The Assassin's Codex

A dark wavy moustache twitched as the burly commissioner shouted at his staff between large bites of his large light pink, glazed doughnut. This situation of the aging man's facial topiary going out of control had repeated itself numerous times today in part due to the commissioner's own lack of patience caused by equal parts the pressure of his higher up's on this particular case and also due to the failings of any of his staff to solve anything in relation to the numerous strings of seemingly random murders that kept popping up over the country, especially the city.. "Listen up! If there are no results within two more weeks, I'll bloody FIRE SOMEBODY!", with that, the commissioner waddled off towards his office. Just as he was about to roughly shut the deep mahogany door of the office he let out a final ground shaking, topiary toppling roar. "SOLOMON! GET YOUR LOUSY A.S.S IN HERE!!!", and with that, he slammed the door causing the room to seemingly shake a bit.

Towards the back of the rows of chairs that the police commissioner had been directing his speech towards, one woman was sat with a heavy expression on her face. She let out a deep sigh as she stood to move towards the commissioner's office. "Don't let him get to you, Beth.", a few of her co-workers told her as she walked the short distance to the imposing door. To the woman, it felt like a deadly journey across the desert as she knew that if she didn't have results within at most two weeks; she could say goodbye to her hard earnt career.

Finally, she stood before the heavy door and after a brief moment to stabilize her emotions, to not punch the annoying moustachioed man in the face, she entered the room. The aged commissioner must have seen quite a few old noir films, Solomon always mused to herself, as the room was stylised in such a way to suggest that. From the large blinds to the expensive wooden furniture, to the crappy filing cabinet and cosy leather chair. Everything about the office screamed low budget detective TV show. With this amusing thought in mind, the Commissioner began his second rant of the day. "Solomon... You've been on the force, how long now? Fifteen years? and in that short time, you have worked your way all the way up to a position of Detective Inspector in charge of one of the most serious cases our country has ever seen... That's quite a commendable set of achievements Solomon.", the commissioner said with beady eyes and a voice laced with angry undertones.

"Thank you, Sir.", Solomon replied bluntly.

The commissioner let the awkward atmosphere linger for a little while longer before getting to the crux of the talk. "I want results, Solomon... I don't like how quickly you've worked your way up here and if I don't see results within two more weeks you can kiss your fifteen sorry years down the drain and you'll be working in the office! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR SOLOMON!!!", he practically screamed the last few words.

"Crystal, Sir...".

Avoiding the flying spit, Solomon made her way out of the office and went to get her coat.

'It's time to go home and get carried on with my work for real.', Solomon thought to herself with glee. Yes, in fifteen years of work, Solomon had worked her way up to the prestigious position of head investigator but for someone as driven as her, this was only the foot of the mountain. Her dream, someday, was to be able to boss around people like that stupid commissioner with a wave of her hand and to do so she had been planning something big.

You see, the reason that the case was progressing way too slowly was due to two factors. One, there was little amounts of evidence on each of the murder scenes with the few suspicious individuals they had caught having no evidence whatsoever to back up the police's accusations. The second reason was that the case's best investigator was secretly hoarding all of her information and findings to herself.

If Solomon could find whoever was responsible for all of these killings then her position in the force may even rise above that stupid commissioners! Wrapping her thick coat tighter around her she walked off into the cool evening air and began off home.

C-city was a strange place in the country. Some parts of the city, like the parts Solomon was travelling through now, were full of modern highrise offices, expensive apartments and even high-end boutiques and other commercial premises. Whereas a few hundred meters away you could probably find an alleyway where multiple shady deals were going down. This is why the police force was so large in the country considering the other cities weren't faring any better than C-city. Solomon shuddered to think what living in somewhere like the Red District would be like. One quick dealer with an old syringe and you'd be hooked on twenty of his toxic substances before you could even turn to look at the bastard.

Shaking her head back and forth a few times to clear out the mental image, Solomon realised that she had reached her destination. A medium sized apartment building situated between Ching's High-Class Electronics and a Jewellery store, eager to get on with her investigations, Solomon attacked the flight of stairs. Leaps and bounds later she was in front of her apartment door, a little worn out, but the investigative glint in her eye was no different to the feeling a journalist gets when they find a celebrity cheating on their partner... Pure unbridled adrenaline.

Rapidly Solomon opened the door and locked it behind her before striding into the pitch black apartment. Or it should have been. The table light on her desk was turned on and the notes on the desk and wall had been clearly looked through. Incredulously, Solomon leapt forwards to check nothing had been stolen before a deathly chilling voice was heard from the other end of the room.

"Bethany Solomon, I presume?",

In the darkness when she came in Solomon couldn't see the intruder and had therefore moved towards her desk by instinct. Now that the leather-clad figure was looking at her like prey with her pale grey eyes beadily daring her to move, she realised the folly of her actions. 'I could attack.', Solomon considered for a brief moment before she got a good look at the mask of the woman sat on her sofa and the thin blade that was dancing itself between her hands.

What happened next was beyond the intruder's understanding. Solomon suddenly dropped to the ground in completely manic laughter, tears rolled down her cheeks as she thought of how funny the situation was. Only moments before she was getting ready to continue her stuck investigation when the largest piece of evidence she had ever found had just walked itself into the apartment. If she messed this up she would be dead, but in Solomon's eyes, if she messed this up; she deserved to be dead. With a final small cough-filled chuckle, Solomon stood up and crookedly held out a hand in position for a good shake. The mad smile was still on her face and her eyes shined brightly as she eagerly replied. "Yes I am, it's nice to meet you. Miss Nightingale..."