𝐑𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 (𝟏𝟖+)

08| Solve

My stiff back lays flat against my cool sheets. I’ve been watching the most majestic white fog curling over the city listlessly. My mind is devoid of actual focus as a mirage of thoughts flits endlessly. I had no recent leads on the whereabouts of Lola Williams but she was everywhere, now. That fact was a thought that no matter how hard I tried to forget, floated up to the surface.

An annoying noise burrows through my thoughts and I sigh, defeated. I always, and I mean always, wake up to the sound of fucking sirens. Today was no different as the sirens sped down the street far below my penthouse apartment. I raise myself from my bed and glance at my clock sitting simply on my nightstand — 12:34. 

My phone draws my attention as it goes off repeatedly. I frown as I scroll through them. It was nothing but the same boringly useless text messages from girls and my father. I almost throw my phone to the side when a notification catches my attention. Anger buried itself as the one name that makes my blood boil. 

Lola.

As I said, she was everywhere. News outlets practically flood every website on my phone when I click on the notification. She’s somehow gotten herself on the world’s most wanted list. When I go to the burner app I can see that people are bidding on her head.

Nothing on the headlines for the outlets says she's dead or at least in prison which is a bittersweet realization. I could be the one to kill her but I was rather irritated that they hadn’t killed her instead. Every one of them says she escaped. The reward for helping her get returned into custody is 500k. That much money just for her.

Dammit.

What a great thing to wake up to. I rotate my foot to the edge of the bed and haul myself up. My footsteps vibrate on the floor as my feet move sluggishly to the bathroom. Entering the bathroom, I immediately plug my phone into my bathroom speaker, while I slowly strip and listen to what the woman has to say.

"Hello, it's Brianna with today's afternoon news!" Her voice was annoyingly cheery as her slick brown hair moved flawlessly with every unnecessary movement.

"Officers of our local police department have reported that the daughter of the French Mafia’s  leader has escaped from FBI custody."
My ears perk up at the news.

"Lola Williams left behind a dead body and injured members of the FBI. Although the police department does have leads as to where she could have gone, they are asking you to be on the lookout."

The woman says all of this as I enter the shower and shut the glass door. I turn the knob of my shower to cold as always. Cold showers woke me up and made my body hum — it was better for you in the long run.

The chilling water poured from the rain shower head and drenched me, instantly. The sounds of the speaker are almost silenced as the water floods over me but I can still make out her words.

"Williams’ escape is still a mystery. Allegedly, Williams brutally attacked an arresting FBI agent. Due to privacy reasons, the name of the arresting agent will remain undisclosed. According to the FBI’s written statement, along with a lipstick stain on this agent’s cheek, there was a pattern of chains on the arresting agent that suggest she was strangled. Although no signs of sexual assault and or abuse were found on the victim regarding the kiss mark."

My hands run smoothly through my black hair before I pump some shampoo into my hair. I massage it into my scalp and lather it up. For a second I zone out of what is happening with Lola Williams and the FBI. It’s not long before I take the soap and start the cycle of cleaning. It’s incredibly calming to wash off the night and day — the stingingly cold water running away my problems and allowing me to think clearly.

I feel the soap bubble wash off my skin when I’m done. My rough palms rub my eyes to clear my vision of the water and mixture of face wash and shampoo.

“Williams’s blood was found on the outside of a trashcan on the far side of the city; many blocks from the police department. According to the undisclosed agent, there had been a brawl where they injured the assailant. Williams has been reported all over the city as she actively avoids the new police patrols that have been instituted since her escape.”

I sigh as right now I don't have anything that could lead me to her. She was lost to the wind and neither the FBI nor my own mafia could find her. Obviously swatting her didn't work so I would have to take matters into my own hands.
I tune out the rest of what the newscaster says. Everything else she said was useless information. 

"Alexa, turn off the news," I say to the device, as what was once the gruesome description of a man's head bashed in, now was the squeaky chuckling of her voice.

My father would already know this, by now. I knew him like the back of my hand and he was more than likely planning something new. If he saw that she was still in the city then he would be putting everyone on the streets.

Thoughts race across my mind as I try to come up with an efficient and effective way to get to her. Lola was good at running away, so clearly law enforcement wouldn't work. There would be a way, I just needed to think outside the box if I was going to catch her. I stay under the cooling water for a moment longer before bending down, slightly, to turn off the shower. I slid open the glass and the chilled air hit my wet body.

I grab the towel hanging on the hook and loosely wrap it around my waist. I slip my phone into my hand as I walk out of my bathroom. I plop myself into my desk chair and sighed heavily. My wet hair clung to my face as I attempted to push it out of my face. I rest my two fingers on the side of my forehead as I pause to think. I rub my hands on the towel before opening my computer.

The best thing I could do right now was the plan, unlike my father I was going to study before diving straight in. Everything on my computer was filled with lies about Lola — rumors flooding the internet of her whereabouts and or where she was last seen.

Scrolling through all of it, I break apart what is real and what is fake. I easily break into the police database and open her file — it took me only a few minutes of hard work. The only really solid proof that I could believe was the blood. The agents had found a couple of drops of her blood residing on a trashcan. 

The rest was full of information that I had already gathered from the newscaster or the mafia vine. There was something else that I hadn’t expected — she kissed the agent.

Whoever this 'Agent' had to or at least suspected some type of clues that could possibly lead me to Lola. I just needed to figure out who this agent was. All that was listed in the report was Agent M — there had to be a thousand agents with the last name M.

It wasn’t hard to piece together that she was a female because the newscaster had said “she was strangled,” and that was a good way to start. Also, the mention of wounding Lola with her long nails was enough to the point where she could bleed on the trashcan. I didn’t know many men with nails that could do that. 

Next was all agent's time schedules, the news reports claim that the attack was from around 8:00 to midnight. This means we're looking for someone with a schedule like that.

Narrowing down to twelve people. We can rule out eight that were males, we were left with four. Agent Brown, Agent Higgins, Agent Hopper, and Agent Monroe.

One Agent with the last name M. Agent Monroe, her name ran smoothly out of my mouth as I texted the information to my sister.