“Alright, let me know if there’s any update.” Shrevas sighed and walked out of the lab.

“Sorry for the rush. But - you know, the investigation has been close to fruitless after all this time.” Keryn sighed and apologized: “You know how stressful it is to deal with this kind of high profile case, and it’s very unlikely we can just sweep it into a Blue Envelope with all those eyes on it.”

“No problem, Keryn. I’ll update you as soon as I hear anything back.”

“Hey, morning folks.” Just when Keryn and Shrevas left, Mick came into the lab, carrying a small tray of coffee: “I got some coffee, you want some? And why are you here so early already?”

“It’s kinda unfortunate, actually.” Marcus sighed and raised his mug of coffee up at Mick: “I will ask the captain if I can go home.”

“You were here all night? What the - ” Mick appeared both surprised and worried: “What kind of stuff did you check on last night?”

“It doesn’t matter. Not now anyway. If you noticed that there are way fewer officers in here right now, it’s because of what I ended up finding later.” Marcus shook his head: “It’s - ”

“Marcus found some kind of mass gravesite.” Kevin printed the pages regarding the bloody fingerprint out in full color and showed it to both Marcus and Mick: “Buuut - here’s something I wanted to show you earlier, didn’t expect the matching algorithm to have a result so quickly, thanks Mick.”

“Okay, what is it?” Mick shrugged and took a look at the page.

“It’s a piece of cloth from Carl Benson’s shirt. Lydia Mu had one piece of it in her hand, right? Which is why this bloody fingerprint is hers?” Marcus asked.

“You would think, but no.” Kevin shook his finger and said: “This is another piece - a piece that was not found anywhere in the car at first or in Lydia Mu’s hand, but somehow tucked inside some engine pieces, unburnt, and somehow missed by the officers and everyone during our previous sweeps.”

“What - how?” Mick picked the printed page up and examined it up close: “This is - this is also way too clean. It’s not - ”

“Not natural?” Kevin chuckled: “Yeah, totally. ”

“How was it found? Who found it?” Marcus let out a long exhale, then asked.

“The city forensics team. They were assigned to the evidence discovery process. I guess they will be taking over the entire investigation soon.” Kevin sighed: “I guess that’d be a relief for you, huh?”

“Yeah, but if we have nothing, it’ll look terrible for us.” Marcus sighed: “And yeah, we have nothing, practically anyway.”

“What about Brooklyn Payne?” Mick shrugged,

“That’s only trouble. But yeah, you reminded me, I’ve gotta tell the captain this.” Marcus grunted and finished the mug of coffee in his hand: “Let me get back to ya. Thank you Kevin, you’re still THE life saver.”

“No problem.” Kevin yawned and wiped his eyes: “Let me know if you have something else you want me to take a look at!”

“Kevin, I have a question.” When Marcus left the lab, Mick lowered his voice and asked.

“Shoot, what can I help you with?”

“May I ask, and it’s okay if you don’t wanna answer this - why haven’t you applied for a forensic scientist certificate?”

“Hmm, Mick, that’s a good question.” Kevin chuckled: “But the short and sweet answer is, those tests cost about three hundred dollars, and a pretty low pass rate. ”

“Yeah, but with the captain’s permission, that fee can be subsidized - ”

“When that fee is subsidized, it will come out of the precinct’s funding. And if I don't pass, which is pretty likely, it will show up on the entire precinct’s audit report and become yet another reason for the city to cut our funding.”

“What the fuck - why would the city cut your - I mean our, funding?” Mick’s eyes opened wide in disbelief.

“Same reason the city is going to cut the funding to other precincts and stations closer to the South-Eastern District - the city is getting poorer, and while other areas could rely on additional funding sources, our precinct and others like ours kinda have to count every penny.”

Mick was stunned for a minute, then sighed: “... shit. Sorry, I was not aware of that.”

“Yeah, so get ready to experience a piss poor precinct and butt loads of cases.” Kevin laughed out loud: “And, uh, I tried to warn everyone about this, especially Marcus. But since Marcus has come around, I want to extend the warning to you as well - don’t dismiss the local superstitions easily. They served the communities for a while, and they continued to. Even if you don’t believe them, don’t flat out display it in front of the locals.”

“Hmm, do you mean the local beliefs and tales about the supernatural?”

“Yeah, that, and your wording - ” Kevin chuckled and almost snorted: “Just - be respectful, at least be discreet, alright?”

“Kevin, Mick.” A uniformed officer opened the door in a rush: “We’ve got a case, Detective Cai and Captain Cai called for your help.”

“Huh? What’s the hurry?” Kevin immediately grabbed the field kit he placed on the side.

“Multiple homicide, possibly murder.” The officer shook his head: “Detective Lance and Detective Pahaik are out, so…”

“Yeah, Marcus is the default point of contact.” Kevin shrugged: “Let’s go. Poor Marcus.”

“You worked the night shift last night right? Why aren’t you tired?” Mick sighed and followed Kevin out the door.

“Possibly just genes, lots of dumplings and coffee.” Kevin waved his hand at Marcus, who was rushing downstairs and heading their direction.

“Sorry Kevin, had to drag you into this again.” Marcus apologized as he met up with Kevin and Mick with a string of keys in hand, signaling to both of them that he would be driving a squad car: “And Mick, looks like another shit case is at hand. You’re ready?”

“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” Mick smiled and shrugged.

“Nope, no choice but the attitude you face it with.” Marcus answered with a wry laugh: “Let’s go.”

“Where is this case? Why such a rush?” Hopping into the backseat, Kevin asked.

“Multiple homicide, from the description, very likely murder.” Marcus sighed: “And the location is quite close, both to our precinct and where Keryn and Shrevas are.”

The new site of a new case, surrounded by police tapes. It was a house just around the corner of the block where the damaged and barely functioning electric substation was. And was just about ten minute’s walk from the crash site. They actually drove past a few officers watching over the crash site on their way over.

“Holy fuck - ” The smell of blood and raw human flesh exposed to the air for extended period of time hit them right in the face the moment they got close to the door, without even entering. Mick was the one that was least used to it, and thus he was the one with the biggest reaction. Kevin just shook his head and readied his gloves and camera. Marcus felt a strange sense of chilliness and grimness, so he tuned the flow of his Qi, while also trying to hide it from other officers at the same time. The reason for it was quite simple, being known as a mystic martial arts practitioner and wielder of Qi would bring him a lot of unwanted attention and even trouble.

The house was just a plain single family house, quite typical for the South Western District, with some solar panels on the roof and automatic sprinklers on the front lawn. If it weren’t for the blood and body parts splattered all over the floor, the walls and the shelves, the interior of the house would look quite neat and meticulous, with all the glass decorations, paintings, photos and potted plants on the wall. There was a piece of wool carpet in the living room, with two severed fingers on it and covered almost completely with blood.

There were in total bodies of three people and a dog in the house, with many body parts hard to account for because all of them were too heavily damaged. What made the scene worse was that the robot cleaner seemed to have been activated after the deaths, and it smeared blood stains all over the floor and carpet.

“We found the information of the people here.” One officer with a face mask and bags under his eyes told Marcus and Mick: “It’s a family of three, father, Cartman Ling, mother, Lisa Ling and a young son, Kelvin Ling. They had a pet dog. It’s possible that they’re all here, pending DNA or fingerprint confirmation.”

“Any known enemies?” Marcus sighed.

“Looking into it.” The officer nodded.