Take Me Back To Paddington (SERIES)

Chapter 20 - The Dark Fog

"Lisa..."

I ignored Nick's soft call as I barged out from the restaurant, having him walking together along the road.

"Don't even talk to me, Baxter" I gritted my teeth, eyes looking to the direction of the walkway.

"Why are you mad at me?"

"Because we have a suspect to find," I stopped my walk as I turned to him. "...and you are talking about demons!"

"What else I can talk about then?" He took out his favourite box with his fingers that still had a slight tremble in each one of them. "There's no explanation to what happened to Chae"

"She was murdered! That's what happened to her!"

"How can we explain those injuries?" Nick asked while lighting up the cigarette in between his lips. "When her post mortem results first came to the station, the whole team was baffled, just like you were in the restaurant"

"What's their next plan?"

Nick looked at me again after he blew the smoke out from his poor lungs.

"There's none so far"

That was when my anger gone up to its peak. I could actually feel the layer of sweat forming on my skin as my body temperature rose, heart pumping the blood in a rapid manner to match it.

"None?! Are you serious?!"

Baxter scratched the bridge of his nose, looking like he was feeling bad about being the one who had to break it down to me.

"Since we don't have any lead on this case, the team has decided to put it on hold and focus on the other cases that actually-" He paused when our eyes connected again. "You know, cases that make sense, that have real suspects to hunt?"

I walked to him when he finished his with sentence, giving him a surprise when I decided to get closer with the smoke he knew I hated to inhale.

But at that moment, even my self consciousness couldn't stop the anger I bred in my chest and it managed to push me out from the limit I used to set for myself.

"No matter how ridiculous," I said with a lower voice, standing only one step away from Baxter. "No matter how hard a case could be," I saw almost the same fear in his eyes like earlier at the table. He probably thought I was about to get mad at him and found it threatening. "A murder is a crime, Baxter" I breathed the same air as him when the burning cigarette was close enough. "And a crime must be served by justice"

Nick was silent for as long as I was still there; right in front of him and even his eyes had nowhere else to go except to mine.

I gave him some space to breathe his deadly smoke in when I finally moved away from his personal space, and I continued my walk earlier, expecting him not to follow me anymore.

"Lisa!"

But he still did.

I rolled my eyes. "Leave me alone with this case, Baxter"

"I won't," He stated as I heard his steps catching up with mine. "I want to do this with you"

I chuckled.

Baxter was a naive, that was the first word I would use to describe him. I actually found so many similarities in him with Chae. He would only listen to orders without arguing, making him an easy target for other detectives to make fun of or to ask to buy lunch for.

His energy and skills were misused by so many people in the team, including Cooper.

They didn't even bother to delegate tasks for him to carry out. Photocopying, binding reports, taking out or bringing in evidence boxes into the store were most of what Baxter did at the station.