Hour: 4th
Date: 11/10/14
The Flower Full of Memories
His dimples grew bigger as a grin came upon his dirty face. He wiped of a bullet of sweat, running down the side of his face, with his clean, white handkerchief. He had known that someone was behind him, someone that he had been looking for. It was him. He suddenly felt a sharp metal object touching his cold, frozen spine. With no sense of fear, he turned around and saw a revolver coming up towards his face from his spine.
It had all started on the first night of summer, when there was the luminous full moon in the dark sky with not a single trace of a star. Detective Lance was at the MAcLaren's Bar drinking his usual, a bottle of beer. Wearily, he looked down into his nearly empty bottle of beer with his red, sleep deprived eyes. His torn up face looked as if he was lost in his clouded mind that has seemed to stoped his ability to think. Looking up at the clock, he noticed it was time for him to go home, but he was craving for another beer as he said, “Paula hit me up.”, in a raspy voice. “Go home Lance, you’ve had a long day. And you have work tomorrow.” said Paula in her warm and commanding voice. Detective Lance slapped a twenty dollar bill on the countertop when his phone rang. He pulled the outdated phone out of his pocket and it showed a restricted number on its broken screen. An anonymous person answered the phone in a deep but soft voice.
“Who is this?” he said abruptly.
“Mr.Lance, I am Manuel Rico from the detective agency in Barcelona, Spain.” said the man in a serious tone.
Detective Lance replied carelessly, “So what. I’m a detective too”.
“You see, we have an important case here in Spain and we need a person with a mind that is always ahead of a criminal’s” said Mr.Rico.
“Will you please get to your point?” asked Detective Lance as he left the bar.
“Alright then, we need you to come to Spain to help investigate this case.” said Mr.Rico clearly.
With Detective Lance’s strong ambition, a demiurgic adventure was always in the making.
***
“Thank you for choosing Lufthansa Airlines. Please enjoy your flight.” said the flight attendant in their usual monotone voice. Detective Lance sank right into his first class seat that the agency in Spain had paid for. The plane had reached the runway full of bright, flashing lights at each end. Detective Lance boarded off the plane with his small handbag and headed to the airport exit. As he went outside the airport, he saw a taxi driver holding a sign with his name on it; he approached towards him and handed him the leather bag without saying a word. As he rushed into the car, he lit a cigarette while reading the No Smoking sign in the car.
The agency in Barcelona  was enormous and well kept. Detective Lance threw the cigarette on the floor as he  made his way to the clean glass doors. He went to the main desk for information and was sent to an office on the fourth floor. “Hello there Mr. Lance.”said a man in a thick beard. The two men discussed about the investigation on the case. Detective Lance was appointed an assistant to work on his side. His assistant helped him to his room and office, but he was already interested in the case. He went outside to the main lobby and headed toward a peaceful place to think about the investigation. His phone, which was almost out of battery, rang; he was informed to report immediately to a crime scene.
It was a park, that was now flooded with police officers. There was a truck in the middle of the herd of police officers. As Detective Lance went closer, he saw big stacks of little packets of, what appeared to be, drugs on one side and boxes full of illegal weaponry on the other side of the back of the big truck. Some officer said that the driver was missing and there were no traces of his fingerprints on the steering wheel, all there was left was a flower on the passenger seat. Detective Lance was even more interested as he was rubbing his chin with his right hand. He left the crime scene with curiosity and went back to his office. At his desk, he started to list all of the clues at the crime scene and the only one that stood out was the valencia rose found on the passenger seat of the truck. He was driven by sleep to the bed in his bedroom from a long tiring day.
The next day, he woke up to get a nice breakfast at a restaurant and on the way saw an accident of a truck, the same one as the one found at the park. Detective Lance ran to the truck to investigate and showed others his detective badge to assure everyone their safety. This time the back of the truck was empty, but in the front there was a dead body in the driver seat with a valencia rose and a note on the passenger seat. He checked the dead man’s dead pulse and took the flower in one hand and the note in the other. The note read:
So, I see that you’ve made it to here Detective Lance. Just to warn you, stay away from my business and tell others to as well. Because if you don’t, well then… I guess I will have to finish you just like I finished your wife and you sweet little daughter.
P.S. Don’t even try to find me, it will just be a waste of your time.
Sincerely, your dear enemy
A tear full of anger fell down Detective Lance’s cheek to the ground as he crumpled the note and the flower and threw them away. The wind blew the flower and the note away as he walked back to the agency from the intersection.The memories of his family came back, but he blocked them from clouding his mind. Now, all he could think about was, who the man was behind all of this. His heart raced faster as he kept repeating that same question in his mind.
When he came back to the office and sat at his desk crowded with documents and files, he wasn’t able to concentrate at all. Instead he just stared out the window as he kept remembering the day he got the news of his family being murdered. It was the worst day of his life; he tried to find the culprit but he failed to catch him and always kept the flame of revenge within him. Now, he had a chance to find and punish the murderer who had left an unhealable scar on his heart. He then took out his brown leather wallet and thought of all of the happy feelings stored in the picture of his wife and daughter sitting in a green garden, when they had just gotten back from the rose fields in Spain, with Valencia rose petals scattered in each of their heads. As he was observing the photo, his dimples grew deeper and a small grin came back to his sad face. Someone knocked on his office door but he ignored it, still staring at the picture. He finally hears the knocking and opens the door just to see his assistant. His assistant hands him a letter with no address. Detective Lance closes the door ignoring the fact that his assistant was still standing there. He then uses his small pocket knife to open the envelope and sees another note. As he opens the note, a fresh petal of valencia rose falls to the ground under his desk. He picks it up with one hand and starts to read the note. The note had the exact same handwriting, the exact same ink color, and the exact same message. He puts everything in the envelope and puts it in his coat and huries outside.
It had all made sense to him now: the valencia roses, the notes, and the trucks. He whistled as loud as he could and a taxi stopped right in front of him. He was in extreme hurry as he yelled at the cab driver to drive faster. He finally told the driver to stop the car. He gave a $100 dollar bill to the driver without even stopping for the change and ran till his last bit of breath until he reached a field. The field was a magnificent field full of various colors of sweet scented roses. the field stretch so far that it seemed as if the roses had mixed with the colors of the horizon as the sun was about to set. Detective Lance was breathing hard, but started to run again through the fields in the need to find something. He was restless as he was looking back and forth rapidly. He finally stopped when he came to the section of the field where the valencia roses grow. He looked to his left and saw an old worn out barn and went inside. He later noticed a ship that seemed as if it has just left the dock on the far end of the field. Detective Lance forgot about the barn and started to run even faster towards the dock, but the time he had reached the dock, the ship had gone too far. His detective eyesight could still see the armed men all over the ship with the same trucks in the crime scene.
The sun had finally set and the moon was coming up as dark clouds covered the sky. Detective Lance had given up hope as he sat on the docks gloomily looking at his reflection in the water. It had been hours since he realized that it was midnight with the full moon right above him giving a yellow tint to his face from its light. He stood up and took one last look at the horizon from where the boat disappeared at as he flicked his cigarette into the water. The weather was a little humid as if it was about to rain from the gathering of the dark clouds above. It was then when Detective Lance felt someone behind him. As he turned around he saw a familiar face holding a brand new silver revolver, yet he wasn’t able to recognize the man in the long trench coat in the dark.
Detective Lance smiled at the man like he was mocking death.
“Who are you?” he asked with his nose flared.
“Have you been looking for someone, maybe someone special?” said the mysterious man viciously.
Detective Lance’s fists clenched and was burning with anger. The man had dared to throw gasoline in the fire within him and now he was unstoppable. Detective Lance dodged the shot and got a hold of the man with tight grip, which he could never escape from. Detective Lance tried to get the gun with his one free hand, but he accidentally loosened his grip and both fought for the gun. Suddenly there was a shot which echoed through the whole field. There was silence for a long period of time. Seconds later a man got up with blood all over his shirt and hands. Wounded, he started to limp towards the unrecognizable man and spit on him. Suddenly, strong gusts of wind started to blow the rose petals into the sky as if they became giant clouds covering the sky. Droplets of fresh water started to fall from the overfilled clouds in the sky as the blood started to wash off of the man’s face and a new man appeared with the same torn up face, the same red and sleep deprived eyes, and the same dimples that only came upon his face when he grinned.