(A report from the desk of Lieutenant Inspector Fransisco Cruz)
Translated from Spanish
Chief inspector, I have finally been cleared to leave the doctor's care here at the hospital. Inspector Baptiste isn't answering her phone, nor has she checked in at her station. I met with her chief of police Joseph Laguerre. He is a a tall man, not much older than me. He has broad shoulders and a touch of white stubble on an otherwise bald head. He shifted in his chair slightly while I described the current situation to him. The last report they had from Roseline detailed the incident at the hotel.
"No one at the precinct has heard from her since the day before yesterday." He spoke in a flat tone flavored by his heavy accent.
"Is this not strange to you?" I asked confusedly.
"It is, yes." He replied, expression unchanged.
"Then should we not be trying to find her? Trace her last known whereabouts?" I was becoming more concerned by the minute.
"Yes, we have. I sent a patrol to her apartment and she wasn't home. Your Doctor, Dr Claude Jean-Pierre, called and spoke with her this morning. She probably went out after this." He was a stone statue. No word either from myself or him changed his tired expression.
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"This morning?! And we have no idea wher-'' I am cut off by the ringing phone on the chief's desk. Inspector Cruz rolls a 2 on a perception check I couldn't make out what was being said; it was all in whispers through thick accents. Finally the phone went down and he arose from his chair.
"There has been a disturbance at an apartment building downtown. They have identified two men matching your perps. Come, let us go do some police work." He grabs a coat and a hat on a rack next to him and heads towards the door. I hope up and follow him out.
The ride to the scene was quiet, aside from the occasional chirping from the police radio. The chief grabbed the radio and responded something unintelligible to both God and men.
"How much longer?" I started to say but the words were caught in my throat. Suddenly, our vehicle stopped. I looked at the building in front of us. It was mostly unassuming. A worn exterior of brick, the sides covered in graffiti and what I genuinely hope is mud. As we exited the vehicle and approached the structure the doors bursted open. The chief and I were blown onto our backs. As I squint through the dust kicked up but the eruption. I see a pair of glowing lights matched by a third further down. I continue blinking my eyes in a futile effort to clear my vision through the cloud of dust. I drag myself back to my feet gun drawn. As the dust starts to settle and I take aim I can hear the chiefs voice from next to me.
"What in the name of God? Rose?!..."