LEAH
Things have been great those past few days: ever since I saw Ingrid and Alexia again, I was reassured on the matter of the McCabe's. To be honest, after a week had gone by after the discovery of the body in Saint Ives, the case was starting to get quiet again, which is a good sign of the police dropping it for good this time.
Today, as classes had ended early, my friends and I decided to go grab a drink downtown, near the river, enjoying the last bits of sun before winter officially came with its usual rainy and snowy days.
Suddenly, as we - Jill, Kady, Lia and myself - are in the middle of an overly interesting conversation, my phone starts to ring. If I ignored it at first, whoever was calling insisted too much for it to be a simple call... Frowning, I excuse myself, grab my phone and walk out of the coffee shop for a second, and when I see SOS number (yes, I finally renamed the unknown number Alexia and Ingrid were texting from), my blood runs cold.
As I pick up, I hear Ingrid's voice that sounded quite alarmed:
"Leah?"
"Yeah, what's up?" I respond, feeling like my day was about to take a turn.
I could hear Ingrid walk out of some room, take a deep breath, before saying:
"My boss just got an intel from a police source that they're re-opening the case about McCabe..."
"W-what? How's it possible, if you hid everything...?"
"Lower your voice" Ingrid orders, setting her jaw. As I let her speak, she then says: "Katie McCabe's body was found by one of her roommate this morning, they think it's suicide..."
"Oh my God..." I whisper, nauseous.
My whole body starts to tremble, as Ingrid goes one nonetheless:
"They say she wrote a suicide note, and they're re-opening the case because of that... I'll know more by the end of the day, 'cause apparently they want me and this bitch from The Guardian to partner up again..."
"This is good, right ?" I ask, my voice trembling, "I mean, the closer you are from the case the more-"
"Don't even bother finishing your sentence" Ingrid orders, cold as ice. As I am about to answer to that, she just says: "I'll let you know as soon as I get updates."
Just like that, she hangs up the phone, and I start having an anxiety attack : this is bad, really bad...
***
INGRID
We were not allowed anywhere near the crime scene: the whole building was restricted, and as I arrived early, I read Sakina's text message: Roflö's on her way, she's been informed about your partnership. Gave her all the intel she needed. Good luck boss! And, feeling like I was simultaneously going to faint or kick someone's ass, I put my phone down and just sit down on a coffee shop's table across the street and order some tea.
A few minutes later, a black Mercedes stops right in front of me, as Frida Roflö gets out of it and walks straight at my table, as her driver leaves with the car. As soon as she sits down, she just sets her jaw and wave at the waiter to get her the same as I took, before she stares at me with a weird expression on her face.
"You okay, Engen? You're paler than usual." she asks, trying to mess with my head.
"That's hard to do, but okay" I let out, rolling my eyes. As I realise she is still waiting for an answer, I just say without any remorse: "Whose idea was it to put us both back on this case?"
Frida smirks, and after the waiter brought us our teas, she just declares:
"Maybe 'cause we form an odd yet efficient duo I guess"
Just nodding my head, I observe as the medical personnel is taking Katie McCabe's body out of the building, straight into the ambulance, that was probably about to drop her body to the legist to get analysed and given the official cause of death. I feel nausea taking over my whole body, as I repeat to myself: don't think that... Leah wouldn't have done that... This is a true suicide, she might've wanted for people to find out the truth, and the only way she'd do that is by shocking the whole country... right?
Shaking my head slowly, I realise Frida is staring at me with her eyebrow raised - the face she usually makes when she suspects someone from having done something.
"What are you staring at?" I coldly ask, aggressive.
Raising her hands as if she was about to get arrested, she responds in an ironic tone:
"Nothin', I just haven't seen you stressed before."
"Well, to your defence you haven't seen much of me" I let out, fed up with her detective-like habits.
"Other than your bitchy side you mean?" she teases, as I am forced to crack a smile because that was funny. Pointing her finger at me, she adds: "Well, what a day! I even got to see your teeth for the first time ! Wow!"
Rolling my eyes, I just order:
"Shut up."
As she laughs while her phone rings, she answers it and stops smiling all at once: all I could hear was a male voice coming out of the phone, and the spark in her eyes immediately disappeared. She spoke in Swedish - which had some similarities with Norwegian but wasn't as comprehensible to me at all... I got a few words - such as dumbass, shut up or even some words that seemed to mean 'leave me alone' or something...
When she finally hangs up, I pretend as if I didn't hear any of it, staring at my own phone, re-reading Sakina's text.
Setting her jaw, Frida finally says:
"Sorry about that, my husband sometimes is a pain in the ass..."
"Aw, you guys seem so nice with each other..." I openly mock her, not resisting the urge to.
But I can see it actually upset her, because, although she was trying her best to hide it, there was pain in her eyes. Oops, I went too far this time..., I think to myself, sighing. Setting her jaw, Frida just looks for the right words for a few seconds.
After a moment, she just says:
"You wouldn't know, would you? You had no idea what commitment feels like when it's becoming a prison... I know you think I'm a heartless cheater, but I only did because he cheated on me first, and with two little boys we can't just separate and do what the fuck we want..."
"I guess your boys would rather see their parents happy apart than unhappy together under their eyes..." I let out, without any tact nor sensibility at all.
You could at least try to have an humane reaction for once, I think to myself, rolling my eyes in the process.
Frida nods her head.
"If you believe everything's so easy, then you're either naive or an idealist, Engen" she only says in a rather sad tone.
I remain silent, knowing that I did not know much about her life - at least not enough to criticise her life choices in terms of relationships.
Suddenly, from the building across from us, comes a loud explosion, and with it the beginning of a lot of trouble...
Shit, so much for staying off the radar...
***
ALEXIA
After waking up on my own this morning in a luxurious and gigantic loft with a beautiful view on the roofs of the city of London - Shelina's place - I had to go to work and, for some reason, I could not take the blonde out of my mind.
But once I saw her walk into Section 17 with two of her agents, a serious face and an impressive ability to act as if I did not exist at all, I soon understand she did not feel the same: she throws me a deadly look as soon as she sees me, and doesn't look at me the whole time from now on, taking her time to look at each of my team members in the eyes.
Setting her jaw, she then announces:
"Section 17, rest. (and, as my friends and I stop doing the military salute that is protocol when working with the MI6, she quickly continues:) As you have heard this morning, an explosion occurred one hour ago in the southern party of the city's heart, destroying a crime scene. Given the proximity and expertise of one of you with a part of the case, MI6 decided to appoint Section 17 on the Saint Ives' case, effective immediately. While you three - Miedema, Crnogorcevic and Van de Donk - will conduct the investigation on the explosion and suicide here in London, Putellas will accompany me to Saint Ives. Putellas, a word?"
Nodding my head, I follow Shelina onto an empty corridor, while my other team members start getting ready immediately - which means, for Viv, to just sit behind her computer, while the other two are put on wire and send out on the field. Her face is closed, while her body language is hiding what she is thinking or feeling at the moment, so I just remain still, waiting for her to talk first.
After a few seconds, during which she might as well have been trying to find the right words and control her thoughts simultaneously, she finally speaks up:
"To set the record straight: what happened yesterday was an horrible mistake, that will never be repeated neither talked about. From now on, our relationship and... activities... will remain strictly professional. I am your superior and those are my orders. Do you see a problem with that, Putellas?"
Setting my jaw, I just nod.
"No, m'mam. Nothing happened, right?"
"We are leaving for Saint Ives in one hour - an helicopter will pick us up on this building's roof. Back there in Saint Ives, given your knowledge of its inhabitants and of the field, we will be undercover as fiancés."
"Yeah, right"
Throwing me a look that would burn if only eyes could kill, Shelina just clears her throat and says:
"Not my idea, and not funny: I'm given orders that we have to follow strictly. This includes staying your relatives or any other people unaware of our cover until the end of the investigation. The goal is to access the heart of the field to finally uncover the truth about what the Hell happened in that God-forsaken town. Got it?"
"Yes, loud and clear" I say, suddenly uneasy.
After Shelina nods her head and walks out of the room, I find myself wondering if that night truly meant something to her or not - because, although I wasn't the kind of girl to get attached, I could never forget how amazing the whole thing was, from the sex to the meaningful conversations and, although we did not talk much about our personal lives, her views on politics, matters of policing and so on were highly interesting... She is particularly interesting...
Shaking my head, I just think: you won't go down that road, 'cause there is a reason you've always been single - you just fuck up everything you touch. Sighing loudly, I go back to my desk, as Ana and Daan are silently mocking me.
"Good luck with Zadorsky: this woman's so evil and I couldn't even pretend she's my fiancé" the Dutch concedes, amused.
Ana bursts into laughter and adds:
"She's flawless, don't get me wrong - but none of us could even think about having any kind of a relationship with her, she's too cold and too higher up our standards for that" the Swiss adds, equally amused.
Smirking, I just respond:
"I don't get why everybody think she's flawless: to me she's just a brainless barbie that slept her way to the top"
"Possible: from what I've heard she's a women of many partners, the queen of one night stands - and I'm not criticising, it's fucking cool! But she's too out of anybody's reach for a meaningful relationship of any kind in my opinion." Ana continues, smirking.
I nod my head, as Daan says:
"Good luck with the Witch of the MI6 out there - it's gonna be a looooooong month for you! And say hi to your family from us, Putellas!"
"Will do" I lie, before going to the roof, where Shelina Zadorsky and an helicopter were waiting for me.
I quickly text the SOS number, typing:
SOS. Going to Saint Ives now. Reopening of the case, undercover mission, keep your mouths shut i've got this.
And, as I go on the helicopter, I read the answer from Ingrid:
SOS bis. Gotta write an article with my nemesis on the case. be careful, it got a whole lot more complicated now...
My throat going sore, I close my eyes at the helicopter takes off.