Woman of Intelligence (Book 2 in the series)

Chapter 21

Riya, Samantha, Ying, Zoe and John were standing in the middle of a land, looking at an old medium size building. It was super hot like it was a desert. There were little bit of big trees. Brown straws were flying gradually around and around. Everyone was shocked by the state of the building. It looked old with cracks on the walls. Dead plants were on the roof and all the equipment looked rusty. The wooden floor was broken. The whole building was just in a mess and looked demolished. Everyone was frozen because they were speechless. Their jaws were out and their faces were paled. 

"I don't believe this. We come all the way from Singapore to Los Angeles to get this.", Zoe pointed at the building. 

"They actually want us to work here?", Ying asked.

John was shocked about this. "I don't believe it.", he said the same thing as Zoe.

Samantha looked at John. "Did you receive the correct address? Did you come at the right place?", she asked. 

"Yes. I used the GBS to get here.", he answered.

"What a waste of time on coming here?", Zoe asked with some anger. 

"Well, it doesn't look that bad.", Riya was bringing positive vibe.

Everyone looked at her with irritation. "There is no WiFi or signal around here. Plus, there is no toilets and clean water.", John made it worse.

"Zoe is right. Why did we come here in the first place?", Riya changed her attitude to negativity. 

"The nearest gas station is thirty minutes away from this house. I advance you to take a leak before coming here, during our lunch breaks and after work.", John suggested

"That's not actually a bad idea. The problem is us.", Riya mentioned herself, Samantha and Zoe.

Ying looked at them. "You can take two days off because those first two days are the worse.", he was being considerate. 

"Thank you for understanding.", Zoe said and bowed to Ying. 

"I went to the police station who are working with this case this morning. We went to the storeroom and found all the evidence burnt. Everything is gone.", Samantha said.

"What?!", Ying asked. 

"Okay. We are giving such a shaggy place to work in. Now we don't have evidence for this case. What worse can happen next?", Riya asked herself with anger.

Something made a noise from the house. Everyone was looking at the roof. The entire roof fell inside and outside the building. Dust was flying everywhere including by the team. John started coughing because he could not stand the dust. The others were frozen ice. Samantha placed her hands on her hips and shook her head. 

"Well, this is going to be a fun trip.", Samantha was being sarcastic. 

"Now we really saw the worse.", Zoe said. 

The others shook their heads out of this belief. Then Ying saw something that was moving by the dry plants. His eyes widen when he saw something that he was afraid of. 

"AAHHHHH SNAKE!!!", he screamed and jumped on Zoe. 

"WHERE??!!", Riya screamed in fear. 

Ying pointed a brown and black big snake. "There."

Riya saw the snake. "AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!", she jumped on John. 

John was holding her immediately. Riya was moving too much that he could not get their balancing right. Samantha was standing in the middle of everyone, feeling completely free. John managed to get his balance right. Now he was holding Riya perfectly. Everyone was looking at the snake, looking a place to sleep. Riya only had her eyes on the snake. The snake was moving so slow. Ying wanted the snake to move faster because he wanted it to leave. 

The snake finally went into a bush to sleep. Everyone was relieved that the snake did not do anything out of the ordinary. Zoe looked at Ying. She wanted him to get off her because her legs were trembling. 

"Would you get off me?", she asked him nicely. 

Ying looked at her with an embarrassed expression. He started giggling softly and he slowly got of her. He dusted her clothes to make her neat. Riya looked at John and she immediately got off him. Both of them dusted their clothes to make themselves neat. 

"We are working in a desert, in a shaggy house with no roof and a pet snake.", Ying said with so much anger.

"What a mess?", Samantha said, looking at the house.

"Oh well, at least I'm not going to be here most of the time.", John was happy about that.

John started laughing with happiness. Riya, Samantha, Ying and Zoe looked at him with shock. Riya was having a feeling that John deliberately bought them here like an revenge for his sister's car. 

"All right Mister, what are you after?", she asked with arms crossed.

Everyone looked at Riya with confusion including John. "What did I do?", he asked innocently.

Riya walked closer to him and he took a few steps back. "You deliberately brought us her to get revenge for your sister's car.", she said the truth.

Samantha, Ying and Zoe looked John for a moment. John was speechless after hearing that. "Well...", he did not know how to put this.

Riya was not happy about this. "All right Mister, we drove here for one and an half hours to our location which is the wrong one. That's a lot of petrol wasted. We could have spend some time on this investigation. We don't even have enough evidence, a single bit. This case is important, not your sister's car. Stop with all those savageness when we got people to save. A man who needs to be put in bars. If you are going to carry showing us that you are better than us then we are never going to finish this case before Christmas. We also have families that we want to be with for Christmas. You are not the only one who has lives.", Riya was be very mature in this situation. 

Everyone was surprise on how mature Riya was. They were silent for a moment. John looked at Riya who was looking really upset. 

"Fine, I will stop what I'm doing.", he was being serious.

"Sometimes, we don't believe you. You promised us with so many things like giving us our bonus for actually bringing so many people into the bar. Promised us that you are not going to extend our shift hours. You have done nothing. You are getting all the credit yet you have done nothing. After what I said in the hospital, whatever sank inside your head went out to the stream.", Riya was very upset.

Samantha knew how Riya was feeling. "Mr Wright, you ended putting an officer in hospital because stress. Riya was not the only one, five more officers ended up there. Plus, if the government finds out that you are abusing the officers, you have to pay a heavy fine. You don't want to do that. Please start treating us better so we can get this case done on time. And we can be back home with our families.", Samantha spoke like a Head Officer again. 

Everyone was silent for a moment. John looked at everyone who were looking at the shaggy building. He placed his hands on his hips and started walking towards his car. No one bothered to stop him. They were completely pissed about what he did right now. He made them waste hours on solving this investigation. Now they did not have evidence. What worse was going to happen next in this investigation.