Heyyy everyone! Sorry for the long wait for once again. I'm not really good mentally those past two weeks so I just couldn't concentrate and write the chapter. I'm sorry I let you wait!
Leaving a comment would really made my mood and I really need it right now heheh ^^'.
Hope you are all better than me and be happy and healthy!
I don't own One Piece but I do own the OC.
Have fun~~~
Patrick was sitting on his private office, inside the town's bank.
He was looking outside of the window at the direction of the clock tower and observed Elga's moves who had just walked out from the place and headed towards the small local clinic, probably to continue her work.
He felt anxiety for a moment and decided to light up a cigarette but immediately after taking the first puff, he relaxed and started thinking of a plan to take the teenage girl out of the case.
He didn't expect someone to suspect him as he minded to have a strong alibi but this girl seemed to be smarter than he thought.
Suddenly, a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.
"Come in.", he answered in a bossy tone and the door opened, revealing a very familiar person to him.
The woman took of her kerchief, which covered her chestnut colored hair, and her sunglasses.
"Are you mad?! What if someone saw you?!" Patrick scolded her whispering and stood up from his seat to rush and close the door behind the mystery woman so as not to be seen by someone.
"Don't worry darling, everyone is still out for lunch time! I just wanted to see my beloved future husband and millionaire." she replied and sat on the chair that was placed on the other side of the desk and fixed her hair.
"Don't be so reckless! We already have one who suspects me!"
"And that's not my fault, sweetheart..." she said harshly in a sassy tone.
Patrick just rolled his eyes in response and sat back on his seat, filling a glass with a dark brown colored liquid that kept safe inside the third drawer of his desk.
"But don't worry Patrick, consider this small brat already dead." the woman said and took the glass from the man's hand and drunk a sip of alcohol.
"Hmm, good one but whiskey is not right for lunch!" she commented on the drink.
"I never said you could drink from it anyway..." the blonde man responded in an abrupt way and took back the glass on his hands.
"I brought something better to celebrate the occasion, dummy." the woman replied and took out of a bag she was carrying with her, an expensive bottle or red wine.
She stood up, grabbed two more glasses from a cupboard beside the bookcase and opened the bottle.
An intoxicating scent of smashed grapes and alcohol, reached her nose and she placed a pleased smile on her same-colored lips.
She filled the first glass with a satisfactory amount of the dark red liquid and checked on the man behind her to see if he was following her moves.
Patrick seemed rather than bother with the papers in front of him and the woman left a chuffed hum.
Then, she took out of her pocket a small bottle that contained some kind of white pills inside.
She dropped 4 of them on her hand and let them fall inside the said glass.
She then, filled with wine the second glass and by the time she offered the first one on the blonde man's hand, the mystery pills had already disappeared.
"I'm not into wine right now. I think I need something stronger to keep myself relaxed." he talked and focused again on the paperwork in front of him.
The woman made a frown and approached Patrick.
She climbed on his waist and brought his face near her chest.
The man placed his hands around her sharp iliac crest bones and glanced at her in a seductive way.
"Naughty aren't we?"
"I think you should calm down and drink some of my wine." she said back and buried her fingers on his blonde hair, guiding his head near her neck as a sign for him to kiss it.
Patrick pecked her silky smooth skin on this area of her body, to satisfy her lust for a bit and then took a break as he thought he would really need this glass of wine for what would follow afterwards.
He drunk the heady liquor at once and closed the gap between him and the woman by pressing his lips on hers.
However, it was a short kiss as he immediately felt a sharp pain on his chest and his left hand and jawbone go numb.
His eyes widened in shock being unable to catch his breath and then his heart never beat again, letting his head fall on the woman's shoulder.
She then held the small bottle with the pills and placed it on the first shelf of his desk.
After that, she took her own glass and threw it from the window beside Patrick's dead body.
She smiled devilish and left the room closing the door behind her, without being seen by anyone.
~...~
"Ahh, I really should take a break now..." Penguin talked to his friend and walked outside of the small café he was working.
"I should head back at the clinic. I have work to do..." Law answered to his friend letting a sigh escape his lips, thinking of a way to deal with the stubborn girl.
"You know, maybe you should trust her more..." Penguin thought to advise his friend but Law just gave him a tired glare.
"I'm responsible for her..."
"She is a big girl and I think she can handle it on her own."
The black haired boy just felt even more irritated as the conversation continued. The older teenager clearly couldn't understand his fear of someone of his subordinates getting hurt and the onus as their leader to protect them.
The said girl had been a pain in his ass every time she decided to act on her own, and this time he didn't have a good feeling on his gut too.
"Mind your own business and don't lecture me what I should do..." he responded in a cold tone and head himself to the clinic.
Penguin rolled his eyes in annoyance from the other boy's stiffness.
"Man... he sure needs to relax a bit..."
Suddenly, something landed on the ground some meters away from his feet and crashed into a lot of tiny sharp pieces.
He brought his hands on his face instinctively in order to protect it.
He was safe and sound but he couldn't say the same thing for his white apron as it got dirty by a red liquid.
At first the boy thought it was blood and got scared for his own wellbeing but afterwards saw that the color differed from blood's and understood it was some kind of liquid that splashed him when the mysterious object crashed the ground.
"Marvelous... Now I have to find a way to clean it..." he said and walked back inside the café.
~...~
"So, Miss Cynthia, could you tell me what brings you today here?" Elga answered the red head and owner of the town's hair salon, in front of her.
"It all started about 3 months ago when I was late to work after sleeping through my alarm clock, despite having had an early night. Since then I've been feeling tired most of the time, regardless of how much sleep I have. I'm struggling to make it through a full shift at work and I only work from 9 am-3 pm. Yesterday I fell asleep during my lunch break and Shachi told me I need to get checked out by you, so that's why I'm here. He said you could help me get through this and maybe give me some vitamins to boost my energy. Oh, I've also not got much of an appetite." she told her symptoms and the girl tried to keep some notes on her notebook.
"You said you feel this exhaustion for 3 months now, huh?" she asked the woman to repeat herself, so as to make sure she heard right.
"Yes, exactly."
"So you say you wouldn't blame the tiredness on the recent workload due to the weekend's festival, right?"
"No, I felt like this from way before..." she replied and looked at the girl with hope."You will give me some kind of vitamins, right?"
Elga inspected the red head for a minute, locking her eyes on her body and observed her.
"I will continue on the clinical examination now so I would like you to remove your shirt, please." the girl ordered and Cynthia did as she was told.
*Hmm, Conjunctival pallor and multiple patches of petechial bruising across the limbs and trunk...* the young doctor thought checking her eyes and torso. "When did you realize the existence of these?" she questioned her seeing the petechiae marks.
"Uhm, well it must had been about two weeks ago when I went for camping in the woods. I thought an insect or something like that, walked on me through the night so I didn't give much attention on them."
Elga took her stethoscope and placed it on the woman's skin above the areas where her heart and lungs were located.
*Ok... normal heart sounds with no added sounds and... good air entry, no crackles or wheezes and resonant on percussion.*, she thought again while changing spots on her patients back and chest.
"Now I need you to lay on the examination bed, so as to check on your belly."
Cynthia moved as she was told again and laid down, exposing her belly.
*There is no gross abdominal distension on inspection... however...The abdomen is soft, with some tenderness in the left upper quadrant on deep palpation... I can note some fullness in the left upper quadrant and...*, she cut her thought and pressing on the patient's belly when realization hit her. She really didn't want what was feeling under her fingers to be true or she would have to deliver some bad news.*... There are 2 enlarged cervical lymph nodes.*
"Doctor Elga-ya, what's the case?" Law asked entering the examination room and the girl turned her head to face him by the sound of his voice.
"Reduced appetite, weight loss, tiredness... we should run some further tests to be sure." she answered in a professional tone.
"Do as you believe." he replied and turned his gaze to the patient. "You are in good hands Miss Cynthia. Doctor Elga-ya is still new to the clinic but I guess she feels ready to take care difficult cases from her first week!" he said looking back at the girl aiming this quip for her.
"I'm capable of taking charge of Miss Cynthia's treatment, Doctor Law, don't worry." she responded back narrowing her eyes at him and faking a smile.
Suddenly, a woman entered the room, completely terrified.
"M-mister P-Patrick is dead!!!" a black haired woman screamed out of her lungs, running towards the two young doctors.
"B-but that's not possible!" Elga murmured looking in shock, Law.
The boy on the other hands was calm and collected.
"We should go and check on the body..." he suggested. "Dulcinea!" he called the clinic's nurse and she rushed to meet him.
"Yes, doctor?"
"Take some blood from Miss Cynthia's vein and tell Doctor Hakaru to run these tests." he ordered her and passed her a paper that were written on it everything he asked.
Dulcinea just nobbed her head in agreement and went to follow the orders.
~...~
Law inspected the man's body with curiosity.
"It was a heart attack for sure, I can tell..." he commented in a low voice.
"I read his medical history yesterday... He seemed to be under amlodipine treatment for angina pectoris." Elga informed the boy.
"Maybe he suffered from a heart disease and his heart failed him." he continued and started picking up his things as an action to show that his job ended here.
"Wait!" the girl said grabbing his shoulder to stop him.
Her gut was telling her that the cause of his death wasn't just a heart attack but something more behind it.
Suddenly, realization hit her and she widened her eyes, gaining Law's attention.
"I've read that amlodipine overdose can cause heart attack!!! What if someone else killed him?!"
"What you say is true but still he could have just taken some more pills because he thought the chest pain would disappear. You can't prove that this action belongs to someone else..." he explained in a serious and collected tone.
"But you know I'm right, huh?" the brunette asked and the boy just rolled his eyes and left the room leaving the irritated girl behind.
The mystery continues in the small Pleasure Town. Will Elga find out the identity of the mysterious woman before she gets caught into her trap or she will follow Law's advice to leave this case for the experts?
Find out in the next chapter! Till then have a wonderful time!!!