Cherry Cola Episode 2: Love - Part 2: "Heartbeat"

Cherry Cola

Episode 2: Love

Part 2: “Heartbeat” 

February 26th 2036 5:43pm

I’m filling out Helen Warren’s paperwork.

The body is being released to her parents tomorrow.

Cause of death was a fatal gunshot wound to the head. 

This is a very slow start to coming back to work after being gone for a few days. 

Especially after my…. Discovery.

Honestly, I feel bad for this poor girl. 

All I’m thinking about is that gentleman.

What happened after I discovered the knife happened so quickly, and was so… 

Panicked. 

I sent the last member of my team who was on shift to go get someone, and he 

managed to get in contact with Captain Redder.

I waited anxiously for his arrival, pacing in the lobby, until he arrived, eyes bloodshot 
and weary. 

He had clearly had a long day.

He summoned all of his patience before looking at me, clearly annoyed but trying to 
be as understanding and considerate as possible.

I haven’t seen him face to face in awhile, his hazey eyes and strikingly thin 
eyebrows looking me over.

He was probably thinking the same thing.

In my waiting time, I managed to calm down enough to make a more rational 
explanation of the situation then what I barked at my poor understudy.

I explained Amelia’s notes and my observations, and why it was very improbable for 
this situation. 

“Knife in the heart with no point of entry…” He mused, staring down at the open 
body. 

“You could have just said that.”

I felt my face get hot and he chuckled softly.

“It’s fine. I would be flabbergasted if I was alone around dead bodies and then saw 
this…” 

I wanted to argue with him about how the dead bodies were never a problem at all, 
but decided that wasn’t the point of this conversation. 

“Listen…” He rubbed his eyes and his nose.

“Let’s lock the poor guy up for now. It’s late, and we will all look at him with a fresh 
pair of eyes tomorrow. Sound good?”

I was about to object, but then looked around at the dark examination room. 

It was just the two of us, and I knew only a few night crew of the task force was 
upstairs. 

Most of them didn’t like to help me with anything at all.

I nodded slowly, starting to clean everything up. 

He waited for me outside in the lobby, and walked me to my car, giving me a small 
nod. 

“Get some rest. I’ll contact Amelia in the morning.”

I gave him a tired smile, suddenly grateful for his direction. 

However, by the time I got home, I found I could not sleep.

My thoughts were too heavy, glitchy, curious. 

How? Why? When? What will Amelia think?

I don't know how long I was staring at the ceiling until my alarm finally buzzed. 

Just when I was thinking of which place to get breakfast from, putting my eyeliner 
on, I heard my phone ring. 

It was Redder. 

“Hello Sir. Everything alright?”

“Listen….”

I heard him sigh deeply. 

“I want you at your sharpest when you look at this case again.Why don’t you take 
the next three days off?”

I heard my heartbeat blaring in my ears. 

I couldn’t believe it.

Was he insane?

“But sir… There could be important eviden-”

“All of that is being taken of. I don’t want to see you until Tuesday, normal scheduled 
time. Take care of yourself. 

The phone then mutely beeped in my ear.

I threw it against the couch as punishment for it’s discreations.

Why was I almost ready to cry?

I eventually crawled over back to the couch, curling up the blankets, the lack of over 
30 hours of sleep suddenly catching up to me. 

I slept uneasily, my ears aching and eyes tight together. 

Here’s a side note about me.

I’m one of those people who dream really ridiculously.

Like, having dreams that make no sense. 

Like, having dinosaurs dressed in butler’s outfits trying to serve me sirloin, kind of 
nonsense.  

So this dream… This one sticks out to me. 

The very first thing I remember was… I was existing. 

I couldn’t do anything though. 

Hear, see, taste, speak….Nothing.

I was very barely thinking, it almost hurt to think. 

The only thought that came to me painlessly and easily was that I was here. 

And I was cold.

Not a single spot on me wasn’t cold. 

Slowly, thinking started to become easier. 

Basic concepts, math, biology, eating, living…….

All of those thoughts poured into my head like the thickest of paints. 

That’s when the thought of realizing I was in liquid revealed itself to me. 

That, and had something bumpy, all over me. 

Hearing came shortly after, confirming my idea of being in liquid. 

I slowly moved my body, finding the movement fascinating, and letting questions 
bounce around in my brain, like getting a brand new toy. 

Emotions slowly soared over me, and blossomed, into Joy and curiosity. 

Then suddenly, pain. 

Red, hot searing pain on both of my arms, 

An intense amount of heat and pressure breaking the soothing cold water. 

I learned how to scream but no sound came out. 

I learned about fear, but had no place to hide. 

Won’t someone please help me?

I woke up with a jolt, covered in sweat, hearing banging on my door. 

With difficulty, I stood up and threw a robe on, before peaking outside. 

Amelia with her dangerous eyes and waiting smile, raised at her eyebrows before 
frowning.

“Ya’ll ok?”

I waved her inside, glancing at the mirror in the bathroom as I did. 

I was bug eyed and slightly green in the face. 

“It’s hot.” I excused, in which she glanced back at me unamused.

She glanced around at my apartment, and started picking up my garbage. 

“Heard Chase grounded you too huh?”

“Don’t say it like that, it makes it more demeaning.”

Her words suddenly hit me.

“Wait, you got sent home too?”

“Yeah. I looked at the body this morning, told him the tests that I thought that 
needed to happen, and he told me to go home until Wednesday.”

She shrugged, then stared as I gritted my teeth. 

“What the hell is going on?!”

She ignored my outburst, tying up a trash bag.

“Wanna go grab something to eat?”

I glanced down at my robe, then my apartment. 

“We can eat in my car. You don’t have to get dressed.”   

I sighed and nodded, which she then picked up the trash bag. 

Her car, was the perfect love child of messy and clean.

There were no crumbs, no trash, her car even smelled like vanilla. 

But there were a variety of different kinds of pens in her cup holder, 10 pieces of 
wrapped bubble gum in the ashtray, and her backseat had a huge pile of folders and 
papers having been there long enough to have a blanket on half of them. 

She put some gum in her mouth, set her phone wirelessly to the radio, blaring music 
that sounded like it was inspired by my heartbeat during panic attacks. 

She whipped to the nearby fast food place, going through the drive thru painlessly.

We shoved our faces for a while, before she broke the silence.

“Kipper was worried about you.” She mused, surfacing from her milkshake.

“The hell with Kipper!! What about the body????!!!”

She flipped her hair, sipping her milkshake, glancing at me and in the most annoying 
way, shrugging. 

“Redder said everything would be taken care of, I assumed that means you were 
going to take care of it!! But he sent you home too??? What the fuck is going on?!?”

Another shrug, I growled at her.

“Well I’m glad you don’t care!!! If you don’t care why did you have me look over the 
body again?!

She sighed, putting down her milkshake.

“Em I love my job!!! This is my reason for living!! This man has nobody but me to 
figure out what happened and I’m on house arrest!!!”

“Listen… Peachy...We can sit here and yell at each other or we can eat.”

She gave me an empathetic smile, using a nickname she gave me when she caught 
me in the bathroom shoveling peach rings in my mouth while sobbing. 

She matched my face as I frowned at her. 

“Alright listen… This case is a little bigger than you think. Chase knows this.”

She eyed the neon sign of the restaurant like a cat hunting a bug.

“He’s a softie. He wants this case solved, but not at the expense of his team. I can 
promise you it’s no big conspiracy.”

“..... And this is between you and me… But this is hot off the press off The Kipper 
Chronicles…”

She lowered her voice, her bright blue sweater glowing in the neon lights, telling me 
what she and Kipper had discussed right before she came to see me. 

My eyes widened, and she gave me a toothy grin. 

“If you want to do your best, take some time off, Peachy. Enjoy yourself. Then we 
will both tackle this on Wednesday giving it our 100 percent. Ok?”

She gently grabbed my hand, pulling off and placing the cherry of her milkshake on 
it.

“It’s sticky.” I complained quietly. 

“Maybe you should get a partner so you stop loving up on dead bodies though.”

“Shut up.”

So…. Today I will fill out paperwork. 

I’m going to get as much of this finished as possible, so I don’t have much backup 
when this is all done. 

Tomorrow, Amelia and I will find out his story, and be able to put him to rest. 

Knowing that Kipper is going to be just as busy as us though, makes me feel a little 
bit of bitter happiness.

I mean, with an apartment that has 24/7 surveillance, how can there be no trace of 
no one coming in or out?

No one on camera? Not even fingerprints?

No one going anywhere near that apartment since the owner left?

Both a body and a knife, in places where it should be impossible to be.