Call the Detective

Dangerous Game

"Rose Doux," a low voice called from the door. Rose spun around and had to squint, the room was dark and all she could make out was a shadowy figure. 
"The salon is closed. You'll have to come back tomorrow," she told the stranger. The man chuckled, 

"I don't care about this place, lady. See, I've got a job to do. And you're a huge part of it," he told her. Rose raised an eyebrow, 
"If you want to negotiate business, you'll still have to come tomorrow. When the salon's open," she snapped, now getting annoyed at this strange man. He shook his head and took a step closer. Rose scowled. 

"I've got nothing to do with your business," in the blink of an eye, he pulled a gun out of his pocket and quickly shot her. She fell to the ground in a limp pile, have no time to respond. He dropped the gun back into his pocket and sighed, 

"Gosh these jobs are getting repetitive," he mumbled and walked out of the store in a slouch. 

*

"So this is where your sister was shot," Sage wondered and tapped her pen against her book, "and you sure there were no witnesses to this crime?" The man nodded. Lauren and Googoo were inspecting the crime scene and Lucky was pouring two cups of tea. 

"What was your name again?" Lauren asked as she looked around the hair-salon looking for any sign of a clue. 
"Hunter, my name's Hunter Doux," he said nervously. Sage nodded and took a cup of tea from Lucky's hand. She took a large sip and looked at the floor. 

"So. Hunter. Know why anyone would kill Rose Doux? Other than if they got a bad haircut from her," she said and flipped her notebook open. Hunter scratched the back of his neck in thought. 
"She was super secretive. Even I didn't know much about her and I'm her brother! All I know is that she was gone from her salon a weird amount of times, and it only stopped a day or two ago," he told her. Sage noted this down and nodded. 

"So maybe she was escaping to be somewhere, and when she stopped going she was killed?" Sage wondered, she always came up with a first idea off the top of the job, even though it was never correct. Always best to have a baseline to work up from instead of trying to come up with the right idea straight away.

Lauren nodded, 
"That would make sense. But why would she get killed just for not going somewhere?" she asked and dusted off the counter and smiled as she picked up a fingerprint, "unless where she was going was like a gang or something." 

Sage raised her eyebrows and wrote the idea down. 
"Rose? She wouldn't be involved in any gangs! That doesn't sound anything like her," Hunter snapped as he was offered a cup of tea. Lauren stretched her back and her legs with a high kick. 

"I thought you said she was secretive? You wouldn't know," she countered. Hunter remained silent for the rest of the investigation. Sage noticed a scrap of felt tucked away in the corner near a large, grassy footprint. She peered at it, it was still fresh. And no one had been in the salon for the whole day apart from the police and them. Quickly, she scanned all the polices shoes and then Hunter's. No one's shoes matched it. 

She dipped down and pulled the label out if the sticky mud, it had an unfamiliar logo printed at it. It was a giant 'M' with the words 'Méchant Foundation' printed at the bottom. Weird. She once read an entire analogue listing every business in Kalos and didn't recognise the name.

"Hey, Hunter, have you ever heard of this thing called the Méchant Foundation?" she asked him. He shook his head. 
"Sorry, no," he said and took another sip from his tea. Lauren scratched her chin, 
"I could've sworn I heard someone mention it back in my alleyway days," she said and raised an eyebrow, deep in thought. Sage scribbled that down, 
"Maybe that has something to do with it. After all, that would insinuate it was illegal, and suddenly leaving an illegal foundation would be risky," she thought and took the final sip and gave the cup to Googoo.