Jacob was still in his office. He called it quits as he went to his dresser drawer and pulled out a coffee cup and a bottle of whiskey.

“Excuse me, sir?” A soft female voice echoed in the room.

He turned around slightly to see a female tanuki kemonomimi with shoulder-length brown hair and big red auburn eyes who was wearing a Crucis Sentinel uniform. She was semi-visible in the dark, but you are able to spot her with her glowing eyes.

Already broken, Jacob took humor in this. “Are you here to file a complaint?”

“Not really, Beta Crucis from the Crux Nexus,” the bubbly tanuki girl said, stepping out of the shadows. “I just came here to see you. To see how you’re doing.”

Jacob scoffed holding a bottle of whiskey. “What does it look like?”

“No worries. I won’t tell anyone. And besides, it seems like you need one,” Beta Crucis said while sitting down in one of the vacant chairs, crossing her legs.

“After this, I’ll be out of a job,” Jacob dreaded as he took his seat at his desk.

“You’ll always have the police force,” Beta Crucis wondered. Jacob poured himself another drink.

He was unfazed by this little girl knowing he was part of the police force. But after the week he had, Jacob didn’t care anymore. “How did you know that?”

“You looked and sounded familiar. Even your scent kind of jogged my memory. It took me around to realize you are the one who called the Oleander Syndicate. Somebody owed you a favor and took care of something for you off the books,” Beta Crucis explained. “Served in the United States Marine Corps, you had a part in operation Desert Storm over in the Middle East. After being honorably discharged, you came back to New York and worked as a cop. You were a good cop. You took pride and honor, taking care of everyone.”

Remembering how good it was to be a cop again, brought back painful memories as Jacob took a sip of his drink, “Shame, you’re the only person who would ever say with a straight face. Not to those who are so jaded and spoiled to let their kids create drugs in a place where you are supposed to learn and grow as a person.”

“Delta Theta Omega?”

Jacob nodded. “Of course. Too many doctors and lawyers came out of that hellhole of a fraternity. When they were done with us, they gutted the entire Police Department after the investigation. It was the last case I ever investigated as a policeman. Went up north, settle down with my family. A few months later, a Delta Theta Omega fraternity member was literally ripped in half. They were people crying for that little gangster. That rapist. I felt guilty that I didn’t shed not one single tear. I felt sorry for his family, but it passed. It became a pattern, you know?”

“The murders?” Beta Crucis added.

“The horrifying situation became a meme in less than a year. The attendance of the school went down, the students started carrying weapons, it was a real mess. Yet, I didn’t feel sorry for those kids. They ruined many people’s lives, and someone paid them back sevenfold,” Jacob showing no remorse and his indifference.

However, Beta Crucis knew being indifferent doesn’t last forever. “Until Omar died.”

Jacob shook his head in shame. “He didn’t deserve it. He was just doing his job. And despite that fraternity being what it is, the kid who died with Omar didn’t deserve to die either. I came back for them, not for the school,” Jacob finished his drink.

“You said you were the investigating officer of the sexual assault involving the fraternity. How did the victim handle it?” Beta Crucis questioned.

Jacob poured himself another drink, knowing he might need it. “Haley Larson? I don’t know… She was always a forgiving person. Her twin brother, not so much. All because she was born different…”

This intrigued Beta Crucis, “What happened to her?”

Jacob looked at the tanuki girl in such disbelief. She was decked out in superhero garb, wanting him to tell stories about his glory days was maddening. Despite all this, he was grateful at least somebody wanted to talk about what actually happened.

And so, he was inclined. “Haley and Donovan enrolled in the school four years ago. We had many reports of homosexual hazing before they arrived. Haley Larson was born a man but lived her life as a woman.”

“Haley was a Transsexual,” Beta Crucis clarified.

Jacob took a sip of his drink and told the story, “It was at one those mixer parties they called it. The University’s baseball team won against their rivals that evening. Donovan was a pledge at the Delta Theta Omega, and Haley came to their party unannounced, dressed like a woman. I can only imagine what Donovan was going through as a pledge. They must have given him so much hell when Haley showed up. Two days later, I received a call for a missing person. Haley Larson was gone.”

“You didn’t handle the missing person's case?” Beta Crucis questioned.

His response was a mere shoulder shrug. “I was too busy dealing with Delta Theta Omega and the drug ring, but we already knew there was a connection. Those brothers from the maternity had deep pockets and big names. Three days later after the filed report, we found her body buried in the cornfield. She was sodomized with foreign objects that were missing in the barn, and she unconsciously bled out according to the medical reports. I blamed myself for not working hard enough to find her. But she was already dead before they reported her missing.”

Beta Crucis frowned at the thought. It must’ve been hard for Jacob to get justice for the person who wanted to live her life the way she wanted to live. Only to be ridiculed and assaulted in a heinous way.

“What about his wife, Britney?” Beta Crucis followed up.

“What about her?” Jacob stared at Beta Crucis as he took a sip of this drink.

“Did she know about Donovan and his sister?” Beta Crucis clarified.

“I don’t know if it would do you or anybody any good. But she was dealing with her own problems…”

“Thank you, Detective,” Beta Crucis concluded the conversation.

She uncrossed her legs and went over to Jacob who is still a bit drunk now. She took the coffee cup from him and downed the entire drink herself. Jacob was a bit amazed by this. She set down the cup on the table and walked away.

On her wristwatch, she contacted another Crucis Sentinel who was in position, “Epsilon, are you busy?”