Another depressing afternoon in San Francisco, the thick clouds made it look like it was about to rain anytime. The drivers on the road turned on their head lights hours earlier than usual.

“This is one of the reasons I hate coming into San Francisco.” Caroline complained to Jason before they stepped into the SFPD precinct to meet Erika and Jeremy: “The winter cold, the wind, the gloomy shy...”

“Don’t forget about the smell...” Jason joked and sipped his coffee: “Coffee’s good though. ”

“Please, almost 10 dollars for a cup of barely decent cappuccino.” Caroline rolled her eyes as both of them entered the precinct.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind, we have coffee in the precinct. ” the officer at the front desk told them with a smile as Caroline and Jason signed in: “Everyone’s pulling late nights recently, so the captain hauled us some pretty good coffee. Too bad he wasn’t able to get us an espresso machine though.”

“Yeah. That’d be good enough. I’ll definitely have a taste.” Jason laughed: “Have a good day.”

They went straight to the forensics lab and met Erika and Jeremy, who already had a compiled list and some printed documents prepared for them.

“Thanks for coming. Sorry we cannot send you any digital version.” Erika handed them two binders, one marked “Grave Defilings & Desecration” and the other marked “Cultish Killings”.

“And even though you must have already known this, I do have to stress this - please keep this confidential until the case detail is published.” Jeremy told them with a serious expression: “We had leaks before, so everyone’s hyper sensitive about information security. Not to mention a few weeks ago some reporter tried to sneak in and steal case files and take pictures of the bodies in the morgue.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll keep it as safe as possible, and we will destroy it when we’re done.” Jason nodded and opened the “Grave Defilings & Desecration” binder: “Which ones do you think are the most suspect and weird?”

“Actually, they are all really suspect. ” Jeremy put down his coffee mug after a long chug: “The grave defilings and religious desecrations started happening around two weeks ago - some time after Dr. Nguyen. And the cultish murders - they started a few months back.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Let me guess, Los Diablos?” Caroline looked up from the binder of “Cultish Murders”.

“Yeah. They are the primary suspects. I heard some detectives are also investigating other angles, because even though the Los Diablos are a cultish gang, they don’t usually do things on this scale. Still their M.O though.” Erika frowned and sat down.

“But. I heard you were pretty badass though.” Jeremy operated on his laptop and projected a police report with some pictures on the TV in the lab, “You and your brother fought off five cultists? That’s some action movie shit.”

“Wait, you guys know? How?” Caroline was surprised.

“Yeah, well, the police departments in the bay have a pretty good information sharing network. Especially on high profile cases.” Erika gave Caroline a thumb up: “We don’t know the details since we don’t have that much clearance. But we read what went down. And it seemed pretty awesome!”

“Geez, thanks.” Caroline shook her head: “Glad we didn’t end up like some of these victims.”

“Yeah sure. We saw one of the victims when we were helping another precinct with their scene.” Erika picked up her coffee mug and frowned because it was empty: “How are you doing mentally by the way? If you need some help I can recommend a wonderful shrink.”

“I’d take the offer.” Jeremy chuckled: “Her shrink is pretty great.”

“Thanks! Let me think about it.”

“Look, a few of the religious sites that were desecrated also held remains of saints. Including some buddhist temples with sarira towers - their sariras were also stolen.” Jason pointed at one page in the binder: “Same thing missing from Dr. Nguyen’s apartment.”

“Yes. We noticed that as well. And since you guys were the ones that found the bones in Dr. Nguyen’s department, we’d think you might be able to find something with this. Or at least tell us something different than what the detectives told us.” Jeremy extended his hand to Erika: “I’m gonna get some coffee, you guys want some?”

“Thanks, Jeremy, a full mug for me.” Erika handed her mug to Jeremy.

“A full cup for me if possible.” Jason threw his empty paper cup into the garbage bin and said.

“Same.” Caroline did not even raise her head from the pages in the binder.

“On it.” Jeremy walked downs the stairs to the first floor and to the coffee station in the precinct.

“You guys pulling late nights like the others?” Jason asked.

“Yep. And I heard that the captain was starting to piss some people off because we haven’t found a forensic scientist and he still refused to move the body from Prime Royals.” Erika sighed: ““The 57th precinct’s captain was pretty pushy - apparently their lead forensic scientist was REALLY interested and impatient.”

“Yeah. One week is just two more days away.” Jason smiled and said: “It’s almost over.”

“Hey, you guys wanna go grab some food with us in a bit? We have started eating dinner early and have some additional food late in the evening.” Erika asked all of a sudden.

“Yeah. Sure. Why?” Caroline flipped to a page with some notes about the symbols left at the cultish murder scene.

“The more the merrier.” Erika laughed: “And plus I don’t want it to get awkward… with Jeremy, you know.”

“Ah, and you want us to be the third and fourth wheel.” Jason laughed: “Duly noted. You have nothing to worry about.”

“No, no! It’s not like that.” Erika blushed and said: “It’s just… I am still thinking...”

“Coffee’s here!” Jeremy used his back to push open the door of the lab.