Right now, Jessica and Isabella were having some drinks for the night.
Even though tomorrow they still have work, but Isabella sometimes drags Jessica to go to a bar with her on weekdays. Just light drinks, to pass time and talk, which in Isabella's case is always to alleviate stress.
Though, today it didn't seem quite that way.
"So, what's the matter?" Jessica asked as she poured herself water, seating close to the bar's balcony, just like Isabella.
"Uhh.. Nicholas. He is weird." Isabella replied, knowing that she herself only comes here on weekdays when she has something on her mind, and Jessica is her only helper in these situations.
"What exactly do you find weird? I think his clothing choices are weird. He usually has that one type of overcoat and in most of the cases, his whole clothes are black." Jessica spoke as she realized she herself had found some things weird about Nicholas.
Isabella looked to her right staring at Jessica.
"Really? You are one to talk, only dresses in one kind of way as well. Blazer, dress pants, and black boots. The only change is the color of your shirt under the blazer." Isabella then proceeded to drink some of her beer.
"Well..." Jessica couldn't quite refute as she stuttered.
"Anyway, it's not his clothes. It's just this aura around him. He gives you some kind of charm that you almost want to bite him. He looks delicious." Isabella's expression left Jessica a bit worried as her eyes were clouded and she seemed lost in her memories.
"Bell, are you okay?" Jessica asked, a bit worried.
Isabella just shook her head, trying to wake up out of her own stupor.
"Yeah, it's just that... At Henrique's house, I saw his face and it looked angelic, even as I remember it now, I just can't take it off my head. And then, some other times he just looks earthly handsome, instead of that magical aura." Isabella explained her feelings.
Jessica didn't know what to say. She just thought of the common reasons that it could happen and she spoke in a trying-to-be teasingly manner.
"Well... Some people just say it's love." Jessica then started to laugh in an awkward way before Isabella could understand what her friend meant.
After a few moments, Isabella spoke.
"Girl, you better stop. You don't suit be teasing around." She said it with an assured tone as if Jessica's skills didn't allow her to play like that.
Jessica just shrugged it and left the matter.
"I don't think it's love. He is just handsome and I feel a type of carnal desire for seex with that motherfuucker. I just... can't stop that feeling." Isabella says with a slightly defeated tone.
Jessica was blankly looking at her.
"Then why don't you just do it? I mean, there are still too many unknown things about him, so it isn't going to work straight away. But you can just fulfill that need and see what happens." Jessica replied before taking another sip of her glass of water.
Isabella looked at her weirdly as she thought for af few moments.
"Aren't you the logical type? The one that says control your feelings... stick to the plan... know what you get yourself into, etc...?" Isabella asked, not sure if she heard what Jessica said correctly.
Jessica showed a little smile on her face and then replied.
"Well, yes. But where that ever got you? All the time I've known you, you seem pretty much sure of your instincts. So isn't this one of those moments, where you throw everything in the air and do what you feel it's right?" Jessica reasoned.
Jessica is a rational type of person, but with Isabella, logic always seemed to bend a little bit. She has a strong will that makes her do the unthinkable and that gets her to the best spot that she could be. To Jessica, it's like if luck exists, Isabella has a ton of it.
All of that came through their experience together. Lots of times Isabella got out of crazy situations that even Jessica thought was over. At this point, she just decided to trust her friend more when it comes to her instincts.
"Besides, if it truly is your instinct, that must be something. Maybe that's what you truly want, some carnal pleasure from a handsome guy." Jessica suggested again.
Isabella just smiled and enjoyed the rest of the night. Until some point where they were still talking and they both reached a new subject.
"So, how did you like 'the team'?" Jessica asks, incredulously of the term used to describe them.
"Well, I think it's pretty messed up. It isn't a team yet. I don't know if it ever will." Isabella spoke, she had her head over her forearm which was over the balcony, thus her voice was a little muffled as the drinks were getting to her as well.
"I think so too. Let's see... Police Chief looks more like a little kid trying to please Nicholas, he didn't even speak with the rest of the members until this day. If he even is part of the team, I doubt the police chief can be considered a member of any type of task force out there. Haha..." Jessica laughed at the crazy and unbelievable participation of the police chief himself in a task force, and even more, as a subordinate.
"Yeah, and that Jeremy dude seems focused on his own world. He doesn't seem the type to make friends if he doesn't need them." Isabella complemented.
"And Joseph seems like a jerk. I like his work ethic, he goes straight to it. But he didn't speak to me in any way when Nicholas trusted me to get the report while he analyzed the body. And when I tried to initiate the conversation, he cut me off and asked me not to speak. That's a total dick move." Jessica complained.
She is a rational woman, sometimes too much, but she still could understand that in their situation, it was like Joseph couldn't bear her presence.
"How does Nicholas expect us to work together when we don't know anything about the other members, besides their functions." Isabella spoke casually.
At this, Jessica had nothing to say because she thought it was the logical thing to actually happen, but she also thought that personalities matter in this case. And clearly, they were not fitting together very well.
After some time, they both left the bar, as Jessica had to help Isabella stand straight until they got to her house. It was just past midnight, Jessica wanted to go home earlier, but Isabella stubbornly refused and so Jessica now had to sleep at Isabella's house as she was too tired and it was too late to get back to her own home. Besides, it happened other times, so she wasn't really uncomfortable.
In the morning, the both of them were up earlier as they showered, ate, and dressed, as usual, to go to work. Using Isabella's assigned car from the department, they went straight to Gobert Industries to inquire about the information that Nicholas asked for.
Isabella lived in Maspeth, Queens. The Gobert Industries main building was in Staten Island, West New Brighton, which would take about 1h and 30 minutes, at best.
As they drove to the place, Isabella had to stop for coffee as she was still slightly hungover so the trip took longer.
But, in the middle of the drive, they called the company and reserved their visit, which was appropriate as they would arrive there just in time to wait another 30 minutes.
As they finally arrived at Gobert Industries, Isabella walked to the entrance's huge glass door, followed by Jessica close behind.
Inside, they received all the greetings and were told to wait for one of the HR members to come and answer their questions.
And when they were finally told to walk to the meeting room in the fifth floor, the female duo was happy that they could be done with the waiting already.
Inside a large room, surrounded by glass walls, there was a rectangular conference table, and a man was seated on a chair at one end of that table. He appeared to be in his late twenties, had black short hair and a slightly handsome jawline.
Looking at the man, Isabella was kinda suspicious.
He had a nice blazer, a white inner vest, and jeans. Not minding the fact that all his closes were clearly designed and bespoke, and that it was made of natural wool fiber which increases the price by a lot, he was wearing casual clothes, even if expensive. This meant that he was free inside the company, and taking into consideration the others employees that Isabella and Jessica passed by when coming to this room, contrary to their attire, this man clearly has some kind of prestige to be able to walk in casual clothing.
"Hello, Mr..." Isabella spoke, trailing her voice as to allow the other person to present his name.
"Ohh... I'm Aidan. Nice to meet you." The man replied, his voice was kind of a sympathetic tone and slightly nervous at the same time.
"I'm detective Isabella Cutten, and this is Detective Jessica Daniel." Isabella presented herself, as well as Jessica while they shook hands.
After greetings, each one took a seat around the conference table as Aidan gestured them to.
"I assume the secretary which we spoke to earlier mentioned the reason for our visit. In any case, I would like to clarify it. We are here about the investigation of the murder of Henrique Perez, a former employee of Gobert Industries. As the closest company building in the city, and the building that we assumed that he worked at, we are here to ask for information about the victim." Jessica spoke, her tone professional but passive.
Aidan tried to look calmly, which wasn't accomplished and nodded his head.
"Yes, Mary said that. That's why I think I can help you guys. I happen to be from the Human Resources department, so I get a lot of interactions with the people around here. Inside the company, we have some work dynamics, and people like me are in charge to manage these dynamics. We deal with everything chemistry-related, and interpersonal relationships alike, so I know pretty much everybody." Aidan replied with slight enthusiasm. He had his elbow above the armrest of his chair, with crossed hands on his lap.
"Ohh. That's interesting. Did you talk to Mr. Perez often?" Jessica asked with the same professional behavior while Isabella noted the information on her phone, instead of a notepad.
Modern times, babe.
"Well... Yes. I mean, a few times we talked to each other." Aidan spoke, shrugging his shoulders as if to complement an assumption.
"What was his role inside the company?" Isabella asked, her gaze fierce, looking straight towards Aidan.
"I... I don't know. He was some kind of consultant? We contracted him in Colombia if I remember correctly." Aidan said with a hand under his chin, pondering if it was correct.
"He usually stayed quiet in a cubicle using his computer, higher-ups never really explained his job, so the rest would leave him alone. Though I guess he stayed for such a little time, people didn't get the opportunity to befriend him, I guess it would be pretty useless to talk to anyone else." Aidan explained his view while looking up at the ceiling, still pondering the situation.
"But how did he die?" He suddenly asked.
Jessica took a glance at Isabella as the latter responded.
"I'm sorry. We cannot divulge details about an open investigation."
Aidan let out a low 'tch' in slightly discontent about not receiving the information.
They proceeded to ask lots of questions about Henrique, which in the end, Isabella was getting angrier and angrier as the answers were useless.
As they left the building, Isabella went to their car and she started to rant as Jessica went inside.
"I can't believe it!" She exclaimed in anger and frustration.
"What happened?" Jessica asked, oblivious to why her friend and also her co-worker was so angry.
Isabella slammed her hands on the steering wheel in tentative of cooling her emotions down.
"Didn't you see that?! He completely deviated from us. His answers were never direct, he was never nervous as he appeared, that was all faking." Isabella looked at Jessica, trying not to scream as she spoke.
"I... didn't-" Jessica was about to speak but Isabella cut her off.
"And remember his clothes. He said he was some sort of dynamic guy, but how does an HR guy get so much money to buy so expensive clothes? I'm not trying to judge him, but something is off. I can tell. He was playing with us, his fake body language wasn't enough to get past me." Isabella had a frown when speaking, her eyes squinted, and her voice was a barely suppressed, irritated yell.
Jessica thought for a moment about the situation, doing what she does best, analyze. Which in this case she was clearly unable to tell that Aidan's behavior was false, once more validating Isabella's instincts. She doesn't doubt it, too many times around her hot head friend to know she was probably right, that also due to the fact that she noticed his clothes, just didn't put things together like Isabella did.
As Jessica remembered it, she thought about the way that Aidan behaved himself. Despite looking nervous, he wasn't showing all the signs of a nervous person. His knees were far apart, which shows a sign of confidence, meaning that you are comfortable with the situation. When he looked up to look like he was pondering, his head didn't move much, which also means that he wasn't truthful to his behavior.
Usually, when a person is comfortable, he or she tends to spread their limbs in a way to feel relaxed. If Aidan was truly nervous, his legs would be together. His back was laid on the backrest, which a nervous person would have it slightly forwards, as Aidan failed to show.
If you are not sure, you tend to look in other directions to assimilate the memory, in his case, he tried to convey that his look towards the ceiling was him recollecting the memories of Henrique while in the company. But Aidan didn't move his entire head to look at the ceiling, he just rolled his eyes upwards.
If each of these facts was transpired alone, then it could definitely be wrong to assume he was faking it, but together the evidence becomes complementary and also undeniable.
Jessica now admitted that she let this through, Aidan did an exceptional job to attract her attention to his voice and she didn't try to analyze the whole picture, contrary to Isabella who has a much, much larger knowledge about how to deal with humans and how to see this information, rather, it's innate of her nature. Jessica would only notice it if she was actively searching for it.
At the meeting room that Aidan received the female detective duo, he was currently using his cellphone as suddenly, a message from his assistant, Mary, was sent to his screen.
He read it and immediately found it weird.
The thing is, another police officer seems to be at the company's entrance, just half an hour after Isabella and Jessica left.
Calling his assistant, Aidan spoke immediately.
"Who is it?" He asked.
"Sir, a man named Joseph Lewis is here to see you. He says he has important information about an ongoing police investigation on the Gobert Industries for suspect of murder."