She picked up the receiver and spoke quietly into it. "It's done."

"Oh good. I was getting tired of waiting."

"I had to find the opportune moment."

"How much do I need to pay you, sweetheart?"

"Fifty grand."

"50 thousand gil?"

"That was part of the deal, wasn't it?"

"Y-yes, but—

The woman on the other line spoke sharply. "Don't you go telling me you 'forgot', since I know well that you didn't. I expect fifty grand to be underneath the third dumpster down the 8th avenue alley tomorrow at noon. I'll be waiting."

"What do you mean, it could have been a Turk! We're not serial killers!" Tseng's usual neat topknot was undone and his hair was being pulled and mussed by Tseng himself in frustration. "I'm telling you, it wasn't any one of the Turks!" The usually withdrawn man slammed his hands violently on one of the metal tables a corpse was laid on.

Iris didn't flinch at his sudden action, but just simply blinked at him. "There's no fingerprints, no fibers, nothing that shows that someone else was there. It could've been Rude, it could've been Reno. It could've been you, or even Elena."

Tseng paused for a moment. "I wasn't near Julia's house that day. I haven't been to her place since the she put jalapeno powder in my boxers as a prank."

The Medical Examiner blinked at him again. "I think you better fix your hair."

"What?"

"You look like you've been hit by a truck, raped by a rabid monkey, and finally shoved into a washing machine in spin cycle."

"Well, it seems you have otosclerosis."

"What!"

"Well, it causes you to go deaf."

"ME! DEAF! I'M ONLY 27!"

"You could always get a stapedectomy."

"…"

"The procedure involves bypassing the stuck stapes by making a hole through it to the outer chamber of the inner ear and placing an artificial bone from the still moveable healthy hearing bones through the hole to the inner ear."

"What?"

"Just give me permission to drill through your ear."

"HELL NO!"

"…Reno, I'm a surgeon. I know what I'm doing."

"Well, you know what! I think you're… you're… weird! Yeah! YOU'RE WEIRD!"

"… C'mon little boy. Someone's gonna get a quick surgery."

Reno tried fleeing… but alas, no use. The pretty surgeon had his wrist in an iron grip.

"Hey, I've I.D.'d the vics." A random worker at the crime lab handed the detective handing the Party Slaughter case a manilla folder full of papers sticking out messily.

Detective M. (Goddamnit I didn't feel like making up a name) sat down in his comfy little chair and flipped though the papers.

Matt Tabram… owned local brothel… had throat cut open from behind.

Josephine Chamos… worked for Shinra. Choked on pork rinds.

And there were several other names, but the one that stuck out the most were Tabram and Elizabeth Stride. Both were names of victims of themurderer dubbed "Jack The Ripper".

How… odd.