The sign of Two

“Detective Holm.” 

“Sergeant.” Shirley greeted him with her usual monotone voice. 

Sergeant Greg didn’t appreciate over-energetic beings; Shirley saw someone getting fired for so much as laughing. 

“I have a case for you… but first, let me introduce you to your new partner, Winston.”

A brown haired man stepped out of the shadows. He wore glasses and one of the button-down shirts with a front pocket suitable for pens. 

The man nodded. “Nice to meet you, Detective. I’m Winston.” 

Shirley smiled. “I’m Shirley Holm, but you can call me Shirley. I only go by Detective Holm if I’m being addressed by him. 

She pointed to Greg. “He can be a buzzkill most times.” 

“Enough chit-chat,” Greg said. “Let me assign you a case. A few weeks ago, a bank was broken into, and money was stolen. There was a dollar bill left at the scene, with George Washington cut out. Holm, as you already know, Captain Maya from the third unit was arrested. The bill was identified from her wallet by you, Shirley.” 

Shirley nodded. Maya had been one of her best friends, but a detective had their duties. Still, she didn’t watch as Maya got towed off by the police. 

Greg continued, “We all thought that Captain was guilty, so we closed the assignment… but there’s been a recent development involving another bank. Another one has been robbed, and another dollar bill has been left at the scene. Now… the case has been reopened. It’s been assigned to you, Detective, with the assistance of Winston. Good luck. You begin at once.”

Shirley nodded, then asked, “Where is the site?”

Greg replied, “Follow me. I’ll take you there.”

They arrived at a bank, police cars surrounding the entrance. Some were on the grass. Another looked dangerously close to a light pole. 

Greg greeted a few officers along the way, and they entered the crime scene. Shirley had never seen a room so clean. There was no mess, no broken windows. The intruder appeared to have not broken in by force.

All the safe boxes in the vault were opened, however, and there was nothing inside. It was clear that the room had been stripped bare. 

Shirley went over to the police captain, who was talking to some inspectors. 

“Sir, did you catch anything on the CCTV footage?”

“That’s the thing, Detective. All the footage stopped between 11 P.M. and 3 A.M. We assume that it was when the thief made their way into the vault.”

Shirley contemplated this piece of information. 

“They clearly hadn’t broken in, so they must have access to this vault, which is a limited number of people. Furthermore, they also had keen intellect about security… most likely a trusted guard or attendant that reports directly to the top. We may need to interview some people.”

The officer nodded. “I’ll schedule some, right away.”

Shirley spun around and noticed Winston was prodding one of the open vault boxes with a cotton swab. 

“What are you doing?”

“Searching for fingerprints. You never know.”

Shirley sighed. “I doubt you’ll find anything, but if you do, tell me.”

After surveying the area, Shirley realized that the thief was very experienced. There was almost no evidence, except a strand of hair found in the hinge of the door that the thief escaped through. The door slam was identified from the audio bugs in the room. 

The hair was sent to the identification room. Everyone waited nervously for the upcoming days. When the results came back, Shirley was shocked. 

It came from Maya’s friend, Kristina. She worked part-time at the bank, and had recently gotten promoted. 

Shirley thought this was suspicious. She watched Kristina get into the police car. She left the scene and sat down at her table, ready to do some research. 

Winston came in later and asked her what she was doing. Shirley gave him a mundane response, too tired to put up with his antics. She had grown somewhat fond of him, since he was surprisingly loyal and performed his duties well.

“Alright, goodbye Sherlock,” Winston said cheerfully. 

“Goodbye, Watson,” Shirley said frustratedly. “I’ll probably take off soon.”

The nicknames were homage to the famous Sherlock and Dr. Watson, when both noticed that their names were similar to the originals. 

Frustrated, Shirley played with her pen that she was using. When she was little, she loved performing magic tricks with pens, such as tucking a pen behind her ear and pretending that it disappeared. She used her other hand for misdirection. 

That’s it. Misdirection.

Shirley sat up straight. Someone is trying to lure our attention here. That’s why they targeted two people of the same unit. To cause controversy. What’ll happen next? Who did this? 

She started drawing plans in her brain. The previously robbed banks seemed to connect into a pattern. The perpetrator seemed to be robbing the biggest banks in the city, where the seal of the late president resided. Shirley suspected that the thief was after the seal. 

She immersed in her thoughts for a while in the darkness, without bothering to turn on the light. She felt thirsty and decided to get a cold drink from the break room. As she quietly walked down the corridors, it seemed that everyone had left. However, she saw a glimmer of light coming from Greg’s office. 

Shirley was about to knock on the door to greet her similarly hardworking coworker, when she heard a hushed whisper drift from the room. Apparently, someone was on the phone. 

“I’m glad that Kristina got caught as planned, but still, no seal, Greg…”

Shirley trembled out of shock. She never would’ve expected Greg to be the mastermind behind this. 

She quietly returned to her room and punched some numbers into her phone with shaky fingers.

“Winston? I need you to start a private investigation concerning Sergeant Greg.”