Chapter 1: The first case

"The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary. Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness." – Joseph Conrad

When Chase woke up, he yawned. He stretched out his paws when he unexpectantly hit something. As he looked to his left, the memories came flowing back, and he remembered he hadn't spent the night alone. He could still smell the musk in the air. He remembered clearly how Marshall called him and asked to come over. They had been hanging out for the past few months, ever since Chase graduated from the police academy. There had been quite some tension between them, the tension that had been there since before the PAW Patrol disbanded. Well, until last night, when they celebrated Chase's promotion to detective. Last night, Chase finally confessed his feelings towards his best friend, and as he made clear to the dally, also his crush. He looked at the white figure next to him, he had the feeling he could look at that cute face forever. But then Chase's favourite dally woke up and just like his mate, he yawned and stretched out. Only then he saw Chase watching him.

"Good morning, Chase. Is something wrong?" Marshall asked, immediately worried about his new-found lover.

"No, nothing's wrong. I was just thinking of how lucky I am to have you as a mate" Chase said with a light blush on his face. Chase then moved his face closer to Marshall's, and kissed him. Not just a quick peck on the lips, but a full-blown mouth-to-mouth kiss. They both moaned as they kissed, getting more intense by the second. They started rolling around on the bed, first Chase was on top, then Marshall, then Chase again and so on. Both Marshall and Chase felt the heat in their groins intensifying, and they would've had another mating session if it wasn't for Chase's phone, which started ringing.

"Beep-beep-beep"

"I'll ignore it." Chase said while continuing to kiss his mate. Marshall (who was on top at the time) broke away from Chase and gave him his phone.

"It's your job, you should answer it." Marshall said after looking who was on the other line.

"Fine, but we will continue this." Chase said. He then answered the phone "Hello, this is Chase"

"Sir, there has been a homicide at the parking lot of the Bon Vivant Hotel." a voice said over the phone.

"Copy that, I'll be right there." Chase said as he ended the call "Sorry babe, duty calls"

"Don't worry about it, it's important. Tell you what, I'll make you some dinner when you get back" Marshall said as he got off of Chase.

"I'd like that, but I don't know when I'll be off tonight" Chase replied as he too got out of bed.

"I'll figure out a way to handle that, don't you worry." the dally said as he gave Chase a quick peck on the lips.

They both then got dressed, Marshall put on his firefighter's uniform, while Chase was about to put on his officer's uniform when he realised he didn't have to. So instead, he put on jeans, a white shirt and a black jacket. He put his modified Glock 17 in the pup pack on his back, as well as his handcuffs and his badge.

They went downstairs to have a quick breakfast before Chase hurried to the door. As Chase reached the door, Marshall leaned in real close before the shepherd could open it. He and Marshall shared a small kiss before Chase headed out to work.

When Chase walked to his car, he had the feeling like someone was watching him. He quickly gazed upon the area around him, but nothing was out of the ordinary. The neighbourhood looked just as it always did at that time in the morning, Chase could see two neighbours down the street talking to each other in bathrobes with coffee mugs in their hand. Across the street, in the park, ha could see some dogs walking themselves, while others were walking with humans. As per usual, there were plenty of parked cars in the street, even though every house had a driveway and a garage. Everything seemed normal, so Chase ignored the feeling and just drove off to work.

As Chase arrived at the Bon Vivant Hotel, almost the entire street was blocked off. There were police cars everywhere, as well as the pitch-black truck from the morgue. Chase parked his car on the sidewalk and made his way through the crowd up to the yellow police tape. It was Chase's first day as a detective, but this wasn't his first crime scene. As a police officer, it was his task to secure a crime scene and let none of the civilians through the yellow tape. Said task now fell in on the shoulders of another officer, who was standing guard just on the other side of the yellow tape. As Chase walked up to the yellow tape, he was stopped by said officer.

"Please stop, sir. No civilians behind this tape!" the officer said as she blocked Chase's path.

"Well, I'm no civilian," Chase looked at her chest and read her nametag "Officer Cara". Chase then barked in a soft yet very specific way which opened his pup pack and revealed his badge.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry sir. I didn't know you were the new detective." Cara said as she tripped over her words. She then pulled up the yellow tape as a gesture Chase could walkthrough, even though Chase could easily have walked underneath it. Chase walked straight for the body covered by a large yellow blanket when he was approached by a golden retriever in a sergeant's uniform.

"Hello sir, I'm sergeant John Brooks. Are you the new detective?" the retriever asked Chase

"Yeah, I'm the new detective. The name's Chase." Chase responded as he kept walking towards the body. "What do we have?"

"Well, when my brothers decided I should learn how to swim…" Brooks started, which made Chase stop in his tracks and look at the sergeant with a raised eyebrow, who stopped walking as well but continued nonetheless "They threw me straight into the deep end. But just before I drowned my survival instincts kicked in and I learned how to swim" Brooks begun walking towards the body again, and Chase had no choice but to walk along.

"And what does this have to do with the case?" Chase asked, still with the confused look on his face.

Chase then got to see the body, and right at that moment Brooks answered his question: "Sorry for throwing you into the deep end, detective"

Chase had seen quite some dead bodies over the years, but none so brutal. The victim was a labrador, but Chase only saw that from the driver's licence that was lying next to the pup. The victim's entire body was covered in blood. At first, Chase thought it came from a nasty gash in his throat, but then he spotted multiple stab wounds all over his body, including the new holes at the spots where the eyes used to be, as well as a new opening through the forehead. Someone really wanted him dead. While Chase was focused on the body, another canine silently approached him.

"That gives a new meaning to the word overkill, don't you think?" Chase heard a voice behind him say. As Chase turned around, he had his first look at his new partner. He recognized him not only from his personnel file but also from the stories about him. He was detective Silvex Knyght, and he was known as the greatest detective in all of Coastal City. He was the first canine to reach the rank of detective, and rumour has it that he passed up over six offers for becoming captain. According to every story, Silvex simply loved the chase. "Hi, I'm Silvex, and I'm guessing you must be Chase?"

"Y-yeah, I'm Chase. Let me just say, it's an honour to be working with you." Chase said

"Well, I've seen your test scores, and you're pretty amazing yourself. Your file said you're an excellent marksman with any kind of ranged weapon, from bow to rocket launcher. It also said you're a natural at deductive reasoning, which is a trait that makes a great detective. So, if nothing else, this will be an intriguing endeavour." Silvex proclaimed as he extended his paw to Chase, who shook it.

Silvex then shifted his attention to the reason they were there, the dead pup. "What do you make of this, Chase?" Silvex asked

"Well, this doesn't seem like a robbery gone wrong, even though his wallet appears to be empty. He has a Coastal City driver's license, so he is from around here. The murder weapon was clearly a knife, and this doesn't seem professional." At that point, Chase's expression changed. "Yet, we are standing at a parking lot behind a busy hotel, and judging by the amount of blood, he was killed here."

"So? Does something seem off to you?" Silvex asked, but just to test Chase, Silvex already knew the answer.

"Well, if he was stabbed I don't know how many times, then why did no one hear him? Unless the killer slit his throat first, and then made all those cuts to make it seem unprofessional. In that case, we could be dealing with a professional hitman or even a trained assassin." Chase speculated.

"Like I said, sorry for throwing you in the deep end." Sergeant Brooks said, who had overheard the whole thing.

"There's not much we can do here, let's get back to the precinct. I assume you have your police car?" Silvex asked Chase "And I trust it's not a patrol car?"

"It's the black Mercedes parked on the sidewalk around the corner." Chase replied

Chase and Silvex then walked through the crowd back to Chase's car. Once again, Chase had that feeling of being watched, but after inquisitively looking at everyone in the crowd, all he saw were seemingly ordinary civilians and a handful cops. No one stood out, so Chase didn't pay any more attention to it.

When they reached the car, Chase was about to get in the driver's seat when Silvex stopped him.

"I'm driving." Silvex said as he held out his paw.

Chase didn't even try to protest, as he handed Silvex the car keys. Chase quickly walked around the car and sat down in the passenger seat. He put on his seatbelt, as did Silvex, and both embarked on the 15 min drive back to the precinct, during which time, Silvex asked some questions about Chase, and Chase asked some back.

"So, Chase, do you have any family?" Silvex asked

"No, not really. I do have an aunt and uncle with two children living overseas, but I never really liked them. My parents and sister died in a terrorist attack six years ago, right before I joined the PAW Patrol" Chase said

"Oh yeah, I read that in your file. You were the PAW Patrol's police pup, weren't you?" Silvex replied. "Did they ever catch the guy who killed your family?"

"They didn't have to, it was a suicide bombing." Chase replied. "How about you, do you have any family?"

"Well, not that I'm aware of. My mother died giving birth to me and my siblings, leaving my father to take care of us. He tried the best he could, but we were living on the streets back then. Making matters worse, those streets belonged to the Blackstreet Mafia, who asked us for something the gangs like to call 'protection money', which my father refused to pay. As a result, they came to our house one day and set it on fire. I was with my father at that time and he brought me outside to safety. He went back in, but he never came out." Silvex told Chase

"I'm sorry to hear that, Silvex." Chase said

"At least he died quickly, he was shot through the head by some thugs. Those same thugs are currently serving a double life sentence in Rikers, with your old friend Rubble." Silvex said as he looked at Chase to see his reaction.

"Oh trust me, Rubble isn't a friend of mine, if I ever cross paths with him again, he's going to wish he'd gotten the death penalty instead. I'd make him pay for what he did to the PAW Patrol name!" Chase growled. Silvex noticed Chase's paws shaking out of anger and it looked like there was a fire burning in his eyes. After this cheery note, they drove in silence for a while. As Chase looked out the window, his mood turned from anger to sad when he saw what had become of his home. There were drug dealers on every corner, prostitutes on every sidewalk, homeless people in every alley, the city really had gone to shit.

"It's sad, how a great city like this became so rotten in the core." Silvex broke the silence.

"I still don't get why the police don't do anything about it." Chase said

"You are aware that you're part of the police, right? Anyways, I don't think all the cops want things to change. With the power of the badge to wield, there is a lot of temptation to switch sides, and some cops will" Silvex said

"You mean there is corruption on the force?!" Chase asked with a raised voice. Silvex couldn't quite determine if it was anger, surprise or a combination of the two that made his volume increase, but it was clear to see that he was very upset by this fact.

"There might be, but the IA department will take care of it. I hope." Silvex said, clearly ending the conversation. Which was appropriate, seeing as they had just arrived at the parking lot behind the precinct.

As they got out, Chase once again felt like he was being watched. Yet as he looked around, the only people around were other cops, all doing their own things, which made Chase's thoughts revert back to the conversation he and Silvex just had.

Is there really corruption on the force? Are any of these cops corrupt?

"Yes sir, I'm in the parking lot and I have eyes on Chase. But sir, there is a… complication…" a canine officer spoke into his phone. He was wearing a blue uniform, with a grey badge, indicating that he was a regular officer. On his badge there was also a nametag, reading: J. Stillburg.

"What is it?" a harsh voice spoke from the other end of the call.

"You see, he's been partnered with Silvex…" the pup said

"WHAT?! Stillburg, how could that happen?!" the voice said

"I don't know, sir" The pup spoke into the phone. "But I don't think we can recruit him now"

"It's not your place to think, Stillburg." The voice said. "Keep an eye on them, until further notice."

"Yes, sir!" the pup said as he ended the call. "Well Silvex, you're a pain in the ass, but you do tend to keep things interesting…"