|
“Geego! Can’t you cough quieter?” Dette’s small voice echoed down the hall, annoyance plainly lacing the words. For all day, it seemed, there’d been nothing but the sound of his coughing. At first, she’d been genuinely concerned for his obviously fading health, but after a few hours and a restless nap, it was beginning to get on her nerves. From the sound of his echo, the man was wandering about in the kitchen. Perfect, she thought with a bit of a relieved smile. Something to drink might stop him for a while. The noise did eventually come to a halt and she began down the stairs to start getting dinner ready for her father’s return. Halfway down, she froze as the sound of shattering glass reached her ears, followed by an eerie silence. “Geego?” She called out, hurrying her trip down the stairs when a response wasn’t given. As she turned the corner into the large, tiled floor of the kitchen, she stopped short in the doorway. “G!” The man didn’t answer from his place on the floor. He was sprawled across the tile, cabinet still hanging open from his attempt to get a glass and calm his cough. The shatter had been one of their mugs, which was now laying in pieces, dangerously close to his face. Kneeling next to him, she could easily smell the blood trickling from the side of his mouth and from a gash across his forehead, possibly from falling on one of the mug shards. Her hand shakily wiped the blood from the side of his mouth, holding it there and realizing that he wasn’t breathing. She quickly moved the hand over his chest, sighing almost relieved when she felt his heart beat under her fingers. Dette’s only instinct at the moment was to scream for help, but she knew there was no one within shouting distance, and it would be hours until anyone got home. Trying her best to calm the shrill panic rising in her chest, she shakily stood and crossed the kitchen to take the phone from its holster.
---------------------------------------------------
Agent Carlos looked up with more than a bit of annoyance at having his interrogation interrupted. The drug dealer sitting across from him had been at large for selling to grade school children for nearly three years, and he severely doubted that the woman standing in the doorway had anything more important than that to say.
”Carlos? There’s been a 9-1-1 call I think you need to hear.” Her voice wavered a bit at the glare she was receiving. Carlos looked over at the man he was interrogating, then to the Vampire vigilante standing in the corner. A nod passed between the two, and Tevo stepped up to take over while he had a few words with the invasive new secretary.
“Do you realize just who that is in there?” Pointing back into the room once the door had been closed. “What murder or disaster couldn’t get someone else’s attention until I was finished?” The woman stepped back, holding a small piece of paper as if it were her lifeline. For the moment, she was regretting getting a job in the same wing with the well-known temper of the investigator.
”But, sir,” She said with a bit of pout in her voice. “The call was from LeNoir Manor.” Carlos’s eyes immediately softened, then widened in a form of panic.
“From a young girl?” The woman nodded, not expecting the older man to brush past her and take off at almost a run down the hall. He stormed into the receptionist’s office and took a quick scope to see that she was currently on the phone. Frowning, he took it from her hand.
“She’s busy right now; she’ll have to call you back.” Sherry looked up at him, mouth hanging open. Carlos didn’t give her a chance to speak. “Give me a record of the 9-1-1 calls over the past hour.”
“Do you realize that was someone extremely important to your well-being?” The head of the department would not appreciate being hung up on. He simply repeated his request. “Fine. I’ll get them when I finish th-“
“I need it now. Top priority.” She looked at him again, shaking her head and muttering. He was above her, though, so she had to do it.
|
