WhenTheCold Pounds on the door

小寒 [16] / [20]

"Sorry, I didn't mean for you to see all of this."

"No, no. Don't say that, it's fine.”

Was she serious? It wasn't alright at all, but she smiled up at him.

"I know what it's like to be in an abusive relationship."

Alexander swiftly paid the Bill, told the waiter to keep the change, and they both got out of there.

"I wouldn't call it abuse,"

said Alexander a little defensively,

"I mean, she never got physical with me."

Sarah grabbed his hand, locking her fingers between his as they walked down the street.

"There are different forms of abuse,"

she replied.

Now all of the embarrassment and nascent anger left over from the unfortunate scene of just moments before dissipated. Alexander felt at ease now, with her hand in his, as if the world was somehow returned to balance and all was right. When they neared the end of the street, they parted ways. She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

"Call me, okay?"

"I will,"

replied Alexander, and they took their leave without any promise of a future date.

---

A few days later, as soon as Alexander came to work, Ethan got in touch with Alexander. Ethan’s voice was urgent.

”You’d better hurry. The DNA from the evidence you collected matches up with samples found from the Daniel and Carlos cases. That guy seems to be the very criminal we’ve been searching for.”

He passed the documents over to Alexander. His uneasy intuition wasn’t wrong. Alexander felt electrified from head to foot. Alexander called Ed and Anna right away. Alexander reported this to Cynthia by phone, to save time. Cynthia searched the GPS location of Lucas’ phone.

“His whereabouts are near his address. But you know, the GPS range is pretty large and sometimes vague on details. I will keep an eye on it and tell you if the base station changes,”

Cynthia said.

He hung up the phone. He knew he wouldn't be able to rely entirely on tech. They had to canvas the area on foot. They pulled up in an undercover squad car just outside the apartment.

As he anticipated, it was a very old building, and even seemed like it would collapse soon. That said, it was a pretty big complex, but not many households, which was evident at just a glance. A deserted wilderness, devoid of any feeling of humanity. They were all surprised that there was a guard. A guard in this old, abandoned building? They didn’t have to bother with any obstructions. They dashed to Lucas’ place, and banged on the door.