Red Star

Before the Fire Part 4

10:30.

Red wine in one hand, pizza in the other, Game of Thrones on the screen in front of her.

10:31.

Vanessa the parrot repeats something Cersei Lannister says, finishing with an almighty squawk. 

10:35.

A light tap on the front door steals her attention. She reluctantly sets down the wine glass, pauses the Khaleesi complaining about her dragons, and makes her way to the door.

10:39.

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Rosa! Hey!"

"How the fuck did you find this place?" Rosa looks to each side of the hallway of her apartment's floor. It's empty. Good. No one should see her socialising with this wimp. It would totally ruin her street cred. Not that she had any from her neighbours which entirely consist of middle-aged Cougars and rich bachelors.

Saving the nation pays pretty well, Rosa has learned over the past five years.

10:42.

"I asked Brandon." Castano admits, and she makes a mental note to promptly kill Brandon as soon as she sees him next.

"And he told you," Rosa warily confirms, resting her hip against the doorframe. Castano is not coming in here. "Just like that?"

"Well," Castano scratches at the back of his neck in embarrassment, laughing nervously. "I did tell him it was of the highest importance."

In amusement, she asks, "So what did you tell him that was so important?"

"I told him that I had your phone and that you'd left it behind."

"I can't believe he believed that."

"He didn't," Castano looks even more embarrassed by the second, and it seems that his neck must be raw from all the scratching by now. "So I told him the truth."

"Which was?"

"I have a theory about Red Star."

10:49.

It's been two months since Lopes revealed himself as part of Red Star.

When Ros had taken the case to Douglas, he completely disregarded it, simply saying that he had never heard of them, thus making the case unimportant enough for enquiry.

He'd also banned her from interrogating Lopes again.

Rosa was not happy. She had seen something in Lopes' eyes. Something that suggested to her that this was all a game to him.

Honestly? That excited her. It had been a while since she'd had a case like this.

That day, she tore more through the archives of old unanswered cases. She found Red Star hints everywhere. Douglas said she was paranoid. She told him she hated him.

She decided to take the case on herself, after a shouting match between her and Douglas. Castano hadn't yet breached the subject with her, seeing as everyone else who had was verbally abused. Or physically, in Douglas' case. She slapped him at one point, the sound reverberating through the office.

It's a wonder she hasn't been fired.

So everyone kept well clear of Rosa and Red Star.

Until now, of course.

"You have a lovely place."

"Shut up."

"Do you want my theory or not?" Castano had started to bite back recently. Rosa respected that, even if it did infuriate her. He's still yet to prove to her his full abilities. All she's seen so far is amazing combat skills and very, very poor deduction skills.