"Nick?" Molly called out as she exited her room to find Nick, who was busy behind his laptop.

'don't know how to be close to someone who's so distant'

Mr. Bingo paused his music and looked up at Molly who was now standing in front of him.

He asks her about the matter to which she responds, "Well, remember our earlier suspicion of Mr. Thompson?" When he nodded, she continued, "Where is he?"

She scrunched her eyebrows in thought. They hadn't talked about it for a while and she realized they had to look at that perspective too.

"Surprisingly, I haven't heard of him in a good while. Lena called me last and said since he needed a break, they managed things on their own and so they paid him his last salary and let him go. Why do you ask?"

"He could be able to help us with these chemicals and everything. I mean, the documents we do have are limited and the internet isn't very reliable."

"I have something figured out for that actually," He said as he turned his laptop screen to face her, "This will help us."

The screen depicted several lines of code of nested conditionals, test cases and other things that were colored in blue and white.

Her mind whirred. "What are you working on, exactly?"

"A dating app," He spoke and Molly's eyes narrowed, ready to bellow him when he quickly added, "For Llamas."

Molly threw her hands up in the air. "Quel Désastre?!"

He was equipped for this, "Ce n'est pas un désastre!"

She was slightly taken back and couldn't decide if she was baffled because he was creating a dating app for llamas or he knew how to speak French.

"You aren't serious." Molly eventually said as she crossed her arms.

"I am actually. Very serious." He responded in a cool tone.

"I am surrounded by idiots!" She said, dropping her arm to her sides.

"The second time you're using that statement today."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "And how would you know that?"

"Because I told him." A voice announced.

Julia stood at the doorway, leaning against the hinges.

"And why would you be here, my sweet devil?" She tried her best but winced eventually.

"I wanted to call you both for lunch but I guess I will leave you two be..." She feigned walking away and Molly just looked at her in disbelief, as if she'd just challenged her for a duel.

"Don't you dare." She said evenly.

The moment couldn't have been more perfect for this: The sound of a bleeping llama filled the room. Not one, tons of them.

They all looked at the laptop whose code seemed to have a mind of its own and played the clip.

Mr. Bingo couldn't hold in his laughter but looking at Molly's expressions, quickly took the note and closed it.

He gave his playful grin, trying to prove himself innocent.

"Say your last words before I throw you to the gallows." Molly threatened without an emotion.

"There's not enough room to swing a cat!" Julia teased before fleeing downstairs.

Molly wanted to give her an earful but she disappeared. She trained her attention on Mr. Bingo who was guffawing to the point of tears.

"We'll deal with this later. Lunch. Now."

Molly declared and headed downstairs. It took him a moment to calm down before he joined.

※※※

"That was delicious!" Mr. Bingo said as he wiped his lips with his handkerchief.

"Compliments to the chef." Molly said and doing the gesture of removing her virtual hat before putting it back on.

"Nice sombrero," Mr. Bingo called evenly, a smirk forming on his face and added, "Chipmunk."

"Fine," Molly said, "Prepare to disappear from here."

"Oh, lucky me! Where are you sending me?" He asked with excitement in his eyes.

"Well, you know... just outside." She responded evenly as she laid her hands back on the couch.

"I could go out—"

"Of the window." Molly finished, a satisfied grin donned on her face as the color drained from Mr. Bingo's face.

"Fine. You win this round," He composed himself, "Where were we?"

"Good. You're finally on track. So, regarding Mr. Thompson. What are your thoughts?"

Mr. Bingo pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

'The number you're calling is out of the network coverage area. Please try again later.'

A few more tries. Same result.

There was no sound in the room except for the ringing phone. The birds chirped melodiously outside, a stark contrast to the atmosphere of the room.

"Did he disappear off to an island or something?" Molly asked at last.

"Looks like it," Mr. Bingo answered as he put his phone back to his pocket, "He's been the toughest nut to crack so far."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I am known for being elusive – to the extent you might not be able to track me down even if I wanted you to, unless I allowed my phone to be actively discovered. I am sure you've experienced that but I also didn't know my phone got tapped until we compared messages. That's probably the weirdest thing to happen. I am mostly on the top of my security system and somehow, this happened."

He sighed as regret crossed his eyes. "Coming to the point, I like to tinker with phone settings and everything until I am satisfied and that's exactly why I have an older phone than a new one. The newer ones are hard-wired to be tracked. Mr. Thompson seems to be way ahead of the game and I can't even track his phone number by sim, let alone by IP."

"I don't know who might have done this but it also seems unlikely that he could've done it. I may be wrong with my assumption but something tells me he isn't the person behind the tapping. Its possible that he's the person behind a famous food scandal and didn't caught? Maybe. But for phones, he doesn't seem like the tech-savvy person." He concluded.

"You can't trust anyone, Mr. Bingo. But, that's something I will leave it up to your discretion. You can trust that I tell the truth but you need to still always be looking five steps ahead and behind. You never know what can happen. That's why I don't ask you to trust me. Try the ropes and you shall see for yourself. Similar to a game of chess. If you don't plan your moves well, even on the same side, one can expose another."

Mr. Bingo managed a wry smile. "Thanks, that's helpful. I think I will deal with this whole phone issue later. We need to find Mr. Thompson first."

"I agree. Did Miguel message anything after that? He seems to be quite caught up with work."

"He hasn't, no." He mentioned as he crossed his arms, "I hope Dean's doing good too. CPD would crash without him."

"Everyone's usually capable of leadership, Nick. In a detective department, you cannot get in if you cannot be a good leader. That's exactly why the training is so intensive."

"Can I train to become one?" He gave his best cheshire smile.

"You're working with me, isn't that good enough?"

"I want to impress my wife." He said with pride.

Molly raised her eyebrows, questioning his intentions.

He cleared his throat, "I mean, I am going to marry someday. I want my wife to be proud of the fact that I am a detective and also me, in general."

"Isn't your own pride large enough?" Molly chuckled dryly, "Sorry. I shouldn't have questioned your choices like that. If that's what you wish for. But, being with us for this long, I am sure you've already learnt a thing or two."

"I did. I just thought getting an insider's peek would be amazing. It isn't my priority but its something that's on my mind for a while."

His heart sank a little. He laid his heart bare in front of her but neither of them were sure what to do about it.

"Fair enough. We'll see what we can do about that." She answered evenly.

Her own heart was racing but she managed to keep a neutral expression.

"Since you've put my detective aspiration to the side, there's something else I would like to request, only if you agree."

He took a deep breath and rubbed his arms.

"Sure, go ahead."

His next words made her eyes go wide in surprise.

"I am not good at it." She admitted, biting her lip down.

"As if I were an expert? We can give it a try!"

So they stood in front of each other, entering into the unknown. Flames rose high in the sky and passion burned from deep inside as they melted into its cadence.

※※※

a/n: brb. i am going to need a cold shower.

what do you think they're up to? let me know your thoughts below! 🤭

thank you for reading this far, it really means a lot!

with loads of cats and purrs,
Sara