Late in the night, or drastically early in the morning, Captain Ko was sitting by a table in a small local pub, waiting for someone to take the seat next to him. In his hand he held a small stemless glass, with a glistening red liquor in it.

“Captain, Captain, Captain Ko.” A hoarse, sketchy voice full of snide came from behind.

“Brooklyn. Thank you for coming.” Captain Ko turned back and met the man for whom he was waiting face to face, eye to eye: “Good to see you. It’s been a while.”

“And, can’t say I can tell you the same.” Brooklyn Payne, formerly disgraced detective, now infamous private investigator, sat down by the chair on Captain Ko’s side: “To be honest, I would have called if you hadn’t. We’ve gotta talk about your detectives sniffing around my case and my client.”

“The girls whose friend got killed by a rich brat are not your client.” Captain Ko waved to the owner of the pub, who then started preparing a drink. “And you know damn well I can’t stop them from doing anything. Your sugar daddy should have taught his son better.”

“Please, the Bensons could barely get their own shit together. If you asked me I’d say the kid turned out a’ight. If not for some ungrateful little bitch.” Brooklyn Payne smiled at the owner as he was handed a mug of beer with a few shots of different hard liquor. “Go on then, you called first. What’d you want? And what are you giving me?”

“A warning.” Captain Ko sighed and put down his glass: “Just a warning, and heed it if you’d like. It’s - ”

“The Benson kid. I know.” Brooklyn Payne shook his head with a smirk: “But guess what? The pay’s kinda worth it. Dead girl in red dresses and all. And I’m not just talking about money and cash. I also meant access, resources, information. And maybe a way outta here.”

“So that’s what you want?” Captain Ko ticked his tongue: “Doing cleanups for them and their kid, in exchange for a way out of the city?”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Brooklyn Payne smiled: “If I leave, I’ma leave with enough cash to make me not starve on the outside. No, when I leave, I’ll have my bags stuffed with nothing but cash and coins.”

“I thought you have already made enough by now.”

“One could always use a little more.” Brooklyn Payne shook his head then took a gulp from his drink: “And that’s it? That’s why you called me here? To warn me not to work with the Bensons?”

“For. Not to work FOR them. On this case.” Captain Ko put his empty glass down and gestured for a refill: “There’s some money that’s just not worth making, Brooklyn. For old time’s sake, think about this - the Benson kid stirred up something that’s beyond anyone’s imagination. Things are happening all over the city.”

“Yeah, yeah, crime surges. Freak murders and deaths. People panicking about them.” Brooklyn Payne shook his head: “All the more reason to make more cash and get outta this fucking city while I still can.”

“You’re not hearing me.” Captain Ko raised his voice: “Haven’t you noticed that these freak murders and deaths all started happening AFTER their son? I still don’t know how it happened. But the pattern doesn’t lie.”

“Well, what’s that logical fallacy again? ” Brooklyn Payne chugged down the last drops of his drink: “Misattributing causality? Correlation and causation? How about that? You know, NOT being on the force and working with uniforms and bureaucrats has its benefits. One of them being perspective - you see, I don’t have to worry about solves and case closure rates. So I don’t HAVE to see the patterns. Right? And I don’t see them, I’m not prone to the illusion of it.”

“Even so. It’s still one crucial instance among a string of events.” Captain Ko was silent for a moment before he spoke again: “And you cannot deny this.”

“Well. I guess I prefer to wait and see.” Brooklyn Payne shrugged and put down his mug: “Thank you for the drink. But if that’s all, I’m afraid I’ll have to decline.”

“IF you continue. Then I’ll have to let you know that I worry things will get worse.” Captain Ko looked Brooklyn Payne right in the eye: “The deeper you get, the harder it is to get out. We both know this. And - this is for old time’s sake - IF you find yourself in that situation, I am still here to help. But, it’s gonna cost you.”

Brooklyn Payne scoffed, then let out a dry laugh, shaking his head. “Of course it’s gonna. I’ll see you around.” Before he went out the door, he paused and turned back: “Say hi to Irene for me.”

—------------------------

“Gentlemen, Keryn, thank you for coming.” In a meeting room, all the detectives of the 17th Precinct gathered around the long table at the center, and Captain Ko stood alongside Tyler Khan and introduced him to everyone: “This is Mr. Tyler Khan. As you can tell from his armband, he is an investigator from the South-Eastern District community collective. He is going to work with us on the case of the child kidnappings and destruction of one South-Eastern District community collective-owned platform.”

“Greetings detectives, nice to meet you all.” Tyler Khan nodded at everyone: “Looking forward to our cooperation and busting the ones responsible.”

“Wait. I don’t quite understand this, I don’t know why we’re working on both these cases with the collective on this?” Detective Pahaik asked with a frown: “These are two separate cases right?”

“My apologies Pahaik, I should have briefed you earlier on this.” Captain Ko sighed: “But with your heavy workload, and the cases being developing situations, I don’t want to put additional things on your Lance’s plates. ”

“Yeah, additional context would help.” Keryn raised her hand, and Detective Brian Sai nodded along with her.

“Marcus, Kevin’s having that meeting right now, so you wanna tell everybody about it?” Captain Ko raised his chin at Marcus.

“Alright.” Marcus sighed, stood up, walked to Captain Ko’s side and started speaking to every other detective present: “Alright folks, I’m sorry to interrupt your mornings like this. But I needed to tell you this, and this is a time as good as any, so - ”

“Come on. Just tell us that some of those urban legends about ghosts are true.” Detective Keryn Lance shook her head. This made Detective Pahaik and Detective Brian Sai turn their eyes on her, both confused and somewhat surprised.

“Yeah, what she said.” Marcus pointed at Keryn: “I know, everyone here has suspicions about it. And the track records of the cases we handle at our precinct are complicated at best. But I’m here to tell you…”

Then Marcus summarized what he and Kevin theorized about what was going on in the city. For the sake of time, he kept everything on a general level, and did not go into too much details about anything, especially what happened on the platform at the docks.

“Holy shit, I am just so glad you are here, alive.” Detective Brian Sai scratched his forehead and face: “But - okay, you kinda just dropped a big bomb on all of us. What do you expect us to do with this information?”

“I can help Cai answer that.” Captain Ko stepped forward a bit: “So now, it’s a good time to announce this decision: I am building a task force for special cases like the ones we just discussed about. Pahaik, Keryn, you don’t need to jump in yet. Keep on what you’re doing with the emergency reparations team and the family. I am keeping you in the loop because - well, Keryn knows why. And if you are investigating alongside officers that are not in the know, I’ll ask that you keep on your work without letting them get too suspicious of the situation.”

“So, I assume that the community collective would have ample experience dealing with cases like this then?” Detective Brian Sai turned to Tyler Khan: “What kind of information will you be willing to share with us?”

“I got the authorization to share with you some of our most relevant classified information. And I have received orders to aid you in your investigation in whatever way necessary.” Tyler Khan responded with a benign looking smile.