Tinted In Red

~Chapter 1: Lead~

Sitting in his apartment, photos scattered everywhere, open files wandering about. Emett had stopped by the police station to get some more papers that were related to gangs or groups related to the area where the crime was set in, just to make sure to cover all bases. He had some Tai food with him, picked it up on his way back from the office. He leaned on his sofa that was behind him, his head resting where his legs would usually be, if he ever sat on it, eating away at his food while overlooking everything he delicately placed on the floor. The lights from the buildings outside his window shined in a little bit, holograms and billboards dancing around as they changed and danced. He swallowed his bite, putting down his plate on the floor, and picked up the photo of the body. Emett looked carefully at the way his body was bruised up, trying to notice anything that could pop out.

One of the many things he learned working in his line of work was that these types of crimes always had something to do with either: A) A deal or exchange gone bad or B), Territorial reasons. The victim was a gun seller from the profile he saw. Local, as well, couldn't be a coincidence. Looking back at his researcher, which he always found the name of dumb, he opened it up. "Jonathan King, gun seller." As he waited for the thing to do its magic, he looked back at the photo, taking a good look at this Jonathan. He looked young for his age, even all beat up like this. He wore an engagement ring, most likely had a family. If he was dealing with gangs, he was probably doing it for them, that's the motivation 90% of the time anyway. The researcher beeped, making Emett snap his head back at it, looking at the small hologram it showed. He was lucky, there was only one guy in Solipsis that was named that way.

"Open information." The police gave him access to all sorts of resources and this toy had to be his favourite. You asked a name of someone in the city, they'll show up here and give you all the info you might need to know them, even some receipts and transactions done under the name. You had to be careful about everything you did nowadays.

Emett didn't have to read far to find out he was indeed trafficking some weapons to gang members, multiple in fact, but one in particular, only problem is that it was never mentioned which one.

"Asshole..." He closed the electronic again, throwing it to the side, bringing his hand up to rub his face.

It's always the same thing with those cases. Same scenario, different people. This wasn't enough to make Emett back away from the case, though, definitely not. When he saw that body in that alleyway, this felt different, different from all the other cases he solved like this. There had to be more than this. He reached for the researcher again, opening it and looking into what types of guns he sold to those people. After a few more minutes of scrolling, he scoffed at the sight of documents for very, very illegal guns.

"Knew it." It didn't say who he were sending him these guns, though. Which, fair enough, it couldn't have been that easy too crack this whole thing.

"Guess ill have to find wh-" He looked back at his plate of food, seeing his bunny going to eat a piece of onion. He yanked the plate away and reached to get that thing out his mouth.

"Jesus Christ, Harvey! That's not good for you!" He put the piece of food away, reaching for his plate and putting it on top of the couch. Emett then picked his bunny up, holding it into his arm and onto his lap, petting him slowly.

"You gotta stop eating my food buddy, I'm not spending 200$ on you again..." The rabbit jumped off his legs and back on the floor, going back underneath the couch. Emett scoffed before turning back to his work. God, this was exhausting, just staring at paper, trying to find something special/that stands out. He kept looking back at the same thing anyway, always the dead body photographs.

He looked at them over for an hour at less, to the point where he could name you every detail of it with his eyes closed. So why was he always drawn back to them? That's the question that made him keep going back. His curiosity always took the best of him. It's not like he'd find something on a paper he's looked at for so long.