Finding the Blackmailed Pet (Day 1)

It has been 2 weeks since Detective W was discharged from the hospital. Detective W had to recuperate in the hospital for about 2 weeks before he can be discharged. He had two broken ribs, a bruised shoulder, and nine internal bruises around his torso. Detective W insisted that he should be getting back to work, but the residing nurses kept shooting him down whenever he asked for it. He quietly resigned and resorted to reading manga, comics, science articles, and news in his free time.

Now, he resides in an apartment building, currently rented out by his old friend. He instantly exchanged the gold bars once he found out his office has burned to ashes. Since Ha-Eun and Ha-joon also had no place to live for the time being, Detective W allowed them to live with him until Ha-joon's robotics company made profit.

His new residence was eight streets away from his original office. The neighborhood here was considerably different. It had significantly more trees on the sidewalks and it was quieter here. Detective W took a deep breath of fresh air, gulped down his painkiller, and continued with reading his technology articles.

You quietly entered his new apartment. You, as per Detective W's words, put your shoes on the entrances, and put on some slippers. The dark-honey, bamboo-made floor felt a bit wet. You saw the slender Ha-joon, without his usual perm this time, doing knuckle pushups. Ha-Eun was practicing on the heavy bag.

You dropped your jaw, and wondered, "Ha-Eun? Ha-joon? What are you doing? What's going on?"

Ha-joon grunted. "Becoming stronger. If we... can't do that much for you two... who had helped us so much... it would be unacceptable!" He pumped out another two push ups.

"Same here!" Ha-Eun cried out as she practiced her roundhouse kick. "Detective W has done that much for us! We need to be strong, so he wouldn't be held back!"

Detective W laughed. "You two sound like you owe a debt to me! There's absolutely none!"

"Yes, there is!" Ha-Eun snapped. She wiped her sweat off with a towel and drank her water bottle. "You even let us live in your apartment! Especially when we have no place to live!"

"It's fine, really. Once Ha-joon's company start taking ground, I will leave you two be."

"I don't care what you say, but we will repay you!" Ha-Eun's decision was final. "We will be your backbone for your investigations! Rely on us!"

Detective W sighed, and complied. "Fine. But, since I'm paying rent, you guys do your fair share of chores. Fine?"

Ha-Eun and Ha-joon, who had finished their exercises, eagerly nodded. You tiptoed to Detective W's orange kotatsu. "Hey, boss. You exchanged all your gold bars and splurged on this?"

"Hey. All of these are like around... five hundred dollars. It's a microscopic dent. I also invested the gold money on stocks and a real estate property... huh... I'm sounding like my dad now..." Detective W replied nonchalantly.

"Will anyone come in today?" you asked the important questions. "Since you're injured, how much are you going to charge the clients?"

"I hope so. Probably will charge the client a bit more. The doctor says I still need another month of solid recuperation. That kind of sucks..."

"Stay put and heal, okay?!" Ha-Eun snapped. "When I'm here, no silly movements!"

"Yes, Ha-Eun..." Detective W sighed. "Oh, by the way, my friend, can you put up this large sign in the hallway?" Detective W pointed at the large white sign near the entrance. The sign wrote, 'DETECTIVE W'S SERVICES!'

"Yes, Boss." You quickly ran outside and propped the sign on a stand.

Ten minutes of idle chatter went by. Someone strongly knocked on the door, and shouted, "Is Mr. W here?!! I need to speak with him!" You quickly opened the door. At the entrance was a hulking man whose head was above the door frame by several inches. His shoulders almost couldn't fit into the door. His hands were just a bit bigger than your face.

"Well. Uh... hello..." you spoke with visible tension. "How may I help you, s-sir?"

"Are you W?" he asked. For a hulking figure, his voice was surprisingly soft and almost... soprano, but a bit deeper.

"No. My boss is inside. Here. Take off your shoes," you instructed. "And put on those... never mind. Your feet is too large." Indeed, it was. You quickly made an estimate. 'Around one feet three inches... from the toes to the heel...' you observed.

You introduced the hulking figure to Detective W. "Boss, this guy wants to talk with you."

Detective W looked at the black man up and down. "Welcome. I am W, the freelance detective here. And before we talk, I want you to know the fee. For most cases, the minimum is one hundred dollars."

"It doesn't matter! One hundred dollars is nothing! Anything to get my precious Oreo back! Please!" he declared.

"Oreo? The cookie?" you asked, confused. "Why are you so worried about cookies? You can buy them anytime, right?"

"No! Not the cookie! My dog! My dog! It's gone missing!" he corrected you.

Detective W stroked his goatee. "Hmm... did you put up missing posters for the dog? It will certainly help."

"No! It certainly won't help! My dog was kidnapped!" the large man threw a piece of paper on the Detective W's kotatsu. Detective W unfolded the paper, and read:

'Dear Mr. Milton,

I have your invaluable dog, Oreo, with me. Send any missing posters out, say good-bye to your dog! If you want your dog back, send me 1,00,000 dollars! I will contact you once you're ready to pay! The location will be sent with a text message! Don't even bother to track it!

Be there or be square!'

Detective W closed his eyes, and tapped the paper. "When was this sent?" he asked.

"Yesterday, at around 4 pm, Sir W."

"Wow, you sure do act fast, Mr. Milton." you interjected. "Do you know who kidnapped the dog?"

"No. That's why I'm asking Sir W to solve the case for me," Mr. Milton dejectedly answered.

"Okay," Detective W concluded. "I will find the dog for you, Mr. Milton. We can discuss the fee afterwards." He slowly got up, and dusted himself. "My friend, please prepare the car." He tossed the car keys to you. "Ha-Eun, Ha-joon, prepare for the investigation. It's time to prove yourselves."

"Yes!" Both of them answered.

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Mr. Milton's house was in the deep, southern part of Owlsburgh. The houses were spaced rather far apart from each other. You parked in Mr. Milton's garage. On top of house entrance was a security camera.

"When did you install the camera?" Detective W asked.

Mr. Milton replied, "About two months ago, Sir W. I also installed one in my backyard."

Detective W nodded, and appreciated the green scenery around him. "Ha-joon, Ha-Eun, please thoroughly search Mr. Milton's sidewalk real fast. Do tell me what you find..."

"On it!" Both of them replied. Ha-Eun grabbed a magnifying glass, while Ha-joon took photos of everything.

While they were doing that, you asked, "So, Mr. Milton, who would hate you enough to kidnap your dog?"

Mr. Milton indignantly shrugged. "How should I know?" he grumbled.

"Right track, wrong approach," Detective W chided. "Mr. Milton, in the recent months, did you have any conflict with anyone? Please remember to the best of your abilities."

Mr. Milton tilted his head, in deep thought. "Oh... now that you've said it... probably three..." he realized self-consciously.

"Who are they?! This is important!" Detective W and you instantly exclaimed at the same time.

"Oh... the regular watercolor portrait painter I called. Javier Castellanos. We recently reached a disagreement because artistic choices... The other one... my regular plumber... Stan Waters. His prices were gradually getting higher and higher... The third one was Da Pao Zhang, a home renovator I called about a month ago. His work was shoddy, and he says that's the best he can do! Lies! We got into a pretty heated argument about it."

"Seems like those three could be it. But, we need more information..." Detective W murmured to himself. "Ha-joon, Ha-Eun, what did you find?"

Ha-Eun beamed confidently and uttered, "W, uh, I mean, boss, here's what I found."

She led you and Detective W to the spot near the stairs. On the bottom of the wooden rail was something green. Leading from the entrance stairs was green drops. Each successive green drop was thinner and longer than the one before. There were two tracks of the green drops, and they were in different directions. The color was consistent, however.

Ha-joon showed Detective W what he found. In his phone was several pictures of the concrete sidewalk. There were several red circles around the picture. You noticed they were clumps of fur.

Detective W complimented them two on their evidence finding. The final thing you guys did was check Mr. Milton's security camera footage for yesterday. Mr. Milton pulled out his phone, and you guys were shocked by what you saw.

"Why-why is he wearing such a large-ass jacket?!" You struggled to hold your laughter in. "And that mask, too! Are three-hole masks still popular nowadays?!"

Detective W stared at it intently, more concerned with the man's pants. "That's... a whole lot of green paint on this person's pants cuff... how did this person even get it on there? Is this person stupid?"

On the robber's left arm was a small, wriggling black and white spaniel. "My Oreo!" Mr. Milton whimpered.

You, also staring at the green paint on the robber's pants, "Do you still have green paint in your house, Mr. Milton?"

"Well, no. I washed them all off, of course. Now, I know why my precious carpet has green stains."

Detective W touched the dried green paint. It felt smooth to the touch. He looked at the final footage. The footage only showed the robber getting off the stairs.

"Mr. Milton, as of now, I can't tell you where the dog is. But, I can tell you my suspicions on who kidnapped your dog."

"Oh, really?!" Mr. Milton's eyes shined. "You know who to suspect?!"

"Yeah. But, the later evidence might prove me wrong."

"Who cares?! I need to know! Please!"

Detective W looked at you. "I'm gonna give the honor to you, my friend. Deduce this right, and I will treat all of you to dinner tonight."

You were instantly motivated. "You better get this right!" you told yourself.

Who is the most likely suspect, given the clues left behind?

---------------- Day 1, To Be Continued-----------------