“All right, we have documents both paper and electronical, but it’s a damn big mess. Let’s sort it all out, see if our newest suspect really is the one we’ve been hunting all this time,” Jason said as Grey Team assembled everything they had on the table, with Roderick and Xiaoye skimming through several files confiscated from Hekkal Bailor, Weijin and Amirah going through the Internet for anything related to Theodore Stone and Farhan looking at the digital red threat conspiracy board he and Jason had set up during the investigation.

“Hey, Jason, I heard the killer attacked you last night. Are you all right?” Xiaoye asked.

“More or less. Still a bit shaken by the whole thing, couldn’t get a good night’s sleep. Now I’m just chugging coffee,” Jason replied as he downed his sixth mug of coffee.

“You were lucky Sterling Mall is where Weijin likes to buy his beer and junk food from,” Farhan commented.

“Yeah, I guess so. But right now, let’s focus on finally nabbing this pricolici. It’s already killed two people, and it’s also injured two of our officers-”

“And it’s attacked you.”

“Right, and Bradley’s about to declare an SRE on that thing’s butt. The Krsniks are getting involved, but as long as we don’t have a confirmed identity, the SRE cannot be declared. And we’re still two members short, so we’ve got to squeeze in whatever extra effort that we have,” Jason replied as he joined Farhan in trying to figure out the link between Theodore Stone and the murder victims.

After two hours of sorting through the evidence, however, nothing appears to be found. There was no link between Theodore Stone and Ronald Peterson, or the dead costume store owner, Jin Shu Wei. At this point, everyone was wondering if Inna had made a mistake, or that the whole thing was a wild goose chase.

“This is problematic… There’s too much shit to go through!” Xiaoye complained as she lifted her head from the pile of papers while Roderick looked like he was about to go into catatonic.

“First time in my life I am this close to falling asleep while handling a case,” Farhan added with a yawn.

“Anyone got eye drops? I’m running out of my supplies,” Weijin asked as he leaned his head back to reveal extremely dry eyes when the door to the temporary conference room opened.

“Inspector Jason, everyone, I believe Grey Team is still lacking in two more members?” Ajibade said as he and Lucas entered the room.

“Why are you asking? Are you volunteering?” Jason asked.

“Yes. This case has turned personal for me and Ajibade wants to help,” Lucas replied.

“Besides, I know how Bradley works. He was going to volunteer either us or Sierra-3-4 into Grey Team anyway, and I don’t like our chances when it’s fifty-fifty or lower, so might as well take the bullet. And you do need a sharpshooter and an infiltrator, no?”

“Why the sudden decision?” Farhan asked.

“She insisted,” Lucas replied as he revealed Inna hiding behind his back.

“Hi,” the moh shuvuu greeted.

“We’re kind of busy right now, so I’ll get the documents ready for you two to sign tomorrow. Don’t bail out on me at the last moment, or I’ll let that birdie girl eat your brains or something,” Jason replied before turning his eyes back to the chart.

“So, what do you need help with?” Lucas asked.

“Information, evidence, anything to link the murders of Ronald Peterson and Jin Shu Wei to Theodore Stone,” Amirah said when Jason suddenly sat up straight.

“No, not only that. Add Hekkal Bailor, HJP Incorporated’s recent scandal and Noel van Schilt into the info search,” he said.

“What?”

“And also this individual. She’s one of the casualties from the illegal human clinical tests that resulted in the scandal last year. Linda Carson, a nurse. Also, Theodore Stone did not become an Australian until twelve years ago. Find out what his birth nationality was.”

“I’ll settle that. Amirah, you handle this Linda Carson individual,” Lucas said as he switched on another computer and went to work with Inna perched on his shoulders.

“And I’ll look through these files with you two,” Ajibade said as he sat down in front of Xiaoye and Roderick.

With two extra pair of hands assisting, it wasn’t long before the team hits their first break.

“Since we’re running out of time, I’ve decided to hack into Linda Carson’s social media account. Look what I found: A picture of her and Theodore Stone together. Funny, though, this picture can’t be found on Theodore Stone’s social media pages,” Amirah said as she showed everyone the screen.

“Okay, so Theodore’s linked to Carson. Perhaps romantically?” Jason quipped as he attached a new red threat on the digital chart.

“I can’t find any clues as to where Theodore Stone came from, but I just found a report on a surgery done on a vampire in America fifteen years ago. The patient was Romanian: Teodor Stonescu. But take a look at his picture,” Lucas added.

“The name’s too coincidental. And yeah, the faces match,” Farhan said as he placed a current picture of Theodore Stone next to Teodor Stonescu’s picture for comparison.

“So is one of the nurses’ names. An Australian intern by the name of Linda Carson.”

“Well, that pretty much confirmed Theodore’s identity. He and Linda Carson were a couple, but Linda died and Theodore snapped. However, the scandal was caused by HJP, so why target MedaPharm?”

“Look what I found,” Roderick called out as he showed everyone a large envelope filled with documents.

“What the… All of these documents, they’re reports on the victims of that scandal!” Xiaoye commented as she and Ajibade looked through them.

“Private reports. Look, no company log, no signature, just a picture of a corpse and the test results… Jesus, this is just sickening.”

“And here’s the report for Linda Carson. Another link found,” Ajibade said as he placed said report on the table.

“It’s starting to come together. Theodore Stone, aka Teodor Stonescu, is acting in revenge for Linda Carson. But that’s the motive. What did his victims do?”

“I’m running footage we obtained from Sterling Mall. This one was from two weeks ago,” Weijin spoke up as he transmitted the footage onto the big screen for everyone to see.

“Yeah, that’s Theodore, going down to Basement Four and entering Jin Shu Wei’s store,” Xiaoye commented.

“And this is the one from last night, when Jason and I had to fight the pricolici off,” Weijin continued as he showed Theodore entering the store, with Jason himself appearing on screen fifteen minutes later and being forced to fend off the pricolici upon being spotted.

“And look at this receipt. It says ‘Police Uniform costume’ sold at forty dollars to one Teodor Stonescu,” Ajibade said as he pulled out a receipt from the pile of notes.

“Where did you find that?”

“The left pile.”

“Those are the document copies sent to us by Specialized Crimes… Together with the footage, it proves that Theodore bought that police uniform. Too bad we never found it.”

“Maybe he did not dispose of it. Suspects are more easily found when they try to get rid of things that can incriminate them.”

“Yeah, but there are some smart asses who knows how to destroy evidence. I had an old case where the murderer broke his knife into pieces and discarded them all over Singapore. By the time we found half the murder weapon, he had already fled the country, but the Vietnamese police eventually caught him and literally sent him back as a Christmas present,” Jason said.

“So we can’t rule out that Theodore did not destroy the uniform,” Xiaoye said.

“Exactly, but at least we now know why he murdered Jin Shu Wei. Same reason why he wanted to kill the moh shuvuu: He’s getting rid of witnesses.”

“Well, he sure sucked at trying to kill me, did he?” Inna said out loud, only for Lucas to pull her back under his right arm.

“Don’t speak so loud. Crazy bastard might be around thinking we’ve brought you back into the station and you’ll prove him right. Last I heard, pricolicis have very good hearing,” he said to Inna, who quickly covered her mouth with both hands

“Wow, look at all this interesting e-mails that have been circulating around MedaPharm’s network in the last few days. Man, their encryption and security is so weak, even a beginner hacker can access their systems within half an hour,” Amirah said as Weijin helped to display what is on her computer to the screen.

To: [email protected], [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: HJP Scandal Investigations

Mr Phillips, Mr Han, as you are aware, Ronald Peterson has been murdered. Unfortunately, that is not the only bad news I have. My investigations have traced the true culprit of the illegal clinical tests to be him, and it appears he had help from a number of individuals in Singapore. I have not been able to discern who the others are, but one of them, Hekkal Bailor, is currently in police custody for stealing recalled Glyter pills for repurposing into drugs. I have prepared a report that will be issued to the Board of Directors for both companies once I return to Australia.

“Huh, so Noel van Schilt was investigating the scandal,” Jason commented.

“And he found out that Ronald Peterson was responsible,” Farhan added.

“It wasn’t just him, though. Someone else knew Ronald Peterson was up to no good. Look,” Amirah explained as she revealed another e-mail.

To: Patriarch

From: [email protected]

Subject: Experimental drug

Thank you, sir, for providing the financial support we needed to conduct the tests on the new Thinnerfast pills. The deaths were, unfortunate, but with your help, we managed to scapegoat HJP, so no suspicion will be drawn to us. As per our agreement, we will start working on your ‘products’ soon enough

To: [email protected]

From: Patriarch

Fwd: Kaz, JK, Riki, Star, Ice

I told you to keep the others updated, did I not? Either way, the first shipment for this month is arriving soon, so be ready to hold up your end of the bargain, Peterson. Also, make sure this elvish gang, Scorpio-45, remains kept in the dark. We don’t know if they can be trusted or if they would tolerate what we’re doing.

“What’s with all those codenames? Ronald Peterson did not use it, and of all things, why use the company’s e-mail address? Dumbass,” said Ajibade as he tidied up the note piles on the table.

“Probably because he never expected to be caught, but either way, he was killed before he got caught by Van Schilt. I’m more concern about this code named people. Sounds like there was a conspiracy going on,” Farhan added as he stared at the screen with contemplation.

“There’s more. Seems like this is the part where Hekkal got involved.”

To: [email protected]

From: Kaz

Fwd: Patriarch, JK

Subject: Wares

Hekkal, you better not screw this up. Ronald Peterson’s death might be related to what happened last year. Make sure you’ve scrubbed all the evidence that will link MedaPharm to the scandal or I’m not handing those Glyter pills to you.

To: Patriarch, JK

From: Kaz

Subject: re: Wares

Hekkal screwed up. He got arrested along with his buddy with the pills in hand. Now that damned Van Schilt is going to investigate with the incompetent Chang. I can see cops ransacking the office as we speak. If those plans are discovered, we’re screwed. Never should have gotten Scorpio-45 involved in our operations

“Huh, that one was recent. I guess Hekkal’s arrest must have pissed off whoever these guys are,” Roderick said as he pointed at the date.

“We’ve got a problem,” Jason suddenly spoke up, his tone shifting to a stern one as he pointed at the last e-mail reply in the list:

To: Kaz

From: Patriarch

Subject: re: re: Wares

Never mind that. I’ll settle it on my end. That Australian, Noel van Schilt, he’s getting suspicious about the truth behind the HJP scandal. The killer who murdered Ronald Peterson might be related to one of his experiment subjects, most likely because of that hacker not getting paid for his blackmail. I don’t know how much information was leaked, but there is a chance the killer’s coming after you next. Redirect all suspicion to Van Schilt, let the killer get rid of him instead.

“Shit, they’re planning to frame Van Schilt!” Xiaoye exclaimed.

“Not just that,” Jason continued, “Someone found out about the whole scandal. This hacker must have blackmailed Ronald Peterson, but because he refused to pay-”

“The hacker gave the information to Theodore Stone instead,” Farhan finished.

“Amirah, have you managed to invade Theodore Stone’s e-mail or phone chats?”

“In a moment… I’m in. Look at this exchange… It’s a phone call from earlier this year, around… January. This was from January. Shit, its Haxe,” Amirah said as she stared at one particular name.

“Haxe?”

“A black hat from France who specializes in blackmail. He attacked my father’s company once. I was able to shut him out but he managed to steal some important documents and my father’s boss was forced to buy them back at a few million dollars. I managed to dox his address, however, so Haxe had to make a break for it.”

“Wait, you fought off a hacker and doxed them?” Roderick asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, I was a white hat back in my poly days… I didn’t touch any government sites, okay, don’t look at me like that, you all.”

“That’s a discussion for another time. Play the call.”

Unknown number: Good evening, Mr Stone, or should I say, Mr Stonescu?

Theodore Stone: Who is this? How did you know my original last name?

UN: Someone with juicy information you might be interested in.

TS: What is this, some kind of blackmail? Piss off, I’m having troubles of my own.

UN: I know what troubles you. Do you want to know how Linda died?

TS: What do you mean?

UN: Here is a link. Don’t worry, it’s not a virus.

TS: And how do I know I can trust you? I live just across a police station, I can just-

UN: I know you’re a vampire. A pricolici.

TS: The fuck-

UN: You met Linda Carson fifteen years ago. She was an intern, you were a patient. You two fell in love, you moved to Australia to be with her three years later. You two were secretly married four years ago on Tasmania. She was with child when she passed away last year.

TS:…

UN: Are you still with me, Mr Stonescu?

TS: You know too much… Fine, I don’t trust you, but it sounds like I’m being blackmailed already.

UN: Blackmail is my speciality, but in your case, I’m making an exception.

TS: All right, fine… But who are you?

UN: You may call me Haxe.

The room fell silent as the conversation ended, stunned by the entire discovery they had just made.

“So Haxe told Theodore the truth, and now Theodore wants revenge. We’ve established everything. Theodore Stone, aka Teodor Stonescu, is our culprit,” Jason spoke up at last.

“Aye, but if those emails between the codenamed folks are any indication, he’s about to murder Van Schilt,” Xiaoye said.

“He’ll be killing an innocent,” Roderick added.

“He’s already killed an innocent. As a vampire, his fate is already sealed. The Krsniks will execute him.”

“No, Ajibade, the Krsniks will only execute him if he refuse to surrender to the police and be charged under normal law. We’ll have to try and bring him in. The Krsniks will only step in if we fail.”

“I think we better get to Van Schilt first before Theodore does. Let’s move out. Lucas, Ajibade, you two coming along?” Jason asked the two, both of whom responding with a nod and heading out the room with the rest…