Investigating Love

Chapter 16

"How are we looking for a damn body for over 4 months now?" Raelle mumbles out biting the edge of her cup. She takes a sip on her coffee while sitting at the desk.


"Investigations take time, detective Collar. I'm sure there's a lot more to find out about Libba's missing. Hopefully she's still alive, but the trauma..." Scylla sighs looking at the board with evidences that they gathered until now.


"We must have missed something crucial. There's no way someone can just vanish." The brunette looks over at her girlfriend and smiles softly at Raelle's frown.


"Hey, baby... I know that you feel like we didn't do enough. But it's not true, we did our best." Scylla walks over to the blonde and sits in her lap. "Cheer up, sweetie... I can make you happy if you'd like."


Scylla starts placing soft kisses around Raelle's cheek slowly going lower. "Scyl, stop. I'm not in mood right now."


The brunette sighs and gets off her partner's lap. "Fine... I'm not going to cheer you up then." Scylla walks away to her desk clenching her jaw.


"Scyl, don't. I just- I think it would be disrespectful for Libba..." Raelle starts but Scylla raises up her hand to stop the woman from talking.


"Oh, thank you very much, my lovely. It truly helps me to know that I'm the worst person in this room right now." Scylla rolls eyes leaning back in her chair.


"Okay, so I guess couch is mine tonight." Raelle sighs spinning on her chair. "I'm sorry, baby. Can we talk about this later? I promise we can figure out something."


The blonde smiles softly with her chair now next to Scylla's. "I love you." She whispers leaning her face into her girlfriend's neck. "You know I do. How are you feeling today?"


"I'm okay. I stopped feeling ill a couple of weeks ago and my belly has grown a tiny bit. It's not visible through a shirt yet... only 3 months left." Scylla shifts slightly in her seat and lifts shirt.


Raelle places her hand on top of the woman's stomach. "Hello, little one." She smiles and the touch sends shivers down her spine. The blonde's eyes glow bright blue and Scylla looks at her girlfriend in shock.


The baby inside of Scylla's stomach moves and the brunette can feel something course through her body. "What-?"


"Hey, ladies. Don't want to interrupt whatever you're doing here but we've got news." Byron stops at the door and looks down at the two women.


"I'll go. Scyl, don't move, it's probably not worth your attention." Raelle gets up and follows Byron away from the office.


"What the hell..." Scylla rubs her belly with a hand while trying to remember what just happened. Did Raelle's eyes glow?


"What's up? You know I don't want to stress her out." Raelle starts while leaning against the wall waiting for Byron to tell her about the news.


"We found Libba's body in the ruins at the suburbs of the town. It looks bad... like really bad." The man sighs giving Raelle some files.


The blonde looks down at the documents and opens them to take a look at the photos. "Jesus, it's um- okay, lead the way. I'll take telling Scylla on me. She can't see this, she still hopes that Libba's alive."


Byron nods and takes lead towards his car. Raelle follows right behind the man and gets inside her own car. "I'm right after you."


Scylla watches the whole situation through the window and sighs wondering what are the two hiding from her. "Why is everyone acting weird around me? I'm pregnant, not disabled."


"They care about you. They don't want you to get hurt." Anacostia stands right next to her best friend. "I understand your frustration, but it's the truth. You agreed to working behind the desk until your pregnancy comes to an end."


Anacostia crosses arms on her chest and quirks a brow at Scylla who's staring into the distance. "Why do I have a feeling you're going to leave the office?"


"Great eye, how would you know?" The brunette says a little bit irritated and grabs her stuff to get downstairs to her car. "Don't try to stop me."


"Who says I would?" Anacostia raises arms in defense smiling at the younger partner. "You're just something else, Ramshorn. Watch out there."


Scylla leaves the office and gets inside of her vehicle. Being that every police car has their own location and Byron's using the one from work, it takes only a few minutes to track down the place where both Raelle and Byron headed.


"What the hell is this place?" The brunette mumbles to herself when she pulls up in front of the ruins right behind Raelle's car.


"Excuse me? What is happening here?" Scylla walks over to the tape as policemen are trying to stop her from progressing into the crime scene.


Raelle turns away from the body and runs over to the tape. "Scyl, what are you doing here. I said I'll take care of it, please go back to the station." The blonde tries to block a way inside of the building so Scylla wouldn't see the body slashed into pieces.


"I'm here to investigate whatever the heck you're hiding from me. It's my case and you disappointed me with ignoring me about this information, Collar." Scylla pulls out heavy arguments and totally leaves the private side of their relationship.


"No, I'm not going to let you watch it. I'm sorry, you can arrest me, fire me but I won't move." The blonde rests arms on the sides of the doorframe making Scylla's blood boil inside her.


The brunette tries again to walk past Raelle but the woman doesn't let her through. "Move!" She tries to look through the gapes noticing the body, Byron and the blood. "What's going on?!"


"Scyl, I think you should go back to the car. I'll tell you about everything later." Raelle says calmly and takes her girlfriend's hands in hers.


"No! Is that Libba?!" Scylla starts waving her arms trying to get through but Raelle stands firmly. "Let me go!" She yells and starts hitting Raelle's chest as tears stream down her cheeks.


All of the hope she's had just left her body. Scylla's dream of finding Libba alright and making sure the bastard that hurt her is locked up.


The blonde tries to stop Scylla from hitting her and crying. She wraps arms around the woman hugging her tightly. "It's okay. She was gone weeks ago, baby. It's going to be okay."


Raelle sighs and pulls the brunette away from the crime scene. She sits her down in her car and kneels down in front of Scylla. "Scyl, this happens, you know that. We couldn't do more. I know it's difficult for you but I'm here."


Holding her girlfriend's hands Raelle kisses the top of it and wipes away a few tears that streamed down Scylla's cheeks. "Just calm down and relax. I'll take care of it so you can rest and fill up some documents safely at the desk."


The brunette looks at Raelle with a frown and sighs nodding her head. "Okay, be careful. Meet me after work?" Scylla understands why Raelle didn't want to tell her about Libba's body. She's been an emotional mess and work brings lots of stress to her.


"Of course, I'll take for ice cream or hot dogs, okay?" Raelle leans closer to her partner and kisses her lips softly. "Watch for your momma, little one. I'll be back soon, baby." The blonde carefully taps Scylla's slightly rounded belly.


She gets up from her knee and walks back to the crime scene joining Byron. Scylla sighs to herself and walks back to her car. She really didn't want to spend next 3 months behind the desk but there wasn't much of a choice.


*


Anacostia sets down a cup of tea for the brunette. Scylla sighs heavily and takes the cup. "Thank you." She gives her co-worker a sad smile and takes a sip.


"Why so sad, Ramshorn? They're doing all of the work for you, you should be happy about that." Anacostia chuckles lightly but it doesn't cheer up Scylla.


"Well, I'm a detective to do all of this stuff and this baby is killing me here. I'm not going to complain but I'd rather not have a baby at the age of 27 with three years younger girlfriend that can always say no and never come back with the milk."


Scylla sighs heavily and rubs her belly gently. "But I guess I've got no choice at the moment. Hopefully the baby will get as less Porter's DNA as possible." The brunette laughs slightly looking at Anacostia.


"It's been hell of a year for you, huh?" The older woman plops down in front of Scylla's desk and puts leg on leg. "We have to go out one day so you can tell me about everything."


"Well, once this is all done I'll gladly go out with you, Costia. This place was empty without you and Byron. In past few months, I dropped drinking, got pregnant, lost my father and found possible love of life... so yeah, lots happened."


Scylla spins in her chair and takes another sip on the tea. "You can't help me with everything or I'll get lazy and I'm not planning on going off for too long."


Anacostia chuckles playfully and winks at her co-worker. "Of course, Ramshorn. You never do." The woman gets up ready to go back to her work but Scylla speaks up again.


"Have you seen Raelle's eyes today? I mean, I'm pretty sure they glow." Scylla says out loud realizing how weird that sounds.


"Oh, yeah? And I'm pretty sure you're just in love." Anacostia winks at the brunette again and goes back to her desk to continue filling the paper.


*


"Detective Ramshorn, Salem's police station, crime department. How can I help you?" Scylla rolls eyes picking up another phone call that leads to no where.


"Hello, Miss Ramshorn!" Alban's voice rings through the phone and echoes in Scylla's ears. Her eyes start to panic roaming the office from side to side ready to yell for Anacostia.


"Before you do anything stupid... wave to the camera so you can say hi to your girlfriend." The man says with a hint of mischievous smile on his lips.


In the background, the brunette can hear quiet humming. "What did you do?! Raelle?!" Scylla gets up from the desk slamming her hands on it. "What do you want?!"


Forgetting to wonder how Alban got out of the prison without her finding out, Scylla grabs her coat not able to think clearly.


"Oh, sweetie. I want you to pick up your girlfriend from me after you bring your piece of deal." Alban starts and turns on a video on the call. He points a gun against Raelle's forehead who's face is taped as the woman's tied up somewhere.


The blonde's trying to scream for help but the tape works perfectly. She shakes her head trying to stop Scylla from coming after her.


"Raelle?!" Scylla covers her mouth as tears come up to her eyes. "What deal? Please, I'll do anything just don't hurt her!" The brunette tries to confront with Alban's wishes.


"Bring my files, every each copy. I need to be clear once I leave this place. You've got an hour before I pull the trigger." The older man says with a devilish laugh and kisses the tip of his gun before hanging up.