Eighteen

Nicholas folded his arms across his chest. His brown eyes looked at Ace seriously. "What information are you referring to? This is no time to play around."

"I'm not playing around. I'm also serious."

"So, what information do you want to give me?

Seeing Nicholas give the response Ace was hoping for, made the young man smile with satisfaction. His plan had worked. He could lift his face confidently now. Ace then raised his index finger in the air, "Firstly, this information should be very useful to you," Ace raised both fingers now, forming a 'V' in the air. "And secondly, this information is not free. Well, nothing is free in this world."

Nicholas frowned. He was confused as to what Ace was trying to tell him. Did Ace intend to blackmail a policeman now?

But in the midst of Nicholas' confusion, Ace turned his attention to Alicia. Alicia was sitting quite far away, but could clearly see Ace's wide smile there.

"Hello, ash hair. How are you?" greeted Ace familiarly. She waved her hand, then continued, "You must be happy to see me here, right?"

"Nope. Don't count on it."

Nicholas almost laughed at Ace, seeing his annoyed expression. He was being blatantly insulted by Alicia. Nicholas cleared his throat, then stuffed both hands into his pants pockets and walked over to Ace. "Tell me that information and get out of this room," he said with emphasis.

Ace shrugged his shoulders dismissively. "You're surprisingly aggressive and impetuous, detective," he said sarcastically. "I'm going to ask you one question and you have to answer it honestly."

Nicholas rolled his eyes lazily. "I don't have much time. Tell me what you want!"

Honestly, Nicholas could have kicked the boy out of the room, if he hadn't said he had important information relating to the perpetrator. Understandably, after the two victims fell in the dormitory, Wilson Blake kept urging him to complete his duties as a detective as soon as possible. And Nicholas was starting to feel pressured by that now. He didn't even have any evidence to help him solve the case.

Ace chuckled amusedly and then pointed at Alicia with his chin. "Alright, alright. I'll ask you now. I wonder, do you and this gray hair have a special relationship? Are you guys dating or something?"

Alicia frowned. "What did you say?!" then looked at Nicholas--who was wearing the same expression as her--before turning back to Ace. "You're crazy, huh?"

Ace ignored Alicia's question which sounded more like an insult and kept looking straight at Nicholas in his chair. "How about it, detective? Are you going to answer my question now?"

Ace looked at Nicholas and Alicia quizzically. He had been holding back his curiosity from the start, and could only ask when the opportunity arose. This was the opportunity Ace had.

Meanwhile, Nicholas seemed to be scratching the nape of his neck which wasn't actually itchy as the situation suddenly turned awkward for him.

Nicholas became uncomfortable because of Ace's question. But the detective kept looking at Alicia and the look in his eyes was like asking Alicia for permission, before he finally turned back to Ace and answered the question. "We don't have a relationship like you think, but..." he paused his sentence and leaned towards Ace. "If you bother her, you'll be dealing with me."

Ace wrinkled his forehead deeply. "You guys aren't dating, but why are you being so possessive?" Nicholas snorted lazily, he didn't seem to want to talk to Ace for long. "You're not trying to avoid my questions, are you?"

"You only have one ration of questions, Blake. So, stop asking questions from now on." Nicholas crossed his arms over his chest. He raised his face, challenging Ace who stood in front of him. "Now be a man and give me the information," he said half urgently.

Ace glanced at Alicia before reluctantly handing over the piece of paper he had been keeping in his varsity pocket to Nicholas. "Alright. I found this when the officers removed Elena's body." Ace shrugged his shoulders indifferently. "It fell out of the back pocket of her jeans."

Nicholas raised his eyebrows high. "It's a cyanide purchase record!" he exclaimed incredulously. Then the black bead looked up at Ace. "Elena ordered poison for herself? You've got to be kidding me!"

Alicia interrupted. "May I see it, detective?"

Nicholas handed the sheet of paper to Alicia. Meanwhile, Ace deliberately shifted his chair a little closer to Alicia. "I thought it was just a prescription because I didn't understand what HCN meant."

Nicholas let out an irritated breath and got up from his chair. "THIS IS THE PROOF AND YOU DIDN'T LEAVE YOUR FINDINGS THERE!" he pointed angrily at Ace's face. "Why are you so stupid, huh?!"

"HEY!" screeched Ace in disgust. "You're so ungrateful, detective." then got up and swatted away Nicholas' hand that was pointing at his face.

"You can protect your finger with plastic or something so that it doesn't block the fingerprints of the perpetrator!" said Nicholas still fiery. "You're really stupid!"

"You can't call me stupid like that!" said Ace no less vehemently. "I tried to help!"

Alicia then got up and pounded on the table. "CAN YOU SHUT UP?!" her blue eyes looked at Ace and Nicholas in turn. "The perpetrator deliberately played a trick on us by leaving the evidence in Elena's pants pocket, so that his fingerprints would blend in with Elena's." he said intervening. "Even if we check it, there will only be Elena's and Ace's fingerprints on it."

Ace sighed softly. "So what now?"

Alicia turned the paper over and showed it to the two men. "They sold it on an online site."

"So what?" asked Nicholas. "You want to try to order it to kill this boy?" he glared sarcastically at Ace.

"Watch your language!" Ace snapped back.

Alicia snorted in annoyance. "Can you guys stop that right now?" then stared at the paper intently.

.

.

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"Because I need your help to break into this site and find the culprit."