Legend of Kataria (Draft Version)

Chapter 3

Oh. Now I get it. "He's still upset about the winery?" he guessed, recalling one of her previous attempts to "sleuth" which had ended up with them both being grounded for a month. And when Greeny tried to protest that the chief wasn't his father, he was threatened with spending the night in a cell. He chose the grounding.

Leah grimaced. That was all the answer he needed. He ran a hand through his hair and fiddled with his spectacles. "So what do we do now?" He saw the familiar glint in her eyes. She still wanted to do this. That meant they were going to need some sort of plan.

"Let's go talk to my father," Leah decided after a long moment of silence and indecision. "Maybe we can get permission. And even if we can't, maybe we can find something that'll help us."

Greeny squinted, locating the police station down the street. The sunlight reflected off its tall glass windows and acted as a kind of lighthouse across the entire town, particularly at sunset. Leah thought it was beautiful. He found it obnoxious and flashy.

Just another reason he'd make a horrid cop.

He felt the curious gazes of over a dozen officers fall on him as they entered the building. He kept his head down nervously as he followed Leah through the main office and toward the very back of the room where a small area had been closed off from the rest. From where he was standing, Greeny could see a large chair and an average-sized desk. Papers were scattered everywhere and several were tacked to a small pegboard opposite from a small tinted window. Greeny quickly took it all in as Leah knocked on the office door.

And then he sneezed.

There was a meow and they both turned to see a plump orange tiger hop up on the desk beside them and brush contentedly against a large potted plant. Leah beamed as she saw it. "Hi, Amicus!" she cooed, sliding past Greeny to stroke the fluffy longhair.

Figures, Greeny thought. My worst nightmare has arrived. Already he could feel another sneeze coming on. The station's mascot was loved by all. It was the personal pet of Leah and her father, but the station had somehow ended up with joint custody and now the feline lived there which made it extremely difficult for Greeny to be there. "Amicus," he said flatly, edging in the opposite direction. "How lovely to see you again."

The cat flicked his ears back and narrowed his eyes as the teen spoke. Clearly, he wasn't any fonder of Greeny than Greeny was of him. The teen tensed in case the feline decided to lunge at him.

There was a creak as the door opened and a middle-aged man stuck his head into the main room. He spotted Leah and Greeny and a deep frown etched across his face. "Come in," he said, ushering them inside. Leah went first and Greeny followed. Chief Grasslake brought up the rear and closed the door behind him. "Go ahead and sit down," he said, gesturing to the chairs opposite the table as he seated himself behind his desk. Greeny hastily obeyed, swallowing hard. He wasn't used to Leah's father being so formal. He supposed it was because he was on the clock. "Has something happened? Are you both all right?"

Greeny opened his mouth to answer but Leah beat him to it. "We're fine," she said quickly, "but there's something we wanted to show you. I know you've been working the...incident...in Catrial so we did some searching and we think we found something. Greeny?"

He'd been so busy focusing on reading the Chief's expression that he didn't hear Leah saying his name until she had to repeat it. "Huh? Oh yes, sorry, sorry, here." He pulled his laptop out and brought up the screen, connecting to the high-speed internet and turning the device so Mr. Grasslake could see it. "As you can see, sir, I did a bit of digging. This isn't the first time an attack like this has happened. And there's this boy." He pointed out the dark-haired figure in the crowd. "He's in every video at every incident. And...we were hoping you might be able to tell us who he is."