No words needed [L x Reader] • Death Note

Chapter 27 | connections

Again, you were up late. Again you were walking around the room in your pyjamas and matching eyebags with coffee in one hand and case files in the other.

You felt like you were going crazy, like a conspiracy theorist putting red string over pictures on the wall to connect them in one big scheme. It'd been weeks now, you and L up all night going through massive amounts of computer data and case files trying to find connections. Your whiteboard was a mess of question marks next to notes and the table was littered with empty mugs and papers.

"I'm loosing my goddamn mind, WHERE DID HE GET THE FOOTAGE?" You complained.

L's eyes were starting to hurt from looking at his screen so long, sifting through files and files of chat logs and internet history. He's taken to breaking out his old glasses again when he was starting to get a head ache from looking at pixels all day.

"Surely there's a link, somewhere..." he muttered.

It was clear from the amount of blocked links and strange IP addressed that Max had been on the dark web at some point. Likely behind fire walls, VPNs and encryptions. As well as the deep net only being accessible via the tor browser and onion links, I'd made tracking things down hard. Not impossible but hard. L wasn't too scared to be browsing the dark web, he'd seen it all before on other cases. Plus, most of the gross content was hidden behind links and zip files you have to actively click on to view.

And it's not like red rooms actually existed. The dark web can't handle a livestream with all the blocks it has, it'd crash the site. If someone wanted to do a red room type deal they'd have to do it via a video chat on the clear net and risk being caught. No seasoned criminal was dumb enough to do that.

"Found anything?" You asked.

"No... just more shock sites" L replied.

"God Damnit this is driving me insane..."

"Me too..."

At least throughout this whole thing L has improved his talking skills. That was the good thing to come from it.

"I'm sure that whoever gave him the poison gave him the tape too. It just makes too much sense, a crime ring would have access to both. And it definitely wasn't done via mail because that can be tracked. It would have been done via a payment in some kind of bitcoin and a drop off point" you mumbled, trying to piece together a picture of what happened.

That gave L an idea though, if you were right and a drop off point was used then maybe he can filter all the data for mentions of the area. That way he might be able to find a chat log or website talking about a drop off in the area. He typed in the zip code and city name, hit search and waited for the results to load. Why didn't he think of this before? Probably because he was overtired.

When all the results popped up, he scrolled through them and scanned each one for anything that could be a potential lead. And luckily, a file caught his attention.

The zip code and city was mentioned in an encrypted chat log that had an attempted deletion on it. So Max had clearly tried to hide this. The chat software it was hosted wasn't a common one, but it functioned like your average anonymous messenger.

Encryption: can it be delivered to the zip code 7381?

BlackPlauge3: it can. I have a guy in the area, as soon as I receive the payment I'll have them hide the goods in an out of the way location and send you the coordinates to pick it up.

Encryption: thanks. I'll send the payment through now.

Bingo.

"Sweetheart" L spoke up.

You walked over, took the seat next to him and looked over his shoulder at the screen.

"Fuck yeah, that's definitely connected. I'm guessing Encryption is Max. And BlackPlauge3 is the hookup, do you know what site they came from?" You asked.

L thought for a moment, trying to figure out a way to trace the user BlackPlauge3 to another website. He went back to the files and typed the username in looking for anything that would show up. All the chat logs with the user were there, as well as a few broken links to bitcoin wallets from the payment. He gave the chat logs a quick scan though for any mention of a website.

Encryption: this is Plague from hells market correct?

BlackPlauge3: that's correct. What services do you need?

"Hells market... hmm" L muttered.

He opened a new tor page and tried a few combinations of domain links with the words hells market. Some 404 screened him, but when he tried an onion link url a website popped up.

Hells market
The ultimate online black market.

"Finally, we're onto something. This is definitely where he got the goods then... I wonder if it's the poison, snuff or both?" You said.

"Looks like there's mainly drugs... but here there's a section for other narcotics" L replied.

He followed the links on the page until he finds exactly what you were looking for, a listing for aconite extract. The poison that had been used in the killings.

"Bingo. We found out where he got it then... now we need to find out who BlackPlauge3 is and whoever else runs the site" you said.

"It's possible that... possible- Damnit..." L muttered, beginning to talk but stopping when he felt the words catch in his throat.

He reached over for his notebook, this sentence would be a bit too long for him right now.

"Take your time hun" you reassured.

He wrote his response instead. At least he was making progress...

It's possible that the snuff came from the same people, but it's just not listed. This seems to be a site focused on drugs and narcotics, but any criminal ring this organised could easily have other illicit items.

"True, check the chat logs again" you replied.

Going back to the files, this time he used the keywords for snuff and sure enough another string of messages came up.

Encryption: you wouldn't know anyone that could hook me up with snuff do ya? Shock videos just don't do it anymore.

BlackPlauge3: we provide it. It's not listed on the site because we're very limited in supply at the moment. Prices are high.

Encryption: how high?

BlackPlauge3: our oldest film is $345 since the video quality isn't as good. Our newest which is only a year old, and in HD is $900

Encryption: how long is the runtime in the HD one?

BlackPlauge3: 3 hours.

Encryption: impressive. What's the content?

BlackPlauge3: remember the Jane doe found last year with her limbs almost cut fully off?

Encryption: oh fuck yeah, I'll take that if you got a copy ready.

Sickening... but it did confirm your suspicions that the poison and video came form the same source. You figured the video came on a CD, and Max downloaded it to his computer and then destroyed the CD.

"You... didn't see the serving did you?" You asked L, who you remembered was the one who found the footage.

He shook his head, thank god. That must have been later in the video. But he still saw something gross for the reaction he had, you didn't really want to know what he saw. You rested your head on his shoulder, tired but glad you'd finally made some progress.

"We've got a lead at least. We need to find out who this BlackPlauge3 guys is..." you yawned.

"Sleep first" he replied.

"Yeah... sleep first"