Thursday, November 3rd 2016, Headquarters of the International Police, Athens

I do not know whether the colour red stands for love or danger, but when a red note hangs on your office door it’s most likely not a love letter. Instead the boss expects us to come and speak with him. Only Tobias is missing. He’s got five minutes till it’s eight. After a minute passes he comes shooting around the corner, sees me and becomes slower. “I’m not late, but punctual.”, he looks at his watch, “technically too early.”

“It’s okay, I never expected less of you than being punctual. The boss, Mister… Mister what was his name again?” I glance at the tip of my shoes, which don’t bear the answer. Tobias is intensely thinking, he lifts his finger and lets it sink again.

“Phillipo talked about the coffee machine when we mentioned him.”, I started pondering.

“I swear it wasn’t Mr. Coffeemachine and not Mr. Coffee either.”

“Cappuccino?” I suggested.

“Latte Macchiato?” He added.

“Mocha.” I stated.

Tobias needed a moment to think: “Café au lait?”

“Okay now we are getting further from the answer. Let’s go and see what he wants.”, I said ending the discussion, just for Toby to start a new one. 

“I told you we should not have ordered so many things yesterday. He will force us to pay the bill ourselves. Marcos when my plans of affording an Audi R8 fail, I won’t let you drive with it.”

“When your plans fail I won’t be able to drive with it anyway.” That seems to be logical.

“You better go first.” He makes a sweeping like gesture, which gets me moving. The other colleagues just arrived as well and prepare themselves for the working day. We greet them as friendly as if it was our last.

The door to our boss’s office is a crack wide open. Tobias pushes me trough and I carefully hit him with my elbow.

There he is, our boss, looking up from his laptop and giving us a smile. He looks like Hades, who welcomes new souls to the Underworld or if it was Tobias describing this moment, he looks like Satan, who is receiving some new sinners to hell.

The room is cold just like yesterday and, that’s what I’m sure of, it will never ever be warm. He folds down his laptop to regard us with his full attention. My partner doesn’t seem to like that.

“Gentleman, it’s time.” Slowly we let ourselves sink into the armchairs.

“This morning a call came in, reporting a break-in at Rodou 32, District Metamorfosi. Even though this isn’t a big malediction I want you two to work on the case anyway, to see if you both can work together. At the academy both of you have proved, that you are capable of solving cases, but I like to test your skills in a little beginner’s trial. You can definitely count on the help of your colleagues, yet I suggest to try it without help.” Relived about his words my best friend finally breaths in again.

I grin, am surprised about the little bit of confidence the boss has in Tobias and me and say: “You can count on us!” It’s been a long time since I wanted to say this phrase and show what I’ve learned in the past four years.

“Okay, the forensics soul be there by now. You just go there and do whatever you have to do. I believe you know what that is.”

He looks at us disapprovingly, like a pile of dirt in his way. Again, he waves his hand, gesturing us to go, as if  it doesn’t have any other function.