Chapter 2 - Case 1 Part 2

"We're here."

Arriving at some area in the middle of a suburb, Louis carefully parked the van in some road. Stopping the van and putting the key back to his pockets, he then grabs the folder once more and read the contents.

"I thought you said that the scenery in here is nice." Red spoke, quite disappointed at what she's seeing.

"We're not here for sightseeing, we're here for work." Louis said, still reading the folder in hand.

"Right... but I'd at least expect to see the scenery that you were talking about. It's pretty rare for us to reach this part of the city you know."

"Maybe next time when we're not busy." Louis spoke as he puts down the folder.

"So what now?"

"Begin our investigation as always." Louis replies, slowly getting out of the van. "One of the relatives of the people missing just lives right at that house so we should begin our questioning there first."

"Ok!" Getting out of the van herself, Red then follows Louis from behind. Making their way to where house was located. And as they reach the doors of the seemingly normal looking house, Louis promptly tells Red to stay back which she cheerily follows.

Knocking on the door himself, they then await for anyone to answer.

"U-um.. Who's there?" Not long after Louis knocked, the door was answered by a plain looking woman. Confused by the presence of both people, she can't help question who they are.

"The name's Louis Carroll." Louis introduces himself. "Private Nightmare Hunter working on the behalf of the Night City Police Department. Are you perhaps miss Helendel?"

"A-ah yes that would be me." The woman replies. "Is this perhaps about my missing brother?"

"That would be correct ma'am."

"I see... I suppose that would make you the 2nd Nightmare Hunter g-..group to meet me then." the woman spoke as she checks both people.

"Hm?" Red muttered, confused as to why the woman stuttered her sentence just now.

"You're would not be wrong about that miss." Louis calmly spoke. "Then I suppose I can ask you some questions?"

"Go for it..."

"Well then... I know that this may be personal but can you tell what's your relationship with sir Harold, in much detail if possible."

"Harold huh... well from what I've said earlier. We're essentially siblings, living in the same roof. No... it's more like me just crashing at his place."

"You don't own this place?"

"Yep, it's basically his." The woman replies. "When our old man kicked the bucket, we both decided to live separate lives of our own. And my life was pretty bad to say the least... that's why I decided to crash at his place until I fix my own shit."

"..."

"Anyhow... He happily obliged, which was very typical of him. Didn't even got pissed at me, seeing how I fuck up my life. And after that I pretty much live here ever since. We had some banter here and there but nothing really serious so I can say that we were living just fine... Yet that bastard just went and vanish all of the sudden... not even leaving a trace for me."

"No complications in your lives or anything?"

"Nothing that I can think off."

"I see... then what about the last time you saw each other."

"The last I saw him was about... 3 weeks ago. It was just a very typical day of him going to work and me being here."

"By work you mean the store he manages right?"

"Yep, he owns and manages that store of his, deep in the city."

"And you're certain that there was nothing wrong from that day."

"Well... he was a bit happier than usual that specific day but other than that there was nothing unusual that I can think off."

"I see... then that ends my questioning. Thank you miss Helendel."

"My pleasure then." The woman spoke. "I really thought that this questioning would be far longer, judging from the previous interrogation asked from me."

"Much of the details have already been written in the reports I received." Louis explains. 'I'm just asking you here for clarifications and all."

"I see.."

Seeing how they're pretty much finish now, they then said their goodbyes and head off back to the van.

But before they can even leave, the woman calls them for a second which momentarily stopped them at their tracks.

"Say... sir Nightmare hunter." The woman muttered.

"Hm? Is there a problem miss?" Louis asked.

"U-umm... I know that this is like a selfish thing to ask considering the situation and all... But will you promise me to find my brother." The woman said with a look of concern. "That man is the only family I have and if h-he... u-umm.. I m-mean.."

"..."

"You need not to worry about it miss!" Red suddenly uttered. "We of the Blood and Trigger Agency will definitely find that brother of yours no problem so you can count on us!"

"U-umm... thank you."

"Hah! Despite how his look may perceive, Louis here is pretty capable guy on his own and then there's also me. The strongest of them all."

"Yeah-yeah... stop boasting now." Patting Red on the head, Louis stop's Red before her self-wanking goes even further.

"Isn't that right Louis!" Red shouted. "We'll definitely find her brother right!?"

"W-well..." Scratching his beard with his finger, Louis took a somewhat long time to say an answer. Seeing how Red is still looking at him with puppy like eyes, he then gives a big sigh and said. "Fine... I'm not going to promise much but I'll definitely make sure to find that brother of yours. So don't worry much about it miss. You can have my word for that."

.

.

"Thank you..." The woman thanks them once more with a look of relief.

---------------------------------------

Formally saying their goodbyes, both Louis and Red then rode off with the van once again. With the full picture still not fully uncovered, they tried assessing much of what they have gathered.

"That didn't really reveal much isn't it?" Red spoke, sitting comfortably in her seat.

"I won't necessarily say that." Louis replies as he drives the van. "We did learn that the information shown in the folder is true and that the BPSEA agents interrogated her."

"Yeah... but that didn't really reveal any culprit for this case."

"You don't really get it do you."

"Heh?"

"We're dealing with a missing people case here, not murder so finding who's the culprit isn't much the focus." Louis explains. "The thing that we should be keening our eye into instead should be finding the missing people."

"But we still don't know where they are, though?"

"That is true..." Louis replies. "But we do have a lead."

"A lead? How so?" Red questions.

"Again, we learned that she was questioned by the BPSEA agents back then and that the last time she saw her missing brother was when he was going to work. With such information in hand, where do you think would the agents go next to?"

.

.

"Ahh! I see... the missing agents would go to this store of his!" Red answers, after pondering for a little bit.

"That would be correct."

"Hehehe.. I'm such a genius." Red proudly said. "So we're going there now?"

"Obviously."

"But isn't there like 3 missing people excluding the agents? Are we not going to interrogate the others like earlier?" Red asked.

"Not much we can get from investigating the others. Unlike this Harold person here, the others live by themselves." Louis explains. "Much of information about the other missing people are just 2nd hand evidence which isn't really much use in finding their location."

"Oh really?"

"You should know this if you didn't just lazily sit around and actually read the documents."

"Hehehehe..." Red laughs. "Fine... I'll try reading the thing."

Grabbing the folder with her hand, Red then lazily reads the documents from her seat. And as they continue to drive the van in the road, Red can't help but be bored at what she's reading.

.

.

"How boring..." Sighing as she read from paper to paper, it took a somewhat long time before she was finish. Closing the folder and tossing it back from where it was. She then lazily positions herself in her seat, indicating how truly exhausted she was from reading. "Eeeehhhh...." Red exhaustedly sighs.

"Does reading really fry that brain of yours to that extent?" Louis said, quite disappointed as what he is seeing.

"You don't understand Louis. Doing such a task takes a ton of energy even for the great me."

"Sureee...." Louis sarcastically voice

"By the way... I find it weird that all of the missing people excluding the agents are rich people." Red spoke.

"Huh?"

"I mean like the brother of the miss from back there owns a store, the second guy lives in what essentially is a mansion by himself and the last one is retired doctor whom worked previously at a pretty big hospital." Red explains. "They're all rich to some degree."

"..." Thinking more about what Red has just said, Louis suddenly stops the van which caught Red off guard.

Having her face almost fall flat from her seat, Red curses at the sitting Louis. "S-shit! What the hell Louis!?"

But much like her earlier provocations, her anger was left completely ignored. With Louis busying himself by reading the documents once more.

"Interesting..." Louis said as he flips from paper to paper. "I never thought of it that way."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Red asked, somewhat confused as to what Louis is saying.

"Nothing in particular, I just found what you have pointed out to be somewhat interesting." Louis said, brushing off Red's confusion. "In any case we should hurry and investigate the store."

"E-eeehh..."

Turning on the van once more, they then quickly headed to the afore mentioned store. With the full picture still tangled, the mystery of the case still remains.

Yet slowly and surely clues get revealed, guiding our duo closer to the truth.

But what lies in the end? One can only wonder.

- End of Chapter 2