If Only She Knew

9. Losing Consciousness

The next day, at work, Mike started bombarding his team with Haron Ride's case, now on air.

Ariana was late 10 minutes, and the moment she entered, disoriented, he shifted his discussion from the case, to her, also directing everyone's eyes towards her bandaged head.

"My, my, my, look who's here... What the hell happened to you?" Mike, leaning over his desk, yelled at her with an accusing finger.

She smiled, touching her bandage instinctively, and a thought crossed her mind to say: "yesterday, after interrogating Ann, someone abducted me from the station hall, and he held me captive and tortured me until he let me go this morning...

But she was aware that innocent, playful side of her was a side that wasn't much appreciated at this job, so she shut up.

She unsmiled.

"Good morning... everyone, Michael. Let's discuss the missing persons. There's a new case again, I heard it on the radio." Ariana went on and dropped her bag on her desk, ignoring Michael's intense glower.

"No, no Miss Ariana Artemis Johnson." Mike tried again, treading closer to her.

It was her turn to glower at him, since he used her entire name.

"So, you just vanish from work and come as you like, ghost me when I call you and talk to me like that! I won't tolerate you anymore-" he trailed off, and she wanted to make a comment in that break in his preaching, but she didn't.

"Don't you think there are rules, Miss?" He went on, pacing, pointing fingers.

She wanted to laugh, he was suddenly treating her like a toddler.

"The new case sir-" Ariana tried again.

She locked eyes with her teammates, who must be all amused on her behalf.

"If anything like this happens again, I'll relegate your going out on investigations," Michael finally finished, gloating at her.

"Ok," she said, keeping her stance calm. "Now, could we get to work, Sir?"

"We get to work when I say we get to work," Mike said as he fixed her with his eyes.

"So, class, we have a ninth missing person. 17 year old Haron Ride, who went missing last night at around 22 p.m. He was the last time seen by his girlfriend, she says, at about 21:40 and
heard from by his friend, who had talked to him on the phone and was supposed to meet him at the bus station at 22:15. Well, he never arrived."

Mike spoke on his mystic, riddled tone.

"Where was the place where he was last seen?" Yamato inquired.

"A 3 stars local cafe, called The Small Cafe, about a kilometer from here."

So this was the name of the cafe on the ground floor of Joseph's building.

The Small Cafe.

But how could a crime occur there of all places, after all?, Ariana was asking herself.

The blood pulsated through her brain, her veins, her temples, at a faster pace than normal, and it's as if her airways contracted.

She started feeling dizzy, a feeling alike being haunted by booze, except that she hadn't witnessed, beforehand, the joy of drinking.

She started overhinking the fact that a person was abducted, again, last night, and it happened at the Small Cafe.

She had been there, in that same building, only an hour or so earlier.