CHAPTER 3
“I heard screaming, and your sister was lying to me, so I barged in to investigate,” Amato explains to Marcus, subtly also addressing the camera. “It’s just a misunderstanding.”
“What about my dogs?!” Dierdre screams at Amato, worried for her precious animals.
“I’ll find them right away. They couldn’t have gone far,” Amato answers.
Amato and Marcus exchange a few words before Amato leaves, deeply apologizing to Dierdre, who doesn’t believe a word he says. Before searching for Dierdre's dogs, Amato heads toward the elevator, which once again feels like the second-longest elevator ride he’s ever been in. He calmly heads to the reception desk and files a complaint about the newcomer, Dierdre. He submits a noise complaint about his neighbor and their suspicious activities, especially Dierdre. He even includes a few lies about the dogs, ensuring they'll get kicked out since no dogs are allowed in the building, yet they have eight.
As Amato writes his noise complaint, the landlord arrives just in time, as does the upstairs neighbor. Amato grumbles, anticipating an unwanted conversation.
“Oh hey, Amato and Philip! Did you guys hear that?” the neighbor asks curiously.
“Hear what?” Philip, the landlord, asks.
Amato sighs and tries to explain everything as quickly as possible so he can leave and get back to work. “Someone was screaming bloody murder inside Marcus’ apartment. I investigated, and it’s just a dumb streamer playing a horror game.”
“Ah, that must be his sister. She’s pretty famous,” Philip adds.
“By the way, I’ve been sneezing like crazy coming down the stairs. I think there’s some kind of animal around here,” the upstairs neighbor says.
“If Philip reads my complaint, he’ll see that she has eight dogs,” Amato says, looking down at his watch. “I need to find them now. Goodbye.” He runs away from the conversation, leaving the other two in shock. As Amato starts searching for the dogs, he finds two of them on the stairs. He bends over, dragging the dogs by their collars so they won’t run away. As he searches for the third dog, he receives a phone call from Jason.
“Great,” Amato mumbles as he picks up the phone with one of his free hands, the other holding onto the two slobbering dogs. He puts the phone on speaker, then slides it back into his back pocket to control both dogs. “I’m busy right now, Jason.”
“There’s been a Love Killing at the bridge where couples put locks with their initials on it,” Jason explains.
“Do you mean a Lock Bridge? So what? I’ll investigate tomorrow.”
“Well, I did a little digging myself and found nearby camera footage of the couple. I got some others to take a look at the footage to make sure. This will come as a surprise, so don’t pa—”
“Jason, get to the point already!” Amato scolds, impatient.
“The couple died without making skin contact,” Jason says.
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s been happening across every single state and abroad. People are dying without meeting the usual requirement.” Jason pauses, waiting for a response. “Did you hear me?”
Amato is given information that could give anyone a heart attack on the spot. The primary way of dying to love is through skin contact, but apparently, that is no longer the case. Simply making eye contact with a crush or lover is enough to cause death. Amato’s legs feel weak, daring to fall over due to the heavy burden dumped onto him. His usually cluttered mind goes blank, and silence overwhelms him. Even the barking dogs can’t break through the unbearable silence in his head.
Jason’s calls for Amato’s response fade as Amato stands there, processing the information in the stairwell. A door closing somewhere in the staircase finally snaps Amato out of his daze, and a door opens, allowing him to move at last.
“Oh Amato, what are you still doing here?” the neighbor asks. “What’s got you smiling like a kid in a candy store?”
“Excuse me?” Amato asks, confused, before realizing he’s been smiling ear to ear the entire time.
“Achoo!” The neighbor sneezes, almost falling down the stairs. “Ack! We’ve got to get those mutts out of here!” he says, passing Amato and leaving him with his thoughts.
Amato stands there, bewildered. His reaction to the news made his heart sink to the pit of his stomach, yet his face acted differently. He began smiling ear to ear. After so many years of searching, interrogating, and solving, he had reached nowhere. Wasting away his life over a mystery that lasted for centuries and decades, he finally has something new to work with, making the challenge even more difficult and dangerous.
He wasn’t feeling paralyzing fear but excitement. He no longer has to go through the same material over and over again. After years of investigating, he feels like the investigation has just begun. Amato hears a door slam shut and realizes that he is happy.
Without another second to waste, he responds to Jason on the phone, “Send me the address now, and I’ll be there.”
“But—”
Before Jason can get a word out, Amato hangs up the phone and runs up the stairs. He takes the two dogs back home with haste, ensuring he keeps his promise. When he reaches Dierdre’s room, he bangs on the door with his fists, making the walls shake. Before the door opens, he covers his eyes to avoid seeing Dierdre’s face. He can’t risk dying, not when he’s witnessing a new era of Love Kills. Dierdre opens the door, thinking someone’s dying or the place caught on fire, only to see Amato with her two precious dogs. Dierdre's lips press into a thin line as she tries to refrain from the anger boiling within her.
Amato can’t see the frustrated look on Dierdre’s face as he throws her two dogs inside the house. He nods at her as she prepares to scold him about her other missing dog. He’s found two out of three, and it seems he’s in no rush to find the last one. Dierdre opens her mouth to speak, but he turns around and quickly leaves, heading to his apartment. He goes to his dark living room to find his special glasses that obscure a person's face. Amato always comes prepared, no matter the situation.
The moment he opens the door to leave his dwelling, a woman stands in front of his door with her arms crossed.
“Who are you?” Amato asks in confusion. He has his special glasses on that blank out a person’s face with a black square. He deduces that it’s Dierdre but wants to make sure.
“Who do you think it is?! Where’s my other dog you promised to find?” Dierdre yells at Amato while people pass by, judging and speculating.
Amato glances at his watch, hoping Dierdre would leave. “I received an emergency from work. I’ll be back to find it,” he says, hearing Dierdre’s loud and anxious shouts to find her dogs but ignoring her as he heads towards the elevator. As the doors close, he sees a familiar manicured hand interrupting the elevator from closing. “Great,” Amato mumbles in annoyance, then lets out a loud sigh, showing his discontent as Dierdre walks in.
“Let’s see what could be more important than my babies,” Deirdre growls at him, punching the elevator button with her index finger.
Amato maintains a level-headed tone and expression as he says, “This is a private investigation. You can’t come with me.”
“I’m sure Jason would let me see the footage, or I can just bribe someone to show me,” Dierdre says, looking straight ahead. Her cheeks begin to tug one side of her lips in amusement. She doesn’t need to look at Amato to know the thoughts running rampant in his head.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Amato says.
“I suddenly feel like taking a stroll at Love Lock Bridge.”
Ding.
What was supposed to feel like the longest elevator ride feels like the shortest as he watches Dierdre walk away with a triumphant smile. Amato sprints in front of her as she walks without a care in the world. As he walks in front of her, he pretends to ignore her. He wants to see Dierdre get in her car to ensure she doesn’t tail him. He gets inside his white car and waits until Dierdre gets inside hers. Amato glances at his phone and the “MyDiary” book, unsure what to do, and picks up his book. He begins to flip through the pages and finally gets to the right place.
‘As I’m distracted, I don’t see Dierdre get in her car and leave.’ Amato looks up, and the book is right. “Great,” he mumbles, deducing that a red car is missing. He looks down at his book again and continues reading until he’s interrupted by his phone vibrating. “What now?” Amato picks up the phone, annoyed, as he reads the messages from Jason. It’s the location of the Love Lock Bridge. He throws the book to the backseat, then without hesitation, Amato pulls out of the parking lot swiftly.
As he makes his way to the bridge, he receives multiple phone calls from Jason. Eventually, he mutes the obnoxious phone out of annoyance. As he finally reaches the bridge, he sees those absurd pink flip-flops and a blue phone recording the scene. It is, of course, Dierdre
recording everything for her beloved followers. He can’t see her face but can hear her squeaky voice exaggerating the eventful night. He shoves past her, causing her phone to fall into a puddle of water. While walking past her, he makes sure to give her a smug face before going over the yellow tape.
He puts on a pair of gloves and passes Jason, whose worried expression looks hesitant. Amato couldn’t care less about Jason and shrugs him off. All he cares about is the case and the first golden opportunity for a turnaround.
“Hey, Amato, can I speak to you for a second?” Jason asks in a wavering tone, ready to give out.
“What is it now, Jason?” Amato asks, annoyance seeping through his words. “Make it quick.”
“We’re fired,” Jason says.
Amato doesn’t respond or flinch. He simply looks at Jason with vacant eyes. As if he’s heard those words a thousand times, he bores into Jason's soul, waiting for the punchline. It had to be some kind of joke or sick prank. Jason, including the whole precinct, knows that Amato is the best detective in the city. He’s gotten further than anybody else in the Love Kills case, and yet he’s being fired.
“Says who?” Amato asks.
“The higher-ups and the boss.”
“And where are they?”
“Uh… Not here,” Jason lies, and Amato can see through it like a freshly cleaned glass window.
“Where’s Gulliver?” Amato asks again, and his question is answered by just looking around. He can’t believe his eyes, especially because the special glasses block his vision. He takes his glasses off to see that wench talking to his boss.
“Gulliver!” Amato yells across the bridge, catching reporters' and passersby's attention alike. “You’re firing me?!”
“Here we go,” Gulliver groans under his breath. “Wish me luck.”
“I’ll have to pray for you instead,” Dierdre replies, nudging him with her elbows.
Amato takes off his glasses, screaming his head off at his boss, “Me?! You’re firing me?!” He walks toward him with long, heavy strides. “What about Jason? He missed more than a month of assignments, and what about Linsai and Foni?! They’re not even real police officers. All they do is eat donuts and get fat all day!”
“Their names are Lindsey and Fiona. Jason recently had a baby, and his wife was in critical condition. And Fiona has a condition she can’t change easily,” Gulliver responds, defending his workers with a low tone of voice and poise.
“So what condition do I have that gets me fired?!” Amato roars, enraged at the unfair treatment he is receiving.
“You have a condition called prick-itis,” a police officer responds from behind him.
“Shut up, Linsai!” Amato shouts at the officer for her corny and crude joke. “What’s your excuse?”
Gulliver sighs, rubbing the wrinkles on his forehead, and shows Amato the viral video that became a sensation within minutes. The video makes Amato’s heart sink to the pit of his stomach. It’s him on speakerphone, talking to Jason about the Love Kills case. The case is completely confidential, and one slip-up is game over for everybody involved. Officials release limited information about the case if they want to. It was both Jason's and Amato’s fault for talking about the case so openly and on speaker.
“Both you and Jason are fired,” Gulliver says with authority. This decision hurts him deeply. Although Amato is a prick, he’s still part of the team. Gulliver treats his workers like family, like his kids, and Amato is just a troubled boy who doesn’t know what to do with his life. “Amato, use this opportunity to take a break from the case and start with a fresh mind.”
“So you’ll bring me back?”
“No, but I know you won’t let this stop you from solving the case. I believe in you,” Gulliver says, patting him on the shoulder. He passes by Amato with short, slow steps. “This wasn’t my choice, but I’ve got other bosses to please. I’m sorry.”
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