Chapter four

Selena walked into the police station and spotted Darral. He was sleeping soundly at the back of the room on the receptionist's desk, his brown hair falling on his handsome face and his hands crossed to make a pillow. He had changed his clothes and decided to come back to work despite Owen's obvious insistence that he stay home.

Selena smiled to herself when she noticed some female cops secretly checking him out. One woman who had obviously come to file a complaint was shamelessly ogling him instead of paying attention to what the man in front of her was saying. Selena looked at Darral again whilst walking towards him. She didn't care about the women watching him sleep or the fact that they were suddenly glaring at her, it was their own creepyness to deal with _ she just wanted the recording of the interrogation. Knowing Darral, he probably didn't even let Andrew speak.

She stood beside him and nudged him with her hips. "Wake up you big ugly loser."

Yes, she might have been lying about the ugly part but that didn't matter because of its desired effects.

"Who are you calling ugly, beautiful?" Darral said looking at her with sleepy eyes and a small smile on his face.

"The interrogation." Selena said ignoring what he had called her. "We have to watch it together."

Darral sat up and stretched his hands. "You know what March, I would not mind you being the first thing I see every time I wake up. You're just the _"

"Flirt later Cooper but not with me. Get up and go home if you're so tired." She could feel the women burning holes on her because of the attention he was giving her but she was not concerned. She had bigger problems to think about; like why Gina had left a note on the refrigerator saying that she couldn't wait for dinner with a connivingly smiling emoji on it. Or maybe it was a normal smiling emoji? Either way, there was no way Gina was exited for dinner with her.

"Hmmmm," Darral said getting up and pocketing his hands. "Since I can't flirt with you, I'll just go home and sleep. The recording is with Owen."

Selena nodded and turned to head to Owen's office. "Aren't you going to ask me to stay?" Darral called from behind her. She just waved him off and continued walking. A few seconds later, she heard Darral's footsteps getting closer until he was walking beside her.

"Some people just hate me for no reason at all." Darral mumbled loud enough for her to hear. She just laughed lightly in response and kept walking.

"Good evening Owen." Selena said when she entered the office. Owen looked up at her and smiled warmly. He stood up and it was then that Selena noticed the woman there with him who was looking at her curiously. She looked like she was in her mid fifties and she was very stylishly dressed. Was she rich?

"Hello Selena. I would like you to meet miss Ryan. She and I have been together for a while now." Owen said gesturing to the lady. She had long black hair with a few grey strands and her pale grey eyes were almost impossible to look away from. She was beautiful.

"Nice to meet you miss Ryan." Selena said with a smile. Darral had walked past her to Owen's drawer at the back, only giving a small smile and nodding in acknowledgement at miss Ryan. Selena took it as they had already met before she had gotten there.

Miss Ryan laughed lightly and waved her hand dismissively. " Oh no need for formalities deary. You can call me Diana. Owen and I have been together for almost three years and there's never a day that he doesn't mention you Selena."

"Hush now my love. " Owen said to Diana with a warning look on his face. She just smiled at him and blew him a kiss. Watching them was like watching a young madly in love couple. Their little moment was ruined when Darral made a gagging noise at the back of the room making everyone's attention go to him.

"Darral you big hater." Selena scolded him with a small smile. He was always like that whenever in the presence of such display of emotions.

"I found the recording." He said ignoring her statement. "So can we go and watch it?"

Owen folded his hands, throwing a playful look in Darral's direction. "She didn't care if you left right?" Owen asked him. Darral hang his head and nodded.

"Not even a little bit." He answered. "She just waved and continued walking. She hates me."

Selena sighed and rolled her eyes when she realised that they were talking about her as if she wasn't there. Owen laughed while shaking his head. "Maybe next time my boy. Afterall, I am rooting for you."

Darral smiled and nodded happily and looked at Selena. She gasped and looked down. "Okay, I will be in our office. When you finally decide that you want to let me watch the interrogation, just come and join me."

She quickly walked out of the office, her heart pounding loudly in her chest. It was all because of the way Darral had suddenly looked at her. His look was way more intense than any look that he had ever given her. It was as if _

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and her nervousness. It was all probably all in her head but she couldn't help but think too much about it. She was a detective and half of her training involved reading situations and trading people. How had she not seen it before? How had she not seen that Darral was never just teasing or trying to get in her panties? How had she not seen that Darral was actually really in love with her?

"But when? When did he actually start to _" She shook her head to stop herself from finishing her sentence. Darral was not in love with her. Darral was not in love with her. Darral Cooper was definitely not in love with her _ it was just her imagination.

She sat down on the chair by her desk in the office that she had shared with Darral for almost four years. She smiled at the room they called their sanctuary and shook her head again. Suddenly, she laughed out loud at herself. It was all just in her head.

"If this is what happens when you are alone in here then I will hang around you so that you don't lose your sanity completely." Darral said when he walked in. He had caught her laughing alone at what he guessed was nothing in particular.

"Just show me the recording Cooper." She said still smiling. He was looking at her the same way that he always did and that helped her completely convince herself of her delusions.

Darral inserted a flash disk into his laptop that was on his desk before clicking a few buttons and putting the it on her desk. She thanked him, put on her headphones and started playing the recording.

Darral went back to his desk and started going through old files of the case they were working on while Selena arched the whole recording, all the while with a thoughtful look on her face. She was so focused on the interrogation that she didn't notice Darral secretly steal quick glances at her with a small smile.

After some time, she took off her headphones and looked at Darral who looked very busy with his work _ perhaps too busy. What she didn't know was that if she had looked up a millisecond earlier, she would have caught Darral looking at her intensely again.

"What makes you think that Asriel did it? Do you two have some sort of history and  are probably basing this on the clear fact that you hate him?" Selena asked in one breath.

Darral looked at her and shrugged. " I used my experience and my love for cop mystery novels."

Selena sighed and stood up, heading for the door. "Darral, that is not professional. I am going to call Asriel Parker right now and apologize to him. Then maybe I can actually ask him questions from a non-biased point of view."

Darral basically shot out of his seat and was infront of Selena, blocking her path. She glared at him but it didn't affect him in the slightest. "He cannot meet you yet. You need to be a complete stranger if our plan is going to work."

She crossed her arms and have him a questioning look. "What plan? And who is this our that you speak of?"

"Owen and Andrew also believe that my theories might be correct but with our line of work, that is nothing close enough to what we need inorder to stop him once and for all. We need evidence against him Selena but we have nothing at all." He stopped talking to guage Selena's reaction. She had put on a blank face and it was nearly impossible to read her.

"Talk Darral." She ordered. He nodded and took a deep breath and closed his eyes, as if fearing for the worst.

"So we may have devised a plan to get you into his house to keep an eye on him and report everything to us." Darral said quickly in one breath. The room was suddenly cold and quiet. He opened one of his eyes and looked at Selena.She had her mouth slightly open in surprise and she was pale.

"What?" It came out as a whisper. She couldn't hold in the fact that she was scared. What if Darral's intuition; AKA the cop mystery novels, was pinpoint right like it usually was? What if she was prancing right into the hands of the killer?

"Yeah, we devised a plan to get you_" Darral was cut off before he could finish his sentence.

"No." She stated and turned to walk back to her desk.

Darral held her shoulder but she shrugged it off without looking back. "But _''

"No." Again she cut him off. This time, he held her hand and pulled her back towards him, turning her to look at him in the process. Her cheeks flushed red at their proximity. It was the first time that they had been that close.

"Please Selena, hear me out." Darral pleaded, his eyes boring onto hers. She looked down nervously and sighed. She could already feel her resolve crumbling.

"Convince me as to why you think that he is guilty and maybe I will think about your plan." She said without looking up.

"Thank you." Darral whispered and let go of her as if sensing her discomfort. "Let's go back and talk to Darral and Owen."