It was a strange feeling when I opened the door. I was always greeted by my loving wife and my 3 year old son who always knew that I would have something to give him, but not today. My wife did not come to greet me nor my son waiting in anticipation. I passed through the hallway and entered the living room in total silence and still no signs of them, I called out their names but nobody answered and a few moments later my cat which used to be white now red ran down the staircase towards me. That's when I felt a tinge in my spine and a wave of thoughts ran through my mind that something bad has happened. I rushed up the staircase to the bedroom in total fear and gloom and my heart racing fast as a car. I opened the bedroom door and what I saw next crushed my soul. My wife and son were down on the ground surrounded by a pool of blood and everything else left in tatters. I held onto the pendant, a cross, that was on my neck in total pain and anguish. I just laid there holding my wife and son in my hands, contemplating with God, why them? why not me? The ambulance arrived with a few police officers, I gave them a statement of what I observed and left the rest for them to figure out. After all the formalities I was given the body of my wife and son to perform their last rites . I never dreamt of my life finishing in seconds and was filled with anger and vengeance on the one who destroyed my family, my happiness and fixed my mind on one goal to avenge their deaths.

When I returned home, loneliness and grief hit me hard and found it very difficult to come to terms of not going to see them ever again. I kept blaming myself if I had only stayed at home as my wife requested none of this would have happened. I was determined to solve a case that I was working on and lost focus of my family. I held their picture to my chest with tears in my eyes and was trying to figure out who could have committed such a treacherous act.As I got up to have a glass of water I accidentally knocked down the vase that was beside me, when I picked it up to put back, there on the table I found a piece of paper folded which had been near the photo I was holding that I did not notice earlier. I slowly reached out and picked up that paper and unfolded it and inside was a quote in Ukrainian- "Я зробив те, що сказав, що зроблю - YA zrobyv te, shcho skazav, shcho zroblyu" - "I did what I told you I would do ".
I immediately called up the department and asked them to have a look at the note to find for any clues. Meanwhile I kept repeating those words in my head trying to figure out what it meant or who left that note, but could not come to a conclusion because of the profession I was in, where everybody is a suspect. While contemplating with myself and due to lack of sleep the last couple of days I dozed off on the sofa that I was sitting on and dreamt of my past.

"I am Jerry a police officer and was happily married to Marian who was one of the prettiest girls that I have ever seen and out of our love was born my son Malcolm named by his godparents. We were quite contempt with our lives filled with happiness, joy and peace. Marian always wanted to live in a quiet place, only the three of us away from the city.She did not like the sound of ambulances passing by, people fighting or crowded places.She always hampered on us living our lives at some countryside, quiet and peaceful.Tears now withholding randown my cheeks, if only I had fulfilled her wish.
Leo was my partner in crime at work and most of the cases we worked together turned out to be successful, even if our backs were up against the wall. We either caught those criminals or gunned them down. Leo was married to a marine officer Hazel whom he dearly loved and they were expecting. He kept telling me that they planned on going on a vacation to New Zealand before the birth of their child. Hazel always wanted to visit Mount Roy situated at Wanaka which is known for it's picturesque beauty that she had seen in a picture when she was young and thus made those plans.

One summer afternoon Leo and I were called in by the commissioner and was asked to take up a case involving some high end drug lords who also ran brothels and other high illegal businesses and having ties with some big names because of their enormous contributions to the country's GDP and also had people helping them in the police department. He explained to us the severity of the case and told us it must be dealt with utmost confidentiality and not a word to be whispered to our teammates. He did not trust anyone but us because of their connections and told us to be very careful because they would go to any extent to cover up their tracks.
The following day our commissioner sent us a text saying he got a message that one of the drug lord named Mikhailo was in town for a business meeting and will be staying at The Grand, York and to see if we can gather any intellect. We went in dressed as normal public booked a room for the night just to pave our way through his business meeting the next day to gather some information. Leo planned to disguise himself as a housekeeping staff and I planned to enter the conference room as a waiter.
That night Leo and I went to sweep the perimeter to look into details and also to sketch out a plan to gather information. We knew the best place to start would be the Bar. We sat at two ends and ordered beer. I had a look around and found few bearded men with waist coats on, having drinks in their hands, playing pool and were speaking Ukrainian. I had a hunch that these could be the men who'll be meeting with Mikhailo tomorrow. Meanwhile leo signalled me and asked to meet him in the restroom, after a couple of minutes I went in. He told me that he recognized a man in that crowd who was operating a drug cartel in the UK called the Hoxton Gang and the members of his gang called him 'Greyhound'.He was wearing a maroon coloured waist coat and had a pony tail and was also smoking a cigar.Then I told Leo to keep a close tab on him and I will keep a tab on the rest. There were no signs of Mikhailo at the bar and we went back to our room to sketch out our plans. Later that night I somehow managed to find my way into the conference room and bugged the place. My duty was to follow up on the meeting and gather information while Leo would sweep the rooms of the gang members to find clues and also keep a close tab on the Greyhound.
The next morning Leo left the room to carry out his duty and I stayed indoors to listen to the conversation going on in the conference room and accordingly reported everything to the commissioner. They planned to expand selling the drugs to every city in the UK as they found it to be a potential market and would need a few more small suppliers to ensure business reaches every nook and corner. So Mikhailo was looking for a potential head to lead the operation and Greyhound was hoping he would be chosen because of the cartel he was already running but instead Mikhailo chose Claudia Pink and the room fell silent.He told them that she was running a cartel under the nose of the cops and has never been caught or included in a suspect list and she would be the best fit going forward. Greyhound was pissed but adhered to Mikhailo's decision. Claudia spoke and everyone listened. Her voice sounded so familiar but I found it hard to grasp at that moment as I wanted to know their plan.While she was speaking she stated that there was no chance of her cover being blown as she was married to a cop and nobody would dare enquire her. My mind at that moment was functioning like a high speed computer trying to identify that voice, as I kept scanning through my mind the door of my room opened and Leo entered and I got distracted. By the time I got back on the headphones a Ukrainian started speaking and the meeting came to an end. I immediately rushed out of the room to see if I can catch a glimpse of Claudia but did not succeed. Later that afternoon I wanted to catch a break as I felt I was suffocating by listening to the tape non stop trying to identify that voice, I left the room and hopped onto the elevator to go out, another gentleman got in and was getting off the next floor, when he got off and the elevator door was about to close I saw a lady speaking to one the Ukrainians, bid him goodbye and entered her room. I felt an adrenaline rush in me and quickly got off the elevator as that could be the Claudia pink I was trying to find. I immediately asked Leo to come to my location.When I neared her room a strange atmosphere hit me, that perfume I was familiar with(Christian Dior's Balade Sauvage) and knew only of one person who donned it. Then it struck , the voice I heard over the headphones and this perfume, printed a picture of Leo's wife Hazel in my mind. I began to tremble and just hoped that was not the case to be with only one option to open the door and find out. With the help of the hotel staff I silently unlocked the door and drew my gun and moved in still shaking, locking the door behind me. As I went in the fragrance of the perfume grew stronger, but the room was silent, I moved into the bedroom but could not find anyone there but heard the sound of water flowing in the restroom nearby. I assumed she must have been in the shower so I positioned myself comfortably on a sofa facing the restroom with my gun pointed towards the door. A few minutes later the flowing of water stopped and the knob of the door tilted and to my horror out came Hazel wrapped in a towel looking point blank at me and my gun pointed at her.A thousand thoughts ran through my head as to what I should say but was only able to mumble the following: 'Claudia Pink'.
She looked stunned when I said that name, and I contemplating with myself as Leo would be here any moment with my gun still pointed at her. She tried to play tough by saying that I will not be able to gather any info from her and I was trapped.Then I tried to turn the tables on her by saying that Leo would be here any moment but she wasn't scared and after some time she started to speak in Ukrainian and that's when I understood why she was chosen to head the drug operation.She's wasn't British at all. It was a coverup. She did not fall in love with Leo, she just married him to keep her identity safe and not being exposed. At gunpoint I asked her who she really was, she did not respond initially until I fired a shot at the ceiling, she just stood there stunned and told me that she was a member of the elite Ukrainian drug fraternity (Ukrainian Mafia). She was sent to the UK to set up a strong base and had to keep her cover secret. She mastered the English language and picked up the accent from a private tutor. To stay hidden she married Leo and for him not to doubt her she lied to him saying she was pregnant. She planned to leave Leo after this meeting but unfortunately bumped into me. Her real name is Natalia Kovalenko and Claudia Pink was a name she went by to show that she was English to manipulate the local mafia.I was gutted at that moment to learn of the fact that my best friend had been betrayed and played. Then I heard the front door open and Natalia flinched which automatically sent a signal to my subconscious to pull the trigger and the bullet struck her on the chest and she dropped down. Blood slowly started oozing and at that moment Leo rushed in because of the gunshot. He was devastated and as he went closer he just dropped his gun and took Natalia in his hands.A strange atmosphere swept the room as everything for those couple of seconds fell silent and I did not know how to pacify Leo or explain the truth. He suddenly picked up his gun and pointed it at me out of frustration and said didn't you know that she was pregnant and my wife, why did I do such a horrible thing. He was biting his teeth and fingers firmly placed on the trigger , before I could speak Mikhailo entered the room, saw Natalia dead, drew his gun and pointed it at me. I pointed my gun at him and asked him to lower his weapon but he did not flinch. It was a tense situation and then Leo asked me to explain what the f*** was going on. Mikhailo spoke out of the blue in Ukrainian " Vy dvoye sukiv syniv trakhkaly - ви двоє суків синів трахкали" which literally translates to you two sons of bitches are f****d and stormed out and the situation did not pan out into a bloodbath.
I patiently explained the situation to Leo but he was in mood of calming down and said he was going after Mikhailo and hastily moved out.I had to report the situation to the commissioner but before I could dial him up I heard two gun shots and found that Leo had gunned down the Greyhound and was after Mikhailo. I went after Leo and tried to calm him down and to first handle the situation at hand and mostly because our cover was blown. I reported the situation to the commissioner who then called us in. The next day Leo was suspended because of Natalia and the case was put on hold. But Leo made me promise him that I would in all my means find Mikhailo and put a bullet between his eyes. It has been a couple of months since I met Leo and now have lost my family too. That was the case I was busy following up and lost focus of my family".

Thud-Thud-Thud, I woke up to the banging of my door and an officer from the station was standing at my doorstep. He said that forensics had detected Leo's prints on the paper I had given them and we both drove to the station. I had them double check the prints and to see if I could get Leo on the line but failed, it went straight to voicemail. Then I drove over to Leo's house and rang the bell but he did not answer. To my amusement the front door was left open and I went in . I looked around the house but could not find Leo. Then i sat in the living room trying to figure out where he could have gone and then saw a note stuck on the tv- " Watch This". I played the video and Mikhailo spoke in Ukrainian, I knew something was not right . He was the one who destroyed my family and used his influence to drop that note. He still did not feel a sense of happiness and would breathe free only after he killed Leo and I . Then he focused the camera on Leo who was tied up and bleeding. He finished the clip by saying - "Friend alive, you come". My hands began to shiver and was wondering how Leo got caught with that piece of shit, but finally understood that because of his ties in big places he could do anything. I was pissed as hell and kept banging the wall in frustration. If I have to do something, I've got to do it without the knowledge of the commissioner, as he had clearly stated to put the case on hold.hold. I rang up the commissioner and told him that I won't be turning up for work for a few days as I needed rest and time to get over the death of my family.family.He obliged.

I left Leo's house with only one thought that I have to save him as he's the only family I've got left and nothing would stop me in doing so.

A Strange Atmosphere - Part 2 ( Ukrainian Mafia).