Olivia Teasri:The First Case

Characters in Chapter 1:

Olivia Teasri (main character)

Karla Vernezi (the supposed mother of April Vernezi)

Yana Hazna (the assistant)

Claudio Teasri (the brother)

Date: September 9th, 2012 Time: 2:30 PM

I’ve officially joined the team of detectives. This is my first case. What’s bugging me is that this girl, April Vernezi, has been reported… missing, but there isn’t any record of her… The mum says she went missing last night at 1 AM. I’ve been told to drop the case, but I just can’t get it out of my head… What could have happened? And why do they want me to drop the case? This case… how come no one wanted to try to solve it?

Date: September 10th, 2012 Time: 3:04 PM

I’m on my way to meet the mother now. Karla Vernezi. I researched Karla beforehand. Apparently, she’s in prison for the murder of a girl called Sabrina Evarianzi. Maybe that’s why the others are telling me to drop the case. They probably don’t trust Karla.

“Miss Vernezi, can you tell me why there is no record ever documented of a girl called April Vernezi?”

Karla looks at the wall and then back to me.

“Oh… that’s strange, are you sure? 

Maybe you just didn’t look hard enough. It makes sense because April was not born here.”

Just as I was going to respond, my phone buzzed with a ping full of messages. It was my assistant, rushing me to come to the office. I slipped my phone back into my pocket and looked at Karla.

“Karla, my advice for you is to bring proof or anything we can use to find out where or if this April existed.”

I paused for a second and said, “I’ve got to say… no one really believes your story. I will try to help you. I have an emergency at the office, but if you do have any evidence, message the police department and I’m sure they will let me know.”

“Thanks… I will.”  I don’t know why, but this case doesn’t feel right.

“May I ask, when April left last night, supposedly, did she say anything to you?” Karla ignored me.

I noticed the frustration in her voice as she made her way upstairs to grab some sort of medication from the bedroom. I heard the floorboards creak as she went up, so I crept to the side of the stairs and took a peek at what was going on. 

Karla was holding a strange-looking medication. I should probably take a photo, I thought. I took a picture of her holding the medication in case it might become useful in the future.

This case is weird. And confusing… Something’s odd, and I don’t know why.

I just have a feeling that Karla’s hiding something and doesn’t want me to figure it out.

I zoned out and started overthinking. Could she be insane? Or maybe she just had a dream? And it got too realistic. I just don’t understand.

There is definitely more to the story than a child missing. I walked down the street and called for a taxi.

 I looked back and I noticed Karla hurried down to a small, secluded alleyway. I watched. I thought to myself, where could she be going? 

The taxi stopped and the driver looked at me with worry and asked,

“Miss, are you okay?” I snapped back out of my thoughts and smiled. “Yes, the police station, please.”

I got another message, then a call. I quickly messaged that I was on my way and I shut the taxi’s door behind me.

I began to get curious and decided to zoom into the photo of Karla with the medication. “What is this prescription for?”

When I finally arrived at the office, before the taxi even stopped, I saw my assistant rushing towards me. As soon as I left the taxi, she dragged my arm.

It was my assistant, Yana, who I’ve known

 since childhood. She dragged me to the side.

“Have you heard? Everyone is itching to find out what happened to April Vernezi!”

She looked at me and smiled. “We have so much to do but… We have to post.”

She took a picture and aggressively typed on her phone and gave a satisfied look and tossed her hair while striding down the hallway.

She turned back almost immediately, looked at me, and gave a sarcastic remark. “Are you coming?” I froze. What is going on?

I blinked and looked at her, and then I rushed  down the hall trying to see where Yana was going. I thought she might have wanted to go and start investigating, but then she went down to the parking lot and hopped in her car. She opened the back door and said, “We are going shopping!”

I looked at her with confusion and convinced myself there is probably a reason for going shopping, even though we have not even started the case. This is typical Yana… I guess.

We sped down the highway to the OuterMess Shopping Center. There, she looked at me with disgust. “Your outfits are, no offence, a bit tacky. These jeans look washed out and this top’s style has never even been in season. If you want to be wildly successful, you need to look wildly successful.”

She dragged me into Kashh. She didn’t wait a second. She grabbed a handful of clothes and pushed me to try them on. Why does it matter? “Yana, why do we need to buy clothes?”

Yana shrieked and said, “These are cute!” while holding up a cream jacket.

“I’m serious, Yana. We are losing time. Can we leave now?”

Yana looked stressed and tired. She completely ignored what I had to say.

After a full half hour, she  went to pay and looked refreshed and relieved, almost pleased with herself that we were wasting time. She was also excited for me to wear the new clothes since we got all her favourite styles of clothes.

 I looked at the time and thought the hospital might know something… Even if they don’t, I can ask about Karla’s prescription. I dragged Yana out.

I checked the time. The hospital will close in about an hour and a half. We have to go now. We drove as fast as we could.

When we arrived at WestWood Medical Center, something about this place was off. It looked run-down but not that bad. It was not luxurious but not cheaply made.

We were told to wait by a sweet young receptionist. She went to the staff room and spoke to one of the nurses. The receptionist pointed towards us and the nurse seemed extremely impatient.

I decided to do a bit of snooping while Yana spoke to the receptionist with a chillingly sweet voice she didn’t normally use. I snuck into the bathroom and I decided that if I was going to get information, I was going to have to get it myself. I walked along the corridors and then I had the best idea.

I knew exactly what to do. I yanked my phone out and dialled my brother. The perfect person to help me. He’s a total genius!

The phone rang  with a small but satisfying buzz. “Hey, Claudio!” 

 “Liv? Hi, how are you!”

“I’m doing good, thanks. How have you been?” “I’m doing just fine. I’ve not got lots of time to talk right now, so what do you want?”

“Claudio, I’m sure taking a few minutes away from uni will not kill you.” I rolled my eyes and laughed. 

“Are you able to come back home this weekend? I need your help.”

A wave of laughter shot  through the phone. “You! Need my help?” “Stop being so dramatic!”

“I’m not being dramatic. I’m genuinely surprised,” Claudio said, trying to hold his laugh. “YOU need MY help!”

“Are you going to or not?” I shot back. “Sure… but what do I get in return?”  “What do you want, Claudio?”

“I don’t know what I want, to be honest. Wait, I know.” Claudio sighed. “I want… your laptop!”

“WHAT? I’m definitely not giving up my laptop! If you think I’m going to, you’re being delusional!” “It’s a brand-new laptop!”

“Have it your way, Liv. I’m sure you’ll be able to do whatever you’re doing.” I took a deep breath. I hesitated. “FINE. I’ll give my laptop to you, even though you barely come home anyway.”

“Perfect!” cheered Claudio. “Can’t wait!” Claudio  said with a vicious laugh. Annoyed, I tried to process what just happened. Did I really just give my laptop to him?

I paced towards the reception, where Yana sped towards me. “We’ve got to go!” She dragged my hand as we hurried to make our way to the exit. “What happened?” I asked.

“Listen, I don’t trust this place… They were acting weird earlier, and then they came up to me and said they think we should go.”

“Did you manage to ask them about a prescription at all?” I whispered. “I did. They were being very strange, VERY strange.” 

What are we going to do now? I think to myself…