Detective Softly and The Nexus Pit of Deceit

"Ach, fluff!" cursed Detective Inspector Scott Softly after he nicked his cheek with his straight razor. "Who is calling now?" Softly was a meticulous man who refused to shave with anything other than a straight razor. "When you get to my age, you want your face to be as smooth as a baby's bottom," he regaled to Corporal Delightful once too often.

Corporal Delightful had accepted the dare to be Inspector Softly's assistant while he was on secondment to find the Truth. If truth be told however, she was more of a man Friday or woman Friday than a bonafide assistant. They tolerated each other but rarely indulged in pleasantries let alone gave away secrets to each other.

Softly picked up the phone from the floor and glanced at the screen. "1 missed call," it said. "Well, fluff me that's no surprise," thought Softly. "Of course I missed it, I was shaving my face," thought Softly. There was a name next to the missed call... MOODY.

Softly had nicknamed the person who had been sent to help him solve the crimes as Moody because she was moody. "Oh hell yeah," thought Softly. "One day she was so helpful and actually helped, yet other days she was like a beautiful statue, pretty to look at but non-fluffing productive."

"I wonder what kind of day I shall have with Moody," Softly laughed.

"Ah well, I better find out what is going on," he thought and finished washing his face before getting dressed.

He hit the call-back button.

"It's happened again, Sir," Moody said.

"I told you to stop calling me Sir," Softly said, biting his tongue before he said, "I told you to stop calling me Sir, Moody!"

"This time it's an eighteen-year-old."

"Boy or girl?"

"Boy."

"So all three victims have been male," whispered Softly softly. "How very interesting. So what are we thinking, Delightful? Is the attacker male or female?"

"How would I know?" pouted Delightful. "You are the so-called Detective!"

"Here we go again," thought Softly. "I knew I shouldn't have put the moody feeling out into the universe!" "Yes, well come and pick me so you can take me to the crime scene."

Followed by a please, after a three-second pause between them.

"Look out the window, Sir. I am here and have been waiting for you!"

"Where to, sir?" Delightful asked softly as he slid into the front seat beside her.

"The alleged crime scene, of course. Where do you think we're going, planet-fluffing SAS?" blurted an exasperated Detective Softly.

They drove in silence for fourteen minutes until Delightful came to a halt outside a building that Softly presumed was a student's hall of residence, seeing as they had entered the Hallowed Brown District University campus.

"This is it?"

"Yes, the latest male victim lived on the second floor next door to the OnyeAla sisters."

"Right then, Delightful, lead the way!"

They entered the building and ascended the flight of stairs, Softly observing everything without moving his head.

"He has the peripheral vision of a chameleon," Delightful's boss had warned, "just a favor I am doing for you. He misses nothing. Learn from him, and you will do well."

Delightful had been sent undercover to Nexus, the city in the west of HBD, to infiltrate and stem the flow of scamming operations that emanated from there.

"What are you doing here?" growled a smelly, spotty-faced youth who was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"You invited us in," said Softly softly, "remember?"

"No!" responded the youth.

The two police officers looked at each other. The youth was not telling the truth; that was obvious.

"What's your name, son?" asked Softly.

"I am Jennifer Lightly, and I am 11 years and 69 days old—I mean, young," said the youth.

"Okay, nice to meet you, Jennifer. Has anyone from the OnyeAla sisters' room come to see you recently, Jennifer?"

"No," said the youth and shook his head vigorously.

Delightful took the cue and said, "Okay Jennifer, that's wonderful. Have a great day."

"The rumours could be true then," whispered Softly as they left the youth alone on his bed and closed the door softly.

"It could be" said Delightful "here is the door to the OnyeAla sisters' room."

"Let's interrogate them" said Softly.

Delightful knocked on the door.

The younger sister Faith, opened the door.

"Hello Faith" said Delightful, much to the surprise of Softly, who quickly realized they were Nexus residents.

"Oh hello Dful," Faith replied. "What are you doing here?"

"My boss Detective Softly, has a couple of questions about the boy next door."

"Bring them in Faith" boomed a voice from inside.

Softly followed the ladies inside and was brought before a rather voluptuous young woman who announced herself as Mystic Meg, who knows all.

"How can I help you, Scotty?" the beaming Meg crowed.

"You might know my name, Meg, but you aren't that clever. You know why we're here, though, don't you?"

"Of course I do. You want to know what happened to Johnny — I mean wee Jennifer next door."

"Wrong!" countered Softly "I know what happened next door. I want to know what you were doing last Saturday and the Saturday before that. Did you go visit David Starch and James Shirt? Don't answer; we know you did. You're on CCTV. Who was with you though? We know it was your sister Faith but there was one other girl."

"Whoa, slow down" said Meg, visibly sweating as Faith fiddled with her hair nervously.

"No, you speed up" said Softly. "You are going down. You are scammers, and you have scammed the Truth from three victims. The sentence is a hell of a long time in Truth rehabilitation for you and your sister. How do you think Faith is going to cope when they get their hands on her in there?"

"Okay okay" bleated Meg, with tears starting to roll down her cheeks.

"I don't know her name. She came from the Golden Dragon and demanded we show her three male law students as she needed Truth."

"I see" said Softly.

"Time for a road trip. Faith, Meg, get your witches' brooms or your purses or whatever else you need. You are showing us the way to this Golden Dragon."

"Scotty!" Delightful tugged on his sleeve. "I know the way to Nexus and the Golden Dragon."

"I know you do Delightful, but I want to get a confession from them in the car."

All four quickly left the room, and in a matter of seconds were driving toward the city of Nexus.

Softly had heard all the rumours about Nexus. People who were not prepared to work for an honest living tended to drift there and once the tentacles were in there was no escaping; you got dragged down to their level.

"It wasn't us" blurted Faith. "It was him! He made us do it."

"Do what?"

"Jeffrey Lie Lie it was him" sobbed Faith, who had broken into hysterics.

"Shut your mouth, now!" spat Meg.

"No, Meg, I can't do it anymore. It was not me; it was Jeffrey Lie Lie and that barawo woman."

"Barawo?" asked Softly.

"Yes, Theresa Barawo, you know, the one wanting to study law. She needs the Truth to get in."

"Shut your mouth Faith!" spat Meg again.

An hour later, they had stopped at the bridge that was the entrance to Nexus. Commander Chola Chola had come out of his little hut. His eyes bulged like a bloated fly. "Who goes there? Oh, Meg, how are you? Coming home so soon?"

"Ehm, no, just a flying visit," she said.

Chola Chola lined up the car onto the bridge and dropped them to the lower level that Nexus was based on.

"Where to?" asked Delightful.

"The Golden Dragon of course," said Softly. "Let's see what Jeffrey Lie Lie and his woman Theresa Barawo, have to say for themselves."

"Yes," said Faith, whose tears had miraculously vanished.

"You know she is his concubine," muttered Faith maliciously.

"Really?" said Delightful and raised her eyebrow at Softly.

The air grew stale with the stench of burnt cooking fat as they approached the Golden Dragon Chinese restaurant. The narcotics squad had long tried to bust it for being a drug den, but Jeffrey Lie Lie had always been one step ahead of them.

Putting Theresa Barawo through law school was another blatant attack on the establishment.

The lizard opened the door, and his forked tongue seemed to hiss as he rasped, "Hello, Detective Softly, welcome to my humble abode."

No sooner had the doors opened than a small, bespectacled girl came barreling down the steps and launched herself onto Faith.

"You liar! We heard you, you dirty liar! We heard you!"

"Well done, Faith," sobbed Meg.

"I don't care! I will perform any lie for my Jeffrey!" screamed Faith.

"Faith OnyeAla, I am arresting you on three counts of Truth theft."

THE END

This story is written for the Scholar and Scribe Invitational and includes the 2 prompts ...
🎥 Genre: Detective
🎨 Theme: Mystery

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