Chapter 2 Her First Case

“So, what do we got in here?” Iris asked while scanning the papers neatly piled up on Max’s table.

“Well, we got an on-going case right now, this is uh..” Max trailed off in his sentence as he flicks the papers trying to find the total cases of Nightcrawlers. Iris is watching him with amusement in her face.

“..case 13” Max clicked his tongue from frustration. “I’m sorry you had to deal with a difficult case for your first job.”

Iris snapped from daydreaming. “Oh, I don’t mind, I actually love being thrilled,” she said and lets out a fake laugh.

“Really? You must be good then, the Chief does not just put anyone in this case, you know, conflict of interests plus the level of danger, but he said that you were recommended to him by his friend from another department.”

“Well, yeah, I...that’s true.” Iris was cursing William in her head, he did not briefed her about how he got her the job.

Iris was thankful Max did not pushed further into the topic.

“Another victim of the Nightcrawlers, that’s the name for a notorious syndicate we have been running after for months now. They are a gang which recruits people to smuggle drugs and weapons for them, worst job description is assassination,” Max explained, Iris was not really listening as she can even tell the detective about their other businesses.

“And yesterday’s victim was him.” He handed Iris a picture stapled on a paper containing the crime report. 

“John Mallow, 23, an out-of-school youth, he was shot to death three times on his chest and no evidences were found useful, except for boattail bullets, which means the murderer shot him from afar. From the other cases, mostly used were knives or by choking." Iris felt like a student learning from her teacher but the difference is, she have graduated five times in the same course.

"And of course, the mark of the Nightcrawlers.” Max pointed at the picture. 

The dead man has a stamp of a rat on his forehead. Iris scoffed, she is embarrassed by William’s choice of branding their gang. Clearly, she was not included in the meeting when they decided for their symbol.

He could have chosen a snake or dragon at least. I’m too great to be a rat!

“All the other victims are mostly males, age ranges from 15 to 40, crime scenes often filled with high class bullets and empty bullet cartridges, and of course, substances of drugs. But it’s really crazy that we can’t find any prints, these guys are on a high level.”

“Wow, this is a clean and nice work tho,” she mindlessly blurt out looking at the picture, when she realized what she just said she looked at Max who was also looking at her, confused.

“I-I mean, oh my gosh they must be professional killers, this is so sad and evil,” she said trying to sound and look sad with the best she can.

Max just let out a chuckle. “Yeah, they are actually professionals, I don’t know if that profession is something to be proud of tho,”

“But, good news is that we actually found the last person he talked to before he died, we traced the last phone call on his cellphone, the number belongs to a man named Mr. Boller who owns a convenience store down at Hellin’s street. Our poor boy used to work for him. We are going there today,” Max explained and quickly grabbed his car keys and jacket hanged on his swivel chair.

Iris secretly smiled. Perfect, let’s get to work.

The two detectives arrived at the convenience store, when Iris stepped out of the car she immediately scanned the surrounding to check for any Nightcrawler lurking. Max nudged her to get her attention before entering the store.

Stupid gangsters, they are not even aware that there’s a loose end from their job.

Iris sighed, she feels tired already thinking that she might be the one to clean up their mess from now on.

The bell on the door rung when they pulled the door open, signaling that there’s a customer.

“Welcome!” Max and Iris followed the voice came from behind the counter. It was from a boy with his back facing them organizing the cigarettes on the shelves, he is wearing a shirt with the store name printed on it.

“Excuse me?” Max knocked on the counter. The boy faced them, Max showed his badge and the boy’s face immediately went pale like he have seen a ghost. He gulped and turned his gaze away from the detectives.

Max quickly noticed something is wrong, and that the boy knows something.

“I-I don’t know anything!” the boy defended himself even without questions being asked.

“We are not here to harm you, we will just be asking a few questions, Kid.”

“He quit a long time ago! I have not heard anything from him since then..please leave now. I don’t have anything to say to you!” the boy turned away again, refusing to talk to them anymore.

Iris was just standing beside Max. The boy knows her, she is the reason why he is scared and won’t cooperate. This boy is a friend of John. He saw her when she once went here to see the dead boy that worked from them as a drug mule and delivers the drugs to his boss.

Max sighed and turned to Iris who quickly wore her innocent face.

“We can’t force him to talk.”

“I’ll handle this,” Iris said and sweetly smiled on Max. He was confused on what she is planning to do and was about to stop her.

“Hey!” Iris called the boy, when the boy heard her voice he quickly faced her, it made Iris smile. “This is your boss’s number, right?” Iris placed the report of the phone calls on the counter.

The boy seemed confused, but he nodded right away, scared of Iris.

“Great, where is he now?” she asked, Max approached her with his frowned face, puzzled by why the boy is responsive to her.

“H-he is in his house, n-not far from here,” the boy stuttered and grabbed a notepad and a pen, he wrote the address and quickly handed it to Iris.

“Thank you, have a great day.” She winked at the boy and faced Max.

“How..?”

“Perks of being pretty, I think” she answered with a wry smile.

They went over to the address the boy gave them, it was along a street not far from their station and when Iris realized, the address is just two buildings far from the motel of their hideout, and just across her place.

Outside the car window just before the car passes by the motel, Iris spotted one of their gang members, he also saw Iris and his eyes widened. She saw him running back to the motel. Iris rolled her eyes.

“Why do you look so pissed?” Max asked, Iris did not noticed he was watching her.

“Oh sorry, do I? Maybe I was just hungry, I was not able to eat breakfast earlier,” she answered and lets out a nervous laugh.

Max found it cute. “Okay well then, let’s just eat before going back to the station.”

“Your girlfriend would be upset to see you eating with a pretty girl.”

Max scoffed. “I’d love to have someone to be upset then.”

“So are you asking me out on a date?”

“Yeah yeah, if that’s how you want to see it.” Iris was surprised because she actually thought of Max as aromantic after seeing how dedicated he is with his work.

Max parked the car just outside of an old two-storey building.

“Pretty much strange for a convenience store owner to live in such shabby place, don’t you think?” He noted as he unbuckles his seat belt.

Not strange for someone who spends all of his dime on drugs, Detective.

When they entered the building, an old man was sitting on the front desk, he seemed to be the owner of the building.

“Excuse me, we are looking for Mr. Boller, we believe he’s one of your tenants.”

The man slowly looked at the detectives, his moves are constrained by his old age. Max flashed his badge to him.

“Room 012,” he answered and gone back to what he’s been reading.

“Thank you.” They went for the stairs, going up to the second floor. The dark hallway with flickering lights welcomed them, the white paint of the walls barely giving life and the dirty red carpet on the aisle made the hallway all gloomy.

“I can’t believe someone can live here,” Iris commented.

“The rent must be cheap, all the more reason to be suspicious of Mr. Boller, right?”

When they got in front of the  door that has 012 numbers engraved on it, Max pulled Iris to his back, he reached for his gun at the back of his pants and lift his other hand to knock on the door.

Three knocks.

“SVPD!” Max yelled at the door.

Another three knocks.

Nothing.

“He must be asleep,” Iris said, getting impatient with Max. She wants to just kick the door and get it over with. They waited for another 10 seconds, Max was pressing his ears to the door trying to hear some sounds.

Iris sighed, she got tired of waiting. She looked at the doorknob and with her mind, she yanked it off the door. The blasting sound of the doorknob when it flew across the hallway made Max surprised, he quickly jolt away from the door.

“No no no!” Max tried to stop Iris from entering but she already did. The room was pitch black, Iris searched the wall for the light switch and clicked it.

“Shit,” Max uttered under his breath. He quickly fumbled on his phone.

“Detective Carter, we need an ambulance and a backup now!”

At the center of the cold and messy room, Mr. Boller’s eyes are wide open, on his neck was a rope squeezed so tight, and his lifeless body is hanging up in the air with a rat tattooed on his forehead.