Selena

'Oh, no-no-no-no', I murmured, flipping more and more frantically through the numbered papers, 'crap'. My sisters name was in these records. 

On Sergio's desk, I skimmed through the printed records which Acosta kept electronically, all circled and annotated with Sergio's messy handwriting. 

Consisting of rotas, plans, successful robberies and hotels, the files were full, and numbered. Often, he told me off for snooping idly through his investigations, but this time something caught my attention. 

Solange Rose.

At the back of my mind, although I tried so hard to supress the fact... I knew Solange had gotten involved with shady traders in the past. Never had I thought that I would spot her name under the records of Acosta.

That night, we met in her dim-lit lounge. I showed her the records. Sheet after sheet, she grew more fearful. Before the successful launch of her home interior office, Solange worked as a concierge manager under a chain of hotels. 

Each hotel that was listed in Acosta's records was a hotel she had worked in. The last thing I needed from her, was an explanation.

'Please don't tell me this has something to do with your mafia lover'.

'I don't work for Tabitha anymore, Selena', she explained, 'I swear. This was a long time ago'.

'Is she part of the heist group that Acosta runs?' I asked.

'She's the leader'. In a span of eight minutes, my sister unravelled her greatest secret. Only out of contrition had she felt compelled to come clean. For years, Solange was in a long-distance relationship with a South-American female crime lord. 

Tabitha, A.K.A 'the Vixen', manipulated Solange into laundering illegal money through a special chain of hotels. She also reserved penthouse rooms for investors and other criminals and made sure Tabitha's business ran smoothly wherever she was.

To my surprise Tabitha had devised the greatest abduction of all history; the abduction of the royal princess, Amelia. If she had a vendetta against the Bluebridge kingdom, it made sense for her to come against everything the kingdom treasured to do with Amelia. But like any other chain of command, Tabitha submitted to her own leaders. This meant her motives were unclear.

'So where is the princess now?' I asked.

'I don't know!' Solange retorted, 'Tabitha told me she took the child away to protect her'.

'Can you get in contact with her?' Solange looked at me as if I was crazy. This was fourteen years ago. Pulling out my analogue work phone and sliding it to her on the table, I let her know I was serious.

'I'm taking a big risk doing this', Solange warned me. She dialled. I listened. 'Tabitha, hey. It's me. Yeah. Actually, I just wanted to catch up on some information you told me earlier. It's about the location of Amelia...'

'What happened?' I asked.

'She hung up. She knew you were behind this, Selena'. No! Such information going public had the potential to not only incriminate my sister, but me also.

That same night I was on night duty, keeping surveillance on Amy. 3AM to 8:00AM. Watching Amy pace around in that tiny cell reminded me of the sins of my sister; it could have been Solange walking around in a custody cell. She was just lucky enough not to get caught. 

Not even Mom and Dad knew about her secret. Ironic. Being the standard of success, and the celebrated sister of the family, she was also the most cunning in crime, and seamlessly covered her secrets.

'Selena?!' rudely awaken by an agitated growl, I jilted up, 'where's the information I asked you to get on Acosta's workers?' Sergio asked, '... and where's Amy?' Oh shit. While I was supposed to be watching the surveillance footage, I fell asleep.

'Err – I'm sorry', the embarrassment of being caught off guard pounded my heart, 'she told me she was nauseous, so I took her to the medical room, but she said she would be fine just going to the bathroom, so I waited for her, but...' by the indignant look on his face, I could tell Sergio was mad at me, 'but then I fell asleep'.

Mumbling something in Portuguese, he slapped both his palms across his forehead and panted around in circles. Immediately, I hurried to the water dispenser to get a drink, hoping I would be more revived to solve the whole mess I had made. Shortly after, Kai and Morello arrived. Not only had Amy escaped for the third time, but the 'Amelia' diamond was gone from the safe.

'Sorry man. We haven't seen the missing sheets', said Kai. At that I turned around to drink more water. I forgot to return the missing page numbers from Sergio's annotations of the Acosta records. How many things had to go wrong all at once? 'Maybe Amy took it when she escaped', Kai suggested.

'That's not possible', Sergio seethed, 'why would she steal certain sheets from a record she didn't even know we had?! And why would she not just steal the sheets with her name and Cleo's name? It doesn't make sense'.

'What-what if... what if it was Priscilla?' I butted in with my first smokescreen.

'No', Sergio shook his head, 'it wasn't her'.

'She's the defender of a crime lord', I argued, 'think about it, Sergio. It's all about money for her, anything to prove Acosta innocent'.

'It was not her', Sergio dismissed instantly, 'what do you have against her?'

'You're dating the defender of criminals and you wonder why everything is going wrong?' I blurted, turning to get another drink of water. Big mistake. For a while, the room fell silent, but I just remembered where I had kept the folded sheets. Before I could fully turn back around, Sergio tucked his hand into my ass and pulled out all his missing sheets, folded in my back pocket. 'Hey!'

'Selena...' his voice became dark and whispery. Out of options, I gulped, 'what is this?'

'It's err... I was just double checking some of your notes', I lied. Each time I reached for the sheets, like a fish reaching for bait, he held them back, 'I can explain –'

'Please, just – stop. Go home'. Slow and sombrely, my heart sunk into the guilt abyss.

'But it was a mistake. I'll fix it', I persisted.

'No. I can't work with rookies going through puberty. Sorry'. Kai and Morello smirked, holding their laughs. Finally, my heart hit the bottom. I filled up my cup, dashed the water in his face, threw the cup at him, and stormed away. The guys burst into laughter. Served him right for making sexist jokes. 'Stop laughing!' he raged, 'and get back to work'. As I walked through the hallway, his hasty footsteps scurried after mine. Grabbing the back of my arm, he yanked me into a small interrogation room with a window.

'Ow! You're hurting me!'

'What was that back there?' I had never seen him this pissed before, and since he wouldn't let go of my arm, I assumed he was gonna beat it out of me. Drowsy from the lack of sleep and the brim of offence, I grew slowly despondent... My attention span looped in an out of the long lecture he was giving... eyelids shutting down... was I a schoolgirl being told off by my teacher? It felt like... déjà vu... 'Selena!'

'Huh?' I mumbled, finding myself restrained. A near miss.

'Did you just... try to kiss me?'

'No', I replied, bowing my head to the ground. Life as a detective here couldn't get more embarrassing for me. Lack of sleep was causing me to act out of subconsciousness, and my subconscious told me if I buddied up, he would stop treating me like an intern. 

'Sorry'. Heaps of coal weighed over my heart, as I grabbed my jacket and aimed to disappear. 'See you later'.

'Selena', again he grabbed me. With shaky, sweaty palms, I stood facing the wall. He let go, but neither of us knew what to say next. I fell asleep, allowing Amy to escape with the diamond, Sergio's investigation sheets were scrambled, he insulted me, so I threw a cup of icy cold water over his face... then I tried to kiss him... there was no easy explanation.

At the Rosewater Hotel, hours later, I sat in a dim-lit corner with my usual order: a non-alcoholic rosewater. It turned out being dismissed and instructed to take a day or two off work wasn't as comforting as I thought. But most importantly, I was instructed to sleep.

This job was the only highlight of my career life, and the only way my parents noticed me instead of Solange for once. I didn't want to let them down. Less than a week into it I was already slipping up.

'Is everything okay?' a man asked, sitting behind my seat. The soft sax from Kokoroko "Ti-de" played moderately through the lounge speakers but didn't ease my burdened mind. It couldn't cover my repetitive sniffs, and the darkness couldn't hide my dried tears.

'Yeah – yeah, fine', I lied, toning down my crying. To my surprise, it was that man again, the nuanced lawyer. 'Michael?'

'That's me. Hang on'. He got out of his seat and walked around the mazey floor plan just to get across to my seat, 'Solange's sister, right? I didn't catch your name earlier on. You just – ran off'.

'You didn't have to come over', I mumbled, head bowed.

'I know', he balled his hands together, trying to play the diplomat, 'but I'm here'.

'You should've just jumped over', I suggested, growing morbid, 'your friends over there wouldn't judge you'. A group of men, about three or four stared in my direction when I caught their eyes, just the attention I didn't need.

'What? Those guys? Their clients', he corrected me. Whatever. To hide and wipe my tears, I just made sure I faced the window. But my sniffs gave me away. Delicate in his caution, he hovered his palm over mine. 'Is it to do with a bad break-up?' he guessed.

'I'm not in a relationship'.

'Really? Someone as beautiful as you?' In bewilderment, my head grew light. Whether to feel flattered or insulted, I didn't know what to feel. His audacity caught me off guard, if he was flirting.

'Are you always here?' I mumbled.

'I love this place. It's like a second home to me'. Eventually, seeing how despondent I was, he withdrew. Nonchalant group conversations, and the sound of the soft sax grew between this unwanted discussion we had.

'Sorry – Michael', I snuffled, desperately trying to hold my wobbling throat together, 'I'm a mess'.

'A beautiful mess', he beamed with a bright smile on his face, then wiping a tear from mine. I laughed. He gave me a napkin. 'I know this may be bad timing... horrible timing, but... would you like to go for a drink sometime, Miss?' I laughed again. Then he laughed, confused.

'It's Selena'.

'What?'

'My name. Selena Rose'.