The rain pours down. The rain always pours down, leaking in between every crack until everything and everyone is soaked to the bone despite all of their best efforts. He can’t remember the last time he saw the sun, clouds hanging low in the sky even when they don’t drop their freezing burden upon the world. Despite the futility of the gesture he tugs the collar of his jacket up to cover more of his neck, anything to keep the cold out for just another minute longer. The tech resting in the collar glows at his touch, and he gives an irritated wave of his hand to dismiss the notifications again. Damn things were always trying to get you to sign up for some new product, some new service that swore, this time, to keep you bone dry. They never worked. Or, at least, they’d never worked for him.

Maybe it was just something about him. His old partner woulda said that a gloomy disposition leads to a gloomy life, but he’d always sniped back that he had it backwards. Heh, what he wouldn’t give to have even that exchange again. But those times are long gone. Even a saint wouldn’t deal with him forever, and his friend had been anything but, despite his long standing patience. He takes a deep breath and hikes his jacket up higher with another futile scowl at the sky, speeding up his pace as he brushes the cobwebs of nostalgia from his mind in order to focus on the problem at hand. Right.

Murder case.

__________________________________________________________________

She’d been cold by the time he got there. Well, he assumed “she”. The blatant assumption made his stomach turn sour, but something had wiped all records of this person’s presence, and he had to rely solely on her appearance. Now, see, murder isn’t that out of nowhere. Certainly nothing to write home about, not something that warranted bringing in a special investigator. But something like this? Something where the person isn’t just killed, but erased. Destroyed in every way that matters, left as nothing but a cold, empty stranger with no history. That’s something you don’t see too often. Something that not many people have the motive or ability to pull off. And, well, the few who do shouldn’t be wasting their time with someone that isn’t firmly entrenched in their circles, and if she had been…well, her body never would have been found.

He’d already checked the apartment she’d been found in. Everything had seemed…normal. Surprisingly normal for someone who’d been erased. It felt fishy, every instinct in his body firing and telling that something wasn’t adding up, but you can’t run a business on hunches. At least, not if you want to survive for long. Piss off the wrong person because of a “hunch” and you’d find yourself on your ass with a knife to your throat faster than you can leave town. Used to be you might actually be able to fly under the radar, but that just wasn’t possible anymore. Too many eyes, too many cameras, too many years of giving up little freedom after little freedom until suddenly you’re in a cell of your own making with no way out, chains of your own agreement pinning you in place. There he goes again with those morbid thoughts. Can’t change the past old man, can only walk forward, fighting against the chains as long as he can.

Maybe she’d found that out the hard way. Maybe she’d been spreading dangerous ideas, criticizing things she should accept, suggesting alternative ways to live that might actually be a threat to someone with more power than morality.