Selena

'Who told the press?' the chief barged into the office enraged, 'when and how did this get out?!' he was whispering to Sergio, who looked at me

Cleo's death had spread so much, it was on the news, viral on social media, and every detective had their eyes glued to the little TV in the room.

After all of our digging, we traced it back to an anonymous tweet.

'Amy...' Sergio spoke to her through the vault, while the chief and I listened in, 'did you post this statement about the police being in charge of Cleo's murder... which has now gone viral?!' Giving that annoying teenage glance as she often did, Amy didn't respond. 'Amy?!' he seethed, in a sighing whisper. Amy rolled her eyes and walked to the distant side of the vault.

'Look! I don't know the truth', she grumbled.

'Why would you write this?' Sergio asked.

'Why not?' In her own head, she was the hero. But her very statement had begun a virtual war online, and the reputation of the Bluebridge Police department was in gradual decline in the media. As long as we were nailed in the spotlight for murdering an innocent girl, things wouldn't go well.

'But we don't even know who killed Cleo yet!' Sergio blurted.

'Even if you didn't murder her, the police are still corrupt', Amy retorted, 'did you forget... when you almost starved me to death?!' To some degree, she had a point, and it was something I warned Sergio about, but it wasn't as big as being framed for an unjust murder.

Inside the vault, we set up an interrogation. Sergio pointed out an image from his laptop screen, who appeared to be my sister's mafia ex-lover: Tabitha. At first, Amy was reluctant to give us information on her, but now she was willing to give up anything to avenge Cleo's death.

'Why was she investigating us?' Sergio asked, 'on a wall... I saw images of Kai, Selena, and some other people from our department, and her...' again he pointed at Tabitha.

'I don't know', Amy replied, 'I think it helped her find you. It was all about you'.

'No...' Sergio sat back in thought, each snapshot probably skimming through his mind, 'no– it couldn't have been'. Sharply, he twisted to face me.

'Selena'.

'Yeah? What?' He zoomed into a specific image on his screen.

'Is this your sister?' he asked. Already, I didn't like where this was going. Slow and hesitantly... I nodded, 'why does she have arrows connecting to this woman?' he pointed at Tabitha. Pretending not to know anything, I shrugged. 'Do you know who she is?' Sergio turned back to Amy.

'Acosta's boss. She's in charge of the whole organization, goes by The Vixen', Amy explained. Of all the scenarios that could've possibly ran through Sergio's head, I was betting on one specifically.

Why would The Vixen have Cleo murdered? Because... ever since they obtained the jewel Amelia, she became irrelevant to The Vixen and Acosta. She was also a high risk to The Vixen's operations, that needed to be eliminated. Therefore, under The Vixen's orders, the hitman framed our department for Cleo's murder, creating a smokescreen to confuse us, and allowing them time to be one step ahead of their game.

The chief liked it.

He rolled with the scenario that the police department was framed by a criminal heist organization, because not only did it sound better than what the news was saying about Bluebridge detectives, it gave Amy a stronger incentive to lead us to Acosta. Therefore, we came to a unanimous agreement. Acting as the mouthpiece of the whole department, Lao went forward to the press with that story.

In our formal disguises, Sergio, Amy and I turned up to Acosta's home, his stately territory in which he was holding a special event for private collectors that evening. In the hilly suburbs of Bluebridge, his mansion was located on a sloping hill, surrounded with acres of curated land, with a beautiful cityscape view.

One problem; the man had levels of security into his building.

'There's usually a one-way system into his stupid events, and a specific entrance', Amy explained, while we sat in the car scheming our seamless trespass.

'Do you know which entrance it is?' Sergio asked.

'No. He switches it up all the time', Amy mumbled, 'it could be from anywhere'. To our luck, we watched as guests arrived, entering the gate we were already nearby.

'Wait...' Sergio's face lit up as he watched the first car go by, 'is that... Priscilla? That's her car'. When she popped her head out of her window, the security men at the gate greeted her warmly. 'What's she doing here?!'

'Well... she is the man's lawyer. It's no surprise...' I suggested, 'she's probably here to make sure everything... runs smoothly'. In a straight row behind Priscilla, the cars lined up and entered without having to show their faces or any sort of pass. 'this is our opportunity'. Nice and casually, I drove us behind the last car, slowly creeping towards the gate until we got through.

'Excuse me ma'am?' shit, 'your car registration is not in the system. What's your name?'

'Ah...' I paused and looked at Sergio, then back at the security man, 'Valerie – Smith', I uttered. Searching for my false name, he skimmed through his iPad.

'Valerie... Smith...' to my surprise, he ticked off the name, 'you noted that you would be coming individually, so who's that?' he pointed at Sergio.

'Er-erm...' Sergio glanced at me as if I were stirring up a recipe for disaster. While I desperately sought another lie, I grabbed his hand, then smiled angelically to the guard, 'he's... my husband'.

'And who's that?' After closely eyeing Sergio, he shifted his attention to Amy.

'Our daughter', I replied. With a raised brow and grim face, the guard eyed the three of us intently, then waved us in. In relief, I silently exhaled. 'Erm... can we run through the plan again?'

'For starters, let's not be a family', Amy hinted.

'Yeah – obviously!'

'We'll slowly infiltrate each and every one of Acosta's team until we have them surrounded', Sergio explained, 'the elimination process. We find out which one killed Cleo'.

'Awesome', I sighed.

'But first, Amy, I need you to compromise Acosta's security system'.

'What? I can't do that'. A pop-up walk-through tunnel of security had been installed before the main entrance of the house, and I noticed an electronic pass was needed to open the steel barrier for each person entering. 'That was something Cleo did. I did all the field stuff'.

'Are you telling me you can't deactivate a single thing?!'

'Yes!' Within seconds, Sergio's high expectations for this girl were crushed. We had to think of something quick before a random guest or security caught us off guard. Standing before the barrier was already suspicious enough. Enraged, Amy beat her hand against the barrier, breathing heavy, pacing back and forth. From the fire in her eyes, I could tell she was transformed by Cleo's sudden death. It was like... she was ready to kill.

'Now what do we do?' I asked, skimming the barriers to find a deactivation button, a crack or something, 'if we mess this up, we'll screw the whole plan'. Sergio joined me.

'Nothing is getting messed up', Amy replied, with an unexpected surge of confidence...

Acosta's foyer was ornamented with expensive paintings, and plinths exhibiting stolen diamonds on auction. Every guest present had intent to buy, so I assumed they were all covert millionaires. Granted, the jewels were all priceless in their value, but couldn't match the intrinsic value of Amelia.

'So you can open closed barriers with your powers?' I criticized Amy while we hurried through the tunnel, 'wow. Why didn't you just tell us you could do that before?'

'If there's something I suddenly know I can do with my powers, I'll let you know', she responded sardonically. 'I'm gonna find his control room'. Naturally, the three of us split up, but we only had as long as until the real Valerie Smith showed up before disruption would begin.

To camouflage into the crowd, I walked into a conference room, where the auctions were taking place. A rare onyx, African jewel they called Black Panther was being sold to the highest bidder. Most of the jewels didn't belong in the region.

Since the room was so full, I shuffled over to the dim lit bar, just in time to find our first suspect.

'It's an exotic beauty, isn't it?' he began our small talk. I nodded. Slowly he reverted his attention to my face, 'but it clearly isn't as exotic as you, beautiful lady'.

'How about that diamond, Amelia?' I asked, 'I hear that's up for auction'.

'Now that specific diamond... that's not for sale, my lady. It's already been purchased'.

'By who?'

'The prince of Saudi Arabia', he whispered. From one kingdom to another, the stolen diamond was sold just like that. Shady. Judging from his inside knowledge, this man seemed to be an equivalent rank to Acosta, the purchase handler.

'Mmmn', I grabbed a glass of prosecco from the bar and sipped, 'do you have any close colleagues around?' My role was to mark as many of Acosta's workers as possible, keeping them tracked.

Amy was deactivating Acosta's security gates, creating multiple pathways for the standby SWAT team to flood in. Sergio, probably distracted, was conversing with Priscilla in the distance.

Great.

She wasn't even supposed to know we were here, but suddenly we had a bigger problem unfolding. With a team, the security guard at the gate was looking for me, meaning my "Valerie Smith" alias expired.

'There! She's over there!' as soon as his eyes met mine, he pushed through the people, spilling drinks, shoving shoulders. Again, I submerged myself into the crowd and dodged until I got into the elevator. Peering over the stair balcony from the third floor, I noticed they were climbing, and fast.

'Sergio', I whispered through my megaphone, 'I've been compromised. It won't be long until they come after you guys'.

'I'm with Amy in Acosta's control room. And you're at the Atrium. We see you', he replied, watching me through a camera, 'go east'.

'What about Priscilla'.

'We have her handled. She won't speak'. I started running east, and found myself at a dead end, with a panorama hall full of renaissance paintings, 'keep going', Sergio prompted, 'there's a hidden door that leads to the Crystal room'. Moving around anti-clockwise, I patted down the velvet walls. 90 degrees into my patting, I finally felt a crack. 'Be careful. Everything past that door has no surveillance or cellular network'.

'But I'll still be able to hear you, right?'

'Sure'. The louder security's echoey footsteps became, the hastier I acted, 'the door won't open'. Above the door was a long red light that meant locked. 'Sergio!'

'Hang on', he replied, making me more nervous. Eyes skimming the round room of paintings, the man at the gate arrived. I gulped. 'try now'. The red light above the door became green, but by then Acosta's security had spotted me go through the door. In their faces I slammed it shut, and the light became red again.

'Dammit!' I panted, out of breath. This wasn't good. As I walked slowly through the private corridor, I kept my hand on my gun always. 'Hello?' muffled voices came from further down, 'is anyone there?' At the end of the corridor was a single door, the only way to the other side. I walked through, only to find myself staring at another empty room of renaissance paintings.

'What are you doing?' Sergio asked through the megaphone, 'don't go too deep'.

'Can I help you?' came a voice from behind me. Paralyzed by the shock, I instinctively went int defence mode. It couldn't be. 'Hey, relax, and lower your gun...please?'

'Selena? Selena is everything okay?' Sergio heard my shriek, assuming otherwise. Tabitha... walked towards me. Pin-pointing my megaphone, she reached for my ear and disabled it, while my gun shivered in her direction.

'I thought you were incarcerated in Brazil', I wavered, 'w-what are you doing here?' A sneaky grin grew on her face. At a coffee desk behind her were two men dressed in black. Her tanned skin drew attention to the whiteness of her hair, short with a fringe. 'You need to get out of here'.

'So, you must be the baby sister', she whispered on my neck. My tensity excited her.

'End this thing you have with Solange – and stay away from her. She doesn't love you anymore', I demanded. Quickly, her grin became a frown.

'Then why did you both set up a call to me?' she countered, 'wasn't it to tell me you missed me? Or... was it a set up all along?' Walking back to her coffee table, she lifted a cigarette to her mouth, 'you're sister can't get over me'.

'Why not?!'

'Selena Rose...' she whispered my name, serene and mysterious, 'one day you'll understand, when you begin to fall in love with the one you are forbidden to love...' she reapproached, all suspenseful '...it's dangerous not to let them go'. I didn't get what she was trying to say. At that moment I thought of Michael.

'Thanks for the proverb, but I'm not forbidden to love anyone'.

'You're cute', she smirked, then inhaled more smoke, 'but I don't think you understand me'.

'You don't understand', I retorted, 'the lengths I had to go through to keep you and my sister out of trouble. The call you had, some weeks back, was tapped. If that information got out, not only would you two go down, but I would also go down for being associated with you'.

'Wait... how do you know the call was tapped?' Tabitha asked, 'and by who?'

'That doesn't matter now. You need to go'. In rebellion, she folded her arms, and scoffed, 'let me tell you what's gonna happen. In about...' I glimpsed at my watch, 'thirty seconds, three-hundred SWAT officers will swarm into this house, retrieving all the jewels and diamonds you've stolen. They will arrest Acosta on site, and all his present subordinates who all work for you. They will also infiltrate all private rooms, including this one, and you and your goons will be here waiting for them'.

'Wow. You really are a snaky one, aren't you?' Finally, Tabitha got the idea, gathering her men and escaping through another private tunnel. I switched my megaphone back on.

'Selena? Are you in trouble?'

'No. All good'.