“Where is she?”
The room went silent. Nora stood up, alarmed.
“Mr. Shin?”
Her boss was not happy. As soon as he spotted Nora behind bars he sputtered and made his way across the room. His sudden arrival brought about an air of confusion the rest of the guests couldn’t quite grasp, and the detective didn’t have time to step forward to ask about the stranger’s identity before he was tossed to the side and ultimately neglected. The only person who wasn’t jarred was, once again, the out-of-place secretary, whose expectant eyes glinted with satisfaction, and he found himself back in his seat along with hope that a show was about to begin.
Nora glared at that. So that’s who he was stalling for.
The box in Mr. Shin’s hands dropped with a tremendous thud to the floor in front of the holding cell. Nora recognized the contents immediately.
“That’s my desk,” she looked up to meet Mr. Shin’s eyes, “Why—?”
“This?” he huffed, “This is a warning.”
“It’s a stupid one.”
“Don’t be a smart-ass with me, Lee. This isn’t the time for it.”
“You’re telling me,” Daniel cut in.
The detective was waiting to be acknowledged by the stranger that just floundered into his wake. He stepped between him and Nora’s holding cell and made his presence known.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
Suddenly the door opened again, and the police receptionist arrived, flustered.
“Sorry, he just- he just ran in—!”
“It’s fine, I’ve got this handled.”
The detective waved her off, and she gave a nervous nod before returning to the lobby. The simple gesture returned his authority in the room. He turned back to the stranger and smiled, another expression that didn’t quite reach the rest of him. He was beyond exhausted, and this new round of impromptu questioning wasn’t part of his plans.
“It’s late. Is there something that you’re here for that can’t wait until the morning?”
Shine didn’t waste time on the detective. He let out an obnoxious scoff that left everyone present in a small daze, unsure of how to react to his rude behavior, and he made an obviously unwilling turn to the authority.
“Anthony Shin, Newsers Tabloid,” he introduced, “I’d give you my card but as you can see, I’m not carrying any.
Shin pulled the pockets of his jacket out to show that they were empty and showed a wry grin before turning back to the girl in the cell. The detective opened his mouth to speak, probably to nag about the manager’s lack of manners, but he was interrupted before any words could make it out.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got an idiot to deal with,” Mr. Shin glared.
A scoff that was ignored. An awkward shared glance. The congressman finally realized he had lost the timing to leave and sat back down in his chair. Daniel sat down on his desktop as well, thinking that he might as well see how this plays out, and Nora was left with confronting the obnoxious man alone with an audience she wished she didn’t have.
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She blinked, unsure of what to say, but when Mr. Shin started to perform his pre-lecture ritual of cracking his knuckles she attempted to cut into the conversation before it started.
“Please don’t be an asshole. You’re embarrassing me.”
Mr. Shin released a dry laugh, “Oh, you’re embarrassed? You should be! I have to show up to the office in the morning without a headline because you got caught being stupid!!”
Nora knew where this was going. Her hand slipped between the bars and went to cover her manager’s mouth before he said too much, but he smacked it away just as quickly. She hissed.
“Did you just make a pass at me?!” Shin shouted, alarmed.
“No, that’s not—!”
Shin didn’t let her explain, “You can’t stay out of trouble! How many times have you been in here this month?”
“Actually—”
“I know the answer already, so don’t waste your breath.”
“Didn’t I say we shouldn’t have hired her? She’s too much trouble! Nothing good comes out of a blacklisted reporter.”
Nora shut her mouth. Her manager’s anger was only building, and his thoughts were ugly enough. She watched as he mulled over his emotions, switching from anger to apathy, to some form of sympathy to the girl caught behind the bars, only to get annoyed again by the outcome of it all. The trio behind him seemed somewhat entertained; the congressman especially, whose only understanding of the situation was that Nora was in trouble, and she deserved it.
Detective Moon tilted his head.
“If he’s the boss, I was gonna call him anyways. Maybe…”
Nora didn’t like where his thoughts were going. The detective was wary, ready to play referee but hoping that by the end of the night he’d have what he wanted. He waited and listened.
Shin finally collected himself enough to continue.
“You at least got the job done, right? You got the pictures I asked for?”
Shit.
The detective grinned. Nora blanched.
“You- you asked for pictures?”
“That’s what I pay you for, right?” Mr. Shin wasn’t getting the hint, “I sent you to get pictures of—”
Nope! Nora reached for his mouth again, and he smacked her hand away just as quickly as the last time.
“—Kim’s penthouse. Did you not get anything??”
Checkmate.
Nora wasn’t given the opportunity to answer. A slow clap resounded, a noise from the detective’s arrogance. The congressman followed suit and applauded in an uproar fitting to his loud nature, leaving just the secretary in silence, who watched with wary eyes as the conversation curved in unexpected ways. He was following the conversation, but somehow found himself confused by the outcome. Nora didn’t like that. If she was being honest, she didn’t like anything about the sudden development one bit.
“Does that mean I was right,” Daniel chimed, “You were sent to the penthouse to get a scoop!”
Nora frowned, “I mean—”
“Hm?”
She huffed, then countered, “Just because you guessed one thing doesn’t mean the rest of it is true! You know that!”
The detective suddenly found something interesting in the corner of the room, mimicking Nora’s previous act of uninterest.
“Do I? I just got a confession that you had a motive to be at the scene.”
An off- the record confession that you took anyway you wanted!” Nora smacked the bars of her cell, “I can still show up and not take pictures!!”
Suddenly, Shin reached into the bars and grabbed a hold of Nora’s hood, pulling her attention to him.
“The pictures. You have them don’t you?” Mr. Shin asked.
Nora panicked and tried to shove him off.
“You better have them!!”
“Get off!!”
The manager started to shove his hands into her jacket pockets to look for the memory card, and Nora tried to rip herself away from him. Realizing what he was looking for, the congressman ran up to the bars and did his best to avert the snatching hands, and soon a hectic panic rose from the holding cell as Nora was shoved around in search of the pictures. The secretary played a vital role of standing on neither side, batting the hands of the manager away loosely but doing his best to keep Nora as close to the bars as she could. He wanted those pictures just as badly and wouldn’t miss the opportunity to snatch them if they showed up.
The yelling and screaming woke up the drunk cellmates and seeing a fellow in trouble roused them to join the fray. Soon it was a mess of people, drunks versus politicians versus police, which ended with Nora being flung to the very back of the holding cell missing a hoodie, a shoe, and some much-needed sanity.
Through it all, the detective had summoned as many police officers still in the building as he could and shoved his way into the cell, and before the panic had settled Nora had been dragged out, thrown into the small adjacent questioning room, and sat down in an unstable plastic chair.