Moony City, the capital of the Republic of Moony, is one of the richest cities in the world, and one of the best places to live in. Every day, busy people pass each other on the streets; it’s always full of people bustling around. However, the brighter the lights of the city, the darker the shadows they cast. But, the police of Moony City work as hard as they can to dispel this darkness.
As of now, the usually busy people of the city are quiet. Already past midnight, most people are asleep, safe in their homes. Outside though, there was a terrible thunderstorm, which made sure that nobody could get out. In the subdivision of Numis Fields, home to some of the most prominent and influential people in the Republic of Moony, one person was still stirring. At 12 Grennings Street, President Richards Avenue, Mr. Mill O’Nair, one of the three co-owners of the Milzon Ruhr International Group, the largest company in the Republic of Moony, was still awake. Sitting in the living room, he was busy studying reports of current business trends and the stock market.
“It looks like MZR is finally going up. It went up by 5 Mohns today.” O’Nair said to himself, reading up on his company’s stock performance report while drinking coffee to keep himself awake. “Well, it could’ve been better, but at this point I’m ready to take any gain.”
Milzon Ruhr’s stock had been steadily declining over the past week. There was an incident last week during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting, which resulted in the failed assassination attempt of Mr. Tyler Krimzzon, Managing Director of the Board of Investors, as well as one of the founding members of the company. Mr. Krimzzon was unharmed, and it looked as if the gunman deliberately missed. But while the police were chasing after him, an officer was killed. To add insult to injury, the gunman managed to escape.
The stockholders were all afraid of what would befall the company following the incident. What troubled them the most was the fact that a gunman managed to infiltrate the meeting, and almost killed Mr. Krimzzon, before escaping. The fact that a police officer was killed in the pursuit didn’t help the situation. The incident would not have impacted the profitability of the company, since nobody was injured or killed save for a police officer, so their fears were unwarranted, but since when did the stock market ever move logically?
Being one of the owners of the company, and therefore one of the largest stockholders, the past week was particularly stressful for Mr. O’Nair, since even a small loss on their stock price would translate to a large sum for him.
Fortunately, it seems he could finally breathe easier due to the small increase, which was the first time since the past week. The price was moving upwards now, and he hoped that it would stay that way.
Satisfied with the stock reports, he closed his laptop. He took out his phone and searched for music on the internet. He couldn’t sleep due to the coffee, so he decided to listen to music while reading a book. He played some classical music and placed his phone on the table, took a book, and sat down comfortably on the sofa. Clearly, there was nothing better for him to do than to read an intriguing book after all that hard work, safe in his house during the thunderstorm.
Just as he was about to begin reading, however, there was a knock at the door. O’Nair stopped what he was doing and glanced at the door, wondering who was visiting him during this storm this late at night. Perhaps, he imagined it. That’s what he thought, so he went back to reading his book.
O’Nair continued, flipping open the cover, and raised his cup of coffee to take a sip, but he had barely finished reading the first page, when he heard the knock again, this time much louder.
“Who could it be?” O’Nair wondered, closing the book and placing it along with his coffee on the table. He was just about to get the door when the knocking returned, this time, accompanied by a loud booming voice.
“Mr. O’Nair! It’s Inspector Brad Polesse! I have something important to talk to you about!”
Inspector Brad Polesse was an Inspector of the Moony City Police. He had a particularly strong friendship with Mill O’Nair due to the fact that he helped Mr. O’Nair out of several tough spots. Last week, he and his partner were deployed at the Milzon Ruhr stock meeting, since they received a message of a planned attack. Mill O’Nair specifically asked for Inspector Polesse.
“Inspector Polesse?!” O’Nair exclaimed, surprised. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t I receive a call from the guards that you were going to pay me a visit?!”
“I’ll explain when you let me in!” Inspector Polesse shouted. “I’m getting drenched out here, just open the door already!”
“Alright, I’m coming!” O’Nair replied as he went to the door and unlocked it. He opened the door for Inspector Polesse who entered, drenched in water. Inspector Polesse turned around and closed the door.
“About time, Mr. O’Nair.” Inspector Polesse said, “You can’t imagine how hard it was, being outside-“
“Now hold on, don’t move from that spot, please!” Mr. O’Nair told Inspector Polesse, who was soaking wet and dripping with water. He was standing on a floor mat. “Just, stand there for now; I wouldn’t want you to wet my things. I’ll go get you a towel. Please, take of your coat and boots.”
Inspector Polesse complied. His removed his garments, which were soaking wet. He handed them to O’Nair, who took them with a hint of disgust, hanging the coat on the coatrack, and placing the boots on the floor near the door.
The Inspector wiped his feet a couple more times on the floor mat as O’Nair ran to the bathroom to get a mop and a towel. Once he returned, he handed the towel to Inspector Polesse, who wiped his face on it.
“Maybe you should have waited until tomorrow?” O’Nair sighed as he mopped the floor. “You know how clean and neat I am, and you just decide to come here all drenched from the rain.”
“Oh, that’s fine, O’Nair.” Inspector Polesse assured him, his voice turning dark, “In a little while, you won’t have to worry about that anymore.”
“Yes, of course.” O’Nair answered, who did not catch the Inspector’s change of tone, and thought that he referred to the fact that he was cleaning it already. It definitely wouldn’t be an issue once he cleaned it up. “Anyway,” O’Nair said, mopping the wet floor. “Do you mind telling me now how you got past the security?”
“Oh, that. I killed them.” The Inspector answered.
“Wha?” O’Nair exclaimed, taken aback by the answer. He turned to the Inspector and said, “You couldn’t have! Why would you need to?”
“Well, you’re right, I didn’t need to.” Inspector Polesse said. “It was just a joke, don’t take it so seriously. The truth is I snuck past them. It wasn’t that hard, considering the storm, and the fact that they were mostly asleep. I wanted to surprise you.”
“Oh. Then consider me surprised. I actually thought you killed them for a minute… Although, I do fail to comprehend why you would want to surprise me. If you just called me, I could’ve prepared for your visit.” O’Nair replied, finishing up with the mop. “Are you hungry or thirsty? I’m sure you would be considering how you came here.”
“In fact, I am.” Inspector Polesse said, “Just some water, please. I have work tomorrow, so I would really like to be able to sleep soundly tonight. Especially considering what I have to do is going to make it hard for me to sleep…”
O’Nair did not understand what Inspector Polesse was talking about, but he didn’t bother asking. He went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and went back to give it to Inspector Polesse.
“You read this?” Inspector Polesse asked O’Nair, taking a look at his book.
“Yes. Well, I was about to, anyway.” O’Nair replied. “The plot seems good enough.”
“Yes, a story about a friend betraying the other, and ending up killed by his friend.” Inspector Polesse sighed.
“You’ve read it already? Well, at least it won’t happen to us, eh?” O’Nair said. Inspector Polesse said nothing.
“I’m sorry about the death of your partner.” O’Nair told Inspector Polesse as he handed the glass of water to him. “Lieutenant Invess was…. well, he was one of the best.” He took his cup of coffee and raised it up in a toast. “To Invess!” O’Nair exclaimed.
“Yes, to Invess.” Inspector Polesse answered, returning the toast. They proceeded to drink, with Inspector Polesse taking a glance at Mr. O’Nair as he drank up his coffee.
Lieutenant Gregory Invess was the partner of Inspector Polesse, and the one killed in the failed assassination attempt last week. Hardworking, brave, and respectful, just to name a few of his virtues, he was one of the best investigators of the police force, perhaps second only to Inspector Polesse. Having been together as a team for the past twenty years, the Inspector was distraught when he was killed. He took a few days off, one of the only times he ever did so, and he refused to take another partner out of respect for Invess, despite the Chief’s pressure on him. “He was the best officer we had, no one can replace him.” Inspector Polesse angrily told the Chief before storming out of his office, the day after Invess was killed.
Just thinking about Lieutenant Invess made Inspector Polesse drop his glass on the floor, which spilled all the water on the floor.
“What’s wrong?” O’Nair asked the Inspector, surprised at what happened.
“Sorry, I was thinking about Invess, and didn’t hold on properly.” Inspector Polesse apologized, but for some reason, he sounded a bit angry.
O’Nair stooped down and took the glass, which was fortunately still in one piece. “Well, I’ll go get you another glass. If you don’t mind, use that mop and clean up that puddle.” O’Nair told Insector Polesse, as he placed his cup of coffee on the table, and bought the glass to the kitchen.
O’Nair got another glass, and filled it up with water. He returned to Inspector Polesse, who had just finished cleaning the water of the floor. He handed the glass to the Inspector. “Now, make sure you don’t drop it again.” O’Nair said, taking his cup of coffee.
“It seems like some sugar didn’t dissolve.” O’Nair thought as he was about to drink his coffee, which had some small powdered particles floating on the coffee.
“So, about that important thing that I had to tell you.” Inspector Polesse said to O’Nair, “I came such a long way just to talk to you. May we sit down?”
“Of course.” O’Nair answered, drinking up all of his coffee and placing his empty cup on the table. They sat down on the couch. “It must be important since you came here at this time. What is it?” O’Nair asked the Inspector, who was sitting in front of him.
“Well, here’s the thing, O’Nair.” Inspector Polesse muttered darkly, his hand moving towards his holster. “I found out something…”
Outside, the thunderstorm was still heavily falling, drowning out all other sounds. Everyone was asleep, and the only house still with lights on was O’Nair’s. A while later, his house went dark as well, and Inspector Polesse finished up with Mr. O’Nair. He walked out of the house after putting on his raincoat and boots.
“A small price to pay for Invess.” Inspector Polesse sighed, as he walked off into the night, obscured under the cover of the thunderstorm.
After a while, the rain falling upon the city subsided, and the moon cast its dim light through the clouds, and illuminated the homes of the residents of Numis Fields.
