Queen Media Collective

“If I could only shake this haze that I’m in.”

Detective Collins was still feeling the effects of her drinking session as she pulled up the gas station. She was able to gather herself some to go get the gum but she her headache wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. As soon as she got inside, she went straight to get some mint-flavored gum and some green tea. She was heading to the counter when she could feel someone looking at her. Detective Collins shrugged it off at first, but the feeling came back. Finally, she gave in and looked behind her as she reached the counter to pay for her gum and tea. No one was there.

“Am I losing it or was there someone behind me?”

“I think you’re losing it ma’am.” said the store clerk.

“I’ll wake up eventually,” Detective Collins said with a smile.

As she sat in the back seat of the Uber and the vehicle took off, she noticed there was a vehicle following her, turning at every corner they were.. She couldn’t quite make out the vehicle, but she noticed they were making a concerted effort to stay a good distance away while tailing her. Detective Collins reached for her phone and was getting ready to call Detective Porter when she looked back and noticed the car had disappeared.

“What was in that Vodka?”

As Detective Collins was closing in on the precinct, Detective Porter gave her a ring again.

“Where are you?”

“I am on the way.”

“Well, you need to hurry up! They are getting ready to move Mr. Nickel to the Shady Tree Mental Institution. Apparently, this isn’t his first time there. He was there before.”

“What??!!”

“Yes, he was there after his wife passed for a brief moment as he would go to physical therapy there for mental issues he had going on.”

“Well, apparently those mental issues never went away Porter.”

“Apparently not.”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes. Took an Uber in.”

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Just didn’t feel like driving. I will be there in a minute.”

Detective Collins knew if she told Detective Porter what she had been up to, then h would have sent her home. Besides, her curiosity had been peaked since she heard where they were taking him. It wasn’t even five minutes before she got to the office and hopped out, throwing a couple pieces of gum in her mouth after she drunk her green tea.

“She has absolutely no idea!”

Secret was watching Detective Collins and had been following her the entire time. Sure, Detective Collins came close to finding her out a few times, but Secret was able to evade her. As she looked on from the outside of the precinct, Secret thought on the plan and as she did, a smile came upon her face.

“Soon. Very soon.”

Detective Porter was sitting at his desk when Detective Collins came in and he immediately noticed something was off.

“Rough times at the house?”

“I’m fine.”

“You can stop the charade Michaela. Did you find your answers in the bottom of the bottle?”

“I didn’t find any in that bottle.”

“Look. You got in too deep. I never should have let you get in that deep to begin with. I’m going to tell you this as a bit of advice. Catching emotions while in a case will be the end of you. You cannot let that happen. If you do, that could be the decision between life and death.”

Detective Collins shook her head in agreement as she slumped into her chair at her desk.

“No time to relax Collins. We have to look at the clues from this murder of that lawyer of Mr. Nickel’s.”

Collins and Porter were looking over the clues and as they were, they lost track of time. They both wanted to be there when Mr. Nickel got moved to the mental facility, but both didn’t recognize it was past time until he was already there.

“Looks like this is my new home.”

Mr. Nickel looked around at a room that had no windows at all. He was in a white jacket with his arms strapped to his body. He couldn’t move anywhere if he wanted to outside of sitting in a chair.

As he sat down in the chair, his doctor walked in.

“Mr. Nickel. Welcome back to Shady Tree Mental Institution. I will be your doctor as we get you back to wellness.”

“Thank you doctor. Hopefully you can help me.”

“Mr. Nickel, we will start treatment tomorrow.”

The doctor eased out of the room as he went to get the schedule together for Mr. Nickel for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Secret was up to her usual mischief as she sat outside the police precinct.

“Time to take this up another level.”

Secret grabbed a jacket out of the vehicle she had and put her hood on to hide her identity. In that jacket, she had a lighter, a cloth  and a note. She eased towards an unattended vehicle on the side of the police precinct and out of view of the main doors of the precinct. She then opened the gas tank of the vehicle and then put the cloth in the gas tank and lit it up with her lighter. Not long after she walked away from the vehicle, the car blew up. As soon as it blew up, there were plenty police officers on the scene. Collins and Porter were in the massive amount of police officers that came out to see the damage. And while many police officers were out there looking at the explosion, Secret was able to slide into the police office.

As soon as she got in, she made asked the lady at the front desk where Detective Collins desk was.

“Take a right at the end of this hallway and it’s right there on the left.”

Secret made her way down there and dropped off the letter she had in her pocket. As soon as she dropped it, she got out of there as fast as possible and scooted out to her vehicle without being detected.

Porter and Collins finally made it back in from the mess that happened outside.

“Crazy stuff right Collins?”

“Indeed it was. Just glad it wasn’t my car.”

“Hate it for Detective Moore though. He’s going to need a new police vehicle.”

As Collins and Porter were creating small talk, Detective Collins noticed a letter sitting on her desk.

“What is that?”

“I don’t know. My as well open it.”

Detective Collins opened the letter and it read.

“Hey. I’m still in town.  I hope you enjoyed the fireworks outside. They were especially for your attention. I hope you like my next trick as Dirty Secret will be getting back together again.”

Detective Collins hopped out her desk and started moving towards the door.

“Where are you going Collins?”

“That was Secret who wrote that letter.”

“The woman we are looking for?”

“Yes Porter. She is still out there and apparently she put on that little show for us tonight.”

“She has to be out there somewhere.”

“Oh, she is out there Porter, but she is headed to see our boy.”

“She’s headed to Shady Tree?”

“Yes. And if we don’t get there fast, she is going to bust him out and we are going to lose any chance of turning this case around. Let’s go!”

Detective Collins and Porter rushed out to Porter’s vehicle in a hurry to get to Shady Tree. They had to stop Secret.