“Mmm, this sushi is really good!” at a small sushi shop near the precinct, Jason gave Jeremy a thumb up: “You really know your stuff, Jeremy.”
“Thanks! I’m glad you like it!” Jeremy looked at Jason and then looked at Erika and forced a smile: “Do you like it Erika?”
“It’s really delicious. I don’t know how I missed this place.” Erika nodded and quickly turned her eyes to Caroline: “Maybe I should start looking around the precinct, instead of just focusing on the places near my apartment.”
“Yeah. We should ask Boss to put sushi on the menu.” Caroline picked up a thinly sliced piece of salmon: “I bet he could find some good fish if he really tries.”
“Not sure he would do it though. Sushi does not exactly fit his style.” Jason swallowed a piece of surf clam: “He likes his food stewed or barbequed - and plus he doesn’t cook fish very often.”
“But his matcha cake is the killer though. I would sure love a piece next time I visit you.” Erika laughed: “Jeremy you should visit them at the inn in San Jose if you got the chance - it is even better than Momma Becky’s.”
“Better than Momma Becky’s? Really?” Jeremy looked at Erika and turned to Caroline and Jason: “Don’t mess with me on this - I am a big fan of Momma Becky.”
“Huh. Let’s go there and buy a slice when we have the chance.” Caroline sipped her tea with a smile: “Where can we find that?”
“It’s actually a bit far from here. Better take a rideshare.” Erika answered: “It is good, a bit on the overpriced side. But - at least to me, your boss’s matcha cake has that distinct sense of clear and calming smell. I haven’t been able to find it anywhere else.”
“That might be because of the flowers in and around the inn.” Jason chuckled: “Which still baffles me till this day - how come we have so little guests?! I mean half our rooms are empty all the time.”
“And the reason for the lack of a good smell could just be San Francisco.” Caroline raised her brows and said.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Erika acted as if she was a bit offended: “Don’t talk shit about my city! Even though you might be kinda right.”
“I think it is definitely San Francisco. Not the cake.” Jeremy joked, which earned him an elbow jab from Erika.
“You guys sure you wanna go to the cemetery by yourself?” when they were almost done with their food, Erika asked Caroline and Jason: “I can ask some officers to accompany you. You guys are consultants, you are entitled to some level of protection when you are helping us with cases.”
“It’s fine. Officers need time off too. We’ll call.” Caroline said: “It’s a cemetery, I don’t expect anyone to bother us there.”
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“Yeah. But this is San Francisco. We have hardcore gangs here in close proximity. Gang wars actually happen.” Jeremy cautioned: “This is not like San Jose or Irvine, where a gang practically owns a zip code.”
“Come on Jeremy, why are you trying to freak them out here?” Erika hit Jeremy on the shoulder and asked.
“No worries. We can handle ourselves.” Jason gently tapped the table with his fingers: “If you guys need our help, call us. And call Boss if necessary - you have his number.”
“Yeah. But isn’t he in San Jose?” Jeremy asked: “What if something urgent happened?”
“Let’s just say he can help with much more than we could, when he has the time.” Caroline shrugged.
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After the sushi dinner, Caroline and Jason jumped on a rideshare car to a local cemetery that was recently defiled - by the name of Blessed Light Cemetery, a historic cemetery that held the remains of a locally famous saint, who organized charities and civilian rescue operations during and after the second world war, and whose grave was defiled.
“Saint Ackermann was a civil leader of the local church, and an international philanthropist who organized multiple war refugee and civilian rescue operations with his immense political connections and expended almost all of his family wealth doing so.” on the rideshare car, Jason found a wiki page on the saint that once resided in the now defiled grave.
“Wait, you guys are actually going to the cemetery?” the rideshare car driver asked Caroline and Jason with a shaking voice.
“Well, that’s what we put in the app.” Caroline asked.
“Oh, god. I’m afraid I can’t send you all the way. That place is too creepy.” the driver whined: “Can I just drop you guys off a few blocks away? I … I don’t wanna drive there.”
“Creepy? Creepy how?”
“Creepy like… creepy!” the driver sounded like he was about to cry any minute: “I know a few drivers that got close to it and all got into terrible accidents on their way back! Plus people been seeing some crazy shit around there man!”
“Tell us more about it, and you can drop us two blocks away.” Caroline said.
“Yeah, just two or three days ago.” the driver was happy to hear that his passengers were willing to negotiate the dropoff location: “A buddy of mine dropped off some young people at the cemetery. My buddy thought they were gonna do some ghost hunting or doing some big dare. But these fucking psychos - they were going there camping. And THAT is not the crazy part - the crazy part is that my buddy later got a pickup request from the same group at the cemetery - he went back and picked them up - there were four of them going in, and when they came back there were only three of them. So my buddy asked them, right? ‘Where is that other friend of yours?’ ‘Where’s that scared little guy?’ And these people were acting like they’re tripping on some hardcore drugs, they didn’t even know they lost a guy back there! And their face, my buddy said, it’s like they lost a ton of weight and aged 10 years in just a few hours, their face got all wrinkled up and shit, their eyes were all droopy… I gotta tell you, from my buddy’s description, it’s like they’re possessed or zombified!”