Ghost City

51

A/N: decided to post this a day earlier since I was late with the previous chapter.

"So?" I asked as Carter placed the photo that my mother had turned over to him onto the table in front of me.

"We can't tell who the person is," Carter answered, causing me to frown.

Beating me to the words, Mother asked, "Didn't you say that if I turned the picture over, you'd be able to find out who's responsible for-"

"The tattoo is a replica and does not have any serial numbers," Carter informed. "Whoever is responsible wanted you to believe that someone under my control attacked your husband and that I was ultimately responsible."

I frowned, "If it's a replica, how doesn't it have the serial numbers? And who's hand is it a replica of?"

Rico answered, "The serial numbers are tatted with a special invisible ink. Carter has a machine that was built to scan pictures of the tattoo and reveal the ink. That's part of the easier transaction and record keeping process he talked about."

"However, this photo didn't reveal anything in invisible ink. Whoever decided to copy the tattoo obviously didn't know about the invisible ink part, which means that they aren't working with one of my men. Somehow, they saw the tattoo before. Maybe as a client," Carter evaluated.

"Either way, this person wanted you dead too," Mother argued. "He or she wanted me to avenge my husband, so you're still involved in this mess."

Rico argued, "The person probably just wanted to kill two birds with one stone. Of all people to go after, the person went after Brian, who we all know was involved in gangs and was already on the run prior to being killed. Two people tried to kill him that night, Diane."

"There could've been more people after him too," Nathan chimed in.

City sighed, "So how do we find the person responsible?"

"Well, you aren't getting involved in this," Carter said, causing City to roll her eyes.

"The only person that watched the camera recording is you, Diane," Junior brought up. "You might be the key to all of this. There must've been more clues in that recording."

Carter narrowed his eyebrows while nodding before saying, "Junior's right. I'm assuming the person showed the tattoo on purpose but had you delete the recording because it revealed something he or she didn't want you finding out."

"You gotta tell us everything you saw in that recording," Rico nodded in agreement to the conclusion Junior and Carter drew.

"Let's move to my office," Carter said while cocking his head in the direction of his office. Everyone began to rise until Carter said, "I don't want y'all involved in this. Diane, Rico, Damien, Junior, Nathan, and Titan are the only people I want in the office with me."

"What about me?" Sage pouted, and Carter cracked a faint smile before shaking his head.

"Sit tight, love," he said before the people he wanted in the office went in. He had a large whiteboard on one of the walls, and a box of markers and dry erasers ready. "Let's map everything out. Damien, I heard you're good at art. Think you can manage drawing your living room?"

I nodded and picked up a marker and thought of how I last remembered everything to be. I then began drawing the layout of the living room and tried to place the furnitures I remembered in the right places. Once I was all done, Carter took control of the board.

"So...?" Rico asked my mom.

"The person entered the camera's view from the left. Brian wasn't in the living room as yet," Mother started telling.

"Could've entered from this left window," Carter said. "Was it open when you got home?"

"I-I don't know. When I saw Brian dead, I honestly didn't think about whether a window was open," Mother shrugged.

Titan suggested, "Check the police report."

Cater nodded before walking to his desk and taking up a folder. He then took out a paper and frowned as he stared at it. He frowned, "I'm looking at one of the photos, and it looks like the window was open."

"Why are you frowning then?" I asked.

Nathan then frowned, "Because if the window was open, the detective assigned to the case should've asked about or at least brought up the open window to your mother."

"He never asked anything about a window. He honestly didn't tell me much about the case or question me a lot. I was surprised when he told me what the tattoo meant," Mother explained. "Then he got killed for telling me what the tattoo was about."

"Hm," Rico hummed. "If the detective was dirty and working with the person, why did he get killed?"

Carter shrugged, "He wasn't needed anymore. He had done all that the person wanted him to do. He left information about the scene out of his reports, didn't properly question his only witness, and then put his only witness on the track he was supposed to."

"He got double crossed!" Junior realized, and Carter nodded.

Carter then wrote down the detective's name on the board. "Rico, have Ryan do a background check on Detective Miles. I want financial records, health records— everything."

"Copy," Rico nodded before taking out his phone and making the call.