Chương 16: Serial Kidnapping?
Monday.
Benjamin went to work as usual.
There weren't any new cases so they simply continued to work on old cases.
While working on old cases, Benjamin frowned.
"Another missing person's case?"
Benjamin frowned since this wasn't the only missing person's case that he had encountered in the old case files.
He had set them aside for now since these things usually take too much time and they have already placed an APB on them and just waiting for news.
AN: Btw, I'm not a real police nor do I know much about police procedures so idk if there's any process or some shit when doing an APB on someone. :P
Benjamin pulled out his drawer where he had set aside the files and noticed that there was already quite a stack.
He quickly took it out and checked them one by one again, sorting out the missing person's cases and the others.
The result…the majority of it was missing person's cases.
"This…"
Benjamin felt that this wasn't normal.
He picked the files up and went to an empty conference room to plot out the whole thing properly on a big table.
Jake noticed him and asked.
"What's wrong?"
"...Just a hunch. I hope I'm wrong though…"
Jake felt the seriousness of the matter and didn't joke around. He also followed him to the conference room.
Looking at all the case files, Jake noticed the similarities immediately.
"These are the old missing person's cases? There's this many?"
"Just the ones on my pile…how about yours?"
"Wait a sec."
Jake quickly left and checked his own pile.
Soon after, he came back with another set of case files of his own.
"...I can't believe I didn't notice there were these many…"
It can't be helped. They usually deal with a lot of case files so these kinds of things weren't noticed immediately.
But now that they did, they needed to know if there was any connection or not!
After a few hours of cross-checking…
"...Holy shit. We have a serial kidnapper…or murderer on our hands!"
Right…they were able to find a connection!
After checking numerous times, they all found that the victims were all people who didn't have any parents…so to say, they were all orphans.
The ones who had reported it were all either the orphanage, friends, acquaintances, neighbors or such. But since none of them were particularly close to the victim, they didn't follow up after the initial report so it has been neglected.
It was as if the kidnapper, or the killer, had picked these people specifically so as to not arouse any attention.
The time intervals on each were also spread out and not too consecutive to be noticed immediately which was why it just got buried under the old case files.
"...Call Captain Holt."
Jake nodded and rushed out.
After a while, Captain Holt arrived and looked at the scene before him.
Seeing the numerous case files on the table, he frowned.
"What are all these?"
"These are all the old missing person's case files we have…well, just the ones assigned to us right now."
"This many!?"
Captain Holt widened his eyes in disbelief.
How was this not noticed before!?
Soon, Benjamin explained what they found out and his face turned grim.
He left the room and shouted at everyone on the floor.
"All of you stop what you're doing right now and bring in all the missing person's case files you have on you. Right now!"
Everyone looked at each other in confusion but did as they were told.
After a while…they were all staring at each other in shock.
There… were this many!?
Next, according to Captain Holt's instruction, they set aside all those files where the victims were orphans and were still shocked to find it was the majority of their files.
Seeing all of these, Captain Holt sighed.
"Alright. It should be obvious to everyone by now. We either have a serial kidnapper or a serial killer in the area. Freed, since you're the one who found out about this, you lead the team. Peralta, Santiago, Boyle, Diaz, you four support him. Sergeant Jeffords, I'll leave you in charge of everything else for the moment. For now, this matter is their first priority! Is that clear!?"
"Yes sir!"
"Then get back to work!"
Everyone left the room to continue working while Ben, Jake, Amy, Rosa, and Charles remained in the room.
At this time, Benjamin also received the quest.
[Main Quest: Serial Kidnapping?]
[Investigate the mystery behind the missing person's cases!]
[Rewards: 20000 MP, 10 Free Gacha Draw.]
[Failure Condition: Unsolved after 7 days]
[Failure: -50000 MP, Weakened state for 7 days]
Seeing the numerous rewards and severe penalties, Benjamin trembled slightly.
He took a deep breath and started to issue orders.
"First of all, Amy, sort out the information of all these files in a more readable way. I want to see it ordered by date, place, birthdate, and name."
At the mention of sorting stuff, Amy shivered in ecstasy.
"Ahh…I'm so turned on right now…"
"Focus Amy."
Rosa rolled her eyes.
Usually, Amy is quite well-behaved and straight-laced but she gets turned on at the weirdest things like binders, sorting, schedules, or such…
Basically, she's an organizer freak.
Benjamin ignored her and turned to Charles.
"Charles, get a map of the area and plot out each and every place where the victims were last seen."
"On it!"
"Jake and Rosa, you two see if you can question the people around these victims. It might be too late now but we'll get what we can get. You can focus on the more recent ones first."
"Alright."
"Let's go."
Jake nodded while Rosa already started walking to the door.
Meanwhile, Benjamin continued to look through the case files again to see if he missed something.
At the side, Captain Holt nodded and left.
He was no longer as apprehensive of Benjamin who had pulled some strings at the beginning and is now thinking of him as a real detective.
Benjamin glanced at the quest again and frowned.
There weren't any useful clues he can gain from the quest details other than the failure condition.
These old cases have been going on for months already. Yet there is a failure time limit of 7 days…why is that?
Was there something happening 7 days later that will cause it to 'fail'? Does that mean the culprit will escape 7 days later?
Benjamin shook his head.
This isn't too helpful at all. It was better to pour his attention on other things instead.
And so Benjamin turned to the files again.
After some time, Amy brought him a folder with proper labels and everything.
"Thanks."
"No problem. I also noticed that the intervals aren't too far from each other. It is usually about 2-4 days apart. There are some gaps here, here, and here but I believe that the crime still happened around that time but wasn't reported."
Benjamin nodded as he took a look.
Charles also arrived with a big map and spread it on the table.
With Amy's help, the two plotted on it to have a better look.
Once they were done, Benjamin took a look and frowned.
Overall…the crime seems to be centered around Hell's Kitchen.
"...I'm going to check on something. You two join Jake and Rosa."
"Where are you going?
Amy asked.
"Hell's Kitchen. I'll see if I can find something."
Benjamin took a police car and immediately drove off.
A few minutes later, he arrived at a certain building.
[Nelson and Murdock Attorneys at Law]
Benjamin went in and was greeted by a beautiful blonde woman.
"Hi, welcome to Nelson and Murdock's office. Are you here for a legal consultation?"
"NYPD. Detective Freed. I'm here to look for Matt Murdock. Just needed to ask some questions."
"E-eh?"
The woman was surprised and even panicked a bit.
Before she could say anything else, a calm voice appeared from the side.
"Is there anything I can help you with, officer?"
Benjamin saw a blind man with a walking stick and knew instantly he was the Daredevil himself, Matt Murdock.
He nodded.
"Yes. You must be Mr. Murdock. Is there any place where we can talk privately?"
"Please follow me to my office then."
At the side, the blonde woman looked a bit concerned. Another man also appeared at the side and looked at the scene in confusion.
Matt smiled at the two.
"I'll be fine, Karen, Foggy."
With that, he turned and went into his office while Benjamin followed.
Matt placed his stick at the side and sat on his chair while motioning for Benjamin to sit across him.
"Anything I can help with?"
"Yes. I was wondering what's the activity of the Hand lately?"
When Benjamin saw that the missing people were around Hell's Kitchen, he naturally thought of Daredevil first.
Then when he thought of Daredevil, when it comes to secretive kidnapping and scheming on a large scale, the first thing that came to mind was the Hand ninjas.
That's why he came here.
Matt paused for a moment but regained his calm.
"Hand? My hands are fine."
"I meant the ninjas. The organization known as the Hand. You should know about them since you fought them a lot as the Daredevil."
"..."
"Don't look so tense. I'm not going to arrest you. I have more pressing matters. Recently, we found out that there are a lot of orphan missing people around Hell's Kitchen so I wondered if the Hand is up to something or if is it someone else."
Matt hesitated for a moment.
"I'm not lying. You can listen to my heartbeat if you're not sure."
"...Sigh. How did you know it was me?"
"Please. A vigilante who covers his eyes while fighting in Hell's Kitchen. Just search for blind people and one can instantly narrow down the list by a lot. After that is just a matter of investigating a bit on who's the most likely person."
"..."
Matt was speechless.
He sighed again and shook his head.
"The Hand is indeed up to something. I don't know what but lately, they have been moving in the shadow frequently."
"Any idea where I can go and ask them?"
Matt was speechless again.
If his eyes were still functional, he would no doubt roll his eye in exasperation.
Do you think you can just go up and ask the Hand just like that?
"...From what I gathered, they are gathering at the docks in 7 days."
Benjamin frowned.
Was this why the quest will fail in 7 days? They will escape at that time?
"Any idea what they might be using the missing people for?"
"Either use them to fill in their ranks by brainwashing them or use them as a sacrifice for resurrecting someone."
Benjamin sighed.
What a world we live in…
He shook his head and stood up.
"In any case, thanks for your cooperation. If you found out anything else, please call me."
Benjamin handed him his number card with braille on it and left.
"Oh right, tell Jessica I'm still waiting for her to treat me."
Benjamin laughed as he left.
Matt felt his fingers on the number card Benjamin gave him and pondered silently.
After leaving the office building, Benjamin thought for a moment before driving off and going back to the precinct.
Jake and the rest were also back and reported what they had found.
As expected, there was nothing at all.
"How about you, Ben? Found anything in Hell's Kitchen?"
Charles asked.
"Well, my contact said that the Hand is moving strangely these days. There's a high chance that this matter has to do with them.
Benjamin gave half-truths and half-lies.
"The Hand? What kind of name is that? Is there a Feet? A Head? Hair? Ear?"
Jake asked.
Benjamin just rolled his eyes at him.
"The Hand is a secret group of ninjas who worship some demon hellbent on ending humanity. They also engage in the resurrection of people by means of sacrifice."
"...Cool."
Everyone glared at Jake.
"I mean…not cool…"
Rosa ignored him and asked.
"So you think it might be them?"
"Well, let's hope not. In any case, continue the investigation and see what turns up."
Time passed.
It has been 7 days since the investigation began.
Benjamin looked at the quest timer and noticed that only a few hours were left till the deadline.
Right now, Benjamin was at the port that Matt had told him about.
Here, numerous crates had filled the port and through the HUD Contacts, he was able to see that these crates…were all filled by people!
What's more, most of them were from the missing person's case files!
[Congratulations to host for completing the Main Quest: Serial Kidnapping?]
[Gained 20000 MP, 10 Free Gacha Draw.]
Well, all the quest needed was to solve the mystery so it completed the quest as soon as he got confirmation.
Seeing the rewards, Benjamin grinned.
Now…it was time to counterattack!
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