Bunny squealed until I thought her lungs were going to burst.

“Whoa, you’re taking this more excitedly than I am,” I said starting to laugh when she was finished.

“It’s because I am,” She started to get her breath back, “but hang on…” She became confused, “I forgot what that meant.”

“In Mandarin it means I love you,” I told her, my face heating up. Her eyes brightened and she started screaming again.

“What in the name of all things holy is going on?!” Keyonce banged on the door, “why is Bunny screaming like a crazy person?!”

“Oh she got a pay rise,” I lied lifting my hands up and down to try and calm my friend.

“She got a what? Oh damn,” Keyonce started muttering in anger as her footsteps padded away.

“What was her problem?” Bunny asked when she was finally done with her moment of excitement. I shrugged my shoulders.

“Who knows?” I said taking off my shoes, “but whatever it is I’m sure we’ll be hearing about it later on.”

***

I had proof that Curtis Patrick was indeed guilty of not just killing my mum in a hit and run, now he was also guilty of tampering with criminal evidence, or at least the mind of one money hungry detective.

But how was I going to convince him to own up? Bribe him like he bribed that cop? Or would I have to be smarter than that?

I had to be very conniving and clever, which wouldn’t be easy.

Unless…. I had an idea. I suggested it to Tony when I was working at the bar with him

“You want to wire Bunny with a microphone?” He asked, puzzled.

“Yes, so that when she is serving Curtis Patrick’s table next she can coax him into confessing and presto! We have proof.”

“Why not just go tell the police what he told you?” I shook my head.

“No, it won’t be enough,” I admitted, “which is why I need to do this.” I looked up at Tony who stopped wiping the desk. It was funny that I use to have a crush on him for a bit. But now I have JiHoon I don’t feel anything for the handsome bar tender.

“So what do you need me for?”

“I need a lift to the station,” I said, “to talk to someone who was on her case too.” Tony sighed.

“I suppose,” but weren’t you meant to meet up with… What’s his name after his practice?” I had forgotten about that. He said he was going to take me to a place that had a food he really enjoyed.

“Oh yeah, afterwards I have to go to a place called… Kimmy’s Kim chi,” I added. I looked at Tony, pleading with my eyes.

“When do you need to go?” He asked.

“I finish my work for the day in an hour,” I said to him, “please? You can come to this Kim chi place too if you want.”

“Alright fine,” I silently cheered, “but let me get someone else to tend the bar, hey Marco! You free to tend the bar for a couple of hours?” Marco called back in Italian, I couldn’t understand. Tony nodded.

“Ok sure I will ask Francisco when I see him next.” Tony turned back to me. “Come back here when you’re ready and we can go then.” I nodded.

“Thanks Tony.”

***

After my shift I went and got changed into some casual clothes. These were a pair of skinny jeans with a white t-shirt that had a girl smoking a cigarette on the front, wavy blonde hair flying everywhere. My shoes were black ballet flats with a buckle on the toe and I put on a denim jacket as it was colder than before. I stared at my hair; I decided to leave it down but pushed of it away from my face with a black headband Bunny had bought me.

I grabbed my bag and went back to the bar to wait for Tony, Marco was late to come and take over which meant Tony couldn’t leave the bar for about another ten minutes. When he was done we got into his red done up mustang and drove down town.

I sensed my body slowly shudder as we stepped to the front of the place, it wasn’t that menacing in real life but for some reason I felt like it was wrong to be here.

“You alright?” I turned to Tony. I dipped my head down a bit shamefully.

“Yes,” he started up the stairs, I followed after him.

***

We waited for a few minutes until a bored looking police man came to serve us at the desk.
“Can I help you?” He asked taking a seat, leaning back against it. Tony tugged my arm so I came forward. I cleared my throat in silence.

“Is Sergeant Kingly still working here?” I asked, afraid he wasn’t. The policeman gave a small nod.

“Yes, would you like to see him?” I nodded.

“I’ll be right back,” he got to his feet and drudged past the desks to the end and out of sight. I breathed causing Tony to laugh.

“You don’t need to be nervous.”

“Yeah well I don’t know if he’s even going to help,” I was stopped as the policeman returned with an African American man with a straight line of hair on top of his lip and his hair shaved very short. I studied the narrow bridge but large balled nose. Yes it was the same one.

“You asked for me?” The man boomed next to the policeman. I nodded.

“If that is ok with you,” I began, “I was wondering if I could get your assistance with something.” He leaned in closer to me, poking me in the cheek.

“You look familiar,” he said scratching his crown, “come to my office,” he waved a hand in the direction he was now walking in and we followed him.

We took our seats and he waited for one of us to speak. “So tell me why you’re here and what it is I can do for you.” So slowly but surely I explained to him what was going on. I could see my hands shaking at points but I remained as calm as I could.

When I was finished I sat waiting, Tony breathing heavily.

“I just want to make this clear,” The sergeant started, “is this for personal revenge? Otherwise I cannot allow it even if it was your own mother who was killed.”

“No, I just think it’s unfair that a criminal gets to walk free thanks to a corrupt cop.” Tony nodded.

“I’m the same here.”

“Hmm…” The sergeant paused, using his pen to scratch his forehead, “to be honest I was kind of hoping that this case would be bought up again.” He sighed, “I knew something was wrong when they said that Curtis Patrick’s car had been stolen… Hmm tell you what, I will help, but on the condition that you two don’t end up getting involved. From the other suspicions we’ve had it seems Curtis Patrick is a dangerous man.”

“Sure we promise,” I said while both of us nodded.

“Ok,” The sergeant was content, “here’s what I can do. We can hook a microphone onto someone who will be in close confines with Curtis Patrick as long as it’s in a public place, we will get our team to listen in and observe and when he makes the confession we will arrest him.”

“Oh wow,” I said. Tony agreed by nodding.

“Yeah it sounds way too simple.”

“I know son, but from the huge record we have had on him of possible maybes I’d say that once we heard it from his own mouth we could book him for good.” I turned to Tony.

“It will work,” I said, desperation starting to creep in, “it just has to.”

(Trust Slots to not have learnt her lesson. The question is will her effort pay off?)