Forbidden Rose

“Detective Harry, we have received word from a nightclub where a murder has occurred.” Said Elton, his co-worker, and close friend. When he heard what he said, Harry's team immediately went to the crime scene.

“Vanilla night party?” He said when he saw the signage of it. They immediately went inside but were blocked and stopped by some bouncers there.

“The vanilla party is temporarily closed now, just come back on Sunday.” A bouncer told them that Harry grinned as he showed him his identification card, where they realized they were detectives. Therefore, they couldn't do anything but let them inside, even though their boss strictly forbade them not to let anyone in.

“Wow! Look what's here. A group of gangsters and a dead body.” Harry said as he clapped his hands. They found a group of gangsters inside, where they seemed to be planning to hide the body of a man. Therefore, they turned to him and there was a trace of annoyance on their faces when they saw him because he was the only detective they hated to see or meet.

“Don't move from your place and put down everything you're holding if you don't want me to arrest you.” He added, and immediately the gangsters dropped the evidence they were holding on the floor while Harry's colleagues collected it one by one.

He approached the dead body of the man lying on the floor and covered it with a white tablecloth. Furthermore, he sat next to him, and then he put on white rubber gloves before he grabbed the table cloth and slowly lowered it to look at the man's face.

He immediately closed his eyes when he saw his bloodied and crushed face as if he had been punched several times until it caused his death.

“Who did this to him?” He asked, but no one responded to him, instead their mouths were closed while their heads were bowed. “Who is your leader?” He added as he stood up and approached them.

“Is it you?” He pointed at a man, but he immediately shook his head until he approached them one by one, and they all answered him the same except for a man wearing a black suit and a handkerchief tied to his fist.

“So you are their leader, and you also killed him, am I right?” He asked him, but he remained silent and just looked down at the floor. Harry grinned and then pulled him by his collar, which shocked his colleagues and immediately stopped him. But Harry still didn't let go of him, instead, he brought his face closer to him and tightened his grip on his collar.

“Even if you choose not to speak, I will make sure you will still be imprisoned for the crime you committed.” He whispered to him as he looked at him intently but the man just staring at him without emotion and as if he weren't afraid of him, so Harry immediately let go of him. “He is not their leader. He is not what we are looking for.” He added that his colleagues were surprised.

“What do you mean?” Elton asked him.

“They are hiding something from us, and they are protecting something, so they are not talking.” He replied so that his colleagues were shocked and realized that they were not just a group of gangsters, but that they were working for someone.

Harry looked all around him and he saw a photo displayed there. He approached it and stared carefully, and he noticed that they both had a diamond tattoos on their hand. Therefore, he also immediately checked each of their hands, where he saw that they all had tattoos on their right hands and the same diamond was marked on them.

“What does this diamond mean? Is it the symbol of your organization, or does it have something to do with the person you're working with?” He asked them, but they refused to answer him, and they all looked away from him.

In Harry's anger, he punched the table hard and called one of the waiters working there as he brought him closer to him.

“Whoever is your manager or the owner of this nightclub call your boss right now. Tell him I want to talk to him.” He whispered to him, and the waiter immediately left to deliver to their boss what Harry wanted to tell him.

While they were waiting, Harry ordered his colleagues to handcuff them so that he could not escape and cause any trouble. After a while, he turned to his right, where he heard the footsteps of shoes that seemed to be heading in their direction.

Until he saw the young waiter he talked to earlier, and this time he was accompanied by a man in a black suit with his two hands in his pockets. He was alone, and he had no other behind him, so Harry thought he might just be the manager of that nightclub.

He couldn't take his eyes off him, especially when he stopped in front of him. Because that's not the person he expected to meet, and he doesn't look as dangerous as the gangsters they caught.

“Who are you then?” He asked him while still raising an eyebrow. The man in front of him drew a short smile on his lips while extending one of his hands to him to introduce himself.

“I'm Felix Crosinciano, the owner of this Vanilla party club.” After he said that, Harry grinned, and then he shook hands with him.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Felix Crosinciano. Just call me, Harry.” He replied as he let go of his hands and showed him his identification card.

“You probably know what we came here for, don't you? Can we invite you to the precinct for a short chat?” He added, that his colleagues were about to grab him to handcuff him, but he immediately raised his two hands making them all look at him.

“What do you think you're doing?” He said with a serious face as he was referring to the handcuffs that Harry's colleague was holding. He was forced to smile, and then he ordered his co-workers to back away from him.

“Don't worry, Mr. Felix because we won't detain you unless we can prove that you had something to do with the crime that happened here.” He said and Felix slowly lowered his two hands at the same time he put them inside his pants pocket, and he peeked behind Harry where he saw that all his employees were handcuffed.

“Why are they all handcuffed?” He asked and Harry just scratched the back of his head and didn't seem to like the tone of his question as if he were interrogating him.

“They are our suspects in the murder that happened, but don't worry because we will immediately remove the handcuffs from their hands when we prove their innocence.” He replied to him, but it still wasn't enough for him to gain his trust.

“Where are your arrest warrant and the evidence that they have something to do with his death? Don't you know that what you are doing is trespassing, and it is a violation of the law to make false accusations without sufficient evidence? Mr. detective, you seem to have forgotten to do your job properly, don't you? It's not because you have an identification card that I'm permitting you to investigate here in my place. We called the police a while ago, and it doesn't look like you're that people.” After he said that, Harry turned back where he saw his competing unit team, Zoren. Therefore, he clenched his fists and bit his bottom lip.

Zoren immediately approached them when he saw Harry there, and he drew a wide smile on his lips.

“Hi, I'm Detective Zoren, and we received a call from here. Perhaps you are Mr. Felix Crosinciano, the owner of this Vanilla club, am I right?” When he introduced himself to Felix, he handed him a calling card, and Felix also gave him his business card. He was about to speak, but suddenly, he turned to his right where he saw Harry.

“Detective Harry, what are you doing here? Did Mr. Felix call you too?” He asked him, but he didn't respond, but instead Zoren looked at Felix where his face was frowning. “And why are they all handcuffed?” He added, that when he noticed that Felix's employees were handcuffed because of that, Harry immediately turned around and ordered his colleagues to immediately remove the handcuffs from their hands as he left with his teammates. Felix's gaze followed him until he got out of the door. Then he looked down at his hand where he shook hands with Harry earlier, and he drew a sweet smile at the same time.