“Alright, team, let’s get started.” Captain Ko’s steps were still slow and painful. The “accident” he had was indeed quite a bad one. But the detectives in the briefing room knew better than to ask him about it. “Pahaik, Lance, your updates?”

“We sent some requests out to gather information about the Ling family. We are still waiting to hear back but from what we’ve heard so far - the adoption record of the boy seems less and less credible and more like forged. Kudos to Kevin and Marcus for the lead. And - the thing we’re concerned about is why - why does that woman’s spirit want revenge?”

“What are your theories?” Captain Ko asked.

“We have two theories: one is that she was the boy’s birth mother or his close relative of sorts.” Detective Shrevas Pahaik answered: “The other one is, it’s probably not family related, the poor boy just got caught up in some kind of feud. Right now we are leaning towards this theory because we learned that the Lings were not exactly welcomed people in their circles. Many families avoided them, and it seemed that they did something unsavory back in the days to earn them this reputation.”

“What is this ‘unsavory’ thing?” Kevin asked: “Could it be the fact that they bought the kid?”

“Then we’re back to the first theory.” Keryn shrugged: “It’s not an easy one to find - we’ll look into it more. But in that kind of circle - it’s not that easy to break into.”

“South Western socialite circles? I think I know someone.” Marcus pointed his nose at the window, outside of which was Mick, who was doing paper work on his desk but peeking at the briefing room from time to time.

“Good catch, only, we can’t tell him about our investigation. Not yet.” Captain Ko raised an eyebrow then turned to Shrevas and Keryn: “Pahaik, Lance, lean on Mick for help but be mindful about the details. Marcus, you help them handle this - Mick’s a good kid, but we need time to make sure.”

“Yes sir.” Everyone in the room responded.

“Cai, Loo, what about you? You have more open cases than closed ones. You’d better have some news.” Captain Ko turned to Marcus and Kevin.

“Oh, sorry Captain.” Marcus scratched his head: “But - I’m afraid we don’t have any solves yet. We’re still in the dark about how that woman killed herself. And we’re still unclear about what happens at the docks and who those guys are. The community collective AND the chef are stonewalling us. They seem to be having some trouble of their own. And - ”

“What says your contact there? Mr. Bulu Wang?”

“I was just about to get to it. ” Marcus shook his head: “He’s been reassigned out of his original post. He’s now the head of a local peacekeeping squad, still under the community watch and patrol team, but with less power and less responsibilities.”

“So he’s been demoted to hell. What the hell happened?” Captain Ko frowned.

“I don’t know. Some kind of internal politics. Things are changing in the South Eastern District. ” Marcus sighed.

Captain Ko went into his thoughts for a brief moment, then looked up at Marcus: “I think this is a good time to talk about your proposal then? About you wanting to bring in a consultant? What’s her name again? Gloria Lee?”

Shrevas and Keryn immediately fixed their eyes on Marcus.

“Wait, Gloria Lee? The same one that stole our case files?” Shrevas asked: “How did you find her? Did she find you?”

“As a matter of fact, she DID find me.” Marcus shrugged: “I - I probably should have told everyone this sooner. But I got into some trouble the other day taking Sitch, I mean Simon Tu from custody for some investigation. As you know, I got injured while we lost an important informant. But I was kinda lucky, for she was there and dragged me out of that mess.”

“So - she saved you, and you owe her one. Is that how it is?” Captain Ko narrowed his eyes and stared at Marcus.

“Yes, kinda. But also because I felt she was not entirely hostile to us. And she was also looking into the case of missing children - and - and the cruise ship 15 years ago.” Marcus sighed: “She contacted me, she wanted to get information about some of the cases we’re looking into. Lydia Mu’s, the emergency reparations team’s and the Ling’s, I’m assuming.”

“Did she have anything she could tell us?” Keryn asked.

“From what I can tell, she does. She’s also involved with some local business relating to the paranormal and traditional rituals. There’s - there’s apparently rumor about her being much more involved. I just don’t have anything definitive yet.” Marcus nodded: “But - we don’t have to bring her in right away, we can just trade information first, and then we can decide if we can trust her or work with her. But if you ask me, I can trust her. ”

The room went silent for a moment. Captain Ko tapped his fingers on the podium as he drowned himself in his thoughts. Marcus tried to read something off the captain’s face, but there were barely any tells he could decipher. He then exchanged looks with Kevin, who only shrugged as he had no answer either.

“Alright, you can contact her and set up an intelligence trade. Let’s see what she can offer us. If she knows about the paranormal, then we could use her knowledge and experience.” Captain Ko finally nodded at Marcus and Kevin after a long pause: “Shrevas, Keryn, you two continue with what you’re doing. Sai, what do you have?”

Detective Brian Sai, sitting silently on the side, raised his hand and said: “I - I actually found something interesting. It seemed that the Ling family had some kind of run-in with Yixiang Zhuge.”