The snow was still as relentless in the morning as it was last night. Dante woke up to his clock radio broadcasting a blizzard warning for the downtown area. As he rose up, reluctant to shower and head into work, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled his room, helping Dante to get up a bit easier. The man on the radio was still warning against going outside unless it was absolutely necessary when Dante stepped out of the shower. He dried off and threw on his white dress suit, black tie, and black dress pants. He sat at his small kitchen table with a cup of coffee, still marveling at the three digits that scarred the back of his hand.
As a man that took no interest in religion, he knew little about what the number meant. Dante heard of it being evil but other than that he wasn’t sure why it was considered that way. It must have some kind of significance, he thought. Why else would it have been carved onto my hand? Dante finished his coffee and put the cup into the sink. He grabbed his briefcase, keys, and gun before closing the door and heading to work.
Langston was already at the precinct when Dante had arrived. He was filing paperwork and looking through files. Langston had a strange feeling that yesterday's death held some kind of relevance to the four other murders that had taken place at the beginning of that month. The same type of person, the same empty public area, but a different cause of death. He knew there was something there, something that would tie them all together. Langston had a strong feeling that the answer was right under his nose.
“Working late again?” Dante asked as he set his briefcase on his desk and tossed his keys beside it. Langston looked up from his papers and then back down at them again before answering, “Well, you know me, either the night owl or the early bird.” Dante chuckled before he sat down at his computer. He pressed at his keyboard and the monitor flickered on, the screen had that outdated green text coloring and black background. But he liked it that way, Dante liked to keep it simple.
Langston sighed as he laid down the papers on top of their yellow filing folders. He took a sip from his cup of personally spiked coffee. It was the bitter taste of brandy and caffeine that kept him going through the glacial winter they were experiencing. But even the bitter taste of that aged alcohol wouldn’t be able to numb him from the frozen hell that was, almost quite literally, about to blow over.
The snow was being rushed through the streets by the screeching winds. Langston looked ahead to Dante who was typing into his computer, occasionally stopping to write something down onto his notepad. He knew that Dante was a hard working man, but there was something about his personality that always threw him off. Dante was too quiet, too solitary, especially in a work environment that involves a lot of social interaction. Yet, he got shit done. There was almost never a time, that Langston can remember, where Dante had turned in a late report or filed the wrong witness statements. He clocked in and clocked out always on time, had perfect attendance and never called in sick.
Langston shook his head and rubbed his eyes, he was probably overthinking. He stretched and leaned back into his chair, Langston was tired as hell. He closed his eyes and let out a small sigh, as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t sleep. There was so much left for him to do, too many files to look through for him to rest. The killer could be doing more scouting, or even worse, murdering his fourth victim in cold blood as Langston sat there in his chair doing nothing.
Dante glanced back to see Langston leaned back in his chair falling asleep. He sighed and looked back to the computer which had a list of the wanted murderers that were still on the run in their area. Just some homework to be done. If things go south then he could try to plant evidence so that it would be traced back to one of the wanted criminals. Such a sad position to be in, once you’re hailed evil, no one will listen to your cries of mercy when you’re caught.
Names, dates and places took their spots on Dante’s notepad. He wanted a head start in case any of the other offices caught scent of what he was actually up to. Not the shining example of law enforcement everyone see’s him to be. But even Dante didn’t believe he was that good at his job. At the end of the day, he was just doing his part like everyone else.
The storm was audibly worse outside, the windows were barely see through due to the heavy snowfall that was swirling outside.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuqaRr4rMLe
