Chapter 5

Cole：

Emma. I think deeply, trying to figure out why her name sounds so familiar to me. But Rachel’s stagy voice is so annoying.

“...We have the glass broken on the door, the dishes broken on the floor, and the blood splattered on the counter. There is a note that makes it like a suicide but the hand writing is rushed with a bit of blood droplets on it. And if we take a look at the body hanging from the fan, there is no chair anywhere around. So how could the dead hang himself? Besides, there’s hair on his clothes that does not belong to him. All of these mean he was murdered by someone.”

I don’t like the superior and scornful way Rachel looks at Emma. Both of them are humans, weak and mediocre. She’s no better than Emma.

“Well then Emma, what’s your deduction?” Detective Bates asks.

My group are waiting to see her make a mess of herself, because as enforcer trainees, we should be more experienced than her. But I cast my gaze on her, realizing that I’m not sure whether I want her to be right or not. 

“A profiler does not only profile people, but also profile data. All the details should be treated as a whole.” She says with her eyes as bright as usual. “Let’s take a look at the broken glass first. Most of the pieces are outside the house, which indicates that the glass was broken from the inside of the house.”

Everyone opens the folder to check it.

“Second, the only indication of another person is the supposed hair strand found on the body. It actually means nothing because of the infinite possibilities. ”

“How do you explain the water on the floor beneath the deceased’s legs?” I challenge her. 

She surprisingly looks at me. I know what she’s wondering. This is a key clue that my group didn’t even notice. I didn’t point it out at first for using it to test whether my people have herd mentality. And damn, they do have.

“If he committed suicide from that point of height, he must have stood on something solid, right?” 

I nod at her question, encouraging her to go on.

“And ice, which means frozen water, is solid.” 

Rachel’s face is red with anger.

She looks around, not stopping there: “I would say the deceased stood on the ice to commit suicide, hoping all the water would have dried by the time he was found. The suicide note was just used to mislead the police because he didn't mention any specific killer.” 

She pauses for a while.

“He’s a lonely old man living in that house for ten years without family and friends. He needed someone to notice him, even an imaginary murderer.”

Silent. None of my group are able to argue with this conclusion.

And I just can’t take my eyes off her.

“Bravo.” Detective Bates claps, “We have been giving this case to interns for the past ten years and no one has managed to solve it. This case has not been in the records for public because we wanted to use it for teaching. You impressed me, Emma.”

“Thank you, sir.”

She’s still calm but the blush on her cheeks reveals her shyness. I never really care for human issues so I wouldn’t put too much effort. I start to regret that now.

“OK, let’s move to the next session.” Detective Bates collects all the folders and when he flips mine over, his eyes become piercing. “I guess some of you are hiding your talents. But we won’t give you the chance to do that. You work with the skills you have.” He points some guys, including Rachel. “You guys will be on case administration.”

Rachel looks been wronged and raises her hand. “Excuse me sir, can I switch over to combat training?” 

I almost have respect for her confidence. How can she behave like she’s entitled?

Detective Bates doesn’t answer directly: “How many of you have combat skills?”

My group and Emma raise hands. Yeah, she must have exercise habit or her body shape won’t be so hot. 

Detective Bates turns to Rachel: “You don’t have, so no. Now who has experience with coding?”

Three people raise their hands and one of them is Gryphon.

“Nice. Coders are hard to come by. You guys head towards the wall of screens behind me. And you guys--” He points at Emma and my group, “-- go to the training court in the next room, and make a pair with anyone you like. ”

Gryphon waits till Emma gets up and mumbles out a goodbye. I frown. When did they get to know each other? 

“Hey, the sweet-tooth girl is impressive.” Avery whispers to me. “What do humans call mating? Dating, huh?”

“Marriage.” I throw a cold glance at him. “Be my pair?”

Avery whistles with an easy smile. “Why not?”

After ten minutes --

“Woooh!” Avery dodges from my fist. “Why don’t you pair with Andre?”

“I like you better.” I grin with my teeth clinched. My wolf roars in my body, attempting to let off steam, and anger.

“I don’t feel it that way.” Avery sees my wolf peek and gives it all he has as well. 

We get so caught up in our fight, even not realizing the rest of the interns has stopped to watch us.

I don’t mind at all until I feel Emma’s eyes on me. As dodging from Avery’s attack, I turn and lock gazes with her, which hushes my irritable wolf magically. It confuses me so I just stay in place until I see she gasps while Avery’s fist hits on my face.