Evening and Winter (夕方と冬)

The Masked Man

Chifuyu and Taylor arrived at another crime scene, where Taylor was somewhat out of breath because he had to force the 17-year-old to come with him earlier that day. It was a murder scene, where the victim was laid down on the floor with stab wounds that showed that he had bled to death and the knife still stabbed into one of the wounds.

"Hey, investigate or something!" Taylor yelled when he noticed his assistant was not doing anything other than leaning against the wall watching him.

"Is my help really necessary...?" Chifuyu rolled his eyes, "Didn't I say I wanted to see you depend on me more less?" he folded his arms as he stopped leaning against the wall.

"Then may I ask why exactly Detective Anderson hired you?" a young woman's voice from behind Chifuyu made him flinch a little, then turning his head to see a young woman with her dark brown hair tied into a high pony tail and she appeared to be around the same age as Jeffrey.

"You are...?" Chifuyu raised a brow, not intimidated by her sharp gaze in the slightest.

"Emma Chase, Senior Officer of Crime Department, Paris Police." The woman introduced herself, showing her badge and ID. Chifuyu just dazed at her badge for a few seconds with a straight face before looking back up to her with a raised brow, his expression saying 'So?'. "You are as arrogant as Detective Anderson said, huh... I just hope you are as intelligent as he said," Emma puts her badge and ID back in her coat as she walked pass Chifuyu.

"You're early as usual, Emma." Taylor welcomed her.

"It's my job to secure a crime scene, sir." Emma nodded her head, "What have you discovered so far?" she asked Taylor as Chifuyu approached the corpse and squatted to look closer. Emma and Taylor dazed at him for a few seconds, his sudden change of state from laziness and arrogance to focused and professional gave them confusion.

"Something finally tickled your interest?" Taylor asked him curiously.

"Can you give me a short summary of this case if you have any, old man?" Chifuyu asked without turning his head.

"'Old man'?" Emma finds his way to address Taylor unacceptable.

"David Adams, 48 years old and was found deceased by his wife 10 hours ago. His wife, Nancy Adams is in the police custody for questioning and treatment for trauma, no suspects so far." Taylor responded, while Emma turned to him with a somewhat shocked-confused expression because the detective seemed to be unbothered by what she found unacceptable.

"Was his wife the one who made the call?" Chifuyu kept his eyes scanning the lifeless man, as he made a gesture asking for rubber gloves.

"Exactly, she called in hysterics in fact." Taylor replied as Chifuyu took the pack of rubber gloves from Taylor's hand.

"This scene is untouched, right?" Chifuyu asked as he puts on the gloves.

"It is, we left it untouched purposefully for investigators to operate easier." Emma responded.

"Cool, it's always great to be the first one to tamper with the scene." Chifuyu gave Emma a smirk, finally turning his head but looked back to the corpse a moment later.

"How could you bear with him...?" Emma asked Taylor in a whisper.

"He might be a little annoying to work with, but he gets the job done quicker and overall better than anyone else I know." Taylor whispered back, his statement somewhat surprised Emma and made her hushed. She watched Chifuyu took the knife out of the wound and examined it in his hand, then he turned his attention to the blood-soaked towel sitting near the sink nearby.

"Is this the murder weapon?" Chifuyu stood up and turned to Taylor, his earring swaying slightly with every movement he makes.

"Yes, it is." Taylor replied as he took a plastic zip-lock bag from his coat, and Chifuyu placed the knife in the evidence bag before taking off his gloves as he walked towards the towel to observe it after bending down. "Have your own suspicions?" Taylor asked Chifuyu as he handed the evidence bag for Emma to hold.