A squad car of the Keddie police department, pulled up to the crime scene to see a black sedan parked outside of it. An officer with the name badge of "Bradley" rushed to the interior of the home. He was instantly clotheslined by an arm. When he came too he was met with a sight of menacing blue eyes. "Who –" 'What hit me? It feels like a frying pan...'

"I am C." He eyed the name badge, "Officer Bradley, you contacted my agency for a second opinion."

Bradley instantly looked relieved, despite being tied up, "Oh good. You're here. Something doesn't sit right with me about this. I know they closed the case, but these were good people. Good people with no closure or justice." C narrowed his eyes and popped a cigarette in his mouth, Bradley struggled against his bindings, "Uh. Can you untie me?"

C pulled a knife from his pocket and sliced the rope, while simultaneously lighting his cigarette. "How many know of my involvement?"

Bradley rubbed his arms where his previous bindings once felt as if they would crush him, "Just three of us."

"Let's keep it that way." His voice was cold as he walked further into the home, "The girl is still missing?" The officer nodded sadly, C's expression softened for a mere second, "We'll find her. Hopefully alive."

Bradley nodded, "You must be thinking it looks terrible for a lower leveled officer to be doing this…"

C pulled out a series of small bags and collected evidence of his own, "Not at all. Corruption is very real. I intend to get to the bottom of it. I have many questions. But, the amount of time spent on this case was enough to flag my attention." He smirked deviously, "Do I want to know why no one took the pack of cigarettes?"

Bradley looked up surprised, "Are they important."

C snatched the pack up with a pair of tweezers, "Oh yes. None of the Sharps smoked." He dropped the pack into a bag.

The officer widened his eyes, "What?"

C stood up and kicked open a big leather bag, "The bodies, when I examined them, none of them had any damage from smoking." He dropped the small amount of bags into the larger one.

"How?"

C sighed in slight irritation, "I'm resourceful." He threw his wallet at the officer.

Bradley opened the wallet and stared wide eyed, "You have an ID for every level of law enforcement!"

C smirked arrogantly, "I'll let you guess which ones are actually real." His eyes fell on something directly behind the officer, "What's that?"

The officer turned and eyed the carpet, "A blood stain."

C narrowed his eyes, "Your intelligence and powers of observation never cease to amuse. Learn from me kid, you'll get farther then your senior officers. Especially since I suspect they were subject to blackmail." C crossed the room and tugged at the carpet pulling it up with ease, "Shouldn't be that easy, see?" He pulled the flap back to reveal a note, "Hmm." He narrowed his eyes and grumbled picking the note up with his tweezers.

The officer leaned in wide eyed with mystery of his new "partner", "Where did you study?"

"Irreverent. This is interesting." He placed the note in the bag that read 'I knew you'd come for me, Reaper.' He handed the bag to the officer, "What do you make of that?"

The officer eyed the paper inside the baggie, "Uh… I don't know."

"They're watching us. Closely I might add, and this is way above just your sheriff."

"Whose the reaper? Like as in death?"

C nodded, "Naturally. But for a moment, if we were to embody this reaper into a person, what do you think they would be like?"

"Huh?" The officer tilted his head.

C took a long drag from his cigarette, "Humor me. If we aren't talking supernatural…"

The officer snapped, "It would be an outsider, someone with substantial backing, who would be helping find the killer! Otherwise, why call them the reaper! The reaper according to mythology is the spirit of Death's hands, feet and eyes."

C stared at him a little astonished, "Yes… Actually. Very keen. Who would that describe?"

The officer looked up from the note and into C's deep, piercing eyes, "You… You're an outsider, you're with a group of international detectives… Giving you more than enough resources, and…"

"Correct, I'm a detective. And, you're sure you can trust the other two?"

"The other two are my sheriff and another detective from San Fransisco!" He quickly defended.

C raised an eyebrow, "You realize that one of your prime suspects has immunity for being a rat right? As in, from the F.B.I… I hate this country… So corrupt." C crinkled his nose and picked his bag up and walked outside.

"But wait! Neither of them would –"

"No? The best friend of the sheriff and a mob member being protected by the government for ratting out his old comrades? You don't think these other two would have nothing to lose?" He put his cigarette out and placed the butt in his pocket. "Your prime suspects... And your investigators, both have an equal amount to hide, obviously your suspects want to hide they did it, and your investigators? They hide their shame."

Officer Bradley dropped his gaze to the ground, "But…"

C watched the young man war with himself, "I believe you had good intentions. But you can't trust them, tell them we found nothing." He scribbled an address on a piece of paper, "This is where I'm staying, think twice before crossing me. They are not to know I'm remaining in town. We're on our own, kid."