Welcome everybody to the next chapter of Assassin's Mercy!
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A flash lit up the lifeless corpse of Don Krieg, making the blood staining the floor glitter in a disturbing, yet beautiful, array.
Smoker chewed on the bud of his cigars and frowned while glancing around the room, taking in what he saw. Frankly it was not much; the room lay undisturbed. No broken windows, no sign of a struggle, not even a lock out of place.
"Anything?" he asked.
A man dressed in a full-body forensic suit shook his head. "Sorry Sir. I can't find a single print. It's as if he was never here..."
Smoker's frown deepened. Turning around he searched the room for his partner.
"Oi Ace! You better not have fallen asleep again..." he said around the cigars. "Over here Smoky." said a voice from behind the penthouse door.
Smoker growled and made his way over to the door, opening it and coming face to face with his partner who was still staring at the door.
"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" he mumbled closing the door behind him and turning around to stand next to Ace and stare at the door.
Ace crossed his arms, "Why did he waste time painting a pirate insignia... why didn't he just leave as quickly as possible." he murmured. The grinning skull with a straw hat stared back at the two men almost gloatingly, daring them to ask of its secrets.
"Well it's defiantly his M.O; Single shot to the head 'execution style', no struggle and no evidence... apart from the insignia that is."
"Practically a mercy killing..." said Smoker exhaling smoke as he fiddled with the two cigars in his hand.
Ace sighed, "We need to think of a better name..."
Smoker paused, "What...?" he murmured thinking he had heard his partner wrong. "We've been on his case for three kills now. Calling him, well, 'him' is kinda boring." He muttered as he practically pouted.
Smoker hit his partner upside the head, "It doesn't matter whether he has a name or not at this point, first we need to find something that can lead us to him!" he grumbled.
Soft snores then began to echo through the empty hallway.
Smoker put the cigars back into his mouth and frowned. "Portgas... if I turn around and find you sleeping again, I'm going to tell the forensic agents to take the rest of the day off, kick your narcoleptic ass back into the room and make you find any evidence yourself."
Just as Smoker turned around, Ace's snot bubble popped and he woke up. Gazing at Smoker he tilted his head, "What's with the face Smoky?" he asked innocently.
Smoker growled, "They have medicine for Narcolepsy you know..." he sighed. "Too bad they haven't made any for idiocy too..." he added under his breath before turning away and walking towards the elevator.
Ace grinned. "Haha, don't worry Smokey; if I left, you'd be bored without me." He said catching up with Smoker before the elevator doors slid shut.
Smoker growled at his partner, "Don't call me Smokey brat." Ace just laughed and patted Smoker's shoulder, exiting the elevator as the doors once again opened when they reached the ground floor.
Smoker grumbled to himself. Even though he would probably never admit it out loud, the brat was probably right; before Ace came along, Smoker never had a partner because he couldn't stand working with any of them.
Sticking another cigar in his mouth, Smoker walked over to the Reception Desk where Ace stood. "We would like to get a copy of your security tapes to help aid us in this investigation. If we're lucky, they might have caught whoever did this on tape."
Ace smiled at the receptionist who blushed and quickly hurried off to collect the tape.
Smoker sighed and thought back on what may had lead to the assassination of the suspected mafia boss upstairs to prevent himself from trying to assassinate his own partner for being too carefree about everything.
Before the assassination of Don Kreig, there had been two other assassinations; both of the other men could also be linked to the mafia.
The first was a man who called himself Donquixote Doflamingo, a rather successful, though eccentric business man who after his death was also found to be an underworld broker, where he operated under the alias of "Joker".
The second man was Crocodile who owned a large chain of Casino's. Crocodile had been under the investigation of the police for six months prior to his death for suspected drug dealing and slave trade but there was no evidence to support these claims.
While Don Kreig's reputation was nowhere near as infamous as the first two, after both Doflamingo and Crocodile, he was apparently next in line to become head of the Shichibukai family.
The assassin obviously had a grudge to settle with the Shichibukai, but as far as he knew there was no one crazy enough to even touch them with a ten foot pole. Well, until now it seems.
"Hey Smoky! What you thinking about!"
"Nothing that concerns you brat." muttered Smoker chewing on the end of his cigar and ignoring his brat of a partner.
"It does too! You have your 'thinking about the case' face on. So it must concern me then since I'm also working on this case." said Ace coming up beside Smoker.
"I'll tell you later then. Let's get back to base for now. Forensics will call us if they find anything of importance." said Smoker heading to the doorway of the hotel.
Ace hummed in agreement. "Something about this case is weird. I mean who would have the guts to assassinate three big-time mafia bosses unless they had nothing to lose and had connections to the underworld. Imagine having a guy like that on our side."
This is definitely going to be one of my more sombre fics.
I hope you've all enjoyed Assassin's Mercy so far!
See you all next time!
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