The mystery (hotwire)

"Thank you Agent Carnell." Hotwire said walking onto the scene. He had been told of his new assignment. A man had been killed, and the M.O was similar to one that they had been on the lookout for, hence the FBI agents.

He had also seen the girl he was to work with: Haruhi. Yes, she was pretty. Yes, she made hotwire nervous. He was doing his best to mask it. He had serious work to do, and hoped the thrill of the crime scene would distract him.

"It's nice to make you acquaintance. I have been told we will be working together on this case." He said quickly offering his high tech gloved hand to shake. With formalities out of the way, he proceeded to body.

"Well there's something odd here." He said looking it over. "This isn't the crime scene." He said matter of factly.

Haruhi shook his hand, "The names Haruhi by the way." She said. She could sense that he was a bit nervous, but couldn't pinpoint why. As he went to examine the body she stood back to let him work.
That was until he mentioned something unusual. "What do you mean this isn't the crime scene?" She crouched down beside him, examining the victim, trying to see what he saw.

Hotwire looked up at her. “Do you see any blood pooling?” He asked with a knowing smile. There was no blood on the ground, just what had soaked into the clothes.

“He certainly lost enough blood. to cause pooling” Hotwire said standing up. “Yet the only stains are the blood spatter on the wall. He wasn’t killed here. The killing cuts were made elsewhere, then his body was put in this alley after he had stopped bleeding. That's when he was shot.” He explained.

This alley was a dead-end, with only one exit. He walked out to the street. A couple shops had security cameras. He let himself into their memories, and began sifting through footage. But he had to narrow it down.

“Haruhi, can those senses of yours give me a time of death?” He asked. He could use his wrist computer to analyze it, but he needed to focus on the footage.

Haruhi was amazed by Hotwires discovery, and how quickly he had figured it out. He was right there was no pooling, the stains on his clothes and around his wounds and the stains on the wall were the only blood visual.
"Huh, your good at this." She said a bit happy to have someone experienced with her. This was her first crime investigation so of course she was excited about it.

"By the look of it, he died around 16 hours ago." She went over and stood beside Hotwire once she was done with figuring out the times of death. She crossed her arms, shifting her weight to one leg. "I still don't get why someone would shoot an already dead man." She put a hand under her chin as she began to think. "Unless it stands for something, the shot to the forehead I mean."

Hotwire turned his head quickly and let out a brief "I-uh-thanks." before facing back towards the street and blushing a tad bit. After letting himself into the cameras, he heard haruhi give him a time of death. He started his search, having a point to start from. He managed to take half the load off with his built in wrist computer, allowing him to talk with Haruhi. “I agree. It’s most likely a sign of some sort. There’s no personal connection between these victims, but we should look for other patterns too. I doubt our killer just chooses anyone to shoot in the head."

He kept looking, his wrist computer showing the feed for haruhi to see. Eventually a small pickup truck pulled up. There was a box in the back. A man in a hoodie got out, and carried the box into the alley. A small glint showed from the alley a minute later, most likely the gunshot. Because of the height of the camera, he could see it, but to anyone on the street, the truck would have blocked the way. He must have used a silencer, because there were a few people just across the street and they would have heard it. The man hopped in the truck and drove off.

"I see. Now to find that truck." Hotwire muttered running the plate numbers. He looked on in shock as a few words scrolled across the screen.

"Plate has been manufactured by Zenos."

Hotwire sighed.

"Zenos is an underground criminal organization that makes a business of selling fake licence plates. They're the best money can buy if you need one. They seem like good plates, but as soon as you try to run them, it's garbage. You have to have some decent pocket money in order to buy one. Not something your average thug could ever afford."

“The truck is a dead end. There must be tons of trucks like it, and a group like Zenos won’t keep records. We’ll get some of the officers to interrogate anyone who might have seen the car. Then we can focus on other aspects of investigation.” Hotwire explained. He turned around as Haruhi apologized for her lack of investigative skills. “Don’t worry about it. I’m still kinda new to it myself. The built in network helps a lot. We’ll work out this together.” He said before stuttering a little “I-if that’s alright with you I mean.”

He quickly walked forward towards the body. “We have little to go on. No prints. No known personal connections.” He said. “But what about physical?” He said leaning over the body. While he searched for physical similarities with the victims, comparing them with the crime scene photos from other victims, he turned his head to Haruhi.

“See if those senses of yours can pick up anything special on the body. Not another scent… but anything of interest.”

Haruhi smiled at the working together part. She felt slightly better knowing he was also new at this too. "Of course it's all right with me. Hehe, your alright." She was still wondering what this kid was capable of, he was a Titan was he not? This was Haruhi's first time meeting one of the actual members.
"Hmm," she began as she followed his move, and began to exam the body again. She got a glimpse of the other pictures of the victims and noticed that they all had the wide gash across their neck. With white gloves in she began to search the man, like ordered, to find anything interesting. "Hey look," she said catching the sight of something glimmering in the victims shirt pocket. "This is a pretty nice pocket watch." She said, turning the golden pocket watch around in her hands. "I guess I killer wasn't interested in money or robbing his victims."

Hotwire pulled up the pictures on his computer, projecting them into midair in front of him. He began looking closely at the pictures again. Then he heard Haruhi mention the pocketwatch. He looked at the watch, then back to the pictures.

"Not... interested in..." He said looking at the pictures. Then he saw them. It didn't seem like much at the time, but now he saw them.

1st Victim: Gold Bracelet
2nd Victim: Gold Cufflink
3rd Victim: Gold necklace.

and now 4th Victim: Gold pocketwatch.

"AHHHHH!" He yelled out recoiling a little. "That's it!" He yelled. He had his answers. Now to track down the true killer.

Haruhi kept turning the watch over and over in her hands, she couldn't help but be mesmerized by the shininess and beautiful gold color. Hotwire managed to snap her out of her trance by yelling. "What? What is it?" She asked looking up at him as he was looking over the victims pictures. Haruhi stood up slowly, looking over his shoulder at the pics. "Hm?" Haruhi knew he had figured something out, but looking at the pics it was hard to tell exactly what.

"The murders are place a couple days apart. At this point, our killer is planning his next move." Hotwire said turning heel and heading for his cycle. He threw his helmet on and tossed a spare to Haruhi.

"Get on. We don't have any time to loose. I'll explain on the way." He said. He revved up his cycle, plotted the course through the city, and waited for Haruhi to join him.

Haruhi caught the helmet, wondering what exactly he had figured out. She mounted the bike, and hung on tight. "So where exactly is the killer planning his next move?" She asked, as they veered off, zipping through the road. "Nice wheels by the way."

"Th-thanks." Hotwire stuttered as they sped off down the streets of jump. They had a ways to go, and no time to lose.

"Trust me when I say the place we're going doesn't look like the hangout for a killer. It's an extra storage space. I found it while looking through the records of the man we're after." Hotwire explained. The visor in haruhis helmet would display the storage facility they were en-route to. A man's face popped up

"This is our guy. Dennis Songin." Hotwire said. "Two months ago, there was a robbery at a gold dealers. The criminals escaped, but during the ensuing scuffle, a clerk died. A man by the name of Carl Songin." He explained as the autopsy report for Carl Songin popped in front of haruhi's face. One thing would highlighted by hotwire in orange.

Cause of death: Single Gunshot to the Head.

"Dennis lost his only brother that day, and was reported to have caused a huge disturbance at the funeral. He worked for a newspaper firm. I don't know how, but he figured out how to ID the criminals. He knew they wouldn't have gotten rid of the goods. Trying to move them too soon would be a risky move."

"I'm sure you can fill in the blanks." Hotwire said turning off an exit.

Haruhi was a bit startled by the screen that popped up in her helmet, it was kinda cool. She payed attention to the images, and to what Hotwire was explaining.
"Man that's pretty rough, losing the only family you have." Hearing the name Dennis, and the thought of loosing someone....well it made Haruhi a little emotional. Dennis was the name of her brother that had left without a trace years ago.
She realized she was hugging Hotwire a little to tight and quickly loosened her grip. "So you think we'll find him there?" She asked, feeling that they were almost to the storage units.