Chapter Three

Selena paid the taxi driver and thanked him for his services before getting out of the car, more like dragging herself actually and walked to the stairs of her house. Luckily for her, it was already unlocked and that meant that her house mate was already up.

Selena lived her her closest and best friend Gina Michaels. Gina was also a cop and she mainly dealt with the drug enforcement department of the police station. The two worked at different stations. They had been friends since middle school but separated from each other when they went to different highschools. They met again at the same police college and had been living together ever since.

"Well, look who we have here. " Gina said immediately Selena walked into the house making her groan. "It's the girl who thought it was nice to just walk out of the house at an odd hour and leave the door unlocked."

Selena smiled sheepishly. She had forgotten to lock the door when leaving earlier, again. Gina was sitting on the floor by the window with her laptop, a habit of hers. She didn't even look up to see who had walked in.

"Oops. Sorry Gina." She said walking towards the passage leading to their bedrooms. Gina scoffed but didn't say anything else. Selena frowned. Gina not scolding her meant that she either was too busy to care or she had already done something to get back at her.

She hoped that it was the former and not the latter. She shook off her thoughts and went to take a shower and freshen up. When she was dressed, she walked back to the living room where Gina was. She was in the exact same spot as she had left her earlier.

"What are you doing?" Selena asked sitting down next to her. She had her green eyes focused on the computer screen infront of her, typing and scrolling through what Selena recognised as the police database. Her red hair was in her usual tight and neat bun. For Selena that mean that she was very busy. Gina only did her hair in a tight and neat bun if she was working and she didn't want her hair in the way of her business.

"I am researching on past drug convicts. Lately, there has been a rise in drug trafficking and money laundering. The boss said that if I could not find any trace then it could only mean that it is the doing of Mariano Ponce." Gina nodded without looking up.

Mariano Ponce was the most well known drug lord in the continent with at least six branches almost in every country and thirteen hide outs in every continent. He was known for appearing randomly in a certain country, running his business smoothly and then disappearing without a trace. Though quite the famous character, noone knew what his face looked like or anything else about him.

In fact, the little information that they had was from one of his rookies that has been caught while transporting drugs to a neighbouring country. The people that belonged to his cartel knew very well not to snitch but once the rookie was dosed with a few combinations of truth drugs, he talked though with restraints.

In the end, the only new thing they found out was that the name Mariano Ponce was just an alias and not his real name and that that there was more than one leader to the cartel. It was quite frustrating to know just how much they were unwilling to talk. It made one wonder just what type of training they had gone through to make sure they shut up _ it made one wonder just what type of person this Mariano Ponce was.

"Another woman was killed by the Parker girl killer." Selena blurted out of nowhere. Gina stopped typing and looked at Selena.

"Oh my goodness. Poor Asriel." Gina said with her hands on her cheeks. "Was he the first one to see her again?" When Selena nodded, Gina sighed dramatically and put her laptop aside.

"So you were called to see the crime scene?" Gina asked. When Selena nodded, Gina huffed and grabbed Selena's hand to drag her up and stand up with her.

"You must be both physically and mentally exhausted after seeing something so ugly. I was mad at you earlier so I didn't make you breakfast as payback but now that I know, I will make you something real quick." Gina rambled while taking her to the kitchen. She sighed in relief when she realised that it meant that Gina want going to get back at her.

"Thanks Gina, what would I do without you?" Selena smiled gratefully as she sat down on the kitchen stool.

"Burn the whole house down, duh." Gina said while cracking eggs in a bowl. "The only thing you can do is make coffee and tea. By the way, I am kinda craving a latté."

Selena smiled and stood up and went to the counter to get their kettle. Gina was right about her only being good at making those drinks. She couldn't cook if her life depended on it. She once tried boiling an egg but fell asleep while waiting for it to get ready. She woke up three hours later to an angry Gina, noisy smoke alarms and a house full of smoke. As payback, that evening Gina prepared an egg salad for Selena _ the main food: the black egg that she tried to boil.

After some time, the two sat down to their lattes and breakfast.

"So are you and Darral now incharge of the Parker girl killer case?" Gina asked.

"Yes. Darral was interrogating Asriel Parker when I left. Owen said I should treat and then come back later to look at the video recording of the interrogation and go through the other files on the very case." Selena said a nod.

"You know Selena, I think Asriel Parker might know who the killer is but again doesn't know the killer." Gina said with her mouth full.

Selena looked at her with a confused face. "Have you been reading more of those books?"

She was referring to the books on Gina's desk that had weird titles like "How to properly unlock the door without the key." , "Speak like a smarty pants!" , "Who are you? I am the ugly world?" , "Books for people who are cops." And other titles. Selena didn't even want to think of how silly the contents were. Who on earth even wrote those books and where did Gina even get them?

Gina just smiled and nodded. "I was reading talk like a smarty pants and they gave that sentence under the examples of chapter mysteriously smart."

Selena chuckled. "Just tell me what you mean."

"I mean. The killer is a certain someone that Asriel Parker knows. Three only thing is that Asriel doesn't know that that certain someone has some secret vendetta against him or his girlfriends." Gina explained.

Selena nodded thoughtfully. It would be a good idea to investigate Asriel Parker's past life or look into his past ex-girlfriends _ if any of them were living.

"So tell me, any lead on Mariano Ponce?" Gina had stood up and was warning her plate by the sink.

"None whatsoever. That man is clearly teen steps ahead of us and it's getting on my nerves now." Gina answered angrily. Selena have her an encouraging smile and a thumbs up. Gina couldn't help but smile back. ''What is that for?"

"All the best. I know that you can do it." Selena said standing up to go to the sink to also wash her plate. But before she could actually start to, Gina took the plate from her.

"Go rest. I will clean up here and then leave for work." Gina said.

"Thanks a lot Gina." Selena said and walked to her bedroom. She practically dived on her bed and fell asleep almost immediately. If there was another thing Selena was great at doing, it was sleeping.