Karishma rests her feet on the dash as she rubs her fingers on her detective badge. It gets shinier but it is not shiny enough to shine some light upon Karishma's clouded mind. Brian watches her from the driver seat and he can see those dark clouds that have been flying out of her mind into the air. They are hovering her and they are making sure that she doesn't get back up on her feet. He has learned everything from Karishma herself. She poured her frustration out like she was about to be drowned by it. He let her speak her mind as the sun has tried its very best to chase the darkness away. He sips his coffee and makes his sipping sound obvious to kill the silence that is turning the car into an Artic winter.
"I can't say I'm surprised. It's not the first time this shit happened." Brian directs his words to his partner but his eyes keep watch on the street of Haseena's neighborhood. Some joggers have already started their day when his soul is still making its way to his body. It's not new that they have to start their day quite early in the morning but that doesn't mean they get used to it.
"That strings were pulled or that the case you'd basically solved was taken away from you because strings were pulled." Karishma asks quietly and recklessly throws the badge on the dash. She used to be so proud of it. She worked hard for it. Now, everything is just an illusion and the ground she is standing on is suddenly shaking so hard that she might fall into anything. Nothing scares her more than the fact that everything she believes in becomes just a big fat lie.
"You're a good cop, kid. It's the system that is corrupted." Brian shares his words of wisdom that Karishma finds true just the half of it. The 'good cop' phrase has been overused and the more she hears it, the more she becomes disbelieved. It is just another convenient comforting words. "It doesn't matter how you got into the academy. What matters is how you have been doing after the academy. And honestly, kid, you've been doing great."
"Yeah." Karishma puts her feet down from the dash and grabs the spy cam from the glove
compartment. She appreciates Brian's words but she chooses to not hear any more of it. She just wants another day to start and end as quickly as it possibly can.
"And you stuck with me. You don't deserve this, Brian. The Miller case is yours as much as it is mine and you got this bullshit because you're my partner. You should have made a sergeant or something."
"You know what?" Brian takes the spy cam from Karishma's hand and throws it to the backseat. He doesn't even look at where it lands. He just threw it like a piece of trash. "Screw this."
Karishma looks at the spy cam that is lying recklessly in the backseat and back at Brian. "Really?"
"She is not going anywhere today, isn't she?" Brian reaches for the crumpled A4 papers that contain Haseena's schedule for the day; the time, the people she will meet and the things she will do. He flips it upside-down and upright until it is in the right direction. "Just people coming in the afternoon for her event dress fitting. I'll be out here. A bunch of patrols will be within a block. You will be with her. I don't want to keep watching boring stuffs.... and I don't want to watch porn."
"At least it'll be homemade." Karishma finally lets out her chuckle along with a shrug after feeling so trapped in the maze with no exits. "Are you sure it's alright?"
"Yeah. Take the badge with you. It's yours. You've earned it." Brian gestures at the badge that takes its place on the brown paper bag of nothing.
"Yeah." Karishma reaches for the badge and puts it in her pocket.
"You've got your gun?" Brian watches Karishma roll up her sleeves and remember the gun she has put in the glove compartment. Her mind is filled with thoughts that are taking up more and more space until the usual doesn't have a space to shine. "Don't forget your gun."
