Hanji's POV

Seeing the dead body... it was brutal. As I counted, 29 stab wounds... and a single bullet through the head- merciful or an execution. Either way, this male victim has suffered before dying by a merciful bullet. Sighing, I wrote every detail in my notebook, hoping to make other connections. But this was a new case... no other victims had suffered this much pain. Not to mention, there's no other bodies that had anything similar. 

"What do you think, Zoe?" I turned to see Erwin walking towards me, not giving any hint of sadness to the dead victim.

I sighed heavily, "I told you before, Erwin. Don't call me Zoe. I rather not be called by my last name. Hanji's better."

He chuckles, putting his hands on my hips. "Alright... fine. Tell me what happened here then, Hanji." He said my name with a playful tone.

Rolling my eyes, I looked at my notebook, knowing that Erwin was looking over my shoulder. "29 stab wounds. 1 bullet through the head. This victim wasn't drained of blood... and there's no overkill. Either there's no personal connection or this person isn't the unsub's center of rage."

Erwin nods, leaning close to my ear. "But thing is... why 29 stab wounds? Seems overkill to me."

I chuckled, leaning my head back, "I don't think it's overkill. It may not be the unsub's center of rage, but it's certainly rage. This guy... he must've angered the unsub."

He kissed my cheek and smiled. "Guess I'm buying you lunch, Hanji. I'll even buy you dinner if you managed to catch the guy that killed him."

"Pfft, you're on, Erwin." I chuckled, walking towards the car. But I glanced back at the victim as employees from the morgue covered the body up. How could someone even kill someone with as much rage as that? "Anyways, I need the nam-"

"Name of the victim?" Erwin smirks as he held his notebook. "Way ahead of you. He had his wallet on him, so we can rule out being killed for money as a motive. But here's your name: Mason Landrew. He's a manager of Crimson's Bank. What do you wanna do?" We both crawled into the car, buckling up.

He leaned close to me, kissing my cheek again. "I think I can go interview the other employers and employees-" Then my stomach growled loudly. I peered down, growing red with embarrassment. "I-I haven't eaten-"

Erwin just chuckles. "Only had coffee, I'm guessing? Want something to eat before we get to the bank?" His hand went to my thigh, and I blushed. "Like donuts or something..."

I chuckled a bit, leaning forward towards him. "I think I'll go with donuts." I put my finger to his lips and chuckle. "And no, you don't get to have a kiss from me. Or anything more than that."

He just groaned in disappointment, leaning back into the driver's seat. "Come on... I would love a kiss as payment..." He chuckles a bit more. "It's just one kiss."

I shook my head. "Come on, I may be a newbie. But serious, you gotta try harder than to get a kiss from me." Erwin groaned and began driving to the nearest Dunkin' Donuts.

*   *   *

After gaining the victim's life at work, I walked back towards Erwin, who was finished going through Landrew's personal items. "So... he was a quiet person, becoming enraged when pushed. But his overall behavior changed when... I guess finding a woman or something. He was a straight man."

"Well... no pictures of any kind of girl. When did he find this woman?"

I looked back at my notebook. "Uh... a year ago."

"A year and no photos. Not on his desk. So... might check his phone for information." Erwin takes a bag with a phone enclosed in it. "We already searched for fingerprints. Nothing else but the victim's. Anyways, let's check it." He begins to log onto it.

"Well jeez, don't give me a look into this guy's history." I chuckled softly as Erwin went through the phone.

I walked to the victim's desk to get a feel about how his daily life was. The keyboard was worn out, typed for a living. No other possessions on the desk, except plants and pieces of paper. Seems that he doesn't bring his private life here...

"Huh... interesting." Breaking contact with the desk, I saw Erwin smirking. "You were right, Hanji. He was seeing a woman. Not a girlfriend."

"Prostitute?" I guessed, biting my lip. If he was involved near the gutters, it wouldn't be a surprised if he was killed by a gang member. But then again, they're territorial people. There was no gangs in the area- and that he didn't do anything to threaten them. But it doesn't give us a closer clue- "Who did he meet up with?"

Erwin looks back down at the phone. "Uh... could be fake. But um... Lily Sanders. Wanna head down there?"

I nodded, "Yeah. The sooner, the better. I want to get this case down as soon as possible. I'm not the kind of person to let this case drag on more than 2 weeks, Erwin. You know that. That's why you hired me, and not anyone else."

His chuckle and smile were revealed. "Not to mention that you're hot, Hanji. Hungry still or not? We can stop by and grab some more food-"

"No, I think I'm fine-"

"Hanji, it's pretty nasty down there. You'll grow hungry and that when you are hungry, those people would offer you nothing but human waste. Understand me? I don't want you to be poisoned by their food. It's unnecessary." He says with his blue eyes gleaming. "Please, Hanji."

I sighed, giving in into his pleading. "Alright, alright. Nothing big, then."

*   *   *

We walked down the streets of the gutters, and I felt... saddened. All these people without a home... children... how could we live in luxury and let these people suffer? We had everything... and they had nothing. Life was... unfair.

"Stop there!" I hear guns clicking into place behind us. We turned to see 2 men with guns, pointed at us. "You are trespassing on the King's territory! Are you cops?" One of them shouts to us.

I nodded, cooperating. Perhaps this king might help us. Only if we were friendly. "We just want to talk."

"Give us your guns then."

"W-Wha-"

"Do it, and I'll take you to the King!" The other one shouts to us, holding their stance. I sighed, pulling my gun out of the holster; Erwin doing the same. We slowly put it on the ground and slid it across the damp road. One guy picked the guns up and lowered their guns. "Let's go. Follow me."

They led us about 5 minutes away from our original spot. We soon came across a small shack, isolated from all the other houses, and we approached there. My heart pounded as we slowly walked into the shack. I never heard about this... king. So I wondered on who it could be. 

"Sit!" The man, the first one who spoke to us, shouted and nudged us to the chairs. 

We did what he asked, and they forcefully grabbed our wrists and tied it back with out handcuffs. There was no point in fighting back... all we could do was wait for the King.

Minutes later, I hear footsteps walking towards us, and when I turned... it was an unexpected sight. A man, I'm guessing around 5'3, with raven-black hair and gray-blue eyes. Storms swarmed within his eyes, clouded with his inner thoughts. I felt that I should've laughed, but my mouth was sewed shut as he gazed at everyone with a killing stare.

But he smirked, completely opposite from his eyes. "Well well... what do we have here?" His cold voice echoed within the empty shack. "Cops? I'm gonna have a fun time interrogating you guys..."