Chapter 21

Shan had absolutely no idea how to find a missing person. He had to admit one of his brother's obnoxious step-by-step bullet point lists would have been helpful in this situation.

Shan's one useful skill was the sheer amount of people he knew. His natural charm made getting others to do things for him quite easy. All he needed was one solid connection to his missing person, and he could have figured it out. The problem was, he wasn't totally convinced this person really existed.

The man had a first name, and that was it. No family, job, educational background, nothing. When pressed about it, Wen sharply replied, "he works for me, what more do you need to know?" When pressed further about what exact work he did, Wen's repeated answer of "all sorts of things" had been entirely unhelpful.

Shan wasn't sure what his brother was playing at, giving him such a difficult task without clear instructions. He didn't have much to go off of except the excessively long list of useless information he had been provided. He found himself wandering vaguely towards the only address listed in the file, staring absentmindedly in the windows of shops he passed.

Walking past a dingy bar with its door propped open, Shan couldn't help the smile that grew on his face. Really, he shouldn't have worried so much. Something to distract him always showed up right when he needed it. In this case, that 'something' was a sleep-deprived woman with mountains of files sprawled out on a table in front of her and a single empty glass.

Shan took his time ordering two drinks, before bringing them over to the table and setting one down in front of the woman, who instantly leveled him with an unamused glare.

"You."

"Bit early for a bar, isn't it? What, the station ran out of cubicles to work in?" Shan relaxed into the seat across from her, ignoring the way the scowling woman pushed the drink in front of her away.

"I don't have time for this," Officer Rowan snapped, "I'm in the middle of an investigation, and I'm pretty sure your brother is involved."

"Probably," Shan shrugged, "who can say? Either way, you should relax a little. You weren't this tightly wound when we were dating."

"We were never dating! I was investigating you!"

Shan shrugged again, "Same thing".

"It's really not," Avie sighed, drooping her whole body against her chair. She was too tired for this.

"Look, whatever it is, you'll figure it out. I'm sure you're doing a good job, and that's the most anyone could ask for. Give yourself some credit."

Avie frowned. She did not need advice from a criminal.

"Besides," Shan continued, "if the department is still running the same as it always has, then I'm assuming nobody is helping you."

Avie didn't want to admit it, but he was right. Her whole body slumped further until she was practically sliding onto the ground. "No one cares but me. But I can't even blame them. It's a missing person's case looking for a nobody. No one will care if I don't find him. No one will care if I do."

Shan paused. Missing person?

"Then why are you looking for him?" He asked, trying to appear disinterested.

"I don't know." Avie rubbed her eyes as if that would remove the bags under them. "People deserve to be found, even if no one misses them. The police should treat every case equally."

"You won't last long on the force," Shan said, but he meant it as a sincere compliment. "So who is this nobody anyways?" He asked, leaning back as he fished a cigarette out of his pocket.

"Why would you care?" Avie glared suspiciously.

"I don't. Just making conversation," Shan lit his cigarette and lazily took a drag.

Avie was smarter than this. She didn't give information about ongoing investigations to the sons of crime lords. She was much smarter than this.

"It's a man we have basically nothing on," she said, wincing as the words came out. "He's got no record of anything, no family, nothing. His landlord said they hardly spoke, and that one day he was just gone. Nothing had been left in his apartment. The landlord assumed he just left and rented his place out to someone else."

"So then who reported him missing?"

"Some lady," Officer Rowan said with a wave of her hand, "his neighbor. Said he used to bring her dinner and play with her rabbits after she got her hip replaced. She was convinced he wouldn't leave without saying anything. She filled out a report but kept coming back every day to nag. That's the only reason I even noticed this case."

She had said far too much, but it was nice talking to someone outside of the station. Shan didn't say anything, just kept smoking. Finally, Avie gathered her papers and stood to leave. She clearly wasn't getting much work done here. "Watch yourself," she said, instead of goodbye, "I'm onto you."

Shan nodded vaguely in her direction, watching until he saw her disappear through the door. After a few moments, he opened his bag and pulled out a folder. He flipped it open, scanning through the pages of facts until he found what he was looking for. #291 - Living situation: rents an apartment but doesn't live there. Only keeps the place because he likes his neighbor's rabbits. The address was listed below, with no mention of where Day currently lived.

It was as good a place to start as any.