Wednesday, December 13, 2006

   Cream Filling & Nougat: Half-Julkalender (Chapter IV)
[So there I was, chatting with a bunch of people I haven't chatted with in weeks . . . when suddenly I was all like, "oh yeah, I need to write a story!" Good times . . .]


Once again, Nougat was speeding over the gravelly salt and slush of the road. Oak Street was not a terrible distance from them, but neither was it especially close.
"You know what the worst part of all this is?" Nougat casually mentioned during a lull in the conversation.
"What's that, Noug'?" Cream responded.
"You know daddy most likely didn't do it."
"And yet he's still the best lead right now, right?"
"Right . . . sucks, dun'nit?"
"Mm . . . sucks . . ."

The conversation drifted away again as their car came closer and closer to their destination. For the most part, both detectives were just crunching numbers quietly, only speaking when something of perceived importance came to mind. Naturally, this was harder for Nougat who was both thinking about the missing girl and any hazards on the road - speed traps ranking high among them, being that they were off duty and he simply did not feel the time wasted would be worth it. Indeed, the two of them had felt they wasted enough time convincing Selleri Carbono to go and wait for news at 'Mel's place rather than alone at home; they assured her that if Vezel did indeed come back home, they'd have eyes and ears waiting for her. Of course, they weren't exactly sure what those eyes and ears would be, but they nevertheless convinced her that they existed. In this case, their concern for the mother's wellbeing was on the same fair ground as that of the daughter's.

"Hey Whip'," Nougat started once they were caught behind a bus dropping off passengers, "do seven year olds know how to tell time?" Cream's face contorted at the question.
"The hell's that supposed to mean?" he asked back.
"I'm just sayin'," Nougat said, "if someone told you, 'go outside at five-twenty and wait for me,' would you have known what to do if you were seven?" Cream nodded, now understanding.
"Uhh . . . maybe?" he answered partially. "I dunno, you?"
"Haven't been seven for a while, man," Nougat replied.

The bus pulled back to the street, and Cream and Nougat went back to silently contemplating their situation. Eventually they came to the address Selleri had given them; before them was a large townhouse complex that stretched up with the street's incline. Again, Cream dashed out of the car before Nougat could kill the engine. By the time Nougat walked over to the security gate, Cream was already waiting for a response from the intercom.

"Okay, I know I didn't walk that fast," Nougat commented as Cream stepped from side to side, visibly discomforted by the low temperature. "How long has the thing been ringing?"
"Too long," Cream flatly answered. "Alright, screw this, he's not home . . ." Nougat snickered.
"Damn Whip', you really suck in cold weather," he said with a smirk.
"Yeah?" Cream replied. "Then you get us in."
"Hey, you're the one that picks the locks," Nougat retorted. Cream's voice rose comically to Nougat's ears.
"I'm not freakin' picking a lock that's directly under surveillance!" he said, half-squawking it out in the process and motioning to the security camera against the first townhouse directly behind the metal gate. "And why the crap would I bring lock picks to a Christmas party?!"

Nougat shamelessly pretended to hide his amusement from his partner.
"Alright ya wuss, follow me," he said, walking back to the sidewalk and down the hill; Cream was quick to follow.

The older detective brought them to the open parkade nestled lower on the hill, below that particular section of townhouses.
"They built these places with the parking gates further into the undercover area," he explained. "That way, there's some accessible undercover parking for visitors, and a way for garbage and recycling collection without having to buzz anyone in."

Sure enough, the two quickly found themselves walking past two pungent dumpsters and a line of blue bins along the inside wall of the parkade.
"So yeah, the door from here to inside the townhouse is unlocked for visitor access," he continued. Cream could only shake his head and smirk.
"Helluva security compromise," he said. Nougat nodded in agreement.
"But hey, the actual houses are locked, and they can't steal the cars behind that gate or the locked doors on that side . . ." Nougat trailed off and stopped just before they came to the door to the stairwell. "Oh yeah Whip', check the garbage for something you can use to pick Carbono's door . . ."
"Oh hell no . . ."
"Do it!" After much grumbling and a very brief search, Cream quickly took apart some wire-lined ribbon near the top of the dumpster pile; he also gave Nougat a light punch in the arm when he returned to him. Nougat again only laughed.

Once finally inside the main townhouse complex, the two quickly found Hidrato's place not too far from the garage entrance; they then swore as they saw the security company sticker on the outside of the front door.
"Alright old man," Cream said as he bent the bits of wire into useful shape, "watch my ass . . . and I'm gonna kick your ass if the alarm goes off . . ."
"Obviously the alarm's gonna go off," Nougat replied. "I say daughter's name, maybe backwards. You?"
"Daughter's birthday," Cream answered back. Nougat covered his mouth with his hand as his partner went back to picking the lock; he knew it was an inappropriate moment, but he was still smirking about the whole situation. Nevertheless, Cream was able to turn the knob . . . and sure enough, a steady beeping greeted them as he pushed the door in.

Cream rushed around the door and began pumping possible numbers into the security system, praying for a lucky guess . . . unfortunately, he guessed wrong and the beeping continued. As he frantically tried different codes or combinations of the numbers he already had, Nougat shouted other possible ideas for him. It was all too late, and the house alarm started blaring, causing both detectives to jump.
"Fr . . . damnit!" Cream shouted, pounding more possible combinations into the system. "Work!" Wrong code. "Screw you security system!" Wrong code. "I'm cold! I'm pissed off! Just let me . . ."

With one more guess, the security system beeped one more time and went eerily silent. A wide smile slowly crept across Cream's face.
"Daughter's birthday, yeah," he said, slowing his breathing and calming himself down, "but year first, then month and day . . ." Nougat felt his pulse behind his back, out of his partner's sight.
"That was still just a lucky guess," he said, finally.
"And you're complaining?!" Cream returned. Nougat said nothing.

"Well, we're in," the younger detective said as he stomped the remaining slush off his shoes and walked into the small townhouse. "Let's get this over with . . . Vezel!"
"Vezel, are you here?!" Nougat called out, also entering and heading straight for the broom closet opposite the kitchen.

It was then that the phone began ringing.
"Security company wanting to know what the suck is going on?" Cream suggesting, closing the closet door upon finding no one.
"Must be," Nougat confirmed. "Yeah, we need to hurry up . . . Vezel?!"

The two of them rushed and searched all three floors of the tall but narrow townhouse, from the bathrooms to the office - no Vezel.
"Wow," Cream said, still in a somewhat frantic state, "we're so screwed right now . . ." Nougat came out of the top floor bathroom, shaking his head.
"Not even a trace of anything that could suggest that she was here," he said. ". . . kinda like what we figured at the beginning . . ." Cream held back a desire to punch the wall.
"No warrant, not even remotely good suggestion that she was here . . ." Cream sighed. "Seriously, what the suck were we thinking?" Both detectives shook their heads, frustrated at how clearly bad things looked.
"Yeah," Nougat said, "we better get the hell out of here before . . ."

The older detective froze mid-sentence; both had heard the front door downstairs opening and closing . . .


[Fun fact: my brother's townhouse complex has the very same unlocked parkade door thingy I mentioned in this chapter!]
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