Chapter 43 | Facadism

“Let’s reel back from the start,” K said, crossed her arms, and leaned back on the couch.

The rustle of leaves blown by the wind outside the cabin gently laid to silence. The cabin turned into a vacuum for a little while, waiting for something to happen. Raverine ducked his head and rubbed his nape. Ember was the first to move and utter a word.

“Before this web of tail-chasing and mask-hunting events, our department was bombarded with cases of missing persons and smuggling. You know that K, right?”

K gave a subtle nod. “That’s why I told you that the smuggling cases weren’t transacted through the city, but it could be somewhere in the desert mountains.”

“Yeah,” Ember continued, “Most of these cases went cold and if we look closely, there’s a similar pattern in demographics and location in these cases. I wanted to resolve it properly so I weaved all the pieces of information from these cold cases which even led me back to the illegal smuggling cases I handled. Eventually, I picked up t