AG8210V

“I have nothing to say to him!”

Angie pouted as she paced in the hallway. She stood outside of Troy Vladimir’s office as she talked to Mikayla on her phone.

Miki pleaded. “Just ask him about his dad.”

“He's just so hard to talk to.”

“You haven’t talked to him enough to make that judgment.” Miki paused before clicking her tongue. “Ask him about his family. Or ask about his life before coming to New York.”

“Small talk.” Angie nodded, “That's a good place to start. But Miki, I don’t think Troy’s in his office.”

Angie hung her head low as she stood outside his office. Although the window blinds were closed, Angie could see a faint light peaking between the spaces of the blinds.

“It looks like someone’s in there but I can’t tell.”

“Go ahead, enter.”

“I’m not sure if this is a good idea.”

“Finn, you gotta do it. I’m stuck on this case your dad gave me so I can’t help you gain confidence. And lemme tell you something, that man is a maniac. He somehow brought his buddy into my case.”

“Barrett?”

“Yeah. I kinda hate him.”

Angie sighed.

“Just do it for Ava Vladimir. If we somehow do something great, we might bring her killer to justice. Isn’t that why you’re here? To do some right in the world? Be happy?”

Angie smirked. “That pep talk of yours was going great until you brought up the happiness part.”

“Hey, you said it yourself that you’re the ‘searching for happiness’ type of girl. Oh, and where’s Detective Finn? I’d rather have him on my back than Barrett Kanes.”

“He’s working on some case, I think,” Angie explained. “I don’t know, I think some murder happened at the East Mall and I overheard that Troy had some lead on the thing so I assume my dad is just looking deeper into the thing. But I don’t know, Troy could very well be in his office.”

“Well, go ahead and barge into his office and check if that human is there.”

Angie thought of the time Troy barged into her once. She was in her father’s office, something no one should’ve seen, but the Troy boy wasn’t thinking. He was nervous and acting strangely. But Angie let it slide because she thought it was just Troy being Troy.

After realizing Miki has been chatting up her phone while her attention wasn’t quite there, Angie said a small sorry. “Miki, I’ll keep you updated on Operation V when it’s in motion but right now, I’m about to throw up.”

“Operation V?” Miki repeated while letting out a snort.

“Yeah, you know, V for Vladimir.” Angie furrowed. “Is that too obvious?”

Miki let out another snort. “See you Monday, Finn.”

After she hung up the phone, Angie locked her eyes on Troy’s white door.

The door was Troy. Crusty, pale, tired of being used, touched all over just to be slammed; Troy was like a door. Maybe it was Angie and her nerves getting to the best of her but that was how she saw Troy. The best she could do was associate him with a dumb door.

Staring at just his office door made Angie sick to her knees. She could imagine Troy’s broad shoulders hunching over her small body, while creasing his forehead at the sight of her once their eyes met. She aimlessly thought of the boy, happy or not, because his image was so clear to her that she couldn't help but stray her thoughts towards from him.

Before knocking, Angie felt all her weight fall towards the tips of her fingers. She wanted to run. She wanted to scream. Yet through all the doubts she had against Troy Vladimir, Angie wanted to see the wrinkles on his face when he frowned or at least the light shining in his dark eyes. She wanted to see him no matter the meaning.

After a long minute of fighting with herself, Angie pushed the door open to reveal herself to Troy.

“Yeah Jackie, I want to see my Aunt but I just don’t know when. I have these crazy shifts at the precinct now so I can’t tell when I’ll be available. I jus-”

He stopped talking the second his office door opened. As Angie walked into his office, Troy was sitting on his chair, facing the window. He was holding his main phone line, as he turned around to see his visitor.

Troy’s eyes widened as Angie’s eyes met his. He quickly ended his call before Angie could say anything. Angie noticed how rough his voice was the second he hung up. He was talking to whoever Jackie was like she was the source of his anger.

“Shit,” Troy breathed. “Finn.”

“Angie,” she corrected him. “Don’t call me Finn.”

“I hear Mikayla Russett call you that,” Troy defended. “But as you wish. Angie, what’s up?”

As he stood up from his behind his desk, Troy pushed hands in his slack pockets. The sight of Troy made Angie stare. Just stare.

“Uh, yeah,” Angie coughed, “I needed something from you but it sounded like you were in the middle of something,” she said while shrugging. “It could wait until Monday during your work hours.”

Troy shook his head while checking the time. “I’m pretty sure you were standing out there for a while,” he said while nodding his head towards the hallway, “so the best I could do is listen to you talk.”

HE KNEW I WAS OUT HERE, Angie thought. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

As Angie sat into one of his office chairs, Angie’s hands started to form fists. She tried to unfold them into her dress pockets without seeming too stiff but by the look on Troy’s face, she must’ve failed. Angie noticed how Troy kept his distance from her, like, he was being extra careful around her.

Angie swiftly asked, “Sooo, who’s Jackie?” and tried to play it cool. After the short pause, she was sure she was freaking him out.

To Angie’s surprise, Troy calmly answered, “She’s a friend from back home.”

She saw Troy leaning against the edge of his desk as he folded his hands on his lap. Because he was listening to her closely, Angie’s hands started to shake.

“Speaking of home,” Angie slowly said, “how was that? Home, I mean, uh, how was home?”

Angie watched Troy slowly shift his tense body while he pushed his eyebrows together. He flatly answered, “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Angie,” he breathed. “What did you want to talk about?”

Angie assumed that Troy didn’t mean to sound so rough. Angie saw that Troy was trying to sound kind but it was obvious that it was in his nature to sound irate all the time.

“Right. I’m on this case my father threw at me because he needs to focus on present cases. I was wondering if I could get your thoughts on it.”

After a long pause, Angie realized how quickly she was speaking.

She watched Troy nod slowly. “Sure. Let’s look up the file in the system.” He stood up and circled his desk.

“Yeah, I’m new to this so be gentle,” she said as she forced a laugh. After saying that, Angie realized she sounded stupid.

While maintaining his eyes on his computer screen, Troy laughed at Angie's Joke. “Right. Well, just tell me the case name and it should pop up.”

She coughed. “Tripp Underwood.”

Before typing anything, Troy stood up to shut his office door. After turning around to face Angie, Troy began to shake. His fingers started to twitch while he tried to maintain a straight face. Angie could see some terror in his eyes but he masked it all too quickly before she could think furthermore about it.