5 Chapter 4

"Hey Eliora, did you know-" Eliora noticed Troyi stopped his sentence midway. She noticed how his eyes drifted somewhere around the restaurant, but when she turned to look where Toryi's gaze was, she found nothing suspicious enough that would catch the infamous private detective's eyes. Although there was nothing suspicious, Eliora felt a heavy pit deep in her stomach despite eating half of her meal. She turned back to Troyi who blinked and shook his head swiftly before showing a geeky smile to Eliora.

"Pardon me...I must have been a little too tired and hungry that I drifted." Troyi stammered, causing Eliora to raise an eyebrow at him but her lips curved a warm smile.

"Don't worry Troyi. I think you can catch a break later tonight right after we head to the lab to collect the reports…before we brace ourselves for the next few weeks of sleepless nights." Eliora jokes, receiving another smile from Troyi who nodded to her.

"Guess we'll have to eat lots then."

Eliora paid for the meal when they were finished. Troyi promised her he'll be the one paying for dinner so it was a fair trade between them. They met up in Troyi's car before making their way to the hospital to collect the records that were available.

"It's been 3 hours… which isn't enough for the complete test results that we need but it should have enough for us to get started somewhere. Who knows we might find something earlier."

"Indeed." Troyi acknowledged. "I have the results and evidence from the previous murders, but bear in mind that we may not have even the slightest progress for a bit. This guy or lady is extraordinarily tricky."

Once they arrived, Troyi parked the car in the parking lot before Eliora got out of the car, grabbing the folders. Since they wanted to pick up the earliest finished results, Troyi assumed it would save them time if Eliora went ahead to collect it while he picked up whatever items they had into the office.

"Eliora, you go ahead and collect whatever results they have ready. I'll bring the items into your office in a bit since there's quite a load."

It wasn't such a bad idea to Eliora, so she gave a small nod to Troyi, leaning in the car before her hand gently smacked his shoulder.

"Don't take too long, otherwise I might ban you from my office." A small chuckle escaped their lips when she closed the door of the car.

It was fortunate that the lab was a floor above the parking lot so Eliora didn't need to spend too much time waiting for the elevator. Hence, she took the stairs which was the faster route for her. When she reached the lab, she scanned her car and informed them of the case she was working on to see how much evidence or clues they had collected. It was a short fifteen minute wait before more folders were handed to her as well as the simpler evidence samples,

"Miss Canmore, this wasn't much and to be frank, I'm not sure if it's helpful evidence." Katielyn, one of the lab technicians spoke as she showed the scans to Eliora.

"Compared to the past victims as I noticed in the folders provided by Detective Lavode, Turner's fingers seem to be coated with fine powder. It was nearly overlooked until I noticed the faint pungent smell. I'm not sure if Troyi's lab technicians missed this out. Perhaps you can confirm with him."

Missed out? I doubt Troyi would have missed it- but there was a pungent smell when at the crime scene where the body lay earlier and Troyi didn't seem affected by the smell, so he could have missed it… but I doubt his previous lab would.

"Thank You Katielyn, I think this gave us the boost we need. Do inform us when you have the rest of the results ready, I'll be heading back to my office now."

A funny yet heavy feeling swirled around the pits of Eliora's stomach. The building was neither empty nor busy. Other officers and employers were present in the building, some heading out for a snack, others sneaking a gossip moment, but Eliora felt an eerie silence throughout the journey to her office. She opened the door to her spotless office and dumped all the folders onto the clear coffee table. As she prepared the office such as drawing the blinds and switching on the air conditioners, her thoughts pondered about the case and how subtle the link was with Troyi.

Is this the reason why he was constantly asked to follow up upon the case? Even when the previous detectives either gave up or were deemed incompetent?

The internal questions kept coming like a rushed tidal wave. Before she accepted the case and partnership with Troyi, she dug through his background and found nothing out of the ordinary or triggering enough to start a murdering case spree. Speaking of Troyi, Eliora noticed it's been nearly forty minutes but there was no sight of Troyi.She peeked out her doorway and looked over both sides.

It was a pin drop silence.

Eliora definitely wasn't liking where this may go. She hoped her suspicions of Troyi was wrong since her gut was screaming at her to find the private detective. She went to the lab only to find out that Troyi wasn't there. Of course he wouldn't be there; it was her task to collect the reports that were ready at the moment. She decided to make her way back to the parking lot, hoping Troyi would be there.

She didn't know if she should or shouldn't have wished that.

"Troyi!" Eliora's hysteric scream filled the parking lot when she saw Troyi crouched against his car with his arms wrapped around his chest and his face scrunched up. She leaped towards Troyi…only to realize that it was pushing him away instead.

"No-no don't come… don't come close!" Troyi pleaded as he pushed himself away from Eliora and his arm reached out.

That action made Eliora instantly stop at her tracks, her face full of questions at his sudden actions but first and foremost…she needed to find out if he was hurt- no of course he was hurt but how badly was he hurt.

All sorts of questions filled her mind.

What happened to him?

What attacked him- no… who attacked him?

"Troyi...Troyi what happened? Are you hurt? Let me see-"

"NO!" Eliora flinched when Troyi yelled and hesitated to make another step forward. If she were to act rashly to a possibly injured Troyi, she might make his wounds worse even though all she wanted to do was help him.

Before she could utter another persuasion, Troyi began choking and coughing violently, pushing and pounding his fist against his chest as if to push out whatever that was causing the pain in him. Eliora didn't want to risk worse damage and immediately ran to Troyi's side.

However, the moment she crouched beside him, a strong familiar pungent smell filled her nose. Her lips opened to question it, but the intent was cut short when Troyi started to throw up black liquid.

"TROYI!" Eliora screamed out, not knowing what that liquid was and fearing to find out the damage it'll cause. She reached out for her phone to dial an ambulance but Troyi knocked the phone out of her hands before pushing her away harshly.

Thankfully Eliora used her arm to break the fall from the hard push. She didn't expect the reaction from Troyi and her guts was screaming at her to stay a distance from him at the moment but her head was persuading her to help her injured partner. As soon as she was about to stand up again, Troyi leaped onto his feet not without letting out a wince. What Eliora didn't expect next was for Troyi to hurriedly run away from her despite clutching his chest and wincing in pain. Eliora immediately got up to catch up to Troyi… but despite being trained, she couldn't keep up to him before he vanished at the next turn.

She was softly gasping to catch her breath and staring in agony when she lost Troyi.

"Troyi…" She mumbled in between gasps. "What the hell happened…"

Her suspicion on Troyi definitely increased, but her priority now was helping her partner.