Gio took one more drag on his cigar as the car lurched to a stop. Looking up into the rearview mirror his eyes connected with Vinny.

Vinny cleared his throat, “Erm… Boss? Are you sure this is such a good idea? I mean she *is* a detective.”

Gio popped open his door and flicked his cigar out. “Ah shaddap Vinny. Just take a spin around the block would ya.”

Gio slammed the door and faced the modest house at the end of the walkway. It was a cute home, standard for the suburbs, but it had a bit of charm to it. Her charm. There was a bright red door and potted plants everywhere. An old tabby darted through the ferns, its tail flicking in joy.

Gio twitched and began to rehearse lines in his head. Again. He was only up-all-night practicing. Letting out a big sigh, he knocked on the red door.

The sound of someone stumbling inside was followed by the fumbling of locks. The door lurched open revealing the source of his angst.

“Er… Hi Jenny” he fumbled.

“GIO! What are you doing here? She all but shouted. She leaned her head out of the frame and quickly looked around before she grabbed his arm and drug him inside.

“Gio why are you here? What would happen to you if the Mob knew you were leaking information!” She groaned and began to drag him toward another room. “Gio, I know we talked about what it means to be an informant. Were you not listening?” she chided.

Despite the irate lecture, Gio couldn’t help the flutters in his stomach. The way she had a firm grip on his hand was making him shake almost as much as when he whacked Old Marco.

Pushing those thoughts out of his head he continued, “Jenny we need to talk…”

“You’re damn right we do Gio! I’m so close to solving this damn thing. I just need you to give me one more hint to tie it together. If I can take down the Infantino Crime Family that would be the biggest bust this century!”

“No, Jenny it’s not that I…” he froze. Jenny had led him into a dark room and flicked on the lights. Gio’s eyes widened in disbelief. The wall was covered in blurry photos. Red string intersected the room connecting the photos in an undecipherable mess. The floor was even worse. Papers were cluttered on the floor, each containing what appeared to be the ramblings of a mad woman.

Gio refocused on Jenny. She was a mess, to say the least. Her normally stunning brown hair lay tangled and greasy, her glasses were smudged, and her white shirt sported a yellowish stain. Gio was pretty sure that was her favorite spicy brown mustard he gave her last Christmas.

Even worse, her eyes darted back as if she was desperately looking for an escape. Gio placed his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “Jenny you're twitching. When’s the last time ya got some sleep?”

She shrugged him off and collected some papers on the floor before pinning them against the others.

Gio sighed and started to clean up some of the mess. Papers, old plates, and clothes were shoved in a pile. On the desk were 7 empty cans of the latest energy drink.

He held one up and shook it, “Jenny don’t tell me ya drank all of these. You know how bad those are for ya.”

Jenny ignored him and began to gesture at the wall, “Look Gio, this is that café. The first clue.”

“Our first date.” He mumbled.

“I wasn’t sure how to tie that one in yet. But if you look over here this one is when you showed me that pier! I know you can’t say why, but I’m pretty sure that’s where the bodies would be right…” she continued rambling.

“…the fireworks” Gio groaned.

“… and over here! When we went to the top of that Ferris wheel! That one was a real stumper, but I figured it wasn’t about the wheel at all!”

Gio’s eyes perked up in hope.

“It’s the carnies! They must be on it. I always thought those clowns seemed extra shifty and come on what type of woman can even grow a beard? She’s in the mob I tell you!” Jenny raised her hands in triumph.

Gio rubbed his eyes in despair, “Or it was the romantic view.”

Jenny continued to ignore Gio as her ramblings increased until Gio clapped his hands together in frustration.

“All right Jenny, what’s it gonna take? Do I need to take you to a jewelry store and just put a ring on it?” he flustered.

Jenny’s eyes perked up.

“Oh, Gio that’s it!” she grabbed a piece of paper and slapped a crude drawing of a ring on it before taping it to the wall. “It all makes sense now; the jewelry store is a front! That’s where they're cleaning all their money!”

Gio’s quiet sobs of despair filled the room as he collapsed on Jenny’s bed.

Jenny hummed, “Wait.”

For a split second, hope poured into Gio’s soul as he lifted his tear-filled eyes from the pillow.

“Gio with this new connection… I don’t believe it Gio! Gio it’s a pentagram!” she sounded amazed as she traced the lines with her hands. “Gio do you think they are working with Satan too? My my…” she stroked her chin. “… this might be above my pay grade after all.”

Soon the room was filled with only frantic scribbles and Gio’s muffled sobs.

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[removed]

He stared at the house down in cherry lane for brief moment. A normal looking house with grey walls and a white ceiling decorated with flower pots. It was a special normal house though. It was hers. The woman of his dream's house.

He fixed his hair in Ann's car window and started thinking about her reaction when she sees him as he was hesitating to ring the bell. Ringing a simple bell seemed harder than stealing a train, he finally proceeded to knock.

"Coming!" A female voice said. Tommy realized that voice, it was Ann's. He started posing, crossed arms, leaning on the wall and... but he decided just to go with hands in pockets as he heard a creak. "Hey Mon come on in, you can't believe what I just found! He left another clue, I don't know if he's stupid or he's doing it on- " She looked. She finally looked , clearly in disbelief she was staring at the guy she's been chasing for the past 9 months. Tommy smiled at a confused, messy looking Ann who was wearing a kitten t-shirt. "Hello detective." Tommy said playfully, "How have you been?"

Ann did what her instinct told her to, she shut the door. Tommy let out a disappointed sigh and grumbled "Here she goes again.." "Tom Thompson, you're under arrest, put your hands where I can see them." It was Ann pointing at Tommy with a gun and a determined look, you could see joy in her face. The fact that she was so looking forward to arresting him was annoying but he shrugged it off anyway. With his hands up he said "Oh come on detective! I came here all by myself and you won't let me in?" Ann gave him a suspicious look. "I could give you info on One Eyed Assef?" Ann narrowed her eyes, Tommy was still grinning, she finally gave in. "Alright, but we're doing this under my rules."

"..My my detective, I didn't know you were into this stuff." Tommy said, handcuffed to a chair. "Alright Tommy spit it out, why are you here? Are you here to finally destroy all the info you leaked? Because it's no use, I've already copied them all." Ann continued rambling with a smug on her face. "You're cute when you don't know what you're talking about." Ann rolled her rolled her eyes "Alright so why are you here?"

"To ask you out?" Tommy said it like it was an obvious thing and in fact, it was. He's bought Ann gifts for her birthday and valentine's day, he's taken her out to places, he's even had fireworks spelling out her name when they were out. But no, Ann didn't take the hint, it was all clues to her. She gave him a puzzled look. Tommy sighed. "Ann? Ever thought that maybe taking you out and buying you flowers meant something other than clues?" "..What's your point?" "My point is I like you and I want you to go out with me, besides if I wanted to leak information I would've just emailed them to you."

Ann was silent. "That's.. new." Tommy raised his eyebrows and gave her a 'is it?' look. "I- I'm still a detective and-" Someone started knocking the door. "Ann! You there?" It was Monica, Ann's friend. "Coming Mon! Just a sec!"

When Ann looked at Tommy again, he was already out of his cuffs and he was running to the window. "Bye bye detective! See you on our date!" "Wait!" Ann started running but it was too late. She stared as the man got away and his shadow vanished.

"..He got away." She said. For a moment, she didn't know how to feel.
"Dammit!" I said for a moment.