Baroque: Chapter 1

A Story by KingDaKa

The first chapter in an exciting series in which a detective is hunting down a rogue scientist who is performing inhumane experiments on people, in the name of scientific advancements.

Ch 1

If there was one thing that detective Mendoza could not stand, it was when the rookie cops in the office just stood around doing nothing and fooling around. It irked him more than any criminal or case that he has had to deal with. Mendoza built his storied career with hard work and dedication to justice, and the rookie cops, to him, were just burnouts who chose to join the police because it was their only alternative to working at a fast food chain or joining the military. So when Mendoza walked into the station on Monday morning and saw three of the rookies standing by the water cooler with one of them pointing his gun at the other two and laughing, Mendoza became infuriated.

“Seriously?” He shouted as he walked toward the rookies. “Put that gun away right now, Frankie!” The three rookies froze and Frankie dropped the gun out of sheer panic. The entire office, from the secretaries to the Chief, stood up to look at the scene that was playing out in front of them.

“I’m sorry Lieutenant it won’t happen again.” Frankie bent down to pick up his gun, his cheeks red with shame. The other two rookies wouldn’t look up to face Mendoza, and they stood there with their heads down.

“You’re damn right it won’t!” Mendoza stepped on Frankie’s gun. “Get your a*s out of this station.”

“Wait, what?” Frankie stood up, infuriated. “You don’t have the right to do that, sir.”

“Watch me.” Mendoza took a step forward and was an inch from Frankie’s face.

Knowing what could happen with Mendoza’s fiery temper, Police Chief Stagris stood up from his office chair and walked over to the scene. “Mendoza, calm yourself. Now!” He said, with a stern tone. “You’re too old for this, leave the rook alone. I’ll deal with him. Get yourself put together and get to your desk. We have something for you.” Mendoza took a step back, silently, and began walking towards his desk.

“Yes, sir.” Mendoza mumbled.

“As for you, s**t head.” Chief Stagris said while staring at Frankie. “My office, now.”

Frankie took a deep breath and began walking towards Stagris’ office. The entire station was dead silent, but quickly went back to work when Stagris’ office door closed.

As Mendoza went to take his seat, he noticed a note on his desk, it was written on pink paper and had a Crunch bar tied to the bottom of it, which was Mendoza’s favorite chocolate bar. The note read:

To my Love,

I was thinking about you, and wanted to make sure that you have an amazing day. I love you endlessly.

With Love,

Your Forever Grateful Wife, Monica

Mendoza instantly smiled, and proceeded to unwrap his candy bar. He and his wife had been married fifteen years at that point, with two children and a beautiful three-story home to show for it. Monica had always been the only person who could calm down the brash and fiery Mendoza, she was his kryptonite.

As he sat down, he began to read the report that was on his desk. It was a thin manilla envelope that contained information about a man who killed his two children and disappeared. Mendoza had been working on that case for a little over six months, and he was very close to finding where the man had gone off too.

“Did you see your wife’s note?” Chief Stagris said as he peered over Mendoza’s shoulder.

“Yeah, thanks Chief.”

“Good, I’m glad.” The Chief then grabbed a chair from a nearby desk and sat down next to Mendoza. “You know, off the record, I’m glad you roughed up Frankie. The kid needed it.”

“Yeah.” Mendoza kept flipping through his notes in the envelope.

“Can you at least pretend to care that I’m here. It’s important.”

Mendoza put the envelope down and turned to the Chief. “Go ahead.”

“So, your little case that you’ve been working on has been cracked. Know this guy?” The Chief pulled up a picture on his cell phone of the murderer in handcuffs being put into a cruiser. “Victor sent me this, he said you’d like it.”

Mendoza’s eyes widened. “Where did he find him?”

“Well, your little research project on hideouts for murderers worked out well. Thanks to your research, we found him in some shithole apartment over in Newark. I sent Victor over there to meet with some of the Newark officers. They took care of it within an hour.”

“Well, I’m glad it’s finally over.” Mendoza opened his drawer and took out a stamp that was engraved with “CLOSED” and proceeded to put it on the envelope. “Anything else, Chief?”

“Be in the conference room at 1:30. This one’s going to be a big case.” Stagris stood up. “I’ll see you then, Lieutenant.”

“Sir.” Mendoza nodded his head and opened up his laptop to finish the paperwork on some recently closed cases.