At Johnathan's car, Grace checks her mirror and notices a car at odd positions. Grace adjusts the rear-view mirror to see who's driving that particular car. Even though the distance of several cars separates them, Grace can see it just fine. Grace recognizes the driver's face, and that is Andrew, the Inspector from Police Department.
"Uumm... Master?"
"Yes, Grace?"
"We've been followed by Andrew the Inspector."
"Leave him be. Just take us to the location where our first victim been found."
"Are you sure to let them be, Master? I mean, he's kinda jerk y'know."
"Should I remind you why are we here.... Grace?"
"No, Master."
"Then let them be."
"Understood, Master."
Back to their followers, Samuel is done reading the files and puts them on the back seat.
"Done reading it?" asked Andrew.
"Yep *grunt* *exhale*. Phew, so anyway, I believe they headed to a famous hotel called Lunar Plains." Samuel said after struggling to put the files.
"Is that where our first victim is?"
"Yep. *sips coffee* So uh, what's the plan?".
"We follow them where ever they headed while figuring out how they operated. And when the time comes, we strike and snatch the case right in front of them." Andrew answered passionately.
"Hmmm... Sounds like you have grudge with him."
"Fuck yeah, I do. I'm gonna show him that us in police force aren't some incompetent assholes who can only drinks coffee and eat doughnuts."
A moment of silence immediately struck at their car. Andrew sees Samuel, and he sees Samuel holding a cup of coffee.
"Well at least I'm not eating a doughnut right now, so I'm safe?" Samuel said as he put his coffee.
"Do as you like." Andrew annoyed.
----------------------------------------
15 minutes later, Johnathan and Grace arrive at the Lunar Plain Hotel, along with their follower. While Grace parked near the Hotel, Andrew parked a little further on the other side of the street. Andrew watches Johnathan takes out his bag from his luggage and immediately enter the hotel with his maid.
"So, when we're going in?" asked Samuel.
"After both of them leaves the hotel, we enter and look for anything that moved at the victim's room."
"Sounds like a plan. I can enjoy my coffee in the meantime."
"Be thankful that you are capable detective. If not, that coffee cup already jammed into your mouth."
"Well, you can save your energy and reread the files. Y'know for make sure some details. I'll keep in watch while you at it." Samuel suggested as he sipped his coffee.
Andrew followed Samuel's suggestions and carefully reading it. Andrew flips pages after pages, memorizing every detail, cross-referencing all the known evidences, and observes all victims' photos. With Samuel's watchful eyes at surrounding area, Andrew can focus at what he's doing. And for now, everything is going according to their plan.
When all those things happen at Andrew's car, Johnathan asks the receptionist for the victim's room key. The receptionist asks Johnathan to sign his name to the visitor log book in order to see it, to which Johnathan agrees. But when she hands over the pen, Johnathan smoothly grabs the receptionist’s hand and punctures it using his nails. The receptionist immediately pulls her hand because of the pain. But not for long, the receptionist feels dizzy and lightheaded. As Johnathan finished filling the visitor log book, he whispered something to the receptionist as if he hypnotized her. After whispering, Johnathan apologizes for the hand and will be on his way. Whatever the receptionist’s condition, Johnathan and Grace ignore her and head straight to the elevator and up to the 7th floor. Inside the elevator, Grace keep peeking at her master's bag.
"Curious?" asked Johnathan.
"Uh... yeah. Rather than curious what's inside, I'm curious why you didn't ask me to carry the bag."
"Don't worry about it. I need your energy at other places than just carrying a bag."
Moments later, the elevator's door opens, and Johnathan checks the room number as he walks out of the elevator. 703 is written at the top side of the key. As they looked around the hallway, they finally found the room. But the room is still sealed by police line tape. Johnathan gives Grace a nod to tear the seal and open the room using the room key. As she opens the door, a gust of wind blows, and she immediately covers her nose, while Johnathan remains unfazed.
Stolen novel; please report.
"Ugh, hell. The smell... " said Grace as both of them entered the room.
"Yes. Our 'culprit' was lived in here for quite some time. Now, since you have keen sense of smell, find me the source of the smell." said Johnathan as he opened his bag.
"Oh man. Yes, Master."
"Don't change anything too much in this room. So be careful and watch your step." added Johnathan.
The victim’s room is thrashed. Dried blood splatter is still on the bed, right where the head should rest. Balcony windows are broken, and pieces of glass are still scattered on the floor. The victim's belongings are also scattered on the floor. Grace carefully moves inside the room, so she won't move anything significantly.
While Grace searches around the room for the source of the strange smell, Johnathan prepares a compound mixture of water, salt, dried onion, and dried garlic. After he stirs it for a minute, he slit his finger and put a couple drops of his blood into the mix. As he continues to stir the mix, the color turns dark red to purple. With the mixture of compound still too thick, Johnathan adds more water until the compound color becomes lighter. He takes out a perfume-shape spray bottle and puts the compound into it.
"Master! I found it." said Grace as she pointed at the wardrobe.
"Well done." Johnathan responded as he walked toward the wardrobe. "Now step back a little."
He sprays the compound all over the wardrobe. Around 20 seconds later, the sprayed wardrobe glowed like a lava lamp. Several strange shapes of hands and footprints are revealed, reacting to the compound. Those hands and footprints trail to several locations inside the room. Johnathan gives the bottle of a compound to Grace and points her to follow the trails. To find out what it leads to.
Grace follows the first trail by spraying where the prints point at. It went up to the ceiling, then to the wall. A few curves until it went down again to show rack, and that's the first destination. Several high-heeled shoes and a couple pairs of track shoes are sitting on the rack. Grace sprays at the rack, and after a few seconds, one pair of track shoes starts to glow. Grace is about to tell her Master, but when she looks at him, Johnathan touches the spot that glows the most.
Johnathan can feel the immense energy that emits for that particular spot. The longer he touches it, the more he knows what he's dealing with. He can see the memory of the "beast" through its eyes. Though he can only see a fragment, that fragment is crucial. And what he sees is the moment when the "beast" strikes its victim. It creeps at the wall, and the moment its victim notices its presence, the "beast" grabs them by the neck and hair with its claws. It lifts up the victim and eats her face off. The victim cannot let out any sound because her airway is blocked by the beast. After the "beast" finishes with its meal, it drops the victim's lifeless body and disappears into the darkness through balcony windows.
"Uh. Master?" said Grace as she touched her Master's shoulder.
" *gasp*..... ahh.... Thank you, Grace." as he snapped back to his senses. "So where's our next lead?"
"A pair of track shoes at the shoe rack over there. It seems there's one more lead."
"But before that, you need to see this. Show me your neck."
As Grace opens her collar, Johnathan slowly stabs at her exposed neck with his index finger. He transfers the memory of the beast from the wardrobe. The wound slowly closed as soon as he finished, leaving no mark. With Grace still reliving the memory she was given, Johnathan pats her on the shoulder, silently telling her to endure it. Johnathan walks toward the shoe racks and finds a pair of track shoes Grace talked about.
Once again, Johnathan touches the glowing lead. Immediately the energy rushes into Johnathan, and the memory starts playing inside his conscious. But this time, it's the victim's memory that Johnathan sees. It's a flashback to the last time the track shoes wore worn for nighttime jogging until the victim takes them off when she gets back into her hotel room.
In the meantime, Grace traced where the next lead. But instead of following the direction the trails headed, she traces where they came from. She follows the trail below the bed and continues to the balcony. But it still continues to the balcony's rails and the wall. Grace tries to spray more of the trails but can only spray as far as 2 meters. That range is already ineffective because of the open space. The trail also quickly vanishes because the compound starts to vaporize. Grace returns to the room and sees Johnathan finished his business with the track shoes.
"So, what did you find?" asked Johnathan while observing the room.
"The 'beast' trails is from outside the balcony. Seems like it waiting for its victim inside the wardrobe. I still don't know how it can fit inside there."
"Hm. Then it is confirmed that someone has this beast on a leash. The victim is targeted by someone, and the 'beast' did the job. Since it uses brutal method that no human can pull off, and the police didn't want to anywhere near with supernatural stuff, the case went into a hold." Johnathan explained.
"Is the conclusion is based from the memory of that track shoes?"
"Yes. Want to experience it?" asked Johnathan with his slight smile.
"Uh, I'm rather not to. I don't mind the pain from the stabs, but reliving someone... or something's memory is unpleasant. Just tell me what happened." said Grace while waving her hands.
"*chuckles* So our victim is out for a routine nighttime jogging. Around 7 PM. At some point, she encounters a bunch of man coming out from the alley. She's turns around, but a couple more man." Johnathan explained as he closely checked out the blood-covered bed.
Grace initiatively looks around the room while Johnathan explains the memory. And, of course, she's doing it cautiously, so the room doesn't change much.
"She seems to know those men, and immediately explain that she will have their money by the end of the week. But those men don't have that excuse and pulls out their knife. The area is unusually quiet for that time. One of those men makes his move and tries to stab the woman, but she's nimble enough to dodge him. Others pull out their knife and charging towards her. She dodges them all, and runs as fast as she can back to her hotel room." Johnathan continued while looking under the bed.
"So, after they failed to get her. They sent the 'beast' to finish the job?" she said while checking through the cabinets. "Oh, Master. I think you should take a look at this."
Slowly something is revealed as if something that covers it wears off. Grace grabs a glasses case that she somehow felt strange about it.
"Let me see." Johnathan took the glasses case from Grace. As he opens it, he smiles. "If you feeling strange about this, it's not the case, but the glasses itself."
He pulls out the glasses, which are still pristine, and examines them under the lamp light. Without hesitations, he puts on the glasses. Johnathan sees Grace, and the dark gray smoke radiates from her body. He's looking at his hand, and it emits pitch black smoke. And not only on his hand but all over his body. He looks at the wardrobe where he got the 'beast' memory. The wardrobe emits a faint dark red smoke. He turns his attention to the bed where the victim got murdered, and it emits light gold smoke. Johnathan comes to a conclusion about how things played out there. He takes off the glasses and puts them back in their case.
"So, where was I?" asked Johnathan.
"Umm... Master left off at the victim runs for her life back here, to her hotel room."
"Ah yes. She runs slipping through alleys to lose her pursuer's vision. When she gets clear, she dashes back to the hotel. Immediately after arrive at her room, she opens her laptop and cuts all connection related to thug gang. And the leader of the thug gang is out culprit. The one who ordered the 'beast' to end her life. "
"Hooo.... But Master, I still don't know what her job is."
"I'll explain on the way back. But before we get back, we need to put some give to our 'tail'," said Johnathan with his smirk.
He takes a new flash drive from his suitcase and does some mumbo jumbo to it. After that, he placed the flash drive near the victim's laptop. Johnathan rips a paper from his notebook and writes something on it. After that, all three items are placed on the bed facing the doorway. He cleans up his suitcase and points at the door, telling Grace to open it. After they are already out of the room, Johnathan locks it and tells Grace to re-adjust the police line just like before they came in. For now, they are heading to their new destination.