Slow

5. She is the Show

HE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HE WAS GOING TO DO WITH HER.

The night before, Penn barely slept. Not that he ever did on a normal day (after working eight to five at the office, he worked for three extra hours at home), but this time it was the stress of Tido that kept him up.

Her push-and-pull tactic haunted him, her robbery nearly killed him and now her honest and vulnerable video buried him alive. Penn was at a loss of words.

He thought avoiding whatever was going on between him and Tido would suffice, but clearly it was leading to more problems. Problems that Penn was too old for! Problems that Penn had said no to ten years ago!

Brenda was rightfully furious when Penn told her what happened as soon as he got home the night before. He expected her lecture about Gabriel and how the old man should have retired long ago, but truthfully, Penn never saw the point in letting him go. Gabriel may have been stubborn, but he was also an undeniable hard worker.

By the morning, the news had spread like wildfire and the board of directors sent separate emails to find out what had happened. Locking his car parked opposite the Lingosphere building, Penn decided to send an official email to them after his meeting with the detective.

He was somewhat confused but relieved to find Fred's TCS van parked in front of the building. He was leaning against the hood and conversing with a male pedestrian wearing a black puffer jacket, dark jeans and navy boat shoes.

"Good morning, gentlemen," Penn greeted, approaching them.

They turned their heads to him and returned his greeting.

"Mr. Benson, nice to meet you, I'm Detective Naicker," The man introduced himself, holding out his hand.

"Nice to meet you, thank you for coming," Penn said, shaking his hand firmly.

"Shall we go inside?"

"I would like to have a quick word with Fred if you don't mind."

"Not at all," Detective Naicker reassured, then walked away. He stood at a distance he knew wouldn't allow him to hear their conversation.

"How are you doing today?" Fred asked.

"Okay."

"Sometimes okay is good enough."

"I suppose. I don't mean to be rude, but what are you doing here?"

"Just checking in," Fred answered. "It's protocol. How are Tamara and Gabriel?"

"Hard to say. I gave them the day off."

"Good idea," Fred nodded in agreement. "They definitely need the rest, especially Gabriel."

Remembering Gabriel's breakdown last night stabbed Penn's heart. He prayed the old man wasn't banging his head against the wall right now over Tido's robbery. He truly wasn't to blame. Penn had re-watched the footage with them -- no one could have suspected bad intentions coming from a father-daughter duo. Their mission to fool everyone succeeded. It was now up to the police to do their job.

Suddenly, a light bulb lit up in Penn's head. "I know this is last minute, and you can say no if it inconveniences your shift until six this evening, but could you patrol here?"

Fred's brows rose in surprise. "Oh? Don't you have extra security?"

"Gabriel has never worked well with others, let's put it that way," Penn reasoned, realising that Tido's video threw him off so badly last night, he didn't have the mental space to figure out his adjustments for the day.