A Vigilante

014

The Vigilante is still unknown to the police.

A week after their little interrogation, I hadn't even gotten a call. I had seen my aunt throughout this week- and similarly, the situation still sizzled in her mind. She is angry at her comrades, at whomever took that tip. My guilt of lying to her has been constant for a year. But after that, coming so close to being exposed, I somehow felt worse around her as she constantly defends my false innocence.

Being cleared from police radar did not fully clear me though. In the past week, I had been trailed, stalked and even attacked once. I got out of each situation but that only put me on a sharper edge. Who would come after me next?

The interrogation was a small win, a small relief.

A cloud lifted off my shoulders that currently held the sky.

But even after that, we are still in a corner. Epifano seems to have us right where he wants us. The number of missing persons in the past week had spiked as well. And though we tried our best, we could not pinpoint the location of an attack like we did with Smith that night weeks ago.

So in turn, after one win with the police, it has been loss after loss. Dead end after dead end.

I sat through my classes, still paying more attention to the surrounding students than the teacher. In all my life, I have never expected to sigh in relief as I enter a gang bar- which also happens to be one of the only two places in the city that brought me some sort of safety. A bar and a gang-leader's secret apartment.

I walk down the stairs to find Genevieve lounging on the couch. One of her legs, still clad in high heels, is balanced on the coffee table in front of her and a laptop is perched on her thigh. She types with a pace that makes the keyboard sound slightly like a rain shower. Her jacket is sprawled on the seat next to her and with her sleeveless tank top, I can see a few small tattoos scattered on her toned arm .

"What are you working on?" I ask, stepping on the solid concrete floor.

"I cannot find a thing on Davide Esperanza." she grits. Not looking up at me.

"Epifano's real name." I state remembering the police record scan they had done after the gala. "Not a thing? No address? A police partner?"

She shakes her head, finally looking up at me. "His entire record save for the basics must've been erased."

I grimace. Dead end.

"We can only assume that that would be thanks to the little mole." Genevieve adds. Amy Harth. I had explained to them my theory on her after the interrogation. And though from her record she may have seemed like a regular detective- with the questions she was asking in that small room, it is safe to say that she may in fact be Epifano's mole. Yet with this theory, we had no way of pursuing it.

"What about the townhouse?" I ask.

Yesterday I had brought up the idea to check the venue of the gala. As Ace had said there, it was no usual venue, meaning there is a chance Epifano could be staying there. And though the victims may not be there, his location would be good enough information.

"It's practically hidden, no security cameras around that I could get into." I grimace at her reply. "But-" I look at her as she talks- "I could get Darius to pass by. Just a drive. To check the place out, see if there is anybody."

"You can ask Darius to do that?" I raise an eyebrow. "What exactly is your position in this gang?"

She only smirks at me. "I can get him to do it at night. That would be smarter. So for now we have nothing."