Ch.160Favorite Crime! (7)

#160

“I told you to stop, and if you had, the window wouldn’t have broken, right?”

“Ah, that, I, um…”

“Forget it, get out.”

“F-first you need to let go of my…”

“Turn off the engine first.”

The man firmly caught in Dexter’s grip did as he was told, turning off the van’s engine and stepping outside.

“Who are you and what are you doing?”

“Well, that… I can’t say anything about the assignment I was…”

“Assignment?”

Dexter scrutinized the mustached man he was holding and considered one possibility.

“Private detective?”

“Y-yes, yes. So please let go of my collar…”

“Why not just say you’re a private detective instead of mumbling about some assignment?”

“It’s the nature of my profession…”

When the private detective made a pitiful expression, Dexter sighed deeply and released his collar.

After Dexter let go, the detective dusted off his clothes and extended his hand for a handshake.

“Singleton from Singleton Detective Agency.”

“Singleton? Not Pinkerton?”

“Who’s Pinkerton?”

Dexter was speechless that someone claiming to be a detective didn’t know about Pinkerton.

Singleton still had his hand extended.

Of course, Dexter had no intention of shaking it.

He simply crossed his arms and kept his mouth shut, giving a silent answer. Seeing Dexter’s cold demeanor, Singleton wiped the sweat trickling down his face with a handkerchief and said:

“Well, you see, the thing is…”

Annoyed by his constant stuttering, Dexter frowned and said:

“Every time you stutter, I’ll help you extract a tooth without health insurance, so keep stuttering.”

“Please calm down first…”

“The more you talk like that, the less calm I get, so you’d better get to the point.”

“W-well… I can’t talk about my client, but you are Dexter Hughes, correct?”

“Are there other Dexters in this neighborhood?”

“There’s a Dexter with a different surname living in Summerlin, and in Honeygood Springs there’s only…”

As Singleton tried to provide additional information, Dexter sensed something odd.

“Wait, you know my home address too?”

“Oh dear… well, you see…”

“I told you not to stutter anymore.”

“Please, just spare me.”

Finding himself in an impossible situation, Singleton begged as his eyes darted to Dexter’s thick fist.

Dexter just wanted to get back inside Judy’s house to enjoy cookies and tea.

“I’m busy, so spit it out quickly.”

As Dexter glanced at his wristwatch, Singleton gulped and began to speak.

“So, I was hired to investigate Mr. Dexter’s daily routine, yes, that’s right.”

“Investigate my daily routine?”

“Where you go on Mondays, where you work, what you do at home… I was investigating all that.”

“Me, not a woman?”

“Yes, the assignment was to investigate Dexter Hughes.”

“Who?”

“Pardon?”

“Who hired you to do that?”

At Dexter’s question, Singleton began sweating profusely again.

“Well, you know… in the private detective business, we can’t just reveal our clients or we’ll get a bad reputation…”

“Hmph.”

Dexter made a gesture as if he was about to bring his clenched fist down.

“Eek!”

Of course, he only made the gesture without actually hitting him.

Dexter felt deflated that he had to resort to such childish threats to get information, not even throwing a real punch.

“Do I really have to make such juvenile threats to get you to talk?”

As Dexter expressed his annoyance with the situation, Singleton let out a deep sigh of relief and said:

“Well… I don’t really know much. The person had their face completely covered with a mask and sunglasses… I only know it was a man, and he paid a large sum in cash, not credit card.”

‘That figures.’

The client was quite secretive.

In the 21st century, private detectives rarely solve crimes, mostly handling relatively trivial matters like investigating spousal infidelity.

For Dexter, who had no spouse and barely any acquaintances besides his correctional officer colleagues, to be tailed by a private detective meant things were getting serious.

‘Is this related to OSA after all?’

Dexter was fairly certain it had to do with the Chief, but it seemed unlikely that the Chief would be this sloppy.

‘Who would hire such an incompetent person?’

If Dexter ever needed to hire a private detective for surveillance, he certainly wouldn’t choose someone like Singleton.

“How were you supposed to deliver the information later?”

“He said he’d give me two weeks and come back after that.”

“When did he say that?”

“Three days ago…”

Dexter stroked his chin once, then nodded.

“Fine, give me your business card.”

Dexter extended his open palm to Singleton, who looked bewildered.

“What? My business card?”

“I’ll need to find that guy in two weeks, won’t I?”

“But then I’d be leaking client information!”

“Not my problem.”

“Please, I’ll starve to death! This is the first big job I’ve had in months…”

“Well, of course you’d go bankrupt working like this.”

Although Dexter might appear more intimidating than others, he’d never met a private detective who spilled information so easily just because of a little fist-waving.

“Anyway, give me your card.”

“I really can’t…”

“Just give it to me! I’m not asking for money, just your business card!”

“To me, it’s more precious than money…”

As Singleton continued to argue with a servile expression, Dexter lost his patience and slowly looked over Singleton’s body.

Spotting a wallet in Singleton’s left pocket, Dexter reached in and pulled it out.

“No, not that!”

“Be quiet.”

Dexter rummaged through the wallet, found a card labeled “Singleton Detective Agency,” took a photo of it with his phone, and returned the wallet.

“Take this and get lost. You know what will happen if I see you tailing me again, right?”

When Dexter showed his tightly clenched fist, Singleton nodded vigorously.

“Oh, and if you sue me for compensation for the car window, I’ll kill you.”

“Eek!”

Judging by Singleton’s expression, he had indeed been planning to sue Dexter for damages.

After confirming this, Dexter made a gesture as if he was about to throw a real punch, and Singleton quickly started the van and drove away from the residential area at a sluggish pace.

“There really are all sorts of weirdos out there.”

After voicing his complaint, Dexter went back into Judy’s house, where she was looking at him with a worried expression.

“What happened? Why were you fighting with the plumber?”

“Plumber? Ah.”

Seeing the word “plumber” written on the van, Judy had assumed Singleton was a plumber and had been watching the situation through the window.

“That bas… I mean, that guy wasn’t a plumber.”

“He wasn’t?”

“He looked like a nerd, didn’t he?”

“Ah, a nerd… But why did Dexter grab his collar?”

“Because he was causing trouble?”

“You grab people’s collars when they cause trouble?”

“Well… he was causing trouble, so…”

When Dexter gave the same circular answer without a moment’s hesitation, Judy looked at him with a confused expression.

“Sometimes Dexter seems like someone from the Wild West.”

“Clint Eastwood? Terence Hill?”

“Hmm… Dexter is like Terence Hill… no, that’s not the point. What if you get hurt doing things like that?”

“Hurt? Who? Me?”

Dexter confidently gestured to his body from head to toe with both hands.

“Judy, I would win even if there were three of him.”

Judy was about to argue, but when Dexter deliberately flexed his pectoral muscles just as she was about to speak, her gaze momentarily shifted to his chest, making her forget what she was going to say.

Embarrassed by her momentary distraction, Judy wrinkled her nose and said:

“…That’s cheating!”

“It’s just another conversational tactic.”

Dexter showed a sly smile as he sat down on the living room sofa.

“I make you focus on my chest, so you momentarily forget what you were doing.”

“Did you study psychology too?”

“No, I learned it from a pickpocket.”

To be precise, it was something he had heard from Emily.

Realizing she had fallen for a technique learned not from psychology but from a pickpocket, Judy blushed and said with an embarrassed face:

“I didn’t know pickpockets could use psychology like that…”

“They’d starve otherwise.”

Dexter chuckled.

After his deep conversation with Singleton, Dexter was enjoying cookies with milk tea that had cooled to the perfect temperature while chatting with Judy.

With his arm draped over the sofa, Dexter casually asked Judy:

“Judy, is there anything you want from me?”

“Want… from you?”

“Yes, anything you want.”

Though his tone was light, the meaning behind the question was heavy.

Dexter liked Judy.

He liked her enough to seek permission from Jessie, Ximena, and Emily, with whom he had previous relationships.

The issue was Judy’s behavior.

From Dexter’s perspective, Judy hadn’t given him the OK sign.

‘Though the OK here is… obviously.’

So Dexter asked directly without beating around the bush.

“Hmm, something I want…”

Judy thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers and said:

“Right. From now on, try resolving conflicts with others through conversation.”

“Is that what you want?”

“If you get hurt, it would break my heart.”

It wasn’t wrong, but it was far from the answer Dexter was looking for.

“I’ll try my best. Anything else?”

“Anything else? Hmm…”

Seeing Judy deep in thought, Dexter moved close beside her.

He put his arm around her shoulder and, looking straight into her eyes with a serious voice, said:

“Is there really nothing you want?”

“…Dexter, you’re… acting a bit strange today…”

With the physical distance completely eliminated and Dexter speaking in a low voice, the tips of Judy’s ears were gradually turning red.

“Don’t you think it’s time we moved forward?”

“That’s, well… I don’t know…”

Judy covered her face with both hands as she spoke.

“When I was in England, friends tried to set me up a few times… but honestly, I wasn’t very interested and was focused only on coming to America…”

“Hmm.”

“It was similar after I got here. No matter how much I exercised, my stamina didn’t improve, and I had to study… I’m not particularly smart, so I had to focus on other things rather than dating.”

Hearing this, Dexter finished the remaining milk tea in one gulp and said:

“That’s good.”

“What? What is?”

“We can fill it in from now on. It’s actually better for me.”

“Why is that good…?”

Seeing Judy’s puzzled expression, Dexter moved his face closer to hers and said:

“Because I can be responsible for Judy’s beginning and end.”

With those words, Dexter pressed his lips against Judy’s.

Momentarily surprised by Dexter’s sudden kiss, Judy was at a loss, caught between the lingering scent of milk tea on Dexter’s lips and his masculine smell.

Even Judy, inexperienced in romance, instinctively felt that if not for this day and this moment, there might not be another chance for progress with Dexter.

Dexter’s guiding touch and tongue movements were remarkably skilled, as if he had done this many times before, and Judy unconsciously held Dexter’s face with both hands.

Dexter also instinctively knew one thing:

Whatever came next shouldn’t happen on the sofa.

Still kissing Judy, Dexter slipped one hand behind her back and the other under her thigh.

“…?”

Judy, who had her eyes closed, opened them in confusion at Dexter’s hands moving not to the back of her neck but to her back and under her thigh. Then Dexter lifted her up in his arms.

As the kiss broke due to the sudden movement, Judy looked at Dexter with a surprised face and said:

“W-wait. Where are you taking me?”

“Bedroom.”

“B-bedroom? Why the bedroom?”

Instead of answering, Dexter headed toward Judy’s bedroom.

“Wait, I haven’t prepared anything!”

“I prefer it unprepared.”

“But my underwear doesn’t even match…”

Judy wanted to enjoy this in a more prepared state, but it was useless in front of Dexter, whose eyes had already glazed over.

“As long as it tastes good, that’s all that matters.”

“What? Dexter, wait. Taste? What do you mean by…”

And so, with Dexter carrying her forcefully to the bedroom and Judy unable to do anything while being lifted up, they entered the bedroom.