“We’ve managed to identify the victim. Ronald Peterson, Australian businessman and a member of the board of directors at MedaPharm Works. Biggest pharmaceutical company in the Down Under. He was in Singapore to discuss some business ventures with the local industries.”

Xiaoye, Roderick, Weijin and Amirah sat in one of the makeshift conference rooms with Farhan as Jason, who has decided not to be too rigid and had allowed his new team members to address him by first name, conducted a briefing on the murder that had occurred the previous night. The reason the conference room was makeshift was due to logistics: The Shades were moving out of Cantonment by the end of the year to a new building located at the western end of Yio Chu Kang Road where a cross-junction leads to the main Upper Thomson Road and one of the entries of the notorious Old Upper Thomson Road, and half their equipment had already been sent there.

“Sir, any motive established? Did Mr Peterson have any shady dealings?” Amirah asked.

“None that is known yet, but based on the moh shi- Moh sava- That birdie girl, sorry, who witnessed the murder, I’ve been trying to match the description she gave with the bestiary, but no luck so far. We might not be dealing with a therianthrope.”

“But the corpse of the victim was ripped apart. Based on these pictures, the culprit definitely had some feral traits, so we should not rule them out yet,” Xiaoye commented as she pointed at the screen displaying the wounds found on the victim.

“You’re right. But we’ll need more evidence. Farhan and I have arranged for all available security footage around the crime scene to be sent to us for reviewing. Hopefully, we’ll get a clearer picture of our suspect.”

“Perhaps we can start with his associates in the meantime? Who did he come with? Who did he talk to?”

“A colleague named Noel van Schilt, another member of the board, came to Singapore with him. Also, the last two persons to see Mr Peterson alive are Clifford Tan and Hekkal Bailor, they’re scientists working for MedaPharm. There was also another person who met Mr Peterson the morning before his death: Kang Zhan Ling, the public representative for MedaPharm Works’ Singapore branch,” Farhan said as he flipped the display screen to show pictures of four individuals.

“Kang Zhan Ling, that name sounds familiar… Shit, I know this guy. He’s from my old polytechnic,” Weijin commented.

“That’s a lucky coincidence. Please enlighten us about him,” Jason asked.

“Yeah, I was finishing my final year when he enrolled. Smart guy, dashing looks, strong and tough, very popular and lots of friends. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a grade A scumbag motherf- Sorry, sir, language.”

“So he’s a fuck bastard. What did he do?”

“Woah, not holding back on the vulgarities, sir?” Xiaoye asked.

“I’ve directly insulted witnesses, suspects and even colleagues back in my previous division. For me, it’s very simple: If I give you three chances and you still want to be have like a donkey, I won’t waste my time being professional with you. Unfortunately, that’s also the reason I got bounced about.”

“No worries, sir. You just earned my supply of extra respect,” Weijin said to Jason, who lets out a soft chuckle before motioning for Weijin to continue his description.

“Yeah, about what I said earlier, like what the inspector said, this Zhan Ling’s a fuck bastard. Caused two schoolmates from his secondary school into committing suicide through psychological manipulations and physical violence. He’s a psychopathic bully who treats people he don’t like as trash and has no remorse for his actions. Only one of his victims ever retaliated successfully: Corporal Tom Ang.”

“That porn-addicted desk corporal?” Roderick and Amirah asked in surprise.

“Ex-porn addict. He’s ninety percent clean now, but yeah, Tom went to the same secondary school as Zhan Ling. Hell, his addiction and other bad habits were caused by Zhan Ling’s relentless bullying messing him up mentally. But from what I heard, Tom snapped and lunged at him one day. He beat Tom bloody, but Tom eventually got the jump and shattered three of Zhan Lin’s ribs with a fire extinguisher. Both ended up in hospital, but Zhan Ling never got charged because his daddy’s religious ties and wallet were thick enough to get him out of trouble while Tom got expelled and had to go to New Zealand to finish his secondary and tertiary education before coming back.”

“What a son of a bitch! I would sure like to introduce him to my daddy dearest,” Xiaoye said, almost snarling.

“Does Zhan Ling have any dispute with Mr Peterson? Actually, forget what I said. I mean, he’s just a PR guy, why would he get involved with someone so high up?” Amirah added.

“To answer that, we’ll have to question him. Moving on to the others. Clifford Tan, from what we know, is chief biologist of MedaPharm’s Singapore branch. Squeaky clean record. Hekkal Bailor, on the other hand, not so clean. Seems like he used to be a member of Scorpio-45, biggest elf gang in Southeast Asia.”

“Scorpio-45… I remember dealing with them during my first year into National Service. They specialize in drug trade, extortion and illegal poaching, if memory serves me right,” Roderick mused.

“A country-wide police raid took them down by half-strength ten years ago, but they’re still the second biggest gang in Singapore. Hekkal Bailor was one of their drug mixers who got arrested during that raid, but released after three years following a plea deal. He ratted out his leaders, from what I heard, in exchange for a reduced sentence. Now he works for MedaPharm, claiming to be a changed man,” Farhan explained as he showed the others a mugshot of a bald elf with a black eye dressed in prisoner’s garb.

“What about this Noel van Schilt?” Weijin asked.

Jason sighed as he switched the screen’s display to show a well-dressed Caucasian with a carefully trimmed beard and an expensive watch on his left wrist.

“He’s clean, but apparently he was part of the Australian Army’s DST. Got involved in some behind-the-scenes stuff… Records aren’t sealed but confidential, although given the fact that Mr van Schilt rarely interacts with Mr Peterson except during board meetings, I personally rank him lowest on our suspect list. We’ll still have to question him.”

“Doesn’t seem like we have a lot to work on,” Weijin commented.

“I’m afraid so. I know that unlike other regular police officers, the Shades’ patrol officers are given the authority to perform investigations on their own without the need of an Investigating Officer, but from what I’ve gathered, most of the time, you would do the preliminaries and then hand the data over to Investigations. This time, you’re all going to have to conduct full interviews, interrogations and get your hands dirty on scenes. Are you all up for it?”

“Get our hands dirty? Sir, you have a Taoist priest, a were-tiger and a half-demon on the team. Our hands have been dirty for a long time.”

“Glad to see that you’re up for the task, then. I still have to sort out who would be our auxiliary team members, so for now, Inspector Farhan here will take the lead. By the way, what’s the status of our witness?”

“The moh shuvuu? Lucas volunteered to take her in. He and his sister lives next door to my lodgings, so I can help keep an eye on her too,” Xiaoye replied.

“Will it be safe for her?”

“Sergeant Di lives at one of the shophouses along Thompson Road, just around the area which used to be a deadly Grand Prix racecourse. Three out of five residents there are fae kind, local therianthropes, vampires and Japanese yōkai. I think it’ll be extremely safe for our witness,” Weijin explained.

“Not to mention Tom and his cousin currently pays Lucas’s sister rent. There’s literally four police officers around her, and my landlord and room-mates have agreed to assist in taking care of her when we’re not around.”

“Your landlord and room-mates?”

“No need to worry, Jason. One’s a six-hundred-year-old kitsune, another’s the leader of my neighbourhood’s aswangs. Anyone who tries to get to our witness when we’re not around is going to die horribly.”

“I’ll take both sergeants’ words for it, then. Farhan, give them their assignments.”

The harimau jadian nodded as he stood up and took over from Jason.

“Xiaoye, Weijin, given what we’ve known about both Kang Zhan Ling and Hekkal Bailor, I think it would be best if you two interview them. Roderick and Amirah will temporarily take over as Sierra-3-5 during the duration of the interviews. As for Clifford Tan and Noel van Schilt, Jason and I will conduct the interview with them. Our goal is to establish any possible motives for the murder of Ronald Peterson and see if our suspects may have been involved. Remember, our sole witness claimed that she heard the killer accusing Mr Peterson of lies, and that someone died because of these supposed lies, before dicing him up. If that is true, than this case may be more than just a simple grudge.”

“MedaPharm Works has recently come under a lot of scrutiny following a series of controversies. I’ll be checking up on them on the side, see if we can identify more potential suspects,” Jason added.

“Xiaoye, Weijin, I do not wish to sound like a broken record, but be careful with Zhan Ling and Hekkal. Given their individual past, I believe Zhan Ling will try to make things difficult for you both, but Hekkal is more unpredictable. I was one of the officers who took part in the raid where he got arrested. He gunned down four members of the tactical unit while trying to escape. He was lucky they survived, or he would have been facing murder charges,” Farhan continued.

“That’ll be all for today. Everyone get ready to move out. Xiaoye, a word in private, if you do not mind.”

Roderick and the others glanced at the cambion, who merely shrugged, before leaving the room, closing the door behind them. Scratching his head, Jason pulled a picture out from his pocket and showed it to Xiaoye.

“Your graduation photo. AC Bradley lent it to me,” he said.

“What’s this about?”

“Bradley said the Nobody was your batch mate, right?”

“Aye, all of them in the photo are my batch mates, and most of them are in Third Shift like myself. That’s the desk corporal Tom Ang, his half-elf cousin Ethan Zhao, Rahman, Takato, Goraz and Karza. And then that guy with the biggest smile… Heh, I’ve not seen it since six years ago, brings back some funny memories.”

“Bradley said that’s Lucas Heng. I could scarcely believe it, considering how emotionless he was when we first met. Might I ask what happened? How did he become an Accursed, a Nobody?”

Xiaoye immediately felt discomfort at the question. She and half the unit knows the reason why Lucas transformed from the most cheerful man in Singapore to an unfeeling husk who people normally don’t even realize is standing right next to them. She bit her lips, struggling whether to spill someone else’s secrets to a newly transferred superior officer or kept quiet and let him figure things out by himself. After all, Lucas did not like strangers knowing what happened to him. A few seconds later, she’s made up her mind.

“Sorry, Jason, sir, I can’t blather about it. All I can tell you, however, is that he was the last person on this planet to deserve what happened to his family. Stick around long enough and he might allow someone to tell you about it, as long as you do not judge him by his actions.”

“I see. I apologize for putting you on the spot, then. You can give this back to AC Bradley for me.”

“Why do you want to know about Lucas, if I may ask?”

“I’ve heard stories about him. Neither good nor bad, but if true, then I am obliged to feel sorry for him, and be angry at the ones who screwed him over. I know it sounds weird, but I’ve a bad habit of getting frustrated when I see someone take a beating they didn’t deserve.”

“Well, that’s right thoughtful of you, Jason.”

“Which brings me to my other question. Your partner, Roderick Harper, he comes from along line of police officers, as you know by now. He did his National Service with the police, and two more years as a traffic patrol officer, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“So why is he still a constable? He should be a sergeant by now.”

Xiaoye paused for a moment. Now that Jason had mentioned it, it was indeed strange. Roderick may be a rookie in the Special Hazard Exorcism Unit, but he’s been a police officer for four years, so why has he not been promoted?

“You’re curious too, am I right?” Jason asked as he arranged his files and folders.

“You did just trigger my interest, sir.”

“AC Bradley and I were curious about it, went and dug up some strange information. We found something shady, but I can’t say more without attracting the attention of Internal Affairs. AC Bradley’s already managed to secure Roderick’s overdue promotion, but we can’t just give it to him without proper merits. As his training officer and partner, I want you to ensure that Roderick Harper plays a role that’s important enough to warrant a promotion, so that we can grant him the rank of Corporal.”

“Corporal?” Xiaoye asked, raising one eyebrow as she stared at Jason quizzically.

“Unfortunately, yes. Higher-ups insist that he climb the ranks properly instead of skipping one rung of the ladder. The reality of life’s unfairness, I’m afraid,” the inspector replied with a shrug.

“Well, I definitely want him to get the rank he’s owed, but he’s going to get it the proper way, sir. No shortcuts.”

“Just the way I like it.”

“Anything else, sir?”

“Thanks, but I have nothing more. You’re dismissed. And do keep me updated on the witness’s status.”