The Crime in Callahan's Morrow - being rewritten

Chapter 5: Old friends, annoying friends

"Of course knowledge is power! What do you think the evidence is used for? I sure as hell don't examine crime scenes for shits and giggles."

~Jackal Smorotori, former criminal investigator, inventor, and a vampire; 
an answer in one of the interviews

V.

The duo went to find and inspect the scene of the crime. Nicole wondered out loud how they would find the exact alley for the nth time during their walk over there because the Cammadirie Street was gigantic.

After practically ignoring her most of the way there, Adrian finally opened his mouth to explain in a gruff, serious tone.

"Fenrye tried to report the crime at the Monroe station, the officer on the duty was aware of the threat of this crime and immediately called me. I went to see them. That was when Fenrye told me some other things." He shot a meaningful look at Nicole which she couldn't really interpret. "He was sound enough to leave a scratch at the entrance. Xavier has just reported in that he found those claw marks."

"You could have told me you were waiting for confirmation." Nicole was slightly mad at her boss for not sharing info except when he found it convenient.

"I didn't want you to think we would have an easy time finding it."

She didn't even dignify that explanation with a response, just shot him a frown, sighing and rubbing her forehead for a few terse steps forward.

They entered Cammadirie Street from the west. The street was full of old sizeable buildings, smaller-type abandoned factories and bulky warehouses of which some were still in use and some not. This was an industrial part of the town, located very close to Shark's office which she'd visited just the other week.

After walking a few minutes, they saw Xavier walking out of one of the side streets. Coming closer, Nicole realized it wasn't a side street like those they passed while walking, but a smaller one - an alley between two buildings. Those buildings consisted of an abandoned one with broken store windows that someone tried to fix with wooden boards while the other one was obviously relatively functional and had a nightclub entrance on the furthest part of the building thus the furthest from the back street in question.

Xavier was frowning while shifting his eyes from them to the alley and back. The man looked to be confused and angered by something.

"I can assume by your ugly expression that you didn't find anything substantial." Adrian stated without emotion, coming closer to the 'crime scene'.

Xavier frowned even harder, seemed hard enough that his face could permanently stick in that expression. "No shit. It's like all the other kidnappings, except this time we have time and place. From which I can't find out even the smallest detail," he pointed out. Some of his frustration leaked into his voice. Nicole noted it was different than his usual I-am-pretending-to-be-annoyed voice.

"What the hell is that bastard using? It's like nothing happened here. And I used the most sensitive sensing technique I can do to see if there are any traces of magic left. For fuck's sake, how can someone open a portal and not leave anything behind?" Xavier added, visibly exasperated. "Even better, since it was the weekday, the club," he pointed to the entrance she noticed, "wasn't working. No one had seen anything."

Nicole knew that Xavier was the best choice for investigation of crime scenes besides Adrian. His ability to use the so-called sensing technique was among the best, not just among them, but in the whole SIB, and because of that, sometimes he would be called to help in investigations in other towns and cities. He should have been able to detect any residing magic left after what transpired here, especially since it hadn't passed much time since it happened. Then he said something Adrian found very interesting.