Results of the investigations

Ryan was raised by his loving parents to be a sweet, gentle and broad-minded person. Since young, he was more mature and tolerant than children his age as he disdain useless quarrels and disputes. He always took pride in his mental fortitude which could not easily be broken down by external influences. However, there had been two types of people he felt a strong hatred towards. The first type was pretentious people full of deceits and the second type was self-righteous people with a false sense of justice. To his misfortune, Lieutenant Parker would be included in the latter type.

"Just call me Will, captain", William Parker said.

"I can't do that. Even with our differences in ranks, you are still my senior", Ryan said while letting the lieutenant enter his apartment.

Yes, this man used to be the most notorious senior of Ryan while he was still a rookie in the homicide department of the capital city central police station. Although they did not have much contact with each other as William was soon transferred to city X, Ryan still heard about William's brutal treatment towards the criminals. Even the reason of his transferal was the accidental death of a suspect during interrogation.

"Oh, Lieutenant Rogers is also here. Young people these days are truly hardworking" William said when he saw Allen sitting on the couch.

"What a surprise, Lieutenant Parker. We were only chilling and having small-talk. Not working at all."

As soon as Allen finished his greeting, he shot a puzzled look at Ryan that said 'Why is he here?'

Ryan responded with a helpless shrug.

"Hope I'm not disturbing your chit-chat," William thoughtlessly said.

"Of course not." The polite Ryan could only smile.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Ryan asked.

Even though they worked in the same police station, they were not close at all as William worked in the Narcotics. Because of the special condition of the city, the Vice and Narcotics department was more or less a decoration with only four police officers and William was the highest ranked one. Therefore, Ryan left him to his own devices as there was nothing much to do in that department anyway. In this city, drugs and prostitution were so common that the citizens did not even consider them illegal. Unless the offenders willingly got caught or their respective gangs or mobs discarded them, the officers could not touch even their shadows.

"I wanted to ask what you know about the drug." William got straight to the point.

The mention of the word 'drug' stunned Allen and Ryan as only the two of the man and David knew about its existence in the whole department. They had decided not to make a report about it and even persuaded David not to tell anyone.

Even so, Ryan did not lose his composure for long. "Drug?" he asked.

"Yes. I'd hazard a guess that a new type of drug was found in the recent murder victims. You don't need to hide it from me as I could see its effects in the bodies"

Ryan and Allen looked at each other in surprise.

"You knew about this drug?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, it's been circulating in the city for some time now. " William took out an envelope and emptied its contents on the coffee-table.

Photos of various sizes of bruises in different parts of the bodies scattered onto the table. There were even some photos of bleeding gums and noses.

Ryan and Allen took some of the photos to look at them carefully.

"How long has it been?" Allen asked.

"Almost a year" William answered.

"Everyone in narcotics knew?" This time, it was Ryan who asked the question.

"Yes but you know them. They are not interested at all" William shrugged.

Ryan sighed. It was good that they were not interested.

"All we know is that a new kind of drug that can cause bleeding is found in the victims' bodies, nothing else. May be they had been using that drug before they were killed"

"I see." Although William accepted Ryan's words readily, his eyes were full of doubt as he looked at them.

"I'm sorry we could not give you more information. Come find me again if you need any other help." Ryan was politely kicking him out by ending the conversation promptly.

William did not dawdle either as he walked to the door with Ryan and Allen following behind him.

"Goodnight, officers. And again, sorry for bothering you two." William said with a faint smile.

"We don't mind at all." Ryan said with a smile as always while Allen gave a polite nod in agreement.

"Well, now we have another lead."

Allen said when there were only two of them left in the apartment. He did not even bother asking Ryan why he did not tell William everything. They could not let such an 'extreme' person into their plan.

"Yeah." Ryan started to think of a game plan.

The next day, Ryan and Allen starting working on the drug case as soon as they finished their routine work. Ryan decided to take care of the nightclub's side while Allen was investigating about the drug users. Even though Ryan told Allen to dig into Anios, he could not actually risk his friend's safety and made him take a safer choice. If possible, he did not want anyone to be dragged into this mess at all.

As Ryan started investigating Anios, he found that club to be as mysterious as can be. It was normal for the owner to have hidden his identity. However, he could not even find out anything about the manager, let alone the club's VIP guests. All the employees and guests were being too tight-lipped. He disguised himself and infiltrated the club almost every night but to no avail.

Anios had six levels; the first and second floors were for normal guests while the third floor was for VIP guests. The fourth floor was said to be occupied by the owner and the two basement levels were for car parking. The stairs inside the building only connected from the first basement level to the second floor. So, Ryan guessed that the owner and the VIP guests used an elevator from the second basement level to their respective floors as only the VIP guests had access to the second basement car parking.

Another strange thing was that there were members of various factions of underworld among the guests and yet there had not even been a minor dispute in the club during the time Ryan visited. Even though he later found out that Anios was considered to be a neutral zone by all the powers in the city, it was still an odd sight to see. He got more curious about the owner who could influence over almost every faction of the city including the major ones.

Ryan sat in his office as he told Allen about his findings. Allen was bewildered as well when Ryan described him the peaceful atmosphere inside the club.

"Anything new on your side?" Ryan asked his still dazed friend.

"I've found 33 users up to this point. All of them are members of three gangs, White wolves, Thunderstorm and Daredevils"

"Those are all small gangs" Ryan remarked.

Even the largest gang, 'Thunderstorm' only had around one hundred members.

Allen nodded. "The drugs were given by their respective leaders. They were only told that it was a new drug in developing stage and to note down its effects"

"Did you also find out how the test subjects are selected?"

Allen shook his head, "I'm still working on it."

"Don't probe those leaders too much yet. The person behind them is quite smart to take advantage of those small gangs. We can't alarm him too openly" Ryan wanted to be careful.

"Okay" Allen did not argue. "I've also got the investigation result of the grass at the first crime scene. I think it was connected to the case after all"

Allen presented a file to his captain which the latter checked with great interest.

"Sweet vernal grass?" Ryan mumbled.

He found that some of the plant's effects were discovered in the new drug. The report stated that the plant was sometimes used in tobacco and brandy and even as medicine for nausea, headache, and nervous insomnia and so on. However, its use had been restricted because of its high coumarin content which can cause blood thinning. It was actually a common type of grass which could grow naturally.

"May be we should talk to David about this later after we've made sure that we could trust him" Ryan suggested as both of them were not knowledgeable about these things.

"What about 'doc'?" Allen asked.

Ryan thought for a bit and agreed that she was a better candidate as she was not part of the police.

"We'll have to wait for her to contact us" Sadly, they did not know how to contact her.

Knock, knock

"Come in," Ryan said.

Ryan instantly closed the file but did not notice his rush action caused a photo to fell out of the file. It was Julian who came in.

"Sorry to bother Captain and Lieutenant. I'm here to turn in the report"

Julian and Shelly had been working a robbery case and they had already apprehended the culprits.

"Okay, rookie. I'll check it later" Ryan gave a large smile as he was quite fond of this junior of his.

Julian placed the file on the table and as he turned around to leave, he noticed a photo near his foot. It was a close up photo of the sweet vernal grass.

Julian picked it up swiftly and returned it to his captain.

"Thank you" Although Ryan was smiling outside, he was quite angry at himself for being careless.

"Ah… Captain, I didn't mean to see it but I saw the photo accidentally. If I may ask, is it related to the bartender case?" Julian hesitantly asked.

"Why do you ask?" Ryan had not expected that question from the rookie.

"I've seen those plants before"

"Where?" Both Ryan and Allen asked at the same time.

"In one of the empty houses near the crime scene" Julian truthfully answered.