Prologue
“Stop!” Shinta shouted at the man dressed in all black whom she was chasing.
Instead of obeying her order, the man who was wearing a balaclava covering his face ran faster. Of course, he wanted to run, because the woman who was running after him was a police officer who had just caught him and his friends red-headed when they were robbing a jewellery store nearby.
“I said stop!” Shinta yelled one more time. But the man ignored her.
Shinta stopped in her tracks, not for giving up the chase, but to pull her gun out of the holster wrapped around her hip. Then the policewoman pointed her gun at the robber.
When she intended to pull the trigger, her conscience suddenly protested. Her soft heart couldn’t stand watching someone else hurting because of her even though he was a criminal. At last, she decided to fire the gun into the air.
The robber’s heart missed a beat hearing the sound of gunshot. He came to a halt abruptly and checked if he was shot.
Taking advantage of the situation, Shinta hurriedly approached him. Knowing the policewoman got closer, the robber started running again.
The chase at that dark alley carried on. Both of them were out of breath, but neither of them wanted to give in.
The robber turned to the left alley with Shinta in hot pursuit. Unluckily, it turned out to be a dead end. Now, the robber with the ski mask was cornered.
“Hold up!” Shinta barked while pointing her gun at the robber’s head.
Spontaneously, the robber dropped his gun and held his hands in the air.
“Turn around!” she ordered firmly.
Carefully, the robber spun around. His eyes widened when he saw the policewoman standing before him. Quickly, he bowed his head, trying to conceal his expression from her.
Shinta approached the robber slowly whilst pointing her gun at him. And finally, she whipped the balaclava off the robber’s face.
She never knew that by removing the mask not only would reveal the identity of the man behind it but would also uncover the secret that was hidden from her all this time.
