The morning air was heavy with a damp chill, as though the city itself was holding its breath. Cherry and Kail stood at the edge of the street, their path to Jennifer's house blocked by a bright yellow line of police tape that fluttered in the breeze. Two uniformed officers guarded the entrance, arms crossed, eyes sharp. Miny stood a few paces behind them, her wrists still bound, her expression tight and unreadable.
Kail's gaze shifted to Cherry. "We should at least take a look inside," he said, his voice low but firm.
Cherry shook her head, her tone clipped. "No chance. The police have the whole route blocked. You heard them — the commissioner's ordered no one to enter." She stepped forward, flashing her detective's badge, hoping authority might cut through the wall of regulations.
One of the officers glanced at it, unimpressed. "Sorry, Detective. Direct orders from the commissioner himself — no one, and I mean no one, steps foot inside that house until the forensics team is done."
Before Cherry could respond, her phone buzzed sharply in her coat pocket. She pulled it out and pressed it to her ear.
"Detective, it's Anna," came the voice on the other end. The background noise suggested she was indoors, possibly at her desk. "I've managed to extract all the details from Jennifer's closest friends."
Cherry straightened. "Good work, Anna. Hold on — we're on our way."
She hung up and turned to Kail. "Let's go. Anna's got something."
Kail arched a brow. "And what about Miny?"
"Leave her," Cherry said.
Kail's jaw tightened. "If she attacks you again—"
Cherry's eyes hardened. "If you believe me, stay out of my path. But if you get in it... I won't stop." She walked toward Miny, untied the restraints around her wrists, and started to turn away.
Miny's voice broke the tension. "Wait... I— I have something." Her hands trembled as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled slip of paper. "This is a number. The number of the person who told me to kill you."
Cherry's hand closed around the paper, her eyes locking on Miny's for a brief, searching moment. No words were exchanged, but the weight of the confession lingered between them. Without another glance back, Cherry and Kail left her standing there and headed toward Anna's apartment.
Anna greeted them at the door, her hair slightly mussed as though she'd been working for hours without pause. A stack of papers and her open laptop dominated the small dining table.
"I've compiled every piece of information I could," Anna began, sliding a folder across the table. "Here's the full list of Jennifer's office colleagues, personal contacts, and acquaintances. And..." She reached into a drawer and produced a sleek black smartphone. "This is Jennifer's phone."
Cherry raised a brow. "Where did you get that?"
Anna smiled faintly. "Her boyfriend gave it to me. Said it should be in the right hands."
Kail frowned. "And he just... handed it over?"
Anna shrugged. "Some people know when to keep quiet."
Before they could dig into the folder, Anna's phone buzzed. She answered, listened for a few seconds, then looked at Cherry. "Semy's on the line. She says she has something important to tell you about Jennifer."
"Put her through," Cherry said.
A soft, slightly nervous voice came over the speaker. "Cherry... Jennifer had a secret diary. She never told anyone about it — not even her boyfriend. Only me. She kept it hidden... and there's also something else — there's a secret door at the back of her house. It's concealed under the grass. I don't know where it leads, but... I thought you should know."
Cherry's mind immediately began sketching possibilities — an escape route, a hiding place, or something worse.
"Thank you, Semy," she said.
They left Anna's apartment shortly after, taking both the number from Miny and Jennifer's phone with them.
Back at the safehouse, Cherry called Andrew. "I've got something for you — a number and Jennifer's phone. I want a full workup."
A few hours later, Andrew arrived, his usual easygoing demeanor replaced with a sharper, more calculating energy. He spread his laptop and gear across the table, wires snaking out like veins.
"Alright," he said, taking the crumpled paper from Cherry. "Let's start with the number." He typed rapidly, tracing the call logs, checking routing patterns, and running it through encrypted databases.
After several minutes, he leaned back. "This number's been active for the last three months, but it's registered under a false name. Calls were routed through a relay system — whoever owns it knows how to cover their tracks. But..." He tapped the screen. "Two outgoing calls trace back to a location in the city's East District — a known drug territory."
Kail stiffened. "You're saying this is tied to the dealers?"
Andrew smirked faintly. "Let's just say... the people on that end of the line aren't the kind who sell aspirin."
Cherry folded her arms. "And the phone?"
Andrew hooked Jennifer's phone into his system, his eyes scanning the data as it loaded. "Lots of encrypted messages. Most were deleted, but... there's something interesting here."
He pulled up a set of photographs — street corners, alleyways, a shipping warehouse with no clear signage. "She was documenting something. And based on timestamps... she was doing it in the weeks before her death."
Cherry leaned closer, her mind assembling the puzzle. Jennifer's diary, the secret door, the photographs, the number tied to the drug district — it was all connected. She just didn't know how... yet.
Andrew looked up. "Want me to keep digging?"
Cherry's expression was cold, focused. "No. I want you to dig until you find out who's behind that number, what Jennifer was tracking, and why someone wanted her — and me — dead."
In the silence that followed, the city's hum seemed distant, muffled, as though the room itself had sealed them away from the world outside. The shadows on the walls stretched long, and Cherry knew this was only the beginning.
The number wasn't just a lead. It was a thread — and once pulled, it might unravel everything.
End Of Chapter 6