Nothing left...

Chapter 1

Jarvis sat at his desk thinking. Two disappearances within one week! It was a little much. To make the case worse, the police had no trails and no leads. It also didn't help, that the only thing left behind was a bloody handprint. He was still waiting on the lab results for those. He needed to see who's hands those were. He groaned. If he didn't make any progress soon, the chief inspector would be on his case, bothering him about how important it was to solve the dang problem.

Then there were the victims themselves, the first was a woman named Natalie Brown. As far as he knew, she hadn't been involved in any illegal business. She had been caught by the police once, roaming around a shady area, but that was it! The other was a man named Johnson Smith. He led a pretty good life. He worked for City hall in the Security department. It seemed like he hadn't paid much attention to his security in this situation. The only resemblance with the two is they were around the same young age, but that was it!

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.
"Come in!" He said.
The door opened revealing a tall man in his teens. It looked like he hadn't shaved for a very long time and his hair was pulled back in a man bun. Jarvis sighed.
"What's with the big sigh? Not happy to see me?" said the man.
"Why wouldn't I be happy to see my most beloved cousin?" Jarvis replied, exasperated.

The man at the door was in fact Max, his one and only cousin. The last time he had seen him was about 3 years ago.
"Don't just stand there. Come on in! Make yourself as comfortable as you can in a cramped little office." Jarvis offered.
"You do not know how glad I am to hear those words. I spent five hours in traffic trying to get here. Do you know how long it takes to get to Vancouver from where I live?!" He replied.
- I know it's a long trip and I appreciate you coming here. The past week has been super tough on me. Two disappearances isn't anything. That why I asked you to come up here."
- How could I help you? I didn't pass the bar by a mile like you did. I didn't even study to become a detective in the first place!
- Well, I trust you more than anyone who works here. They're all super shady and barely ever talk. Plus, your pretty smart at figuring stuff out. You could probably help me a whole lot.
Another knock on the door.
"And that's probably Erika." Jarvis said.
He opened the door and a tall girl walked in. She had short black hair that went down to her shoulders and her face had a lot of soft features. She looked super calm and collected.
"How you doin' Erika?" Max screamed from the back of the office.
"I'm fine. How about you?" she replied.
They spent a bit of time for the touching reunion. Erika had been their friend since the 3rd grade. They had all had notes so high that they had made it out of high school in no time. The one thing that had kept them together was their age and ability to learn super quickly. Max was still the only one going to University. He suspected being done in a couple years.

"Now down to business." said Jarvis.
Right as he was about to sit down, another knock on the door.
Jarvis groaned: "Who could it be this time!?"
He walked over to the door and opened it. There was nobody there. He looked down the hall but not a soul was seen. Right as he was about to close the door, he saw a letter on the ground in front of his office. In bright red ink, he could read his name on the front of the letter. He picked it up and returned to his desk. He threw the letter on his desk. He walked back over to his friends.

Hours went by as he explained to them everything he knew. Questions were asked, comments were made, but no one noticed the foul stench coming from the envelope and by then, it would be too late...