Lawyers walked between courtrooms carrying files, clerks moved quickly with stacks of documents, and quiet conversations echoed through the marble hallway.
Aren stood near one of the tall windows, reading through a thin folder from the station. He wasn't officially assigned to anything inside the courthouse that day, he had simply come to confirm a small registry detail connected to the shipping codes he had been investigating.
Most of the codes led nowhere. But two of them had appeared again. The strange part was that the companies receiving those deliveries technically didn't own the shipments. Which meant someone had built a system where the paperwork existed… but the responsibility didn't.
Aren closed the folder slowly. Just then the courtroom doors nearby opened.
A few people stepped out first: a shop owner looking relieved, a supplier arguing quietly with his lawyer, and a clerk carrying the official decision papers.
Behind them, Veydrick stepped into the hallway, calmly closing the file in his hand.
The case had been simple.
A local supplier had failed to deliver several shipments promised under contract, and the shop owner had taken the matter to court. The supplier had tried to claim that the agreement terms were unclear.
Veydrick had calmly pointed out the exact section of the contract where the delivery obligation was clearly written.
The judge hadn't needed long to decide.
Contract breach. Case closed.
As the people slowly dispersed into the hallway, Veydrick noticed Aren standing by the window. He walked over: "Valric"
Aren looked up from his folder.
"Veydrick." He nodded slightly toward the courtroom.
"That seemed quick."
"It was," Veydrick said calmly.
"The agreement terms were very clear."
"So the supplier lost." [Aren]
"Yes."
Aren smirked faintly: "Efficient."
"Predictable," Veydrick corrected.
A clerk hurried past them carrying documents. Veydrick's attention shifted briefly to the folder Aren was holding.
"You're working." [Veydrick]
"Trying to." [Aren]
Aren tapped the papers lightly.
"Still looking at the warehouse situation."
'Yeah about that..Mirelle told me you guys saw someone there."
"Yeah...He looked tall and composed."
"And...the investigation about it is going on?" "Yeah..."
Veydrick waited. Aren continued.
"I found a delivery code that appears in several transport records, but it doesn't officially belong to any registered shipment."
Veydrick's expression grew thoughtful.
"Meaning someone created a route without assigning ownership..could be the man you saw"
"That's what it looks like." [Aren]
Aren closed the folder again. "But for now it's just a pattern." "Patterns tend to exist for a reason," Veydrick replied. Aren smiled slightly. "You always say things like that."
"Because they are usually true."
For a moment they stood quietly in the hallway while the courthouse activity continued around them.
Then Aren glanced toward the exit. "I should get back to the station." Veydrick nodded.
"Of course." Aren took a few steps toward the door before pausing.
"Try not to finish all your cases in ten minutes," he said casually. Veydrick raising an eyebrow, asks:
"Why?"
"You'll make the rest of the lawyers nervous."
A faint smile crossed Veydrick's face.
Aren left the courthouse a moment later. The police station felt louder than usual when Aren returned. Phones rang, officers moved between desks, and Captain Rethan's voice could be heard giving instructions somewhere down the hallway.
Aren sat at his desk and opened the investigation folder again.
The shipping tag Mirelle had found near the warehouse was clipped to the inside page.
He turned it slowly between his fingers.
Then he began checking the delivery logs again, Vehicle numbers, Route times, Arrival points. At first the information looked ordinary. But when Aren compared the three of the delivery routes side by side, something unusual appeared.
Each truck followed the same corridor through the dock district. Each one reported the same travel time. But according to the distance between the locations, the trip should have been shorter.
Aren leaned closer to the map. There were missing minutes. Not many.
Five minutes.
Seven minutes.
Sometimes ten.
Small differences.But consistent ones.
Aren traced the route again with his pen.
The trucks entered the dock district from the west road, passed near the old industrial warehouses, and then continued toward the harbor shipping terminals. But somewhere along that route, they were stopping. And that stop wasn't recorded anywhere.
Aren leaned back in his chair. "Interesting."
Just then Mirelle appeared beside his desk.
"found something?" Aren turned the map toward her. "These delivery trucks."
Mirelle studied the route."They pass near the warehouse we checked."
"Exactly." [Aren]
"But they don't stop there."
"Officially," Aren said.
Mirelle crossed her arms:
"So where are the missing minutes coming from?" Aren Tapping the map: "Somewhere along this corridor."
Mirelle studied the street names. Then she pointed toward a narrow side road near the warehouse district. "That street connects several unused storage buildings."
Aren looked at it carefully. "That could work."
Mirelle nodded. "You thinking of checking it out?"
"Eventually."
Aren closed the folder, and said:
"But first I want to confirm something."
"What?" [Mirelle]
Aren picked up the shipping tag.
"This code appears in three different transport logs." Mirelle frowned slightly.
"That shouldn't happen."
"Exactly."
He stood up from his desk.
"Which means someone wants those deliveries to look normal while hiding where they actually go."
Mirelle tilted her head slightly.
"So we're looking at a hidden stop point."
Aren nodded. "Most likely."
He glanced toward the station window.
The dock district was several kilometers away. Close enough for someone to move things quietly if they knew the routes well.
Aren slipped the shipping tag back into the folder.
"I'll check the corridor tonight."
Mirelle looked at him.
"Alone?"
"Yeah, and since captain personally asked me to"
She sighed slightly.
"Just try not to walk straight into something strange."
Aren smiled.
"Too late for that, everything seems strange."