The chief turns to face Kim Irene and says, "I'll leave you with them now. Hopefully they wouldn't be as much as a pain in the neck to you."

"Hey!" Detective Chapman exclaims jokingly albeit a little hurt.

"I'll be fine, Chief," Irene says reassuringly with a smile. "Thank you."

The chief smiles back at her before collecting his things to leave.

"It's not good that I only know Mister Menard's name," Irene says with an authoritative tone once the captain leaves all of them alone with her in the room, "since we will be working together from now on, I would like to know all of you. Could we have a round of names, please?"

One by one they introduced themselves to her with even Detective David Chapman acting all cheeky at her that earned him a jab of an elbow from Lieutenant Menard.

"Thank you for introducing yourselves to me. If you did not catch my name earlier, I'm Professor Kim Irene, but please just call me by my first name," she says looking at each of them. "I call each of you by 'mister' since it is protocol for me." Irene stops to look back at Lieutenant Menard who is silently fuming with rage just looking at her. "I hope you would cooperate with what is protocol for me too," she finished with a smirk towards Lieutenant Menard.

"And in here," Lieutenant Menard suddenly speaks, "we call people like you 'brats'," he spits out and grabs his murder book on the table in front of him. "It's protocol," he finishes before leaving the room and slamming the door behind him.

Irene closes her eyes and takes deep breaths to calm down. He's the idiot not you, He's the idiot not you, she repeats in her head.

"We're sorry for-" Detective Fuentes starts but immediately stops as Irene raises her hand at him.

"Let's not think about him, shall we?" She asks, finally facing them with a calm smile on her face. "Now I think we should start with the case. I have a lot of things I know that could maybe help with finding the killer."

------------

Lieutenant Menard takes fast and wide strides towards the file storage room. I hate her. I despise her! He could not suppress the anger anymore. No, never again. Never again will he be working with someone he did not know. The last time he did that, he got in trouble that almost led him to his suspension. He trusts the men he works with every day, and just them.

Upon entering the file storage room, he places his murder book in one of pockets of his jacket before leaning on one of the file cabinets behind him. He lets out a deep and bothered breath before burying his face in his hands.

"Oh God, why," he mutters breathlessly. "Why do I have to put up with a brat like her?"

After giving time for himself to calm down and keep his thoughts straight, he collects himself and lets out another deep breath before going back to work. He goes through the file cabinets in the room. All case files are found here starting from when this specific police and investigative precinct was founded. All suspects, victims, and even cold cases are found in this room in both hard and soft copies.

Cold cases. Cases that have not yet been solved due to insufficient evidence, lack of time and resources. Such cases leave Lieutenant Menard with a heavy heart all the time. His sister is a victim of one.

Opening the drawer labelled 'G' was easy for Lieutenant Menard due to the number of times he has opened the same drawer before. He goes through the displayed label of each folder until he reaches the name he needs.

Jax Graves.

Lieutenant Menard can never forget the day he first interrogated that wicked man.

"Why do I need to be here?" A scruffy voice asks the young detective Menard pacing back and forth slowly in the interrogation room. The man who just spoke is sitting on a metal chair with his hands in handcuffs resting on the steel table in front of him.

"Clearly I am here to interrogate you, sir." The young detective answers in the most calm yet stern voice he could muster.

On the other side of the interrogation room, beyond the glass screen, the colleagues of the detective question between each other if they made the right call in choosing detective Menard to the person to interrogate Jax Graves.

"Will this turn out fine, Farhan?" A worried detective-in-training David Chapman asks his superior of six months, Detective Fuentes.

"Let's just watch, rookie," Detective Cheng answers for Farhan. His answer silences David and he focuses his attention back on the interrogation.

Detective Menard leans forward, daring to intimidate the man in front of him. Jax Graves, on the other hand stays stoic.

"Why do you want to interrogate me, officer? Did I go over my parking violations?" He asks in a teasingly manner.

"It's 'detective', Mister Graves, and enough with your tactics of changing the subject." Detective Menard brings out a brown folder from a bag on the table. "I will be bringing out pictures of different people and I want you to tell me truthfully if you know any of them."

"What, you think I killed them?" Jax Graves lets out a harsh fit of laughter.

Detective Menard does not utter a word as he brings out five different pictures of young women. All looked like as if they were college students or young professionals. All looked like they had promising futures for them, but all possibilities were taken away from them when they were murdered.

Detective Menard stays quiet and patient as Jax Graves goes through all the pictures of the murdered victims in front of him. He smirks as he eyes the last picture.

"That girl's pretty," he comments with an eyebrow raised.

Detective Menard clenches his fist and grits his teeth in anger. "That is not what I want to hear from you."

Jax Graves shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly. "I'm just saying though. She looks like someone who would moan out my name-" He does not continue as Detective Menard angrily bangs his fist loudly on the table to stop the perverted bastard from talking.

"Do you know her or not? Answer the fucking question!" Detective Menard shouts right at Jax Graves, anger and frustration clearly radiating from him.

Graves though is not fazed with the silly emotions of the detective. He even has the heart to chuckle. "My, my, detective! It seems that one does not have enough evidence to see who really did such criminal acts, eh?"

Fuming with anger and disgust, Detective Menard pulls back and stands straight once again. "We'll keep you here for the time being. We still have more questions to ask you." He turns and heads to the door that leads to the exit of the interrogation room.

"Drive by The Cars is such a lovely song, isn't it?" Graves suddenly speaks up which causes Detective Menard to pause in his step, hand hovering over the door knob.

Then, Jax Graves starts to sing in a soft voice, "Who's gonna tell you when it's too late...Who's gonna tell you things aren't so great." Then he continues to whistle the rest of the song. "I think you know this song too, detective..."

The chorus of that song were the lines written on the piece of paper left beside the dead body of Detective Menard's sister.

"How dare you!" Detective Menard retreats back and grabs the collar of Jax Graves’s shirt, he forcefully pulls him up and brings him closer. "You know the song!" Detective Menard continues, "You know what was written on the piece of paper!" He shouts with rage, tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. "You know exactly what happened to her!"

Jax Graves bursts out laughing despite the lack of oxygen for him to breathe due to how tight the detective’s hold is around his neck. "I told you, I don't know her! You're a funny boy, Detective!"

"Tell me!" The detective continues, his grip getting tighter and tighter by the second. "Tell me what you did to her! Tell me why you took Ada's life away!"

The door to the room slams open and Detectives Fuentes and Cheng come rushing inside to separate Detective Menard from Graves.

"Copernicus, stop!" Detective Fuentes shouts out loud as he holds Detective Menard down. He pulls him out of the room and closes the door behind him, leaving Detective Cheng to deal with Jax Graves. "I should have known that it was the wrong idea to appoint you to do the interrogation."

"But you heard him!" Detective Menard wipes away the tears that have escaped from his eyes. "He sang the song that was partnered with the crime scene. Who would have known the song other than us?!"

"Look, Detective I know that you are hurt," Detective Fuentes starts, holding Detective Menard's arms tightly, "I promise you that we won't stop searching for that sick man who thinks that he can get away with his murders, but in the meantime do not do anything that could jeopardize losing your badge! We all have to stay level-headed here or else we will never find the killer at all."

------------

"All security cameras were checked around her work area and in a kilometer radius-"

The door bursts open and Lieutenant Menard interrupts the meeting he walked out of an hour ago by slamming Jax Graves's file folder in front of Irene. The woman takes the sudden presence of Mister Menard and the file folder by surprise.

"Jax Graves," Lieutenant Menard announces to everyone in the room. Irene picks up the folder and reads its contents.

"Copernicus," Detective Cheng warns Lieutenant Menard, "Jax Graves could-"

"Be the suspect, he's our subject of questioning for now," Lieutenant Menard cuts off Detective Cheng. "We just need to thoroughly investigate his past whereabouts. Events of decades ago could help with our present investigations."

Irene reads through his profile and slowly she fits the pieces together in her head. She abruptly stands from her seat and grabs a black marker from the ledge on the white board in front of them. She starts to write the following names of women, and the month and year of death beside each name.

Emma Price (January 2005)

Mika Monsanto (April 2005)

Nia Lee (July 2005)

Aisha Fox (October 2005)

Ada Menard (December 2005)

Ina Purcell (November 2017)

Park Chun-ja (April 2018)

Elena Anderson (June 2018)

"I have been studying these cases for the past years," Irene tells the men in the room after writing down all the names of the victims although she is still facing the board, reading the names carefully one last time. "Jax Graves’s sure victim is Ina Purcell. Her death led him to be part of the top wanted list in Slandsra. Until now, he's still hiding from authorities." Irene turns to face the detectives and officers in the room, "There is a possibility that he has a connection to the other murders back in 2005."

And for once, Lieutenant Menard agrees with Irene with a nod of the head. "So we find Jax Graves first. Officer Nash and Detective Fuentes, trace the whereabouts of Jax Graves. See if there were any stolen vehicles since 2017 and see if any of them have a connection with the places of the murders during their designated months."

"Yes, sir," Officer Nash and Detective Fuentes answer in unison before leaving the room in a rush.

"Detectives Cheng and Chapman," Lieutenant Menard continues, "find similarities between the victims starting from their occupation and family and friends when they were alive. Review each crime scene also. I want a thorough report of each crime scene."

"But weren't those already done, sir?" Detective Chapman asks.

"I know, but I want new ones," Lieutenant Menard answers his question sternly. "A newer and unbiased report of all the crime scenes. I want all details, important or not, on the report. Do you understand me?"

"Sir, yes sir," They both answer before they exit the room together.

Lieutenant Menard turns to Irene and points a finger at her, "You, brat, are coming with me." He has an inkling that them being partnered together is not going to end well. Regrets start to fill his mind but for once, he going to give every ounce of patience for this brat.

Irene rolls her eyes but complies by fixing the pieces of paper and places them back in the file folder. She then slings her bag over her shoulder. "Please, I'm not a brat alright."

Lieutenant Menard scoffs as he grabs his car keys from his pocket. "You'll be a brat for eternity. Now, come on. We are going to visit Graves's father."