No words needed [L x Reader] • Death Note

Chapter 24 | down the rabbit hole

It was offical. You'd caught your killer.

But the case was far from over.

Watching the news for their broadcast on the situation, you and L sat under a blanket as if having a movie night with snacks and all.

"The recent string of murders had officially arrested and charged the culprit, although the case still remains open as more questions have come up over the investigation. Max Deandrews, 24 year old university student was arrested last week on suspicion of the crimes after a search warrant was obtained for his house. Inside they found the rosary worn by the first victim, linking him to the crimes. Residue of poison was also found on a pair of gloves he owned, and most horrifyingly... upon searching his computer, illegal snuff footage was found among hundreds of chat logs where he talked about his distaste for women. His trial is set for the closest possible date and he remains in custody. His charges will likely be that of 8 counts of first degree murder, possession of illicit substances, possession of snuff footage and hate crimes again women. We're on the story as it develops" the news reporter over the TV explained.

She left out some details here and there, ones that were still confidential. But other than that the general message that the killer was in custody was put out there. That's all that mattered right now, the public knowing there's one less killer roaming free.

"Still so many questions though..." You sighed.

"I know..." L muttered.

"Where did he get the poison, where did he get the snuff? Is someone else involved in the killings? Was it the same people who provided him with the snuff? Ugh... this is just getting more complicated"

L finding that footage threw a huge curveball in the case. After it was analysed by an expert team, the determined this was indeed snuff footage and the victim was an unidentified body that was found a year or two before. The identity of the victim is still unknown, but they now knew she was likely abducted for the soul purpose of being the victim in the footage.

This was a whole new territory for you and L, you'd never actually worked on a case involving snuff before because it was such a rare thing to find. Contrary to peoples belief, snuff counts as snuff when it's made with the explicit intent to distribute for profit. Any old footage of someone dying is perfectly legal, as bad as that sounds. Mainly because it's completely possible to catch someone's death by accident on a dashcam, security footage etc.

The legality around footage of death, torture and abuse is a slippery one. It's something there absolutely needs to be more laws about, as footage definitely does exist out there. Even on the clear net. Fake footage, like that in horror movies is legal because well, it's not real. But footage that is real, but isn't produced for the intent of snuff... is legal.

It shouldn't be. Everyone knows that. But it's a hard thing to make laws over as the internet is such a big thing and hard to control and track down the sources of said footage. In the case of a physical copy it's much easier to track the source and perform arrests where you can. Detectives have been trying to get stricter laws about the situation for years, but it's not as easy as it looks.

If being a detective has taught you anything, it's that there's some sick, sick people out there. That's why you take life's joys so seriously, and hold them close to your heart. Because you know not everyone is that lucky, and it's just nicer right focus on the food rather than the bad.

"I've never done a case like this before... where do we even begin? We know the person in the footage is that unidentified Jane doe found last year... if we identify her the maybe we can identify her killers and since they're the ones that made the footage we can follow the trail to whoever sold the footage to Max..?" You rambled.