Chapter 440
“Come on, Kuhn, don’t tell me you’re gonna deal with the report first.” when Thomas and Aimee came by Detective Kuhn’s desk with the detective himself after they pinned down the locations of the sale of the “special products” from the ledger: “Can’t you just show the captain the map?”
“Oh, trust me, I know what kind of report the captain is asking for. And it’s gonna be a huge pain if we do not deliver in time. This is for the mayor, after all.” Detective Kuhn sat down: “It’ll just be a minute, can you contact Lee and your friends and see if they could come back and help with this and do a quick huddle?”
“I just called Jason.” Caroline said: “They might take a while, they are looking at a few crime scenes from the case, and inspecting for some suspicious marks.”
“Suspicious marks? What are they talking about?” Thomas asked.
“It’s the symbol of the Bleeding Daggers.” Caroline shook her head and said: “They are suspecting that there is some kind of deeper connection there, but they still need more proof. And right now they’re on their way to another, it will take more than forty five minutes’ drive.”
“Can’t Jason just fly and carry them over here?” Thomas shrugged: “Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you fly, how come?”
“Neither of us is there yet.” Caroline sighed and answered with a smile: “Technically I can fly just by an explosion of my powers, but it’s not remotely sustainable, and I can’t carry anything. But we will need to make it past the next tribulation for us to be able to fly and carry heavy things or people with us. And if we make it past the next tribulation, we will be able to engage in sustained flight and even make it to space.”
“Oof, bummer.” Thomas let out a short exhale: “Guess it will take us longer for us to visit our childhood home without buying tickets or driving.”
“Detective Kuhn, we just came from the area where the bar once was.” just this moment, a uniformed officer came to Detective Kuhn’s desk: “We asked around the entire neighborhood surrounding that place, all of them seemed to know something, but none of them was willing to talk at all.”
“What about the pictures we sent you?” Detective Kuhn looked up from his computer and asked: “The bartender? The henchmen? And the owner of the bar?”
“They seemed to have made the people even more nervous. One of the young men even shut his door ” the uniformed officer shook his head and sighed: “Looks like a gang area, which is something we already sort of know. But we’re not aware of this kind of influence, or the gang affiliations of these people.”
“Okay, thank you very much.” Detective Kuhn stood up and nodded at the officer to show his gratitude: “Have you noticed anything else? Anything that seems ... off?”
“Yeah, there is one thing.” the officer said: “We also checked the site of the bar - the bar’s completely leveled and it’s totally closed off by the fire department. And as it turns out, it’s not a gas explosion at all - they are not using gas stoves at all in their kitchen, because there is no gas line.”
“Hmm… ” Detective Kuhn was only hesitant for a very brief moment: “What did they say?”
“Unknown, there were no obvious traces of any sort of explosives, no apparent proof of presence of chemicals.” the officer said: “It’s just like something just exploded, and it’s quite a miracle that you all escaped mostly unscathed.”
“Yeah, a miracle.” Detective Kuhn took a look at Caroline and said: “Thank you, Officer Lopez. And please let me know if you find anything about that case.”
“You bet.” Officer Lopez nodded and walked away, but just in time to bump into another officer with a metal mug of coffee in his hand, who was walking slowly and slightly dizzy and rubbing his temples with one hand.
“Oh god!” the other officer’s coffee almost fell to the ground, and Caroline was somehow already by their side to catch the jar.
“Are you okay?” Caroline handed the metal jar back to the officer and asked.
“Yeah, nothing, just felt a sudden dizziness.” the officer took the coffee and said: “Thank you. I don’t know what happened to me.”
“Well, don’t stress yourself. The citizens need you.” Caroline nodded and smiled.
“Oh! Wait wait wait.” Officer Lopez came back to the desk and said to Detective Kuhn: “Sorry, detective, I don’t know what the hell happened to me - I almost forgot this: we went to the place of a local informant and wanted to check with her and see if she was willing to help. But we could not find her at her place, so we just left a note. There was no forced entry or any other signs of struggle so we don’t think she’s in danger.”
“That’s… that’s kinda important.” Detective Kuhn whipped out his notebook: “What’s her name? How do you usually get into contact with her? Is she registered or off the books?”
As Officer Lopez spelled out the contact information of the informant that lived near the bar that was run by a lycan and exploded in their fight, Caroline looked around trying to sense the energy fields around her - her instincts were tingling earlier when she got into contact with the officer who almost dropped the coffee mug. There was something odd in the air inside of this precinct, but she still could not tell what it was.
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” another two officers just bumped into each other and dropped the things they had in their hands.
“I - I assure you that the officers are usually this clumsy.” Thomas walked to Caroline’s side and said: “Must be a stressful time.”
“Yeah, but still weird.” Caroline said with a slight frown.
“Yea… anyway. You want some coffee?” Thomas asked: “There’s a pretty good artisan coffee shop nearby, it’d be my treat if you’d like.”