Badge in her hand, she made her way towards the few police officers already waiting near the security banner that had been put up merely minutes ago, pushing away some nosy journalists wanting to know the dirt about what had happened, and why. To every question she received, she only replied with a cold and hard glare, the warning in her eyes being enough for each of them to understand they shouldn't bother her at this early time of the day.

And to be fair, she didn't know what had happened. Not yet at least, but it was only a matter of feet before she could be able to determine what had occurred on the quiet 24th of December morning and showing off her badge to the two detectives planted in front of the body, that when she knew that her entire day wouldn't be as enjoyable as she had hoped it to be.

"Lieutenant," one of the two detectives said in a hush tone, "Sorry I had to call you."

"It's all part of the job. Lead me through it."

Following the detective, they both made their way under the banner and closer to the body. From first sight, she could tell the young victim couldn't have been more than twenty-five years old and based on the blood splatter crossing the road and the slit going from ear to ear, it was clear she had been murdered in cold blood. With one knee on the ground, she snatched the pair of gloves being handed to her and after carefully putting them on, she pushed the few bloodied strands of hair away from her neck. Spot on, she sombrely thought, it probably killed her in a matter of seconds.

With a frown, she continued the investigation of the body as thoroughly as possible, her eyesight was immediately drawn by her hands and more importantly, her fingernails. Grabbing one finger, she gingerly scrutinized it, checking for any kind of defensive wound or skin that could've gotten under them but sadly, nothing was to be seen.

"The blood is still fresh, this happened what…An hour ago?"

"A neighbour said they heard a fight coming from the floor above. A couple, and they identified her as the girlfriend. Some things were broken but apparently, the two people left at different times. Thirty minutes passed before she left."

"So, we either have a petty boyfriend that waited for her outside or someone else…" Getting back up, she gazed at her vicinity and looked at the building standing only a few feet away from her location. "Make sure she's being brought to the precinct. You," she said pointing at another detective, "let's go up, see what we can find out about our victim here."

"Right away Lieutenant."

Nodding, she lastly asked, "was there anything on her?"

"No ma'am, no wallet and nothing in the area was found."

Giving the body a last glance, Lieutenant Farron nodded and made a beeline towards the building with a single thought clinging to her mind: there was a new killer on the loose, and the timing couldn't have been better.

The building the victim had lived in was rather recent. Built in the early twenty-first century, the whiteness of the hallways reminded her of a mental institution, the marbled tiles and immaculate walls accentuating her intense perception of the place, but the smell was luckily nothing like it. Disinfectant was replaced by lavender, and a hint of vanilla lingered in the air the further she walked up the stairs and soon, the smell was invading everything surrounding her. Not finding it displeasing, her brows however furrowed. Someone else was already inside the flat and the idea of her investigation being taken by another district brought ignited her anger like a match being tossed on gasoline.

As she reached the fourth floor of the building, Lieutenant Farron first rose one hand in the air, urging the man walking behind her to lower the sound of his footsteps hitting the stairs and turned to the right as she reached a first corner. The scent continued to overpower her the closer she reached apartment 49B and now nearly jogging, it took her everything she had not to kick the door down and yell at whoever found themselves behind. But she had learned from her mistakes, and after taking a deep, long breath, she pushed the door that had been left opened, her eyes preying for the intruder like an eagle ready to strike.

Surprisingly however, no one appeared before her eyes as she went through the four rooms assembling the victim's apartment and after blowing out a breath, Lieutenant Farron was back to her primarily focus.

"Alright," she said walking back towards the entrance, "find anything you can about this girl and her boyfriend. We need to find him as soon as possible. I'll go check the bedroom, go in the living-room."

"Yes Ma'am."

Without uttering an additional word, Lieutenant Farron turned around and immediately strode towards the bedroom door. The scent of vanilla still lingered in the air, and it took her less than a second to understand that the perfume had most likely belonged to their victim, who based on the few photographs hanging on top of her dresser, was well-loved by her friends and family. Coming closer to one of the photographs, the young detective was almost fighting off a smile at the sight of the victim standing next to who she only assumed to be a younger sister, a smile that vanished from her mind the moment she thought off the complicated conversation she would now have to conduct.

Placing the picture back on the shelf, she continued her thorough investigation through the entire bedroom and was quickly able to find a few details about the victim. One, she enjoyed sex. A lot based on the many sex-toys, ropes and condoms she owned. Second, she didn't seem to have a boyfriend of any kind. Maybe she was a prostitute. Scratching the nape of her neck, she continued to look through drawers, papers and such but wasn't able the only thing that could've helped her figure out who she was: a diary.

Defeated, she went out of the bedroom with a frown, her hands clasped at her hips as she carefully swept the living room with her eyes before being called by her detective from what seemed to be the kitchen. Intrigued, she paced across the room and joined with her colleague kneeled by the sink.

"Check this out," he said handing a bunch of photographs, "Seems like she was following someone."

Arching a brow in his direction, she took the papers and one by one, she looked at them all. In them stood always the same man; tall, in his early thirties, brown hair and brown eyes, meeting with different people and in each of them, he always held a bag and exchanged it for another.

"That's strange."

"Do you think she's like a private investigator," he asked standing back on his feet.

"Or maybe she was following someone she knew. A boss, a colleague," she added with a frown, "I doubt this is a boyfriend and I doubt there ever was one."

"What makes you say that," he asked confused, his head slightly tilted to the side.

"Because of her bedroom. No pictures, no number, no male clothes. And she had a lot of…toys," Lightning answered, swallowing hard. "But I'm not sure."

Heavily sighing, she grabbed a plastic bag from her purse and dropped the pictures inside of them. Perhaps would they be able to find a fingerprint belonging to someone else. Possibly the man she had photographed for what it seemed to be a rather long time, but she couldn't make that conclusion just yet.

Without saying a word, she and her detective continued to scout the apartment for more than half-an-hour before they exited the apartment without more clues to their case.

Standing on the street she looked at her vicinity, a few journalists still waiting for a word, something about this murder she refused to give to them, and with a cold look in her eyes, she made her way towards her car and therefore, towards them. With a hand already covering half of her face, she shook her head no every time one of them asked for details about the incident if they had an idea of the killer or who the victim was and each time, her walking rhythm accelerated. Arriving to her car a few moments later, she opened and closed the door in only a second, slammed the keys in the ignition and left the area as fast as she could and headed towards the precinct.

Pressing on a few buttons at a red light, she listened to the few messages she had received in the two hours she had been out, and vocally responded to her younger sister that yes, she would attended dinner tonight even though the idea repelled her, and promised to bring two bottles of wine, and one of champagne and after finishing, the depressing thought of spending her evening with her family seemed like a horror show. But at the time, she had no right to focus on her own personal problems. Someone was dead, and a killer was on the loose, thinking about anything else was simply pathetically egotistical.

As soon as this was back in her mind, the Lieutenant suddenly pressed harder on the pedal and turned on her sirens to reach her workplace quicker. Thanks to this, it took her less than five minutes rather than fifteen to be out of her vehicle and already climbing up the steps leading her to the first floor.

Pushing the doors open, she nodded in direction of the few agents already on their computer and headed directly towards her boss's office.

"Sir?"

"Ha, Lightning I was waiting for you. You've been on the crime scene," asked Captain Amodar, a tall, large man.

"Yes sir. Do we have any more details about the victim?"

"No, the forensic is currently getting her prints. We should know in a few minutes. Was there anything odd?"

"I don't think she had a boyfriend," Lightning answered while they both turned back to the central room, "We couldn't find a trace of him anywhere."

"Alright, that's already something but let's make sure. As soon as we know her name, contact her family and ask them to come here, okay?"

Nodding Lightning slightly bowed at Amodar and headed towards her office. Turning the lights on, she glanced at her desk and then her window for a few moments and headed towards the latter to open it. Fresh morning air entered the room and taking a deep inspiration, she walked towards her desk, waiting for the call of the forensic telling her who their jane doe was.

No wallet, no jewelry, this woman had been stripped of her identity to slow them down, and that worried Lightning more than she cared about. Who was this woman, and who the hell had decided to play God and wipe her out of existence as they owned her? Breathing out a heavy breath, the Lieutenant closed her eyes and brought her finger to her temples to massage them. Why had she decided to enjoy just one more glass of wine just because? To be fair, I wasn't supposed to work today, she thought, so it's not really my fault. It's the murderers.

A knock on the door brought her out of her relaxation and instantly made her head jerk up to glance at the intruder. Detective Yuj Dalen was waiting under the frame of the door, his blond hair misplaced on the top of his head. He too should've been on an off-day, and she only hoped it didn't look as bad as him.

"What it is," she impatiently asked.

"The forensic called, they have a match."

Nearly jumping from her chair, Lightning rushed out of her office and ran down the stairs to reach the sublevel. Sliding her card inside the lock, she entered the morgue and slowly breathed to regain her normal breathing.

The forensic offered a tight smile and went closer to the table. "This is Jihl Nabaat, twenty-five. Born in Detroit and suddenly disappeared six months ago, presumed dead. And now, she definitely is."

Arching a brow, Lightning came closer to the table and looked at the lifeless body. "Anything else?"

"Yes, she has a tattoo on her entire leg," the forensic continued with a nod, pushing the drape away to show the drawing, "and I crossed referenced online. She's one the picture right there, but she's different."

In two strides, Lightning reached the laptop and looked carefully at the photograph and indeed, she looked nothing like that. "It's her but it's not. Her hair's different, her muscles, her body fat, her nose, and mouth but it's her." Placing the pictures on the desk, she pointed them and said, "check for prints on them for me please?"

"Sure thing and this picture you see was taken seven months ago. Based on this, she lost more than 50 pounds and gained 10 of muscles. In six months it's extreme." Glancing over her shoulder, Lightning agreed with a bob of the head and went back to the table for further information. "As for the killing, there was no DNA, nothing and I checked everywhere, and the throat was perfectly cut. Went deep enough for her to bleed out within seconds and no one without having committed previous murders could've done this."

"Yes, because if it was rage it would've been messier. It's what I thought when I checked the body," the Lieutenant said, reaching down to carefully observe the wound. "Alright, well thanks. If you have anything else let me know, okay?"

"Sure, thing ma'am."

Sighing, she made her way back to her office and started researching the woman's family to announce them the devastating news. Without surprise, both of her parents and younger sister still lived in Detroit and making it a very long road, Lightning could do nothing but to ask them to come.

After dialling the number more than six times, Lightning was left with no choice but to leave them a short voicemail, asking them to reach her number as soon as they could and hung up defeated. Then, she went to Amodar and warned him as well as her detectives of the situation and was instructed to head back to the apartment for further research to which she reluctantly agreed.

She grabbed her keys from her pocket and went back towards the stairs with her detectives behind her, reaching for her car parked in the middle of the parking-lot when her phone suddenly rang in her pocket. Lowering her paste, she looked carefully at the number and instantly remembered the number she had been forced to enter six consecutive times.

Stopping dead in her tracks, she turned around and placed the phone at her ear. "Hello?"

"Hello Lieutenant, we were asked to call this number," a feminine voice worriedly said. "Is this about Jihl?"

"Misses Nabaat, it is indeed. I'm afraid she was killed a few hours ago…" Carefully listening at the sounds, Lightning waited a few long seconds and pursued, "We need you to come to the precinct in West Hollywood to identify her…"

"Los Angeles? Why was she…" There was a short pause followed by a sniffle. "We'll be there as soon as possible Lieutenant."

"Very well I…" The connection was abruptly cut, and Lightning was left to do nothing but stare at the void. Focusing on her detectives, she said; "The family should be there in a few hours, let's head to the apartment and sweep the room again. Maybe we'll find some answers.

Nodding, both of them followed her towards the car whilst Lightning could only prepare herself to face grieving parents and blew out the breath she had kept between her lungs during the entire exchange.


Driving back from the apartment before noon, the second search of the flat had been as she had called it, completely useless. Not a single clue had been found, no matter how hard they had looked and now, Lightning was going to do one of the hardest parts of her job, ask the parents of Jihl to identify her body.

She remained silent the entire way back to the precinct, only listening to her two detectives chatting about the case and asking themselves questions, and then continue on with their girlfriends being home and alive. It was a conversation that often occurred when the recovered body was female and them thanking God that their significant other was still in their bed, alive and every time, Lightning had silently agreed.

As a detective, four years ago and on her first murder, Lightning had been terrified to find out the victim had been her own sister, lying dead in a pool of blood and had in time managed to calm down the panic that had build inside of her mind. Though the thought still haunted her every time a victim was found and not being able to see her sister's visage on a corpse usually made her feel lighter.

"When we come back, go see the forensic and see if she found some prints on her, okay?"

"Sure thing Light. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm going to meet the parents, it's never a fun time."

They both silently nodded as the car stopped on the lot and the three occupants exited it at the same time. Leading, Lightning went up the stairs and immediately to Amodar's desk to warn him of the parents' arrival before turning back around on her heels and going back to her office.

Turning her laptop on, she researched everything she could on Jihl and realized that her sudden disappearance didn't make any sense. An excellent student, excellent grades, she was going to be an extremely successful lawyer and suddenly, she left everything she had fought for. Willingly Lightning doubted it, but the question still pondered her mind. Perhaps had she decided to leave alone to find the man on the pictures, or perhaps had she been taken by someone else and dragged in Los Angeles. And more importantly, who was she here? Jihl Nabaat was surely not using her real name whilst residing here and figuring out what name she had used would be a very long task.

They'd need to go door to door and… Growling to herself, she rushed out of her office and reached the forensics' morgue, her legs feeling tired from going them and up down since seven in the morning. Finding her two detectives, she ordered them to go back to the apartment and ask every neighbor if they knew her so they could have a name and by the time she had made back up, the parents had arrived.

Clearing her throat, she walked in their direction and offered a smile as her eyes locked with the mother's, noticing how red-rimmed they were as she got closer to them.

"Mister and Misses Nabaat, I'm sorry you had to come," she said as she grabbed their hands.

"It's not your fault Lieutenant," the man she assumed to be the father said, "where is she?"

"She downstairs, please follow me."

Turning around, Lightning headed towards the elevator, this time refusing the use the stairs one more time in the next hour-span. Sliding her key card as they all entered it, she pressed on the sublevel button and waited in an awkward silence for them to finally reach it. Perhaps the stairs would've been less silent after all.

Seconds later, the bell chimed to announce its arrival and Lightning slid between the door in a hurry. A few feet away, she knocked on the door and waited for the forensic to allow for her to come in and when she finally did, she pushed open the door and moved to the side to let the parents reach the table.

From behind, Lightning observed their postures with slouched shoulders. The father was holding the mother's hand, and the mother the daughters, all of them slightly shaking as the drape was pulled away and the following second, the mother's sobs filled the quiet room.

Jihl Nabaat was dead, and an already grieving family was slowly pushed over the edge. "Who, who would do this to my daughter," she cried out, enveloped in her husband's strong arms. "Who would be cruel enough to do this to her?"

Exchanging a look with the forensic, Lightning got closer to the table and gazed at the young girl. Who would do such a thing indeed? "I'm really sorry for your loss, Misses Nabaat."

"She's so thin now…She looks so…different," the younger sister stated, tears in her eyes, "but I see it now."

Biting her inner lip, Lightning looked to the ground and remembered the pain she had felt when she and her sister had needed to identify their parents' bodies. It had been shattering to say the least, but Lightning hadn't been able to show it. Her sister was merely 19 and she had just turned 21, and what she needed to do was to be strong for them both. It was this that had made her decide that being a Captain was her one true goal so she could find the people responsible for crimes and making sure they would never get away with it.

A few minutes were spent inside the morgue, the parents asking questions about the body, the wound and if yes or no she had been raped and to all, the forensic calmly replied and before she knew it, Lightning was left with yet another displeasing task, ask them questions.

"If you don't mind, I would like to ask you a few questions upstairs?"

They both shook their head and soon, they all left the forensic alone in her morgue and went back to the first floor inside a quiet room. Taking a seat in front of them, she brought her clip out of her pocket and pressed the pen against the first page, eyeing them all to find her words. Remember, don't be cold. Try to.

"Did Jihl have any enemies you know off? Problems with someone?"

The mother was the first one to speak up; "No…She was a lovely girl. She was loved by everyone, she had a heart of gold."

Trying to ignore the voice breaking, Lightning immediately continued; "Did she have a boyfriend?"

"No." This time, the father was the first one to reply, his voice gruff. "She didn't like men, she dated only women."

Surprised, Lightning thought back to her supposition of Jihl having a boyfriend, and the fact she was a lesbian proved how right she was. But then, why pretend to be dating a man and make her neighbours believe it? What tracks did this mysterious boyfriend needed to cover up?

"How was everything at home," she then asked. Glancing at the mother, she noticed the quick and almost indistinguishable look she gave her husband and pretended to have seen nothing.

"It was alright," the husband said without surprise, "she never really went out to see friends and such, she was a bookworm more than anything."

Nodding, Lightning continued to write every information she received and circling the words the father had spoken, she drew a circle around them and marked a question mark next to it. Something in this man's words seemed off, and the look the mother had given him did not help his case.

"What about you," she eventually asked the younger sister, looking only at her, "did you notice…anything?"

She shook her head no, "Not really. She was working a lot and she seemed tired but that's it."

Annoyed by the fact the younger sister refused to look her in the eyes, Lightning quickly let the matter go. "Alright. Thank you all three for coming here. Do you have a place to stay for the night? We might need to ask you a few more question in the following days." They all shook their head. "Very well, I will ask one of my detectives to find you a place to stay and I'll contact you as soon as I can, okay?"

Watching them nod, Lightning led them towards a detective working at his office and after leaving them in good hands, she immediately went to inform Amodar of the situation.

However wary of her suppositions about a possible domestic abuse, Amodar agreed to look into things at their local police and check for any calls or messages about abuse in the city of Detroit, and by the time she was out of his office, the clock was slowly ticking towards three in the afternoon and right in schedule, her stomach grumbled for her attention.

Exhaling, she went back to her office but continued down the hallway to reach the lunch room, checking inside the freezer for something she could have and spotted an apple waiting to be eaten. Eagerly, she brought the fruit to her mouth and took in a big bit of the green-coloured fruit. It wasn't much to eat, it would be enough to sustain her until the dinner only a few hours from now.

The dinner she clearly did not want to go to. She loved her sister with all her heart, but the company she had kept -and more importantly her boyfriend- wasn't a person she had enjoyed spending time with for a reason that she still hasn't been able to figure out. All she knew was that spending time near him was enough to give her a serious headache and the need to punch him in the face.

Checking the time, she suddenly remembered her two detectives asking questions to the neighbours and being almost positive that neither of them would've finished the whole building, she decided to go back to her car and drive back to the apartment for the third time during the same day but this time, she was less bothered.

Somehow, she knew that this case wasn't like the other she had been through in the past years. A daughter living her family, a father looking controlling, a wife looking away and a sister looking down didn't seem like anything normal and thinking about, Lightning was sure the father hadn't cried a single tear whilst discovering his daughter's lifeless body. And of course, with the things she had found in the apartment, the pictures, the toys, something was amiss. But then, why the pictures? To mentally torture her, to make her realize she'd never be able to see them again no matter what she did?

With her apple still in her hand and now eaten to the core, the Lieutenant exchanged it for a cigarette she grabbed from her purse and delicately placing it to her lips, she inhaled the smoke and kept it inside of her lungs for a few short moments.

Still waiting for the light to turn green, the sound of her ringtone echoing inside of her car made her stand to attention. Looking at the name, she let out a sigh, took a puff from her cigarette and pressed answer.

"Serah, what is it," she asked her younger sister as nicely as possible.

"Hello to you too! The dinner is going to be at 8 o'clock in the end, I…took a nap."

Rolling her eyes, Lightning was finally able to press on the pedal and continued down the street. "No problem, I'm still working the case anyway."

"You'll be there, right?"

"Yes, Serah. Unless something catastrophic happens, which I pray won't, I'll be there."

"Alright good, I'll pray too then. See you later, sis', love you!"

"See you later, Serah," Lightning said before pressing the off button of her wheel and exhaling a sigh of relief.

Although Serah was known to be annoying and sometimes extremely clingy, Lightning couldn't deny that spending the night with her somehow embellished her current day and being able to look at her in the eye and not on a table somewhere in Los Angeles was more than a relief and with that in mind, breathing came easier but sadly, only for a second.

Only a street away from the victim's apartment building, Lightning could perceive something in the distance. From where her car stood, it seemed like two black SUV's parked in front of it and the closer she got, the angrier she became. Those SUV's were unmistakably FBI, and the fact that the Federal Bureau was here to steal her case right in front of her nose was something she deemed unacceptable but when her car finally arrived near the cars, her anger grew tenfold.

Not bothering to take the keys of out the ignition, Lightning stormed in direction of her two Detectives and glared at them the entire way.

"What the hell is happening," she furiously asked.

A scent she couldn't recognize suddenly made her turn around, and for a few seconds, her anger lowered. She didn't who stood in front of her, but for the time being, all Lightning could do was to look inside her eyes of an amazingly emerald-colour.

"Who are you," the woman asked her, emerald eyes suddenly turning darker.

"I might just ask you the same question. What is the FBI doing here?"

For a moment, Lightning was proud to have retorted so quickly but as the smile on the woman's face grew, something inside of her made her realize that this smile was filled with a false hope.

"I'm Agent Yun from the FBI. You're off this case, please move along."

The agent didn't leave her the time to reply and disappeared from her sight the very next second. Astonished and outraged, Lightning stared at the road for what seemed an eternity and when she finally got her senses back, she promised herself that Agent Yun wouldn't hear the last of her and that was something she was sure of.