Chapter 2

Usual Disclaimer: Riot owns everything

A/N: Vi & curse words. Yehp.

Last time I've swiped my ID to get into the office was three days ago. Nothing feels different here. Everyone's still busy filing, reporting, issuing orders, getting calls—Cait did say justice never sleeps. I guess she's built this whole department on that. It didn't matter who was running the show, the force is still going to do its job regardless.

Been in and out of my office a few times this month. The new sheriff's been demanding—who the fuck was he to boss me around? Anyway, I didn't pay any attention to him—he doesn't deserve any of it. I came to the station without warning and left without any noise. He's probably working up on my employment file to get me out of the force but he can't outright get rid of me… yet. He's gonna find a way but until then I gotta find out where the sheriff is.

It was pretty easy to get the case file. The old lady clerk on duty in the evidence room almost didn't give me another chance to look at the evidence. Well, I wouldn't too, especially if it's the only thing I've been looking at for the past month. But she said something about how she understood my situation. I don't know what the hell she was talking about but I nodded in response. Still gotta have some respect for the old people.

I've been sitting here in the conference room for hours—I only noticed that because I remember clocking in around eleven and the clock says it's two-thirty. Fuck. I've been reading all the reports for ages—most I've done in my career and my lifetime ever. I tried to get something out of all the paper work but there were only a few things that stood out.

From the autopsy report: Cause of Death, smoke inhalation. Blunt force trauma to the head: perimortem. Debris, I guess? Shit ass reports don't show anything about what caused that. This wasn't Cait, she was in front of me the whole time at that stake out in that fucking run-down building and she never hit her head once. Caitlyn's graceful like that, she doesn't bang her head, ever.

Next up was her gun. The scope is broken, handle a little bent—kinda unnatural but the report said it was because it was lodged under a piece of debris. Net gun attachment was empty when they found it. Her magazine had 4 rounds left in it.

Caitlyn always makes sure she had 5 rounds in the gun and 5 in her pocket. Where was the net? Where were the other 6 bullets?

I kept her gun and rummaged for more stuff to look at. The recordings—the witness interview. I was the only one with the sheriff when she was last seen alive. I remember everything about that day and it still strikes me in a very unnerving way.

I put the tape in and forced myself to watch this comedic fuck-fest.

It took the chief around 15 minutes to get me to talk—I fast forwarded the video to the part when I started to talk to not waste any time of me blankly staring at the ugly piece of shit in front of me. I was too out of it to even comprehend the questions he was throwing at me. I barely had my focus on the guy. He kept asking about who were Cait's nemesis, if anyone was out there to get her, who we were tailing in the back end area of the slums, why we were tailing this and that.

I told him everything he needed to know. Cait's nemesis is C, a cat burglar which doesn't give him enough motive to actually try to kill her. Definitely when you're chief of police everyone's going to be fucking out to get you—I used to hate her because she was always ruining my heist. She told me something about a Palmer dude but that's just about as far as I go with his identity. He was just a lead in one of her few open cases.

Then they started to question the building like I fucking owned the damn thing. Telling me about how the building was old and that the gas leaks might've triggered the fire. Most of the time, it felt odd though. Instead of the usual questions, it seemed that they were trying to imply that it happened accidentally.

I saw myself break down near the end of the interview. I wanted to look away and stop the tape but I needed to finish this. Maybe there's something here that I could use.

"Vi,"

"The sheriff is not dead. You didn't find her. That's just a fucking piece of corpse."

"What makes you say she isn't dead?"

"Just—"

"Vi, this is going to be a reality but your boss has die—"

"SHE'S NOT DEAD!"

"It's going to be tough dealing with loss but might I suggest therapy?"

"Shut the fuck up."

"Anyway. So this case file's still open. Would you, by any chance, have any updates regarding this? What would the sheriff's next move might've been?"

"You tell me. You're the fucking sheriff now, right? BOSS?"

"Vi. Your smug attitude would get you nowhere. Your boss—she's dead. I need a little more than everything you've told me to get a little closer to getting her justice."

"She can get her own piece of justice because she's alive. And she ain't getting any help from dirt bags like you."

It looked like I blacked out after that. I didn't answer any more of his retarded questions and I was having none of his bullshit any longer. I remember trying to get myself out of there as quick as possible—I needed a drink or five at that time.

Then I felt something that tore my focus away from the video. Pain, again from my left side. I took a palm full of pills and waited for the pain to go away.

Something isn't right here. How come the evidence hasn't been looked at completely? I've drawn so many questions but then this case has been lazily classified as a fucking fire accident? That fucking corpse was burned until it was unrecognizable and they say it's a fucking fire accident?

No. I can't accept that. In Cait's words, none of this is logical. Nobody that dies in a fire accident gets burned like they actually were on their way to hell.

I quickly packed up the evidences and sealed everything perfectly—I promised the old lady at the evidence room I'll return everything neat this time.

They didn't do a full search—I doubt they even thought about the evidence—and now they're missing so many pieces of the puzzle. They didn't bother asking other witnesses. For someone as high ranking as Caitlyn they sure did a shit ass job at trying to close this case. This is far beyond lazy.

Well, you know what they say about getting the job done.

I gotta do it myself.