Setting
Though far from the festering stinkhole the deep city is, the Nillies is still the nesting grounds for many prominent organized crime syndicates and mob rings. With skyscraper penthouses and flashy entertainment revenues on every corner, the Nillies is an entertainment district ripe with corruption and greed. Police and lawmen keep the raiders and muggers off the street but turn a blind eye to the sweet-toothed dealers peddling drugs out of their five-star dining facilities and dance raves. Between a healthy influx of groveling miscreant from the Nummens and honest family patron from the Nashtons, criminal overlords manage to profit from the lawful and the morally indifferent alike, supplying legitimate entertainment to one while sating the bestial appetites of the other. It's a great place to be for a crook who knows how to play the cooperate game.
Of course, the wicked inclinations of the Nillies does not entirely mar its beauty. It is, after all, the entertainment center of the entire city, overflowing with the ripe product of Van Leugen's artistic capabilities and its deep, mysterious passion. Some of the finest theatrical performances in all of Terra can be found in the lavish opera houses of the Nillies, and many of the museums and restaurants in the area are renown throughout the galaxy. All in all, this district walks the crude boundary between acceptable entertainment pursuits and complete spiritual debasement; a wide, gray line streaking dazzlingly between what could be good and what is absolutely wrong.
There was an almost boyish charm in her blue eyes and tomboyish looks, she wore a black t-shirt, had blond hair that careened down her shoulders, and a truly infectious smile. She wore beige shorts and seemed to have a lithe figure about herself. At a guess, she was in her teens, late. On her hands were a thick pair of black gloves. Being that Bart was from the future, he may recognize her because of her infamy and be surprised that she is actually alive.
A single bloody hole replaced his left eye, most of the rear of his skull was removed, yet a near peaceful expression set upon the remainder of his face, it would be days before one of his room mates tracks him down, and discovers the body of his former friend and reported to the only people he knew who'd understand their... affliction. The MCU.
"You'd think they'd be able to deal with their own homicides by now." Xiaolian grumped, hardly enthused with the prospect of having been pulled out of her nice warm bed to go investigate a crime scene in the middle of the night. "Probably some kid got hopped up on drugs and did something dumb." She muttered as she stood underneath her umbrella, sipping at a coffee the could only be described as paint thinner. It was strong stuff and took plenty of cream or sugar, preferably both, to make it palatable.
Having spoken with a few of the local officers earlier, they were obviously spooked, more so than usual. Someone had apparently phoned in an anonymous tip for where a body could be found. By now the whole scene was cordoned off in yellow tape, and bathed in the harsh light of the squad cars light's. "Short end of the goddamn stick..." Xiaolian continued to mutter grumpily, hardly a night owl and more concerned with when she could get back to bed.
Another yawn cracked her face and she sighed. "Well, the locals are spooked by it. We might as well go in, figure out what's making all these big tough men shake." And deal with the occasionally doubting of their ability to do their damn job because they happened to be women. Molly hated dealing with the local cops. She headed towards the scene, still tired as hell. Geez, why hadn't this been handed off to rookies. It was the night shift. The rookies could handle it.
Taking another sip of coffee, Xiaolian sighed as she laid the large umbrella's handle up against her shoulder, and tucked it slightly under her arm. Doing a complicated game of juggling, she managed to change hands holding her coffee and pull out her phone. "No real details yet, so what do you want to do? Go look at the body or talk to local guys?"
The planeswalker didn't have a high view of most local cops. Some were alright, but most got a case on their hands that couldn't possibly have been committed by a human...and promptly declared it was drugs, then went on a ridiculous rabbit trail that ended with an innocent behind bars and a killer walking free.
The fact that she was still stressed from the trial didn't help. She wasn't even a victim and felt like she needed time off.
"Who's got scene command here tonight?" Xiaolian asked one of the officers, showing him her badge.
She followed after Xiaolian, letting her partner handle the mundanes. It wasn't that Molly was bad at it, per se, but she wasn't very good either. Xiao looked more approachable anyway...and didn't get annoyed as fast. Or at least, not obviously.
"Hey there I'm Lt. Boyuan, and this is my partner Sgt Bronson." The petite woman said showing her badge again to the man. "We received word that there was a homicide here that we needed to take a look at?"
“ Ah detectives… “ he wrung his hands absently. “ Yes , James Coleman was found dead. Gun shot wound through the eye…” The beetle of a man lead the way. “ Hope you too have stronger stomachs than others..” He gave a scorn look to a young officer sitting on the steps , clearly shaken.
“ No one heard nothin’ no one saw nothin’ . 23, his folks haddn’t heard from his since he moved out. There on their way from outta town.”
The crime scene team had started going through the standard run about not long before the two detectives had shown up.
The body of mr Coleman was being photographed as the two detectives reached the top floor of the warehouse.
“ We got an anonymous tip he was here…We’re trying to track down who called it in since it’s not likely someone would have just stumbled upon him here.” Coofer shook his head looking at the victim.
Killing yourself via gun to the head was always even messier than this. She wasn't surprised no one saw or head a thing. They never did in these cases, ever. Still, given the size of the hole, she suspected the killer stood pretty close.
"Can you tell me more about the tip you received?" Xiaolian asked, probing, and wondering if Molly had checked for any residue yet. A gunshot wound and suspected foul play was normal out here. She was still confused as to why they'd been called in, as far as she could tell this wasn't anything of any magical or supernatural nature.
“Yeah yeah, uh… Hold on a sec dispatch went ahead and gave us recording.” The beetle of a man muttered pulling out a smartphone.
“ Hey folks, go take a coffee break or something, give the detectives the floor for a bit.” He suggested in a marginally friendlier tone than he normally did. This got a few looks from the staff but no one wanted to argue.
Once the room had been clear, Coofer peered over the railing to make sure there were no curious ears sitting around.
The man skittered back to Xiaolian and started in a hushed tone. “ Honest , it was me who suggested your unit needed to be pulled in. Our victim is...er...was a werewolf. He was part of a larger group up until a short while ago.” Coofer went on, thumbing through audio recordings until he found the 911 call with the tip.
“I found some guy shot up in a warehouse over at Brooksdale St 3rd floor.” A male voice said shakily in a near panic.
“ Sir can you---” The line went dead.
“ The kid was tryin to get help last I heard…” sympathy lanced the oily man’s face.
As Molly walked the scene she might have noticed a few bits of bullet fragments , silver in color, and emitted faint magic.
At the foot of the bed were the victim was standing was was now marred with faint footprints from the staff and passed that the broken window, one of many in the building. There were a small number of personal belongings, namely the backpack and Mr. Coleman’s shoes. All and All for the place being a storage unit it was rather cozy.
"Five minutes to find the magic, Xiaolian." She said and grinned. "Look for the glow, as is standard." And they'd likely go through the backpack and take out any potential personal belongings from the storage unit. The 911 call wasn't much good, but she was going to remember the voice. "We'll get a copy of the call too." She said simply. "I don't know if we'll get much from it, but if we can track down the pack, we might track down the caller."
Turning to Molly, she returned the grin, "Five minutes? Is that the best you can do Bronson?" She asked as she waited for the spell to take.
As the man started down the stairs he paused looking at the body, then to Xiaolian
“ Be sure to get this guy… I didn’t know the kid but we all go through trying to find help, and the kid shouldn’t have been gunned down for it.” His moment of sympathy faded quickly as he downed the stairs and started barking orders at his staff to start finding out who owned the warehouse and who’s crap this was.
On the back of the page was written “ A=H” and “ best of luck” written in script, someone who had much pride for the penmanship had written that.
In a second bag were items from a local grocery store.
Salt, Lemon, and matches.
As Molly scanned for magic, faint specs would glow brightly within the pooled blood. There were other spots as well. But one the size of a dime shone brightly across the room. It was the back of a silver slug with a ruin etched into the base of the bullet. Should a magical being touch the slug it would scald them.
"I'm seeing fragments in the blood." She said simply. "Not much magic to be had...except for the bullet." She didn't touched that, having not made it there yet. Still, this was a fairly clean scene, given the circumstances. Blood everywhere of course, but that was expected. She had no doubt that there were bits of his brain somewhere in this mess.
Molly was glad she was a cop and not a cleaner. This would be a bitch to clean up.
Once the film got back, they could likely get a better idea of trajectory on the shot and how close the attacker had been to the victim. It was a mess, but no worse than some of the previous cases; at least blood hadn't been used to make rudimentary markings on the wall. "Hey Bronson, didn't you used to hunt?" Xiaolian asked as she came over to get a shot of the bullet fragments in the blood. "Because that looks an awful lot like one of the rounds popular with hunters."
She grinned to her partner, more amused than not. "And to clarify, I hunted demons, not weres. If I wouldn't get into trouble for it, I would still hunt demons. They give the best fights." and by a quirk of her possession, Molly was more than a little demon now herself, magically at least. She had the same desire for fighting at least, and it was a lifetime of training and practice that kept those instincts under control.
"Oh fuck off Bronson! You'd get in a fight with a stump if allowed!" Xiaolian added glaring at the other for interrupting her train of thought. "Now let's get this shit bagged and tagged, just because the Warden's on leave doesn't mean we get to goof off."
"I'll ask around for a were hunter, get their point of view on it. Someone in the office is bound to have some experience." She said simply, looking the runs over. She almost missed Fisher. If nothing else, he had been interesting to deal with. "That man as obsessed with his guns and runes." She muttered, more amused than not. Fisher has been a special kind of officer. No one had been too surprised when he died.
"But yeah.. see if you can't find someone's ear to bend back at HQ." Xiaolian said as she reached out to pick up the bullet and put it into a evidence bag. "I'm surprised the scene is still intact.. I mean so many guys trampling over it."
( ooc: Use this to continue searching the crime scene)
The Bullet fragment Xialian picked up would feel warm , boarder line hot in her hand as the few fragments of visible scrips flared to a dull silver glow in the presence of a magical being, even as mild as her psychic abilities. Upon closer inspection of some of the more intact fragments , one might notice that the ruins them selves where dull while the rest of the silver glowed, as if the runes them selves rejected the spell.
Xialians communication device buzzed after a long while (say 20 mins or so) with the sound of a file sent , it was the recording of the dispatch request and a text from Coofer.
" Warehouse belongs to Kara Hamonds, as does the "Halloween" decor on the second floor. My guys are outside but no one is gonna go up there again tonight."
Sometimes evidence was that easy. Mostly, it wasn't. Either way, they had research to do for this case already.
"What do you think he was trying to do?" She asked Molly as they flipped through the pages before landing on the names. "Oh oh! Jackpot!" Xiaolian said pointing excitedly at the names in the book. That would definitely enable them to at least cross reference their database of offenders and registered unseen.