[✔️] 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑁𝐾 𝐹𝐴𝑆𝑇 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇
"𝐷𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑚, 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑖𝑡."
—𝐺𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝐶. 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙

𝐈
— 𝐸𝑢𝑑𝑜𝑚𝑢𝑠 —

𝐄𝐔𝐃𝐎𝐌𝐔𝐒 𝐆𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐀𝐍 exasperated sigh as he entered the Gimble Brothers department store, having immediately seen the very person he had not wanted to see.

He walked up behind Diego, irritably watching as the man crouched next to a few dismantled mannequins and examined a bullet that lay in the palm of his gloved hand.

With another sigh, Eudomus questioned, "Do you seriously still not understand the chain of custody? If you touch it, I can't use it."

Diego raised a hand to silence him, keeping his eyes on the bullet in his other hand as he got up. "Let me save you some time running ballistics. These nine millimetres haven't been manufactured since 19—"

"1963. Odd, I know." Eudomus then noticed the woman standing next to Diego, who had her arms folded as she watched the man with irritation. He nodded towards her, raising his eyebrows at the other man. "Who's the girl?"

"Dr. Mara Jung," Diego introduced, a smile flickering on his face.

"Not a doctor yet," the woman—Mara—corrected with a raised finger before offering a hand towards Eudomus. "Just Mara Jung."

"Well, just Mara Jung," Eudomus said as he shook her hand and glanced over toward Diego, "are you Diego's sidekick or something? His, uh, Robin?"

"Yes," Diego immediately answered.

"No," she cut in, giving him a glare. "More like . . . whoever tells Batman to stop doing what he's doing. I don't know, I haven't watched the movies," she added upon seeing the scrunched faces of the two men.

"She's a lot like you, Eudomus," Diego remarked, nudging Eudomus' arm as a small smile flickered onto his face. "Doesn't approve of my antics."

Mara scoffed. "Because they're illegal."

"Hm." Eudomus gave a small nod of approval as he looked over toward Diego, the corners of his lips tugging upwards. "I like your girlfriend."

Her eyes widened and she furiously shook her head as her cheeks tinged pink. "Oh, I'm not—"

"Back to the bullets. Matching casings were found at a murder scene last night," Eudomus sighed as he plucked the bullet out of Diego's hand before turning around and beginning to walk, the other two trailing close behind him. "Ishmael's Towing."

"The driver?"

"Found him hanging from the ceiling," he informed with an exhale. "Looks like he must have known something after all."

Diego raised his eyebrows as he turned his head towards the detective and jeered, "It's a shame nobody told you to go talk to him."

The three of them walked towards a crowd of officers, the chatter and clicks of cameras becoming more apparent as they neared.

Eudomus gave a small nod of thanks to another officer as she handed him a bag of evidence, clutching it in one hand as he returned to Diego.

"In the span of twenty-four hours, I've had attacks in three different places across town. Whatever this is, whoever this is, they're not slowing down. So, if you really give a shit and you've got any fresh ideas" —Eudomus sighed, knowing that he was probably—no, definitely going to regret this later on— "I'm all ears."