Arriving at the apartment complex that Henrique lived in, Nicholas and Isabella were inside the car parked across the street.
It happens that this neighborhood is reminiscent of New York City's dark ages. This is the only place that holds Latinos. The people here have built a community, like an ecosystem inside the city. They don't do illegal business anymore, so it's a tranquil neighborhood, but the locals are rather hostile with the people from outside.
Though not all of them, most are, so the police gets in a tough spot if they are not from the local precinct.
After exiting the car, Isabella took the front as she had the address from the house, Nicholas followed behind.
At the guardhouse, Isabella informed the gatekeeper about the nature of their visit, an old man with bronze-like skin, his eyes monolid shape, with black hair.
"Hello, sir. My name is Isabella, this is my partner, Nicholas. We are from the police and we are here to investigate the apartment." Isabella spoke calmly and with a friendly, yet professional attitude as she showed her badge and pointed towards Nicholas as she introduced herself.
They seemed pretty lucky as the old man that was securing the guardhouse seemed rather friendly as well, instead of the hostile welcome she expected.
"Ohh, my god, dear. I'm Jorge. Tell me his name, I will let you in afterward."
Appreciating the old man's attitude, Isabella smiled simply as she informed the man about Henrique.
"The name of the victim was Henrique Perez, he was a Colombian born. He arrived here last year." Isabella said, this time trying to show sympathy for Henrique's death, the smile gone from her face.
The old man was also in grievance as he heard Henrique's name, immediately recognizing him before Isabella even finished bringing her phone to show a picture.
"Ahh~... I know the kid. He usually went out in the afternoon and just arrived late night, selling CDs on the streets. He was smart and had dreams, though he seemed confused about it." The old man spoke in a sing-song voice, looking down to his feet.
Isabella was planning to ask for information about Henrique, but the old man just spoke on his own, so she just inquired further.
"Do you know if he had any family, friends, or someone that could account for him?" She asked, looking up to the old man's elevated position.
"Well, not that I know. The kid was always moving, I never saw someone close to him. Although you might want to ask his neighbors? They live closer, I just take care of the entrance." The old man said, he still seemed afflicted by the news of Henrique's death.
Isabella smiled and entered through the gate as the old man opened it for her, as well as gave instructions to find the particular apartment they looked for.
Nicholas was behind her this whole time, not minding introducing himself or interfere with their chatter. Though he was slightly displeased at the wait.
Isabella though hot-headed, but she has her warm spots. Especially if you are kind and friendly.
After they both entered the premises of the apartment, they noticed the three divided buildings as they followed to the last one as Jorge said.
A few minutes in, they found themselves walking through a flight of stairs, finally arriving on the fifth floor. Isabella opened the door using the key from the evidence collected from Henrique's body. As she turned the door handle and opened the door, Nicholas and Isabella seemed to try and get in at the same time, stopping as they noticed the situation.
Isabella looked kinda nervous and said.
"I should just go talk to the neighbors, you can go and search the apartment." She immediately turned around and walked to the next door, knocking as she arrived there.
Nicholas just shrugged the interaction and proceeded to enter the apartment.
As the door completely opened, allowing Nicholas to see the insides of the small space in which Henrique lived, he swayed his gaze across the living room.
There was an armchair, a small sofa, a tv stand, and several small decoration objects, although most things looked old and worn out. The armchair had green color from its seemingly original gray, the tv stand had small broken pieces, and the sofa had a plastic cover with maybe a few patches made from duct tape.
Nicholas kept walking inside the room, trying to find anything interesting.
On the hallway path to Henrique's apartment, Isabella had just knocked on the door and was waiting for someone to answer the door.
Suddenly, someone opened the door.
Expecting to see someone different, the lady immediately closed the door with a slam, Isabella was only able to see a glimpse of the woman.
"What the hell cops are doing here? Who the hell let you in?" The yelling voice of a woman inside the apartment was heard through the walls.
Isabella tilted her head and with narrow eyes stared at the door.
"How do you know I'm a cop?" Isabella was perplexed.
She was seen by, what? 1 second? How could she tell?
"Doesn't matter. What do you want?" The voice answered.
Isabella sighed and spoke in a high tone so that the other person could hear.
"I'm here because of Henrique, your neighbor." Isabella said.
"I don't know anything, now go away." Again Isabella was told to leave.
But the detective didn't want to leave yet, she thought that this person on the other side of the door was just covering for Henrique, in case he had done anything wrong.
"What did he do?" The woman's voice was heard again.
"He... is dead." Isabella said, her voice faltering a bit.
Moments later, a small breach appeared as the woman inside the apartment opened the door. She put her eyes in between the opening and looked at Isabella.
"You serious?" She asked with an assertive voice.
Isabella nodded her head, looking serious at the woman's pitch-black eyes.
After taking in the information for a moment, she looked down and finally opened the door.
"What happened? How did that dummy die?" She asked, her forehead creased as she was extremely close to shedding tears.
Now Isabella was able to see her. She had some hair strands escaping the elastic band tying her hair, she also had slightly big eyes and white skin, her nose small and wide on the tip. Wearing a cropped and jean shorts.
The woman now put her hands on her face, trying to contain her tears.
Isabella looked slightly worried, but she was tough so she just explained the events of Henrique's death.
Inside the apartment, Nicholas had gone through the living room as heard the neighbor's screams but didn't pay attention to it.
Right now, he was looking for anything interesting. Though Andrew planned Henrique's death, they still need a tying end to the Gobert Industries to get things on track and so they can start hunting other Midnight associates.
He thought of a few possible things that he could use to link them, but if Henrique himself had something useful, then work would be done much faster.
And Nicholas was truthful when he said to others that he didn't know Henrique's involvement with these organizations, he just knew that Henrique was about to be one of the Ambassadors from Gobert Industries.
Ambassador is the role that Gobert Industries gave to killers that execute international missions, some were expanding territory, others were simply an assassination mission. Though Nicholas didn't know how a simpleton like Henrique could be a killer or accomplish the missions issued by this organization.
Henrique's apartment was the farthest thing from a killer. Nicholas wasn't sure, but he thought Henrique was pretty dumb, he left Gobert Industries. Although Nicholas doesn't know how their relationship ended, but leave the company and live in this place? How did he not manage to assure some money, at least for a good living. Nicholas just thought about it randomly, he didn't care about the guy anyway.
But Nicholas had to admit it, this is rather interesting, much more than Billy Fisher, the one that was the primary Henrique until Claude killed him. Nicholas now wanted to reward the other vampire as, even if unknowingly, he still helped to make things interesting for Nicholas.
The thrill in not knowing what Henrique's involvement with Gobert Industries is and really taking Midnight down with just a team inside the police department was too exciting.
As Nicholas rummaged through the apartment, he started to believe that nothing would come out from this search. Until he found an access card from Gobert Industries.
Now interested, Nicholas raised his right hand as the red-gem ring on his right hand shined and emitted a blue glow as this glow swept through Henrique's bedroom.
With the assistance of magic, Nicholas found another interesting thing.
Inside the wardrobe, which was just wood nailed together in front of the wall, there was a small box that fits on the wall. As Nicholas pulled the piece of the wall, a small drawer came together. About 12 inches large and 7 inches wide. Inside this small drawer, there was a notebook.
After opening the book, Nicholas noticed a lot of notes and records, including transactions, some sort of storage, and other details. Nicholas pondered for a bit and exclaimed.
"Hahaha... Bingo!"