23 Pizza or Leona?
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It wasn’t often to hear sirens ringing out across Norwich city. Criminals disappeared from the streets, and for a while, civilians enjoyed the peace as they trembled in fear of the news. Some huge entrapment operation involving seven of the top police squads infiltrated the largest and most infamous group of money launderers, taking all the big wigs down. In just one afternoon, the Golden Crocodile Gang was no more.
One of the teams participating in the raid was Team Seven, and Alwin Ermont was involved. The young officer felt his tiredness consume him as soon as he got into the front seat of the police car. He almost drifted off to sleep when a loud chime from the Wang Novels app startled him. As his partner wasn’t here yet, he decided to check his phone.
Ching!
New Chapter [Misleading Leading Man] - “Shocking Truth: The Most Vicious Villain in St. Laurene City!”
Ching!
New Chapter [Misleading Leading Man] - “Sacrifices: Love or Duty”
Shortly after, two more notifications appeared on his lock screen. Gingeromance628 uploaded chapters to her other book, “Lunar Eclipse: My Werewolf Lover is an Undercover Agent”.
Alwin took a second look at his cellphone. Was it really Leona? He did not want to get his hopes up and thought that he might be mistaken. Yet, his fingers worked in auto-response to confirm it. Unlocking his phone, Alwin accessed the Wang Novels app. He checked if she replied to any of his messages.
gingeromance628: “Hello!”
gingeromance628: “I’m fine :)”
Relief immediately washed over him and a smile lit up on his face, erasing the frown. Alwin’s drowsiness disappeared in a flash. He felt like a high school boy who was about to see his crush.
“Gah! The Chief Inspector talks too much! I managed to run away in the middle of his debrief. Thanks to you, we managed to stop one of them from escaping. Hey, do you want to go to the new pizza place across the train station? It will be my treat. Alwin?”
For a while, there was no response from the man beside him. The senior officer looked at the young man beside him who quickly opened the door and threw off the seat belt.
“Sorry, another time!” he promised and slammed the car door shut. Behind him, he could still hear his partner shouting at him and calling him from inside the car. However, he couldn’t resist the urge to confirm if Leona was truly back.
Running over to where he parked his motorcycle, Alwin swung his leg over it and fastened the chinstrap with practiced ease. Before long, he had left the police headquarters.
Whew! Whew! Whew! The blinking red and blue lights parted the traffic before him like the Red Sea. Alwin felt like Moses as he sped way past the legal limit. However, nobody dared stop him.
In just fifteen minutes, Alwin arrived at Leona’s apartment. After taking his motorcycle key, he entered the building, running to her unit on the second floor.
The police officer’s eyes twinkled in excitement. He wanted to know where Leona went. Alwin recalled how Leona sometimes complained about having writer’s block. Whenever that happened, she needed some time alone. Perhaps she decided to use some of her savings for a vacation to find inspiration?
By the time he reached the second floor, Alwin was slightly breathless. Nothing much changed in the few days, but there was still one significant difference from when she left. Leona's apartment door was left slightly ajar, and light filtered through it gently, giving Alwin a ray of hope that she was back.
“Leona!” he called as he neared the entrance.
The police officer’s smile soon turned into a frown when he saw an empty, lifeless room. The curtains were gone, and the dust in the air could be seen through the light from outside the open windows. Aside from the smell of musty wood, several streaks of brown to almost black dirt stuck on the old painted walls.
There were no furniture. There was no Leona Sandersmith.
A pair of heavy and hurried footsteps followed him. With all the commotion outside from the police siren, only one person would be concerned enough to check on the new visitor in the rundown apartment complex.
The landlord, who left the door open earlier after inspecting the condition of the emptied apartment, paled to see Alwin. Many thoughts went through his head. He recalled how often he saw the young officer around the apartment and often wondered if he was on a stakeout. Was he looking for some criminal?
“Officer? May I help you?” the nervous landlord asked behind him.
“Where are the Sandersmiths?” Alwin questioned. His tone was lost and cold but the landlord was too nervous to notice it.
Oh, he was here for the Sandersmiths! The landlord sighed in relief internally. He thought the man was here because of his expired business permit. It was a relief that wasn’t the case.
“Sir, I was told that they had already moved to another apartment,” he replied politely. He would usually not entertain questions about his tenants’ business because it affected the reputation of his business but this man was a police officer.
“Did they mention where they were going?" Alwin asked, hoping the Sandersmith siblings were just within Norwich City. It was so sudden and Leona did not mention anything about it. They even agreed to meet on the morning she disappeared. How could she forget to tell him about moving out?
“Sorry, sir. But I don’t know..." the landlord replied.
Why was the police officer asking so many questions? "Officer, I understand that this might be confidential but… are the siblings on the wanted list?”
"No… but I have to find them," Alwin replied. Then, he paused.
Maybe the Sandersmiths were on the wanted list! Sweating profusely, the landlord struggled to maintain his smile and wondered how he could end the conversation quickly. The longer Alwin remained here, the worse it is for his business reputation!
Then, he recalled an important tidbit of information he could throw to get this officer out of his hair.
"By the way, officer, some people took all their belongings and fully paid their debt."
The new information made the temperature in the empty apartment drop several degrees when Alwin heard it. How could the landlord fail to remember such an important piece of information initially?
“Did they identify themselves?” Alwin narrowed his eyes at the landlord. It was odd how the landlord allowed strangers to touch the Sandersmith siblings’ stuff.
Oh shoot, he shouldn’t have said that! After opening the can of worms, the landlord wanted to put both his feet into his mouth. What should he do now? When the strangers arrived, he wanted to stop them and ask who they were. However, he saw the guns in their belts and chose to turn a blind eye to everything.
The business owner weighed his options. If he lied to the officer, he could be jailed. On the other hand, if he told the officer the truth, he might have to say goodbye to this world!
“They didn’t say,” the landlord replied in a shaky voice. Alwin took note of how strangely the landlord was behaving and raised his brow.
“You let strangers take their stuff?” the young officer scrutinized the landlord from head to toe. The landlord could not look him in the eyes. What a bad liar! Was the landlord involved in their disappearance?
“I… didn’t think they were suspicious,” the landlord squeaked and quickly defended himself as Alwin took a step toward him. “Why would they pay for the Sandersmiths’ rent? They are probably their relatives!”
How suspicious - both the landlord and his statement. Relatives, huh? As far as Alwin knew, Leona and Leonard only lived with their mother. He heard from Leona that their ‘relatives’ never helped nor sympathized with them. Why would they help her now?
Since he was a hundred percent sure those people were not her relatives, Alwin could not understand why they would pay the Sandersmiths’ debts. Something did not add up. Who were those people? What was their relationship with Leona and Leonard? Why would they go through the trouble of retrieving their belongings?
As Alwin pondered over the situation, the landlord took a look at the time on his wristwatch. “Uhh… Officer, I need to prepare this room for the next tenant if there's nothing else.”
Alwin narrowed his eyes. He had suspicions about the landlord but needed to investigate further before taking action.
“Is that so?” Alwin asked with a dangerous edge to his tone.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, the landlord swallowed hard and nodded. He waited for Alwin to leave. However, Alwin made no indications of moving from his spot, so the landlord resorted to coaxing him like a child.
“Don’t worry, officer. If I hear news about the Sandersmiths, I will call you.”
Smirking, Alwin agreed. It wasn’t against the law for officers to force civilians to help them with any investigations. However, it was fine if the civilians volunteered.
“Hmm… Alright. Give me your number.”
Alwin exchanged numbers with the landlord who looked ready to pass out and finally left.
After bidding the young lad goodbye, the landlord exhaled deeply. The Sandersmiths might be involved with really bad characters, and it was not a good idea to stick his nose in any further. He wanted his head attached to his body and to continue running his small business. After the close encounter with a police officer, he suddenly had the urge to do something right - renew the registration of the apartment!
Outside that apartment, Alwin did not leave at once and leaned against his motorcycle. He couldn’t stay still doing nothing after knowing Leona might be in danger. After her disappearance, he only slept an hour or two each night. After several days of not hearing news from her, she finally replied but wasn’t living in the same apartment anymore. What was going on? She couldn’t have moved to distance herself from him because she found out about his secret feelings for her, right?
No, Leona wasn’t like that. She might be a romance writer but she was too dense when it came to such things.
To suppress his worry, he called Leona’s number to confirm if she was alright with her ‘relatives’. Oddly, the phone just rang and rang without anyone answering. Was she taking a nap or busy writing her chapters?
Meanwhile, Leona’s phone lay on Ignatius’ desk, charging using the USB port on his laptop. The mafia boss’ thoughts were interrupted when the phone vibrated. He looked over in mild annoyance and the annoyance only increased when he saw who it was.
Alwin’s name displayed on her screen annoyed him. Ignatius wouldn’t be this mad if he were merely a curious and annoying police officer. However, he was close to Leona. Alwin knew she was gingeromance628, and it bothered the jealous top fan.
Ignatius considered making Leona’s old smartphone retire for good. If he could, he would buy her the latest iPhonie model and make his number the only one in her phonebook! Yet, as tempting as it was, Ignatius controlled himself. She would become suspicious if she knew. Also, giving her a phone was still too risky. She could have this police officer’s number memorized and send him a text without him knowing.
Ignatius stared quietly at the noisy cellphone. On the other end of it, Alwin persisted and waited for someone to answer. When one call ended, Alwin would call again and Ignatius did his best to ignore the phone buzzing away. However, his patience had its limits and eventually, the line was suddenly cut.
The police officer looked at his phone in shock and tried calling again.
“Sorry, the number you have called is not in service. Please try again later. Beep!”
Stunned, Alwin panicked. Why was the automated message answering instead? What’s going on? Where was Leona? She should know it was him. Why didn’t she answer?
Wait… What if she was in a dangerous situation?
That settled it. Alwin had to follow up with the investigation. Although he knew how busy Chief Fedora was, he needed to be shameless to get some answers. The chief might think of him as an annoying brat, but Alwin could not care less. He would do everything to make sure Leona was safe.
He would do everything to know where she was.
As Alwin scooted off to the chief’s office, men in black suits watched him with intense glares, like coyotes patiently watching their prey’s movements.
