Clear as Glass

Chapter 8 - Wu's

Cleo could not get out of that house any faster. Taking the stairs two at a time and weaving her way through hallways and cabinetry, she eventually made it to the front door. She had picked up her bag on stairs after she had fished her phone out of her pocket, taken a photo of the two of them and left Connors room.

She had one reason for the photo she had taken, and it was currently being delivered to Mrs and Mr Johnson. Connors parents. Both his parents absolutely adored Cleo and if Connor dared do any such thing that could hurt her he was as good as dead. That would start as her sweet revenge

Inwardly cursing herself for not thinking of it earlier, Cleo turned off the road and parked in a small car park outside their old local Chinese restaurant. Wu's Chinese. Cleo got out and locked her car while walking towards the small store which was oddly quiet for the time of night. Whenever she and Connor had gone there together it had been bustling but now it was almost silent and empty.

Pushing through the door with the jingling little red cat on top she made her way over to the counter. Even after more than a year she still knew the menu off by heart. Scanning through though she noticed none of her usual orders seemed to cheer her up enough to distract her from what just happened. She often could eat at Wu's and completely forget the world existed but tonight was different. It was so different and it hurt.

"Wu!" Cleo called. It may have been a year but she knew she could get anything out of Kevin Wu if she needed to. He was one of the suspects in her first murder case, the only one who actually willingly given her any evidence from the night as it had occurred at this restaurant. Long nights at the crime scene meant no time to go home, shower, eat or anything and Cleo felt that she had to solve this case to prove herself to her peers and partially to herself. Wu had kindly offered to cook for Cleo whenever she stayed working on the case as he had been removed as a suspect pretty early on in the case after he had supplied security footage of himself working in the kitchen at the time of the murder.

It had been one of those all day all night times when Wu had restarted the restaurant in a little shop a few shops over from his original restaurant. While Cleo and her team were working on the murder Wu had opened shop again and was serving when Cleo found DNA of the murderer. After about 10 more hours of waiting she got a call from forensics saying it was a match to their lead suspect.

Tired and hungry Cleo called her partner who had been doing most of the fieldwork trying to track down this suspect telling him about the suspect's supposed to address and that the DNA matched. 14 and a half days later the case was closed and a trial date was set. Cleo has gone to Wu's to tell him that the case was closed and that he was welcome to move back into his old shop. Walking through the doors in Wu's pop up shop she noticed a red cat dangling from the door, it jingled as the door swung shut.

A tan young man with golden hair like sunshine. He was slouched in the waiting chairs nearest the exit staring at his phone. Cleo looked around the small shop and saw Wu running around the kitchen, pot and pan in hand, adding spices and sauces to dishes on the heat. Cleo's eyes were drawn back to the man, he was looking at her now, her eyes met with his and Cleo saw green. It was pretty, she had decided and after closer inspection after they had gotten together or when he had kissed her for the first time, she remembered thinking that they were beautiful. But now she thought of them almost as... plain.

Cleo blinked at the memory pushing it away. She was here for some quality Chinese, that was all

"Wu! Are you here." Cleo dinged the little notice bell that sat atop the counter and a short middle-aged Asian man with spiky hair and very large ears ran through the kitchen to the counter holding a wooden spoon. The short man busied himself cleaning the countertop without looking up at Cleo.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't hear the doorbell ring, I am Wu the chef of this pristine Chinese establishment, what can I get you today?" It was now, that Wu stopped tidying papers strewn across the counter and looked up at Cleo. His small pudgy wrinkles squished together as his eyes opened wide. "You! You're here? I thought you left! Where have you been and why have you not visited Kevin?" 

Cleo watched as the spiky hair bundled his way around the counter and made its way directly in front of her, Wu wrapping his arms around Cleo's waist like a small child. Wu then pulled away and started smacking Cleo repetitively with the wooden spoon he was holding. 

"Where." Smack "the bloody hell." Smack "have you been?" Wu muttered, mumbling something about the best Chinese that the world had ever seen. 

Cleo reaching over the top of the small man's arms plucked the spoon out of his hand and placed it on a high self which Wu wouldn't be able to reach. 

"It's good to see you too Wu" Cleo laughed taking a seat at a small table closest towards the kitchen. She pushed out the chair beside her and rested her feet upon it smiling as she looked around the room before her eyes fell on Kevin Wu once again.

"So, Kevin, do I still get a discount on the chow mien?"