The office was quiet until the report came in. King Orthis's killer appeared to already be caught and was imprisoned. But the call about Eliya Morchanivic, the 12-year-old girl who had been murdered, had brought chaos to the office. Detectives were scrambling to find who had killed the child. But with very little luck. They only had three leads. Their closest lead was Ava Emri, who had white hair ties that matched those found in the victim's hair. Of course, there was a new detective who was being put on the case- a young Angel named Milo.
Milo had just arrived at the station, his white wings fluttering and flicking nervously. This was his first case, and he hadn't even been briefed yet. I wonder who I'll be working with, He thought as he looked around the station. Of course, he was only standing in the doorway and not moving. He didn't know where to move to, but he decided he'd just step aside for anybody who needed to come or go, and wait for somebody to direct him.

Pasqualine Aloia had been assigned to the murder of a young girl that happened shortly after the former king's. As the station had just settled after the high-profile case that was the murder of King Orthis, few of the seasoned detectives were willing to partake in a second round, especially when it lacked the sensitivity of the first. That was how the new case landed in the Nixie's laps.

Since the forensics report provided minimal information, and the task force had no other clues, they could only interrogate the 3 suspects and hope for something. Pasqualine, or Aqua, as her peers called her, had just organized the interview with the second suspect and left one of her subordinates to do the actual questioning. She had planned to watch the interview from behind the one-way window, but someone was due to arrive soon -- her new partner. Her people were competent enough to be left without supervision. It wasn't like she expected any new or crucial information to turn up, if the first suspect's interview was anything to go by.

Her ghastly blue skin seemed more ashen than usual, and dark circles were clearly visible under the bright lights of the station. Paired with her messy black curls that resembled a mop more than a bob, she looked the image of a Nixie out of the legends rather than the refined species they've come to be known as. Her boots clacked on the floor as she walked briskly to the front doors. They had told her that her new partner would be arriving sometime around now, but not the exact time, or anything about him, for that matter. It was hardly the standard procedure, but who would listen to her complaints?

Arriving at her destination, she noticed a fidgety Angel. She took him as someone trying to report a case, or maybe he was looking for someone. The thought of him being her partner never crossed her mind. He was too young and too nervous.

Looking around to see no other bodies loitering around the entrance, she weighed her options and decided to approach the lad. Maybe she could point him in the right direction before her new partner arrived. She strode over to him. "Hey, kid, you need any help?" She offered. A tired, lob-sided smile was the most friendly expression she could muster. With her general appearance, though, it may have appeared menacing to some.

"Uh... um... yeah. I just transfered from the unit in the next city over to help with... uh..." He glanced at a badly written note on the back of his hand, which he had written in black pen. "The murder of Eliya Morchanivic?" He struggled with the name's pronunciation, probably due to his nerves. His cream wings twitched and flicked, and he was shaking a bit. He haed working cases with death in them, probably because he often judged the souls of the victims.

It took a moment -- a long moment -- before the Angel's words registered in Aqua's brain. Blinking a few times and looking him up and down, "You're my new partner?" she stuttered out. She brought her hands up to rub her face while groaning. They really weren't gonna make this easy for her, were they? She would be fine with anyone, no matter their age or experience, as long as they didn't resemble this nervous wreck of a humanoid.

No, she told herself, stop that. Remember, don't judge a book by its cover; don't knock it until you've tried it. Just, breathe. She pep-talked herself. Honestly, she should be glad for any help right now. Keyword: should. She went back and forth in her head. In the end, her logical voice had the final say: work is work and she just had to deal with what she'd been dealt.

By now, a good couple of minutes had passed with Aqua being absorbed in her thoughts, not at all minding the young Angel standing in front of her. Her hands had left her face after she rubbed it good, and he was left to see an expressionless face somehow become even more expressionless.

"Sorry, about that, let me start over." What seemed like a grimace formed on that face. Her attempt to smile was worse than the one she showed before. "I'm the detective in charge of the Morchanivic case. We'll be working together starting today. No one sent me your profile beforehand. I wasn't expecting someone so... energetic." She tried to explain away her reaction, all the while without insulting him.

He watched her. It was clear to him she thought he would be difficult. I'm just confused as to why they didn't put an Empath or somebody else on the case. Calm down, lady, He thought bitterly. This was already bothering him. He might have been young but he wasn't energetic. He listened to her words and shook his head. "It's alright. I'm used to being misjudged," He raised his eyebrows. "Besides, even I don't understand why they put me on this case. I mean... they didn't even brief me before, so yeah." He sighed, rubbing nervously at his wrist.

"Seems like the common theme around here. I'm not complaining about getting this case, but it is definitely not a crowd favorite."

She produced a thin dossier from her side, labeled with a case number and a scratchily written "PA" in the corner. It was a habit to keep her active case files handy. Plus, it was a great prop to look busy in the office. "This should get you started. To be frank, we really don't have much right now." The dossier contained the initial crime scene photos, victim and suspect profiles, an autopsy report on the girl's body, and a transcript of the first suspect.

Without giving time for the Angel to start reading, she turned on her heel and led him into the building. "We're questioning our second suspect right now, you're welcome to watch." The office and the interrogation rooms were in the same general direction, so she didn't need to make a decision on which way to go. "Of course, if you'd like to get yourself settles and take some time to go over the files, you're welcome to find an open desk." She pointed towards the cubicles.

He blinked, startled by this. But he follows her, making a note to ask her what her name was later. He hadn't been told much of anything. He nodded then decided to ask a question, his wings flicking nervously. "What if... what if somebody had an idea of who killed the victim that the detectives might not know about?" He asked. He knew that, with the little details he had been told, there was a case similar to this from years back, where the killer hadn't been caught but one of the suspects seemed familiar to him as he flicked his eyes over the transcript of the first suspect's interview.

The Angel's question stopped Aqua in her tracks. She turned around to scrutinize him. Tilting her head at an odd angle, she leaned closer, maybe a bit too close for comfort. She squinted her eyes and made a circular motion with her head, much like a snake before it strike to attack.

Finally, she said, "You're a detective and you're on the case now, so it would be a part of your responsibility to shed light on any clues you've come across. We're grabbing at straws here with how little we were able to find so far, it would be very nice to gain any new information." Maybe the boy would be tolerable if not for all that unease. God forbid he knocks something with those twitchy wings.

Milo took a small step back, but decided to continue. "But what if said information was from another kingdom? Wouldn't that be a jurisdiction issue?" He asked. His wings fluttered as he finished speaking, sending a few scrap papers to the ground. He ignored the fallen papers, as he was so used to his wings knocking things down that he no longer noticed. He again flicked his gaze over the first interview, frowning. Who is the redacted detective? I need to know what happened in that 15 minute period, Milo thought, frowning. The redaction bothered him, since it meant he couldn't find out who had been the detective interviewing the girl. Of course, he would probably find out when he got briefed- if he got briefed.

"Another kingdom?" Aqua was taken aback, quite literally too, as she backed off from the boy. This not-so-simple case was just about to get a whole lot messier, she thought. She lifted a hand to her chin and pondered. "While it's true there may be jurisdiction issues, we can't just abandon a lead like that. I'm sure we can skirt around it until we can't."

Stopping herself from derailing even further, she straightened herself and said, "No matter though, we can discuss this later. I would like to listen in on this second interview -- parts of it at least -- since I missed the first one. Suit yourself." With that, she started again on her way to the interrogation rooms. Hopefully, she didn't miss all of it. Her pace was slower though, in case the boy had wanted to join her.

He trailed after her, thinking about her words. He had transferred from a kingdom with a similar case, in hopes of catching whoever had done it, and knew there was some hope. He debated asking her about one last thing, but decided against it. His wings flicked and he almost knocked over a lamp, pulling his wings close quickly though.

---

In the interrogation room, Detective Maliyov({REDACTED}) was interviewing Marcus Wilkot.

Maliyov sighed, standing and exiting the interrogation room. He flicked over his notes that he had taken. Nobody under the name of Ariyana Morchanivic had been connected to Eliya. Perhaps they were chasing the wrong leads. But he knew it was good to cover all the bases. He muttered to himself, slightly annoyed that Marcus hadn't yet given him what he needed. But the alibi was most likely good, considering how confident Marcus had been in it.

Aqua didn't take notice of the young Angel's hesitation or clumsiness as she continued down the hall. She sighed when she noticed her colleague Detective Maliyov standing outside the interrogation room, looking at his notes. From the looks of it, she missed another live interview.

"Hey, Malivoy," she called out. "You're done with Marcus Wilkot? Anything useful?"

She felt guilty for leaving this man to deal with both interviews so far, "I planned to watch this time, but I got caught up with something. You heard about my new partner? He just arrived. This is... uh... We forgot to exchange names." Awkwardly, she eyed the Angel, hoping he would introduce himself, for the sake of both her and her colleague.

“Milo. Milo Ikan,” He clarified as he noticed Maliyov and tilted his head slightly. If he was correct, one of the suspects would be Marcus Wilkot, coworker and close friend of Ava Emri- an undercover agent of the ABIL (Avalon Beauro of Investigation and Legal Matters). His kingdom had already touched both of those bases, and Ava had been their closest lead until the second murder- then Milo had been cut off from his kingdom’s case and shipped off to this incompetent mess to set order. Milo was never the best at following orders. He glanced at the file he was holding and noticed that the pages for the interview with Ava Emri went from Page 1 of 3 to Page 2 of 3 with no third page. He could have just dropped it, but it didn’t seem like it had been such a neat wrap-up. They didn’t touch bases on her hair ties, her place of work, her relations to Mathew- the victim’s brother- or why she acted like she had done this once before. This is sloppy. I need to set them straight, without causing a turf war. It wasn’t such a clean wrap-up. The alibi may have been good but… it probably wasn’t. Somebody is hiding something, be it an intern who forgot to print the page or the detective interviewing Emri is corrupt. Who gave her the file anyway? Milo thought, shaking his head. He glanced at the interrogation room door and debated slipping in to speak to Marcus Wilkot, but decided against it for a moment. He could speak to Marcus later, or perhaps request the files from his kingdom to help solve the case. Things wouldn’t be so simple, he knew, but perhaps solving this was worth jumping threw a few chains of command. He cursed himself as he ducked inside the interrogation room before anyone else could stop him.

“Marcus.” He said quickly. “We don’t have long but I need you to tell me what you told us in the other kingdom,” Milo spoke as he turned the recorders on. Marcus scowled but nodded. “Fine. Can you get them to let me out?” Milo sighed. “Not now, Wilkot. We can discuss later.” “Right. Sorry. I work with Ava Emri on my final shift- from four to seven in the evening. She hadn’t been showing up to work as she normally did so I called her to check in. She was in disarray. Told me, I quote, I messed up, Marcus. Real bad. I don’t think she meant the girl, or Fallon Roycroft- the girl who turned up dead in your kingdom. Yes, I was told about this,” Marcus spoke quickly but clearly, watching Milo and the recorders. “The other kingdom does better. I also noticed that one of our steak knives at the restaurant was missing. The five-inch one. Still haven’t found it. If somebody would give me my phone, I’d ask her what she did. She trusts me, you see. But anyway. She hadn’t shown up for work and answered me in a panic, then the knife was missing. She did it. It all adds up, really.” Marcus finished with that final statement and Milo nodded his thanks. “Thank you, Marcus. You always have done us well,” Milo turned off the recorders, knowing his and Marcus’s words would be transcribed later and that he would probably get in huge trouble on his first day. But he’d just done what Maliyov probably didn’t do in about two minutes or so.

All fingers point to the Emri girl. But since I can’t use my interview with her in my kingdom here, we’ll have to run it again or run from blanks. But Marcus is always good at working undercover for us- even if it means getting accused of two murders in the same week, Milo thought, slipping back out of the interrogation room and preparing himself quietly to face the consequences. The last time he had pulled something like that, he’d gotten transferred to this case. Of course, the angel could read people like a book, and knew Wilkot wasn’t lying with a word he said- Wilkot had no reason to lie. Well, this will be fun. Ugh, Milo thought, knowing the reprimand which was to come.

Maliyov nodded to the young angel, then turned to Aqua. "Nothing yet-" He noticed Milo but chose to ignore the angel mostly. "Our young friend clearly knows something we don't."

Aqua was glad the young angel took the hint. Maybe she would offer her name after exchanging information with Maliyov. But her contentment soon dissolved into disbelief as she watched Milo run into the interrogation room. There was the shock from his sudden movement, then confusion, and finally anger started bubbling.

There was something off about this new guy, with all his nervous fluttering and whatnot, but she was not expecting this outrageous behavior at all. Her fist was clenched and her veins popping, but she did nothing. Not yet. As much as she would like to storm in, it wasn't the best course of action. She knew had a bit of a temper issue, and had learned to put a damper on it. She opted to wait by the door, leaning against the wall. At least the rooms were all under surveillance and he wasn't foolish enough to try and harm the suspect with an office full of police nearby.

It wasn't long before Milo finally came out.

She huffed a reply to Maliyov, "Ya don't say."

Now, she decided, it was fine to unleash her anger. Fuming, she grabbed Milo by the arm, excusing them curtly to her colleague "If you'll excuse us, I need to have a word with him." She dragged the angel to the nearest room, an interrogation room to be exact, which she knew to be empty. Before opening the door, she added, "You might want to check on our suspect. Just in case." Then, she entered the door and slammed the door behind them, trapping the angel in the corner in the process.

She slammed the wall behind the angel. She may not be tall but her rage made her seem over 7ft. "You better know that that is not something we do. And clearly, you know more than us despite getting no debriefing. I don't know how, but I can tell you're involved in this. You better start talking, or we'll have to treat you like a suspect. Whatever you said something about diplomacy issues, I don't give a rat's ass about that. The only thing I care about is getting this case solved." Her words flurried out like a Gatling gun, threatening the young man in what might as well be called a growl. She stared intently at his face, looking for signs that may betray him.

Milo was completely calm, having known this happen. "Do you remember that question I asked you earlier? The hypothetical one? Well, it wasn't hypothetical. There was a similar case to this in my kingdom. Wilkot was a suspect. So was Ava Emri. Now, if you go back and look at the transcript of the words I shared with him, you'll notice that I just got you ten times more information than your detective probably did. Like the fact that Emri hadn't shown up to work for the last week and hasn't been accounted for since then, except at school. And that Wilkot worked with Emri, and noticed that around the same time Emri stopped showing up, a five-inch steak knife was missing. That was the same weapon used on the victim, was it not?" Milo spoke calmly, only his wings twitching as they normally did.
Milo knew he shouldn't have done it, and now addressed that. "I know you're mad at me, but considering I've worked with your suspects before, you should be grateful. Go ahead and kick me off the case, if you want. You'll cause a turf war over the suspects." His wings pushed Aqua away, but not in a forceful manner- simply as a suggestion to back up before he decided she was a threat. "How about we discuss this like civilized beings?"

---

Maliyov blinked, startled to see Aqua so irritated. He went to check on Marcus, who was just calmly sitting until the detective entered. The agent stood slowly, starting to pace. Maliyov sighed. "Please sit, Marcus. What did Milo want with you anyway?" Marcus sat, scowling a bit. "He just asked for a bit of information you never asked for. The kid's good, I'll give him that. He did record our short conversation, so yeah. He's a smart kid from another kingdom that's already interrogated me once. He knows what he's doing better than-" "Alright. That's enough," Maliyov sighed, cutting the suspect off. He didn't want to hear excuses on the angel's front. The angel probably had done better than he had, but he was more thorough about it instead of taking two seconds. He left the interrogation room and went to speak to the person doing the transcripts.
"Wipe any useful information the angel got from Wilkot. Wipe everything. They must not know," He told the transcriptor, who nodded and did just that.

The calmness in Milo's response was off-putting, but it did the job of calming Aqua down. Still breathing heavily, she ran his words through her head once, then twice. It had caught her off-guard how complicated this case had become... well, it had always been this complicated, she just wasn't aware. She was still angry. It wasn't at Milo though. It was the whole situation. "Yeah, go figure. No one ever asks a hypothetical question without a reason." She grumbled.

The new information did make sense of things but also left more questions. Why were the victim and suspects here if they were involved in another kingdom before? How was the young angel able to get the suspect to talk? How did he work his way onto the team when, clearly, he was employed by the other kingdom? And many more. But before she voiced them, she wanted to hear the whole story, or at least, what the other case had been.

She sighed as the tension finally left her body. She felt drained. Gesturing to the chairs and table set up in the room, she said, "We can be civil. I may not condone your actions, but I'm not kicking you off the team. Not when have the information we lack... as long as you're willing to share it, which you do seem to be anyway." She pulled out one of the chairs and plopped down on it, "Would you like to start from the beginning?"

"I can't tell you much, but I can tell you the bit I'm allowed to share. Though, I must start with a controversial topic that I wouldn't have thought of had I not noticed your files you gave me were missing a page. In the interview with Ava Emri, there are supposed to be three pages. You gave me two," Milo spoke as he placed the files on the table and sat, flipping to the interview. "I suspect one of your detectives, seeing that your friend Maliyov was extremely on edge minutes ago. I may be wrong, but this is what we need to discuss before I can give you the information you seek. This isn't an accusation, just an observation that leads me to believe I cannot trust one of the active case members." Milo knew his words would lead to said controversial topic, but he needed to be a hundred percent sure he could trust the entire team. Maliyov was on edge, and something is off with him. I hate pointing fingers, but I don't trust him, Milo thought, frowning to himself.

---

Maliyov left the transcriptor to do as they did and returned to reading over his notes, erasing and replacing. Milo was a threat to him, and to his career, and the detective couldn't have that. The detective had an issue with angels on a typical day, and he noted that Milo was extremely observant and it bothered him. But he didn't let his worries distract him from his job. He went off to grab a coffee, unaware of the conversation occurring in the interrogation room one over- one that could break his career.

Milo's answer gave Aqua a lot to think about. Starting with the immediate question, "You can't tell me anything about the first case? Even when the suspects are practically the same people?" The fact that Milo was willing to talk, yet not able to fully divulge, was speaking volumes. There were greater things at work here. They'd just met today, so there was a good chance he didn't trust anyone. It might take some work, but Aqua was determined to get it out of him eventually. Of course, it would be best if their investigations could progress without the need for that information.

"I don't consider anyone my friend. I don't expect you to trust me fully either. I'm not going to dismiss the possibility you just brought up, but it's not out of place for Maliyov to be on edge. Not the most uncommon behavior to have around here, especially after our last big one." She paused before continuing, "But, Maliyov is the one who conducted the interview with the Emri as well. As for my files, they went through a few hands before I got them, so I have no clue about the existence of the 3rd page... Actually, I never even noticed the discrepancy in numbers before you mentioned it. The transcript seemed to have come to a natural end."

Aqua tapped her finger on the table while pondering. Maybe someone did betray the team and was hindering their progress. Maybe she should speak with Maliyov as well. Should he really be trusted though? Milo did bring up a good point, but maybe it was his way of diverting attention. Then, it occurred to her, "Wait, what you said about Ava Emri... how did we manage to find her and bring her in for questioning then? Why were her oddities not mentioned anywhere in the files? Why were her files barebone to begin with? What can you tell me about her?"

Milo sighed, closing the files. That third page wasn't just a misprint- he knew it. She dismissed my suspicions, as expected. But Maliyov isn't to be trusted, He told himself. He shook his head. "I want Maliyov off the case before I tell you anything more. You can get the transcript of my words shared with Wilkot if he hasn't told anybody to alter it. If he has, shame on him," And on you, He dismissed that thought, though he knew it was partially true. He stood, taking the files and going to the door. "I'll let you think about that." He stepped out of the interrogation room, shaking his wings with annoyance. He doubted Aqua would take Maliyov off the case, but he would persist.
"He needs to be off. He already knows too much," Milo muttered, starting to roam and get the lay of the land. Something was off about this place. Of the few staff he saw immediately, all of them were on edge. He had heard about King Orthis' murder, but knew that was probably only a small reason for this behavior. He knew the case had been "solved," even if he believed it had been {REDACTED} who had done it. They're not even in custody, most likely. That makes them ten times more dangerous. Ugh. Heavens forbid it was them who killed the king. Heavens forbid, Milo sighed,turning a corner and ending up at a quiet dead end. The quiet was nice, and he leaned against the wall and began to read through the rest of the files.

---

Maliyov now sat at his desk in his little cubicle, working through some paperwork he had forgotten to do that morning. But he was distracted compared to his usual self. He was worried that Milo was being a problem and possibly trying to jeopardize his career. He knows something. Not just about the case... Maliyov thought, pausing in his paperwork-doing to think about it. He had to find out what the angel knew.