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CHAPTER ONE

I sat in my office where the spinning of the fan on the ceiling filled the room with

ambience. With multiple files, folders, and scraps of notes on my desk, it led me to lean

my chair at an angle to breathe out my defeat.

“Guess this is what happens when you decide to go after a lead, only for it to be a

bust.” I complain.

While I was leaning, I saw that the color of bright pink hit my window and

entered my room. Focusing I can see that the light came from the sign of the business

just across the street. The sign in question had an hourglass figure whose' arms were

wrapped around a pole, with one leg in front of the other, and the hair of the figure

covering the left side of the face. Even on days like this, the color of the sign caused a

curl in my chest, it made me return back to normal and back to looking at the piles of

work on my desk.

Feeling myself with energy, I reached out for the work. In orderly fashion I

grouped the assortment of papers in three groups, as to help maintain the mess. On one

corner were seven folders filled with black and white paper, to my left were twice the

amount of folders in the form of files that I could see the inside creep out, and at my

side was a catalog of papers. At the top right corner of my desk was my clock that began

to beep, bringing me out of my trance, and looking to see that it had changed to last

diner. Or, at least it was for the workers who did get their work on time. For me, it was

breakfast. Rising from my chair I walked over to my office door and opened it, where I

was faced with the bright light of the lobby.

“Great.” I utter, as I walk through the lobby, turning into an open area, where I

could pick up an assortment of goods.

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Goods in questions being but not excluding, coffee, soda, water, candy, peanuts,

chips, donuts, and/or cigarettes. Seeing as this was my breakfast, I got the coffee

machine ready and looked for anything that seemed appetizing for this late in the night.

Looking down at the options, I was met with disappointment when all the candy that

was left was mere pop dust, donuts being blood-filled, and all the peanuts being gone.

Didn’t make it better that the last time we had chips in stock it was well over three

months ago.

“Yo, Detective Kaine.” I hear a voice call.

Looking to my side I see a firbolg walk over to me in a timely fashion. He wore a

standard gray long sleeve dress shirt with a tie that hung around his neck. He was a little

stocky, but his shirt added a curve or two. As for his pants, they were dress pants that I

could plainly tell were put on in a rush. As for his face, he had emerald eyes, his hair was

fairly long but slicked back to handle the dress code, his nose quite big when it came to

his kind, and an attempt of a goatee that, how he puts it was, ‘going through a phase’.

“C’mon Detective, at least smile.” He joked.

I stared at him.

“Forgot, your kind can't smile.” he solved, making me walk to the ready coffee

machine.

Bringing out a company issued cup I poured the coffee into it and got out some

powder that sat beside the maker and poured some inside, then reached below for a

straw that I used to whisk the two condiments until the color of cream appeared.

“A little late for coffee, no?” he questioned me.

After that I reached for a box with sugar packets and tore two open and let the

sugar fall into my cup, then used the straw to mix the two. Once done I took a sip of the
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product and satisfied with the result I reached for a top, secured it, and threw the trash

inside the bin.

“I am still surprised your kind can even drink, let alone eat.” He marveled. “After

all, you have, well, no mouth.” Once he said that, I turned to him.

“What do you want Nathan?” I reluctantly ask.

This got him a smile on his face and I could see his legs almost galloping from the

attention.

“Glad you asked,” he said. “Over here.” he walked over to a corner where he stood

and tapped his finger on the wall.

I nod to him and walk to the corner, lean on the wall and with my coffee in hand,

lend him my ear.

“You may have realized it, but yes, I was just out at the Pixie Tree.” He said as he

fastened the belt on his pants. “Not because I was doing anything wrong or naughty, but

because I needed to get an interview with one of the employees there.” He explained.

I scanned him another time where I could see, just on the side of his neck, was a

lipstick mark. A mark with the lips of a fawn, making me look at him with a hint of

suspicion.

“Dude you know I can’t tell if you’re judging me right. You don’t have eyes.”

Nathan barked.

“I’m not judging you,” I lied. “Keep going.”

Taking another sip of my coffee, he continued on with his story. About how he

had to pay for service at the PT, how he had to make sure he wasn’t coming off ‘too

strong’, and how he may have been conned by one of the girls. But reassured me he had
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gotten the interview with the employee. Once he finished, I stared at him, and with a

shake of my coffee cup, I went ahead and spoke.

“Why exactly are you telling me this?” I ask. “You know that the chief lectured me

with an abundance of work, because ‘someone’ decided to quit.” I bark, remembering

how the chief entered my office just hours earlier.

Nathan gave me a nervous smile. “I know that, but I am asking you for a favor

once more.” He looked around the area, before getting close and lowered his voice. “I

believe that this girl may be trouble, the bad kind of trouble, and I need an extra set of

eyes for the interview.”

“Why don’t you ask Jorge? Caleb? Heck, why not tell this info to the chief?” I

question him, making him recoil.

“Cause at the moment, the only other officers that I trust are away, two of them

are on injury leave, and the other left you with all of those assignments.” Nathan then

reached for my cup, took it out of my hands, and looked at it. “You are the last one I

know who can be there.” He tossed my cup in the bin, and looked at me.

“Are you in?” He extended a hand.

I brush his hand away and head to my office.

“Give me more details in thirty minutes.” I say. “You know where I will be.”

With that I walk back to my office, and I can hear the sounds of feet sprinting

away from the floor and the sound of a door open and stair steps being climbed. Closing

the door to my office I walked over to my window where the blinds were half open, just

open enough to let the light of the sign from across the street enter the room more. As I

looked I picked one of the blinds up to look a little more at the sign, and saw that behind

the figure were wings, and above it was sparkles that blinked every now and again.
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Satisfied with my little break, I let the blind go and returned to my desk where I went

back to going through the stack of papers.

One by one I read through the papers, occasionally writing on it with one of the

pens that I had, where I either wrote down an important response, a correction with

anything that I found to be an error, or just to keep me concentrated. By the end I had

gone through all of the papers, and began to stack them in a neat pile and set them

inside one of the cabinets on my desk. It was only after that when the sound of my door

being burst open appeared, bringing my attention to the centaur with many files, a

laptop, and a coat.

“Came within thirty minutes.” Nathan spoke, walking over to my desk and

plopping the abundance of items on my desk, making a mess.

I breathed in with restraint to not be overly vocal after the mess he had made of

my unfinished work. “I’m glad.” I replied with… scorn.

Nathan placed his coat onto one of the chairs across my desk and spread the

abundance of items into a ‘neater’ fashion. Meanwhile, I stared at him as I could hear

the appearance of little droplets start to appear and hit my window. Took a while before

he stopped and presented his findings to me, which unlike before, was an even bigger

mess.

“Don’t worry, I won’t take too long.” he made clear. Reaching over to one slip of

paper that he handed to me. “Starters, basic information about the employee.” he stated.

Reading the bio that he made for this employee, where he was not lying about

this being the start. On the bio it had her age, species, blood type, bank, height, weight,

etcetera. Done with reading all that, I look below to find her name.

“Genesis Viper.” I state.

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“Correct, she’s one of a few bartenders there, and I happened to get an interview

with her scheduled.” Nathan continued on with his briefing about the full details of the

timeline of events. All I could do was listen and try not to interrupt as much, but

couldn’t.

“Promise me that you won’t tell Amy about this. She won’t let me hear the end of

it.” He begged.

I raised a palm and nodded.

“You’re a saint.” He said, before brushing most of the papers off my desk and

onto the chair with his coat.

“When do you plan to have this interview with Ms.Viper?” I ask, as I begin to

clean my desk for my stuff.

“I think you mean, we.” He corrected, making me slant my head.

“What do you- Wait, you’re not doing this case solo are you?” I question him,

standing up from my chair.

Nathan raised his index finger to his lips and looked back at the door, keeping

quiet for any sounds. After the sounds of footsteps passed by my door, some lighters

were being used, and a few coughs, he turned back to me.

“I know it sounds bad, but you’re correct. I was not assigned this from the chief,

this is my personal task.” he urged.

I brought my hands to my face and groaned from the information, and slowly my

hands fell from my face, and I stared at the firbolg, where I could see him smiling, with

eyes that looked like they were almost going to give out.

“Whatever. What else is there?” I say, not evening trying to argue.

“Check this out.” Nathan responded, as he showed an opened book.

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Taking the book out his hands I scanned that the information from it seemed

pretty detailed compared to the bio paper. From the book, I could see that Viper was

single, came from a poor family, had around seven kids, three of which were conceived

from an affair, and that she was divorced on three separate occasions. Marbled by the

amount of information, I turned the page where, stapled pictures of Ms.Viper with a

person of various species. This made me look up and stare at the firbolg.

“Don’t mind me asking. Why are you interested in Ms.Viper?” I ask, turning the

pages.

“You see, she is my lead on the fountain fiasco” he said, making me pause and

stare at him.

“Fountain fiasco? But I thought that you told me that you guys had the talk about

that?” I questioned him, setting the book down.

He let out a sigh and brought up a chair and sat down. “We did, and I don’t want

to involve her in anything. This is just something I want to personally put to rest.” he

explained.

I shook the book a little and went back to scanning through the pages. “Stubborn,

but expected.” I compliment.

Reaching the final pages of the makeshift book I close it and set it on my desk,

awaiting for Nathan’s next move. Immediately, he rose up from the chair, and tossed me

my coat and hat. Confused, I slant my head at him, where he replied by putting his own

coat on.

“We have an interview to get to.” he told me, checking his wrist with a watch that

I didn’t realize he had on.

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“Not surprised you got one with her fairly early.” I stood up, putting on my coat

and hat.

“Yes. Best we leave now, the flashing sign for the damn place is giving me an eye

sore.” he complained, before heading to the door.

Fixing my hat, I moved to him where he opened the door and kept it open.

Exiting my room I take the knob for the door and close it shut, making sure to lock it

with the key from my pocket. After locking my door, I walked with the firbolg to an

elevator where we passed multiple other officers still in. Most of them I could tell were

exhausted, with a manticore who had a severe case of eye bags. I made sure to look at all

of them with the best amount of empathy I could, before I continued with Nathan to the

elevators.

Once we had reached the doors, he pressed the button and immediately the light

came on. Doors opening we step inside, and I press the first floor out of the thirty floors,

and with that the elevator closed its doors and started moving down. As it moved, I saw

the numbered floor deplete as we went past floors nineteen, then twelve, and seven, only

for us to stop at floor five and the doors open. Standing on the other side was a Falkone

who looked at the two of us, long enough for the doors to start closing, making me reach

for them to stop.

He raised a palm right as I touched the doors. “I’ll take the window.” he said in a

deep voice, allowing me to pull my hand back and the doors to close completely.

Standing back to my prior spot I hear the firbolg clear his throat.

“Strange. Alexi could have fit.” he said. “Wonder what made him think twice.”

I looked at the elevator door with its distorted mirror.

“Yeah.” I joined, right as the doors opened.

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With the door open the two of us stepped out where desks of people sat, doing

their assigned tasks, ignoring the two of us as we walked past them. Didn’t take long for

us to reach the spiral entrance doors, and exit the building into the sprinkling night sky.

With the dome over the spiral doors being our cover, I extend an arm out to feel the

rain.

“Just a turn of the corner, and we’re there.” Nathan voiced.

With that, the both of us began to walk with heading left, then in about ten feet

we turned a left corner where we kept onto a straight path. As we walked down the path,

more lights coming from the businesses that surrounded the Department would flash

with their colors, be it blue, orange, yellow, or even white, had lit the path providing

some guidance. The rain with it starting a little while before we left the office, had made

some puddles that made us accidentally tripped on separate occasions. With walking

past the building half, we began to walk alongside the vehicles that we had, which

consisted of the normal types. Cars, vans, brooms, gliders, Pegasi, they were there.

“Good to know they set out the tarps.” I voice, to which I hear Nathan hum for a

response.

Heading along, we reach the corner and continue straight to cross the street, but

first to look both ways before crossing and reaching the otherside. By the time we

reached it, a flock of centaurs had come galloping by, with some of them wearing some

kind of glow glasses, hats, masks, essentially any type of accessory they could find.

“Wild.” Nathan speaks, before continuing with me following behind.

Walking down the sidewalk we were now under the sign that blinked color into

my office just an hour prior. With that though, we could see that straight in front of us

was a line filled with adults of varying races bickering about. I recognized some elves,
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dwarves, and golems. Continuing on, we met with a bouncer, an ogre, who glared at us.

Nathan and I flashed our badges making him step back and unlock the gate. We moved

in, and I could tell the ogre was glaring particularly at me.

Turning my head to him, he turned his eyes away.

“Welcome to the Pixie Tree.” is all he said in a gruff voice, as we entered the

building, with the gate closing behind us.

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CHAPTER TWO

The lobby was filled with people, most of whom looked to be hooking up with one

another. One girl, who looked to be part of the establishment, walked over to us,

wearing an outfit with wings that made Nathan straighten up.

“Welcome to the Pixie Tree. I am Serenity, how may I be of service to you fine

gentlemen?” She bowed shortly after her introduction.

I looked at Nathan who nudged his head to her, which I understood what he

wanted.

“Does Ms.Viper happen to be on shift at the moment?” I requested, which seemed

to make the vixen raise up.

“She certainly is. Would you like for me to fetch her?” she responded.

I turned to Nathan who shook her head for his answer, seeing that the vixen

bowed her head once more.

“Very well. If there is anything else, please give me a ring.” she snapped her

fingers, to which within a whip a bell had manifested in her hand.

Giving a small shake a chime was made, with their tie of hers glowing. Extending

her arm, I took the bell to which with one more ring the tie dimmed out, and left the

both of us.

“Interesting,” I whisper, before giving Nathan the bell.

He took the bell from my hand and tucked it inside his coat; “You know the lay of

the land?” I question him.

“Yeah. I made sure to map it out in my head. Stick close, and we’ll be at the bar in

no time.” he voiced with pride as he began walking.

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Catching up with him I saw that many people in the room sneak glances at the

both of us as we walked by them.