“The cursed dumpster? That’s an old one.” Kevin shrugged as he slurped his noodles while sitting on top of his desk: “I think I’ve heard about it. It’s a super old urban legend. I don’t remember the details - but it’s not good if it turned out to be real.”

“I don’t really remember that. What’s it about?” Marcus asked.

“Well - if I remember correctly, it’s about a dumpster that just wouldn’t go.” Kevin typed on his laptop and started reading from something he found: “Okay - I found some very old posts from some even older and ugly-ass forums: it says that the cursed dumpster is one particular metal dumpster with spray paint on it, originally located somewhere between the South-Eastern and South-Western Districts. It became cursed due to some unfortunate guy getting chopped in pieces and thrown into it. The police and people never figured out why.”

“And by ‘just wouldn’t go’, what do you mean? ” Marcus raised his coffee mug. He wanted to take a look at Kevin’s screen, but decided against it because his lingering headache was a major annoyance - it was not serious enough to make him stop functioning, but not light enough for him to ignore and sail through the day.

“It means - the locals and the local authority tried removing them a couple of times, but it always ends up back in its original place.” Kevin squinted his eyes: “And - some people tried to burn it down, even hired exorcists to handle it. But none helped. What’s worse is that it seems like it would even lash out against those who tried to act against it, civilians, exorcists, taoists and their families alike. It was later sealed locally at the hands of a few monks and practitioners from the South-Eastern District.”

“And - how is it now?” Marcus’ frown grew deeper: “This family - the father died and was found in that very dumpster - it’s not good, right? Does it mean that it’s acting up again?”

“Not - not necessarily.” Kevin scrolled through a few pages: “Here, at least from what I can tell, those deaths linked to this dumpster all seemed rather random. Horrible and unfortunate deaths, but no pattern as far as I can tell from these posts, and no direct links. If you want I can take a look at a few more.”

“Let’s look at it later.” Marcus sighed: “Looks like it’s - it’s Blue Envelope Material? Would it be there?”

“I would say so.” Kevin sighed: “Let’s talk this out with Captain - shall we? I mean we need to ask him about those anyway.”

“Hey guys.” At this moment, Mick Cramer, the new detective-in-training, knocked on the frame of the door: “Captain’s calling everyone to the briefing room. Mr. Khan brought something.”

“Alright, thank you Mick.” Marcus nodded, squeezing his nose bridge: “We’ll be right over.”

“You okay? Marcus?”

“I’m fine, just need to tough it out.” Marcus stood up, then took a quick look at Mick: “How about you? How’s your arm? Still hurting? Any discomfort or pain?”

“I’m feeling a lot better now.” Mick nodded, stretching both his arms and shoulders just to prove to Marcus that he was alright: “No pain, just a little bit sore, it should go away after some sleep.”

“Alright, don’t forget, you need to rest.” Marcus nodded: “I’ll give you a quick check when we wrap up today.”

Tyler Khan, the investigator from the South-Eastern District community collective and liaison from them, appeared to be in a good mood with his pile of files in his hand. Kevin grabbed a cup of coffee for himself, as did Marcus. Detective Keryn Lance and Shrevas Pahaik came in slightly later than most, as they seemed to be coming back from a scene. Detective Brian Sai brought a small folder with him, appearing concerned by something.

“Good morning, Captain Ko, officers.” In the briefing room, Tyler Khan found the podium and had already put something on the projector: “I trust that you already know about this poor fellow named Putnam Von?”

“Who? ” Detective Brian Sai asked.

“The guy in the community collective, who signed the rental paperworks for that anonymous group who got that platform.” Marcus answered: “He’s missing. The theory is that he is dead but the body is still not found.”

“For that - we actually - actually found him.” Tyler Khan scratched his head: “We’re preparing to start an autopsy in collaboration with the city’s forensics team. We also delivered an official invitation to Doctor Ayer Flemmings. We’re just not sure if she’s available yet.”

“Shouldn’t the city…” Captain Ko frowned: “... be more involved?”

“We can’t determine if it’s murder yet.” Tyler Khan sighed: “The scenario all seem pretty strange and suspicious. And it is the community collective’s position that we try to conduct this investigation in a collaborative fashion. For this is a very delicate time, and considering recent events, it is obvious that more information and intelligence sharing would be vastly mutually beneficial.”

“Hmm. Okay.” Captain Ko nodded: “Okay. Fine. But we’ll need to follow up on further details later.”

“Of course, captain. Intelligence sharing is one of our top priorities.” Tyler Khan nodded, as he put a picture onto the projector, it was the sketch of a man, with some notes on the side: “Behold, a strange name and a rough sketch of one potentially critical person: Luo Zhuge.”

Marcus sensed Shrevas and Keryn, who were sitting behind him, squirm lightly, either at the name of the sketch.

“Who is this man?” Kevin asked, scratching his jaw.

“Someone who did not exist.” Tyler Khan shrugged and looked around the room: “He’s someone mentioned in a hidden notebook of Putnam Von, which belonged to Putnam Von. He was quite a sketch artist, what do you know? He noted that he should be careful of this man. The other investigators of the community collective are looking into who this man is, but so far all we could find was that his main area of operation is in the South-Western District. This is where I would need your help.”

“You think this man’s tied to Putnam Von’s death?” Marcus asked.

“It’s the best lead we have so far. At least - ” Tyler Khan showed a picture of an open notebook, with some sketchy handwriting on both pages.

“He’s dangerous. He’s not to be trusted. DO NOT BE FOOLED!”