. Those cool ones. It was so much fun. We stomped in, and we were like Police, Police, everyone, put your hands where we can see them. You don't look excited."

Ravi shrugged, he was not concerned about that, such things don't excite him anymore, "So why is the Captain upset with the woman?"