Abaranne's Cradle

"Don's tied up up with some odd badge, wish this city would get over that Jane." She says as silently as possible to Jay, clearly referring to the Nightingale incident. "But for now, it is me."

"Yeah, never seen anything like that. Even had me different. Took my mask off and everything. Anyway, job's done. Mugging gone wrong as far as anyones' concerned. If it is just you, we need to talk, upstairs. something in the envelope was, concerning." Jay wasn't kidding, the envelope had concerned him greatly. He was glad he was dealing with Bella, instead of Rosa. She was easily the prettiest of the two sisters in his opinion, and, unlike Rosa, she valued his opinion on matters of death and destruction. They had both been involved in the trade long enough to know what they were talking about. Not that Rosa was a bad business member, she just wasn't fit to deal with the stuff that Bella deals with. Best to leave killings to the pros'.

Bella looked at him questioningly, seeming to wonder what his sudden problem with the envelope was.

"We'll talk upstairs, I'd rather avoid prying eyes and wandering ears."

As Jay followed Bella upstairs, he noticed Rosa staring inquisitively. She must've thought this was something of import, of meaning. It held no real value to the family, rather just to Jay, seeking the advice of an longtime friend.

One the radio was on, Jay sat at a large table, and slipped the address onto the table. "This is my concern. It wasn't sealed, someone opened it and put that there. A setup, maybe. I'm not sure, but I'd appreciate if you could send a grunt along with me, or come yourself, but I wouldn't want to risk you on some suspicious meeting."

Jay spoke with precision, making sure each of his words were understood. In the back of his mind he hoped she would come, he didn't enjoy spending time with the families lackeys, they were unpracticed, careless, untrustworthy, and Bella was much better company.

Jay sat there quietly awaiting her response, his eyes following her every move, not that she'd be able to notice through his mask.

Jay was uneasy enough as it was, and now, him. He listened silently, clicking his knife with each word the man spoke.

' "I get that it is a survival instinct," he says in a gravelly voice.

"What was that?" Bella responds.

"You being so secretive," he says as he blows out a fine stream of smoke. "I'm not your enemy, and I'm not here to bust any kind of operation you got going on."

He turns his back and places a hand on the stair railings. Bella looks on intensively, the man put her at unease, there's no sign of fear in him in their presence, almost as if he saw himself as an equal, or even above them in some manner.

"Oh yeah, something really off about this night, got my scars all itchy'."

With this cryptic warning the detective heads down the stairs.'

The man had definitely spooked Jay, but he meant well. Otherwise he'd have been laying on the floor, bleeding out on the rug. This would be interesting indeed, an unknown note, a cryptic warning. He simply looked at Bella, gave her a small nod, and was off. This man needed to be tailed. see where he came from. Jay hopped out of the window as the man made his way to a black luxury vehicle. Definitely someone with some money. seemed like a man that could be bought. He slowly made his way down the fire escape. He was weary to be silent, you could hear a pin drop out here. It was looking like Jay would have to tail him from the rooftops. He made his way up, watching the man take a right turn. He quickly began putting his free-running skills to use, managing to catch up with the car rather quickly. he didn't seem to be heading out of the city which is a definite positive. After around 10 minutes of chasing him, he pulled into an abandoned warehouse and made his way inside. They were out of Hawthorne territory, and into the Rizolli's part of town, which was rather small.

Jay hopped down quickly, and made his way into the warehouse from a small broken window on the back of the building, and followed the mans voice to a small room, only to hear him say "The situation is dealt with." A rotted floorboard squeaked underneath Jay's foot. 'Fuck'.

"It seems we have a guest." Time to go, now. Jay quickly snuck into an adjacent room, making his way out another broken window, cutting his arm on the way out, leaving a small trail of blood across the paking lot and up the roof. Once he was up he once again put his skills to use, making the run in 8 minutes, and quickly dashing into the small room of which he and Bella spoke. "Stitch kit" He spoke plainly as he popped a few oxycontin.

Jay sat silently as she closed the cut on his arm.

"A gash, deep but clean... you were in a hurry... you got noticed."

"What happ-" She was abruptly cut off as a tone plays over the radio, an important message.

"A new victim in a line of brutal ritualistic murders was discovered just now in an alley way. Cause of death? Cubed. You heard me right, he was cut to pieces. Before I got thrown out by the badges I caught a glimpse of the... er... head of the victim... get this: it was Philippe, the youngest son of our favorite neighborhood tyrant. No shocker he'd be offed. However... this gets weirder... the psycho wrote a message in that poor slob's own blood. 'Monster.' The heck does that mean? Whatever the case, they'll be putting Humpty Dumpty back together for a few days so keep an eye out for some missing... pieces. The hell? Seriously, who wrote this? You laughing? Isn't funny.Don't touch me."

The message seemed, off. Cubed? Nobody kills like that anymore. It ends up making front page news, and you get caught. Then the media comes into play, and end up digging out your roots, connect you to a family, and then everyone's going away. It seemed this was different, though, they mentioned this wasn't the first one. Jay had to find this guy, and soon.

"We need to find and eliminate the killer."