Edited by: Waning_Crescents

Late in the evening Cal rummaged through the closet and packed his belongings into a bag as a nurse knocked on the door once and entered the room right after. “Mr. Vaughn, if you really want to leave, we can’t keep you, especially, because your recovery went without any complications and your vital signs appear to be stable enough. However, the doctor told me to let you know to still take it easy, rest up and do nothing that could strain your body for at least another week, understood?”

Cal nodded without even looking at her, after which the nurse left the room again. After he finished packing, he put the bag over his shoulder and left the hospital. In front of the building a cab already waited for him. He got in and sat down while he told the driver his destination who nodded and started the car.

Cal let out a puff of air as he looked out the window of the cab. He really didn’t come, huh?

He took his phone out and stared at the screen. He also never called…

While some of his colleagues visited him at the hospital, the one person he really wanted to talk to never showed up, his partner Sigal. As much as he longed for expressing his gratitude to Sigal for saving him, the fear of rejection took ahold of him, so he shied away from even trying to call his partner.

Does he hate me so much now after I screwed everything up? Is this the end of our partnership?

He clenched his phone into a tighter grip, uneasiness lingering in his heart.

“We are here.”

Cal got pulled out of his thoughts by that, paid the driver and got out of the cab. He glanced at the Conciliator’s Headquarters building for a good minute before he found the courage to enter it.

He stopped in front of the chief’s office, took a deep breath, and knocked.

“Come in.” A voice echoed from inside.

As Cal heard that, he opened the door and went in.

“Cal?” Vince said in astonishment. “What are you doing here? I thought your official release was in about a week.”

“Yeah, but I self-discharged myself, I am fine, no need to stay there any longer,” Cal explained.

The chief glanced at his subordinate with a quite worried expression. “I am not sure if you—“

“I am really fine!” the young investigator cut him off. “I need to come back…please.”

“It’s not like your position would be in danger if you take a longer leave of absence if that is what worries you!?” Vince remarked.

“I can’t deny that it did worry me, but I also need to do something. I can’t stay in bed all day anymore, please let me return.” Cal insisted while he slightly bowed his head down.

Vince examined him for a brief moment and eventually sighed. “On one condition!”

Cal lifted his head. “Yes?”

“As soon as things get too exhausting for you or if you should feel any discomfort, you immediately stop, is that clear?” Vince declared.

Cal nodded. “Yes, understood!”

“Now that this has been cleared up, we actually have a situation here. I will hold a meeting tomorrow at 8am on how we proceed in this matter. I will include you in the case,” Vince said, “Get some rest and report in tomorrow morning.”

Call nodded and left the office right after. At some point he wanted to ask Vince about Sigal, but he didn’t even know how to start, so he dropped it. I guess it has to wait until tomorrow…

Cal left his apartment early in the morning, earlier than he had to, but he hoped if he arrived before the meeting started that he could seize his partner and talk to him.

He waited in front of the entrance and nervously tapped with his right foot on the ground. Then he glanced at his watch which showed 7:45am, only fifteen minutes to go. He took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves as finally Sigal arrived.

Sigal spotted Cal at once as he walked up to the entrance and frowned. Without any intention of stopping, he passed by the younger investigator and entered the building.

Caught off-guard by the unpleasant glare, Cal hesitated for a moment, but then he quickly caught the door and called out, “Sigal, wait!”

His partner, however, exhibited no intention of slowing down and instead moved straight onward. He totally ignored him!

Cal stepped inside with the purpose of following his partner as he heard a familiar voice calling out to him from behind, “Hey, Cal! I am glad to see you back again.”

He stopped in his tracks and whipped his head around. “Oh, hi, Claire and Nero…yeah, I am back.”

His response sounded absentminded, but he had no attention to spare for the two of them at this moment and, therefore, turned back to go after Sigal, but that one already disappeared out of sight.

He missed his chance!

He sighed as he let go of the door, disappointment written all over his face. That’s exactly what I was afraid of…how are we even supposed to move forward like that?

He put one hand on his forehead and slightly shivered. He had no idea how to fix this, what could he possibly do now? This took a turn for the worse, far worse than he predicted.

“Are you okay?” Claire asked in a worried tone, which pulled the younger investigator out of his thoughts. He completely forgot about his colleague’s presence.

Cal put his hand down and his gaze fell upon them as he replied, “Y-yes, sorry, I am fine.”

“Claire, get a move on, the meeting!” Nero suddenly let out and then also glanced at Cal. “You too!”

Nero Griffin was Claire’s partner in Section 3 and usually not a man of words; however, when the situation demanded it, he spoke up, but still used as few words as possible to get his point across.

“Oh, right! You are actually joining us…are you sure you are already up for this?” Claire asked Cal with concern showing in her voice.

Cal nodded. “Yeah, I am fine, don’t worry.”

Claire wanted to ask more but her partner interrupted her by pushing her onward. “Go!!” He clearly lost his patience with her.

“Hey!!” Claire complained as Nero forced her to move, while Cal just followed behind them in silence.

As the three of them arrived in the meeting room, everyone had already taken their seats, so had Sigal.

After Cal took his seat, he glanced at his partner who sat a bit further away. By taking a closer look at Sigal’s face he noticed that something seemed off about him. Somehow, he gave the impression of being exhausted and tired. Cal didn’t realize this at first, but the longer he eyed him the more details he witnessed, like the dark circles under his eyes or the slight paleness of his skin.

What happened to him?

“Now that we are all here, we can start.” Vince stood in the front of everyone with his hands behind his back. “As most of you already know, the current case entails murder with a special trait.” He clicked on a button on the device he held in his right hand whereas pictures of the deceased got projected onto the wall. “These are the victims. Two men, one in his twenties and one in his thirties. Both were unemployed and lived alone.”

Vince clicked one more time and, on the wall, appeared the crime scenes along with the victims’ dead bodies. “This is how the victims were found. The Police determined that the cause of death was a thrust with a knife to their hearts. However, what really stands out is the mark that got carved into their foreheads.” He pressed another button which zoomed onto that mark.

Cal narrowed his eyes as he glanced at it. This looks awfully familiar, but… He tapped with one finger on his temple. Where could I have seen that?

As Cal glanced around the room, the surrounding air became tense or somewhat heavy. His colleagues’ expressions exhibited concern, uneasiness as well as a deep seriousness or even almost hate. He had a hard time to pinpoint exactly what their expressions meant, but everyone seemed on edge.

Then he caught a glimpse of Sigal, who clenched his left fist tightly, almost cutting his nails deep into his flesh. Cal knitted his brows and turned to Claire who sat beside him and asked in a low tone, “What’s wrong with everyone all of a sudden?”

“Hm?” she turned to him. “Nothing, don’t worry about it. This is just a tough case, that is all.”

Claire obviously hid something from him, but not only her, everyone else as well. Before he could even ask further questions Vince continued his speech, thus he dropped the matter for now.

“The CIB conducted a close investigation on the crime scene and the victims, but no fingerprints could be determined.”

“Not even on the murder weapon?” Claire asked.

Vince shook his head. “No, even though the knife was found at the crime scene, it is spotless.”

“What about footprints?”

“They found plenty around the victims, which made it hard to ascertain the right ones.”

“I will talk to the forensic department later, maybe we can work something out,” Claire said.

“Thank you, Claire,” Vince mentioned, “However, witnesses came forward and reported that they have seen a mysterious man clad in black associating with one of the victims.”

“How do they know that it was a man?” Cal questioned.

“They said if they go by the physique of that person, then it had to be a guy, but they couldn’t see their face or any other significant features,” Vince answered, “For now we must assume that what they said is correct, but the problem is that we can’t be certain that this man has done anything to the victim or even is the person we are looking for.”

“So, we basically have nothing,” Sigal let out in his deep voice. Dissatisfaction plastered all over his face.

“Not exactly,” Vince said, “Even though we don’t have obvious clues, we do know that both victims were alcoholics, that was established upon closer examination. This gives us some kind of pointer where to start our investigation.”

The picture on the wall changed once again and this time it displayed a map. “The victims were found in the area of West-Colst and because we can’t determine the exact location where they have been picked up or ran into the killer, the whole area becomes our target of interest.”

“That’s a huge area to cover, aren’t there any relatives or friends that know about their daily routines?” Kristian Velvet of Section 1 asked.

Vince shook his head. “Unfortunately, none could be found so far. It seems that both lived quite isolated.”

Kristian put his left hand to his chin. “I see, I am guessing you want me and Alicia to dig deeper into that in hope to find something?”

“Correct,” Vince answered, “Even though the police did a quick check and tried to find relatives or anybody who knew them for that matter, it still can be that they missed something. Therefore, I hope you two can find something they didn’t.”

“Leave it to us. If there is anything to be found, we will,” Kristian’s partner, Alicia Reagan said.

“Alright, back to what I was going to explain.” Vince put his attention back to the map which was still projected onto the wall. “You can see that I marked the map with yellow circles and red circles. The yellow circles mark the bars in this area and the red ones the pubs. The police volunteered to check all the bars in West-Colst, while we will investigate all the pubs. Our main goal for now is to find someone that might have seen the victims or witnessed anything suspicious.”

Vince’s gaze fell onto the people he picked for the investigation. “Sigal, Cal, Claire, and Nero, I send you four to check on the pubs.” Then he took something from his desk, walked over to Claire and handed her two maps before he walked back to the front. “Act in pairs. No one is acting alone in this case, understood?” Vince briefly glanced at Sigal as he said that.

Sigal nodded, but then added, “Isn’t it better if Section 3 is getting into contact with the police right away instead of being out in the field investigating?”

“No, the reason I send them along is exactly because they look at things from a different perspective. Their observation skills are sharper than that of regular people, therefore, their eyes might catch something you guys could miss.”

“Exactly, don’t underestimate what we can do out there to help,” Claire said with her arms crossed.

“Whatever, let’s just get this started,” Sigal remarked coldly and blunt.

Claire shook her head and sighed.

“Alright, I already handed Claire the maps. If there are no more questions you can move out!” Vince said after which everyone walked out of the room. However, right before Claire left, Vince called out to her. “Claire!”

The woman stopped in her tracks and turned around. “Yeah?”

Vince moved up with a serious expression. “Please take good care of our troublemakers and don’t forget what I told you.”

“Sure, don’t worry about it. I got this.” She smiled and exited the room right after.

Outside the building the group came to a halt whereas Claire instantly felt a dark air emanating around Sigal and Cal. None of them talked or even exchanged glances with each other, yet it wasn’t the first time she experienced that. Her gaze fell onto Sigal, who’s expression displayed gloominess, as if he didn’t want anyone to approach him.

If only you would be more honest to yourself, Sigal…we all know why you are pushing everyone away, but that is not helping anyone, least of all you. You are suffering…I really hope Cal doesn’t give up like the others did and can get you to open up again.

Then she shifted her gaze to Cal. For now, I have to do what I can to not let this escalate any further.

“I suggest that Cal and I will check the pubs on the south side around First Street, Lake Avenue and K- Lane.” Claire handed the second map to Nero. “You two will cover the rest.”

Everyone agreed on this team arrangement without any complaints.

“Good, then let’s go,” she said.

As Sigal and Nero drove away, Cal let out an exasperated sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Claire asked.

“Nothing…”

Claire raised an eyebrow. “Don’t try lying to me, it’s written all over your face that something is bothering you.”

“It’s just...” Cal hesitated for a second and got into Claire’s car, like she did. “He…is not talking to me anymore. Since the last case it seems everything got worse. Now, he is completely ignoring me.”

Claire remained silent as she started the car but glanced through the corner of her eyes at Cal in worry.

“Don’t worry about it,” she eventually responded, “That’s Sigal, he is like that sometimes. Maybe it would help if you just tried talking it out with him. I mean you are partners after all, right? He can’t ignore you forever.”

“If he even would listen, that is…” Cal murmured. He already tried, but received the cold shoulder in return, would another attempt change anything?

Cal actually didn’t know why this bothered him so much in the first place. It’s not like Sigal ever treated him with respect or had nice words for him, on the contrary, all he did was to look for reasons to push him away or undermine him, but for some reason Cal couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to Sigal’s behavior than he let on.

That day when he found me…those eyes…even if I was barely conscious at that time, I clearly remember the fear, guilt, and panic I saw in those eyes… Was he genuinely worried or?

Cal knitted his brows as he recollected his memories of that day.

Given how he usually acts and his temper, now that I think about it that definitely was unlike him. It makes no sense…and then today his appearance, what happened?

Through the corner of his eyes, he eyed Claire briefly.

She wouldn’t tell me anything before, so I doubt she would if I asked her now.

“Don’t take it to heart though, and if it is any consolation, I don’t think he actually hates you,” Claire added, which pulled Cal out of his thoughts.

“He just prefers to work alone since,” she suddenly stopped herself from talking further, cleared her throat and then continued. “I mean every time Vince assigned a partner to him, he would react like that. He basically treated them all with disrespect and in the end they quit.”

Cal glanced at Claire in suspicion. She obviously stopped herself from revealing something, but why? This, however, just fortified his assumption. So there really is more to it…