"John, check this out." Jean showed him the picture and Carter's file, pointing out the similarities between them, from the height to the eyes.
Checking this, John also looked at Jean with shock.
"This is… unbelievable, but I've known Carter for years. He doesn't seem like that type of person." John couldn't believe both were the same person.
"Maybe it's a mistake." John felt maybe they were wrong and still held a little hope they were.
"Maybe, but if Sin-Eater is Carter, then how he always knew to escape from the police isn't hard to guess. But we need to find evidence now."
"Should we arrest him first for investigation?"
"No. Even if we suspect him now, arresting another police officer without solid evidence is hard, and if it's false, then you don't need me to say what problems I'll face. So we should get solid evidence first. Let's investigate him from now. And in his file, there is some information that was locked. Even I didn't have access to it, so he is not a simple guy."
"Ok, then let's investigate the cases where Sin-Eater escaped. Did Carter know of those plans, and where was he each time Sin-Eater appeared? Let's collect evidence from that angle first."
Night Time in a bar near Carter's apartment.
"It really can't be a coincidence, right. Carter was in all the operations against Sin-Eater."
"Since Carter was on George's team, I couldn't gather more info in a short time, but even with these coincidences, we can now get a warrant against him." John said, looking at the data he collected.
"Yes, we can get a warrant but I think solid evidence is better." Jean said to John.
"I checked today. Carter has night duty. It's a perfect time to collect any evidence at his place."
"Ok, then you wait outside the apartment and check if he returns. I'll search inside."
Soon Jean was standing outside Carter's apartment, checking to see if there were any cameras. She found two covering the main entrance so she took the side stairwell up instead. No cameras there. She pulled out her lockpick set and worked the door lock carefully.
Click.
"Ok, that was easier than I thought." She muttered and clicked her radio. "John, I'm inside."
"Copy. Be quick."
She pushed the door open slowly and stepped in, keeping her flashlight beam low. She didn't touch the light switch.
The apartment looked completely normal at first. Shoes lined up near the door, a jacket folded over a chair, dishes drying beside the sink. Everything about it said the owner kept a clean house.
She started with the bedroom. She checked under the mattress first, then lifted the bed frame slightly to look underneath, but there was nothing there. She opened the wardrobe and went through it shelf by shelf, checking between folded clothes and running her hands along the back wall looking for anything loose. All she found was an old watch and some cash stuffed inside a sock.
She moved to the bathroom next. The cabinet behind the mirror had basic toiletries and nothing else. She checked under the sink and moved the cleaning products aside one by one. Still nothing.
"Did I really guess wrong? There is really nothing here."
She tried the study room last.
She started with the desk drawers. Pens, paperwork, a phone charger. She checked the underside of the desk with her flashlight and came up empty again.
"Why does everything look so normal? Am I wrong about him?"
Feeling doubtful, she took a breath and started over from the bookshelf. She pulled each book out individually, checking behind the first row and then the second. Behind a row of old law manuals on the bottom shelf her fingers found a folded piece of paper tucked flat against the back wall. She opened it carefully.
The names on it were Sin-Eater's victims. All of them.
But a list alone wasn't going to be enough. She kept going.
The back wall of the study had a large framed photograph of the New York skyline hanging on it. She lifted it off the hook and turned it around but found nothing behind it. She was about to hang it back when she noticed something. A small section of the wall underneath had a slightly different paint shade, a rough rectangle about the size of a shoebox, like someone had patched over something and repainted it in a hurry.
She pressed it with her palm. It felt hollow underneath.
She took out her pocketknife and worked carefully along the edge until a small panel came loose in her hands. Behind it was a shallow space cut directly into the drywall, and sitting inside that space was a folded map of New York.
She spread it open on the desk.
Locations marked in red pen, dates written in the same careful small handwriting as the name list. She recognized the attack sites immediately, every single Sin-Eater location was on this map, including two she hadn't managed to connect yet.
She left the map open and crossed to the filing cabinet in the corner. It was locked but she had it open in under a minute. Most of the folders inside were ordinary enough, utility bills, car documents, nothing interesting. But when she pulled the bottom drawer all the way out it felt heavier than it should. She felt along the base and found it was false, lifted it out, and set it aside.
The Sin-Eater mask was folded flat underneath, and next to it was the shotgun.
Jean stared at it for a second.
"Oh my God, John. I found it. He is Sin-Eater." She pulled out her phone and started photographing everything as fast as she could, the wall, the hidden panel, the map, the filing cabinet, the mask, the gun, all of it.
"John??"
"Jean, get out of there now." John's voice came through low and urgent. "Carter is at the apartment. He's heading for the stairs. It looks like he had some kind of alert set up on the place. He's running. Go."
Jean grabbed everything she could in the last few seconds, stuffing the folded map into her jacket and pocketing her phone. She took one last look at the mask and the shotgun, then moved fast toward the front door.
She pulled it open and stepped into the hallway.
Carter was standing right there.
Still in his uniform. Just arrived. He looked at her face, then at his open apartment door behind her, then back at her face.
Neither of them moved for half a second.
His eyes went cold.
Jean ran.
"Stop right there, Jean." Carter was already moving after her, one hand going for his holster.
She hit the stairwell door hard and took the stairs two at a time going down, one hand on the railing to keep her balance. She could hear him behind her, closer than she wanted.
Her radio crackled. "Jean, I called for backup. Get out through the back exit. I'm coming around now."
Then a shot cracked through the stairwell and the wall next to her head exploded. She ducked instinctively and felt the air move past her ear. Another inch and that would have been it.
She kept moving.
She burst through the back exit door and came out into the alley behind the building just as John came around the corner from the other end.
"He's right behind me," Jean said, breathing hard. She also took out her gun, ready to shoot Carter.
John raised his weapon toward the door.
Carter came through it a second later.
Jean and John fired, but Carter seemed to move to the side quickly. Using the door as cover, he fired back.
BANG!
John was shot in the arm and stumbled back.
"John!"
A/N:🚨 Power Stone Goals! 🚨
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