“It’s at the end of the next corridor.”, Lee reminds me, while evading fellow cops.

“It’s truly concerning..”, Lee tells me , while turning his head. He raises his hand, and spreads his fingers wide

“We’ve gotten 5 similar cases in just an hour, just an hour!”, he exclaims.

“And what we got isn’t promising, right?”, I ask him, in which he nods.

“No, we haven’t got or done much, but the lack of recognizable prints and blood is quite concerning. '', he answers calmly, I raise a brow .

“And to clarify , we have only one neighbor who had reported screaming.”, he answers my unspoken question.

“Can we see any crime scenes?”, I ask him.

“We only have a few, and right now they're being combed by forensics , so it will take a week at least. '', he responds in a gloomy tone.

“Bummer.”, I mutter with disappointment.

“We’re here.”, Lee announces with a tired voice. I stop and look at the label of the room ‘ Evidence Room #3’.

“Let’s get this done with.”, I mutter.

Lee opens the door for me, I thank him and enter the room. The room itself is small and compact, just having enough space for 3 desks. I examine the room, seeing a desk, bulletin board, and a computer.

“Just some photos of the evidence.”, he tells me while pointing at the desk. I look at him with a frown.

“Don’t blame me! Forensics need the real thing , so I can only give you the photos.”, he replies defensively. I roll my eyes, and turn my gaze to the lone desk.

“I don’t like this one bit.”, I grumble.

“I’ll see you later, I have interrogations to do.”, he tells me, while opening the door of the room.

“Be sure to help us question, we need all the manpower.”, he orders passively , with his head facing me.

“Sure.”, I confirm.

As soon as he leaves, I peer at the photos. One of them showed a tub, with some shoe prints, however, the prints were nothing that I ever saw. Instead of having a soles with weird gaps, the shoe sole had none.

I look at another photo showing some fingerprints , which brings relief to me. However, as I inspected the photo closer, the prints were blurred out, probably by the criminal who tried cleaning them.

I took a few minutes examining all the photos, and they revealed no information that could catch the perpetrator.

“Whoever did this, knows their shit.”

Having no purpose in staying , I leave the room.

“Now to interrogate, but where to?”, I ask myself. I look around me, trying to find a fellow detective or cop. However, they’re all busy, so I decide to leave them be. I decide to go to the interrogation rooms, in hopes to find Lee.

I look at the corridor, with nearly no one there. It truly is very eerie, seeing no one in such a busy time. I stare at emptiness for a while, before snapping into reality.

I continue my short journey, with little distractions. I pass the lockers, shooting range, the archives, until I reach the interrogation rooms.

I look at the similar doors, with the difference being the labels. I stand there, pondering which door will not lead me to awkwardness.

“You need something sir?”, a voice asks from behind, which prompts me to turn behind me.

Behind me was a young adult, probably early twenties, with hazel brown hair. “Yeah, do you know which room Detective Lee is in?”, I ask him a question he might not know. His eyes widened a bit, but not of shock.

“Yeah… I was going to talk to him.”, he answers with vagueness. “Same, so I’ll just follow you.”

He looks at me for a moment, and turns to face the doors. He took his time, reading the labels, until he stopped at the 5th one.

“Is it this one?”, I asked him, to which he ignored me. He takes a few breathes , and opens the door.

I quickly follow him, showing us a window to the interrogation room.

“Do you know what knocking is?”, the old Korean voice questioned us furiously. I ignore his question, quickly turning my head to him, and opening my mouth.

“Could I speak with you… alone?”,however, I was beaten by my younger counterpart.

“Alright Joe, I’ll fill you up later Perry.”, I sigh, having to wait .

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“Alright, see you later!”, I tell Lee alone, he ignores me leaving with Joe.

Being alone and bored, I look around more closely. Behind the one way window, there’s a table with some stuff: half drunk mugs, documents, pens and some photographs. I decide to snoop around and read some of the documents.

I take the most catchy document, and read it’s title ‘Case #5 of chain #30’, a pretty dull title if you ask me. I open the first page, showing lots of unfilled underlines. I skip the unfilled lines,until I stumble upon the subtitle “Description.”

‘Let’s see what we got.’, I comment mentally, while eyeing the paragraph below the subtitle.‘The Case belongs to a chain of missing victims, who disappeared mysteriously. A reminder for those reading, we haven’t gathered enough information on this case’, I stop reading the paragraph, and skip to the next one.

‘The case (and the chain of similar cases) has almost no macro evidence, however, we might find more evidence microscopically,as we are still waiting for results.’, I relax reading that they’ve not finished analyzing the crime scene.

I continue reading, finding out that the disappearance was noticed by a friend, who came by to visit. Confused, he called the victim’s name, although no response was given. Worried sick, he called the cops.

Well…that didn't possess anything useful.

If all the cases are like this, we’ll only have the witnesses' eyes. A big if though, highly unlikely to happen.

I take my eyes off the document and oversee the room . I look at the one-way mirror showing an empty room, and sigh to emptiness.

“Really could get a coffee right now…”

“THUD-THUD.”, someone was knocking the door, maybe Kim.

“Come in.”, I allow the knocker to enter. “

“Click!”, the sound strangely alarmed , which made me face the door in minor fear.

“U-uh , sorry for disturbing you, I was looking for Detective Lee.”, the officer seemed to be a bit startled to see me.

LOh, well he’s busy right now , you'll have to wait.” , I tell him,while taking a quick glance at him.

His shirt is tucked in, buttoned up, and without a trace of dirt. The same thing could be said about his pants. His hair is combed, telling me he’s serious business, but the rookie face refuted his seemingly professionalism. It told anyone, he was new and inexperienced.

He was grumbling silently. “If you want, you could convey your message with me.”, I offered to him.

“No it’s fine, do you have his number?”, he replied and asked. After a few moments of careful thinking, I hesitantly say.

“Sure, let me take out my phone.”

I put my hand in my pocket and take out my phone. I quickly unlock it and open Wotsapp, I rummage through my contacts, until I find Kim’s number.

“Here.”, I show my phone’s screen. Seeing the number, he quickly takes a pen and paper, scribbling the number on the paper.

“Thanks, have a good day!”, he thanked me, leaving with a lot more confidence. ‘Geez, Kim’s got a tight schedule’, I thought to myself, while searching up unsolvable cases on the internet.

…

“God , when will he come!”, I cursed lazily, while lazing on a comfortable chair. “Click”, ironically Kim opened the door. We were locked in a short awkward staring contest, won by him.

“What the hell…”, Kim says, confused.

“ You took too much time”, I told him lazily, making him roll his eyes.

“Well, recess time is over.”, he sarcastically told me to stop being a couch potato, which I complied.

“ I’ll show you off to whoever is left to interrogate.”, he said skeptically

“If there’s any.”, I remarked.

“Alrighty! Go to room 7, there’s a need for a detective, you basically.”, he gave me the objective.

“Where to, Lee?”, I ask for directions.

“Just right next this room”

Knowing where to go, I quickly tuck my shirt, and crudely comb my hair. I say goodbye to Lee, and leave him in the office. Shutting the door, I look at both sides, and see the door to the right is the 7th door. I presume it is a part of the 7th room, so I knock on it.

“Come in.”, a deep yet friendly voice answered. Hearing a yes for an answer, I open the door , and see a black stocky officer. He in turn looks at me with a face of relief.

“Thank God, a pro’s here!”

“Wait, you didn’t conduct the interrogation, but don’t you get training on this?”, I ask him confusedly, while he puts on a sheepish smile.

”Well you see, I wasn’t cut for this crap, I’m more of a patrol cop!”, he pouts back.

“Let’s stop, who have we here?”, I stopped our little chat, and looked outside of the one-way window. Inside was a seemingly aged man, with a worried father’s face. As I closely examine him, I see him fidgeting with his fingers, probably to anxiety.

Poor man.

“Caucasian, duh, 47 years and married, has two kids.”, the cop finally but partially answered my question.

“Shit”, I muttered.

“Who has he lost?”, I pressed for more details. His face turns grim.

“Half of his family, wife and elder son.”

“Never got your name, man.”, I ask an unrelated question, he gives a visibly confused face.

“Uh… Thompson, Derek Thompson.”, he sarcastically answered, to which I let a few chuckles escape.

“Alright, I guess it’s time.”, I remind myself and Derek

. “Yeah…”, Derek replied. I switch my gaze at the interrogation room, and continue examining the despaired man. From this distance, he looked like a junkie.

I stop gazing at him, and walk towards the door to the questioning room.

“Will you be documenting this or will I have to?”, I stop and ask the rookie.

“I’ll be listening.”, notified of a listener, I opened the door.

“CRANK!’, I cringed at the broken door, it also got the attention of the father.

“Jesus! You guys need to fix that door.”, the man said irritably.

“I know right, we’ll be deaf before we know it.”, a few chuckles were let out. I quickly sat in a chair that was parallel to the man. An awkward silence engulfed the room.

“So–What’s your name?”, I approached him with a friendly attitude , so as to ease him.

“Jon Braveu.”, I raise my brow at the strange family name.

“How do you spell your last name?”, I ask out of plain curiosity.

“B-R-A-V-E-U.”, he answered slowly.

“Strange name, where did your family get it?”

“Made-up, I’m a-a orphan.”, he had a despaired face.

“Oh…”, the awkward sound worsened the sorrow situation, which quickly turned into a moment of silence.

“Are you ready?”, I ask carefully.

“Um, yeah.”

“What's the reason for you coming here?”

“What do you mean?”, he asks, confused.

“Sorry.. I mean who?”, I reformulate my question.

“Family.”,he gave out a single but meaningful word. I look at the grim man, and sigh a sympathetic noise.

“Who’s the lost one?”

“Make that is to are.”,the man’s face worsened with the severity of the loss.

“My god, who did you lose?”

“My wife, and son…”, I scowled mentally.

“Jesus, I-I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

I take a few moments to prepare my words, so to speak with this fractured man.

“Their names?”

“Cassandra, and Jeffrey Braveu. I call my son Jeff though.”, he replied surprisingly well, forgetting the somber mood.

“Last time you saw them?”

“For Cas…yesterday morning, maybe 6 or half.”, he half-answered.

“And your son?”

“6 pm, he was going with some friends.”, I heard the prospect of unknown victims. Frowning slightly at the idea.

“If you can , could you give the names of the friends?”

“Uh sure–Mark Jeb , Anthony Jacobs,and Gina Marley.”

“Good friends?”, I ask a seemingly mundane question, but still vital. If they weren't good friends, they’d not care much for each other, and may get each other into trouble.

“Since childhood.”, I sigh internally with relief.

“Does your son work?”

“Yes, just to earn an extra buck. Why do you ask?”, the curious father asked.

“He might have had some problems there.”

“Really? Wait, that may explain it!”, the father widened his eyes.

“What is it?”, I am intrigued by his realization.

“I remember one late night , he was a bit roughed out and bruised a bit, so I asked him if someone at work did this. But he said ‘no’, he instead said it was done by some delinquents.”

“Did you believe him?”

“A little bit, he seemed stressed, but I thought it was from the skirmish with those unknown punks.”, he took a short break to get a breath.

“However, the stress continued to this very day, well yesterday to be more precise.”

“That’s interesting...”, I said genuinely.

“If you want I can give directions to where he worked?”, he offered eagerly.

“ Oh yes please, let me see if I have a paper.”, I quickly accepted. I quickly began to search my suit’s pockets.

“No worries, I think I have a leaflet or something.”, he gestured his hand to make me stop, and checked his right pocket.I watch him carefully , as he rummages inside his pockets. He sure does have a ton of stuff inside.

‘“There it is!.”, he exclaimed , while taking out a folded piece of paper. He quickly unfolds it, turns it the other way, and hands it to me. I take it.

“Joe Li’s Asian Apparatus?”, I read out a bit surprised.

“Yeah , I too was a bit dumbfounded.”

“Strange Name, eh?”, I said, and he nodded.

“Anyway, we should talk about your wife. Was there anything suspicious these past days?”, I asked him.

“No, not really, but I figured I should give her workplace’s address.”, he shrugged.

“You know that big paper company near the Alritus mall?”, he asked. I racked my memory, and remembered it being called Oresus something.

“Does its name contain Oresus?”

“Yeah, that's the one, Oresus Industrial Paper company.”

“That’s quite a mouthful, but I'll remember it.”, I gave him the certainty of us looking for his lost ones.

“Thank you.”, he gave me a genuine smile.

“It’s my job.”

“So, do you need something else?”, the man raised a brow.

“No,not really,but if you need something from us , don’t hesitate.”, I gave him the assurance of assistance. I quickly stood up, raised my hand,and gestured to him to shake. He gladly took it, smiling a little bit.

We’re gonna get that son of a bitch