It was offical. You'd caught your killer.
But the case was far from over.
Watching the news for their broadcast on the situation, you and L sat under a blanket as if having a movie night with snacks and all.
"The recent string of murders had officially arrested and charged the culprit, although the case still remains open as more questions have come up over the investigation. Max Deandrews, 24 year old university student was arrested last week on suspicion of the crimes after a search warrant was obtained for his house. Inside they found the rosary worn by the first victim, linking him to the crimes. Residue of poison was also found on a pair of gloves he owned, and most horrifyingly... upon searching his computer, illegal snuff footage was found among hundreds of chat logs where he talked about his distaste for women. His trial is set for the closest possible date and he remains in custody. His charges will likely be that of 8 counts of first degree murder, possession of illicit substances, possession of snuff footage and hate crimes again women. We're on the story as it develops" the news reporter over the TV explained.
She left out some details here and there, ones that were still confidential. But other than that the general message that the killer was in custody was put out there. That's all that mattered right now, the public knowing there's one less killer roaming free.
"Still so many questions though..." You sighed.
"I know..." L muttered.
"Where did he get the poison, where did he get the snuff? Is someone else involved in the killings? Was it the same people who provided him with the snuff? Ugh... this is just getting more complicated"
L finding that footage threw a huge curveball in the case. After it was analysed by an expert team, the determined this was indeed snuff footage and the victim was an unidentified body that was found a year or two before. The identity of the victim is still unknown, but they now knew she was likely abducted for the soul purpose of being the victim in the footage.
This was a whole new territory for you and L, you'd never actually worked on a case involving snuff before because it was such a rare thing to find. Contrary to peoples belief, snuff counts as snuff when it's made with the explicit intent to distribute for profit. Any old footage of someone dying is perfectly legal, as bad as that sounds. Mainly because it's completely possible to catch someone's death by accident on a dashcam, security footage etc.
The legality around footage of death, torture and abuse is a slippery one. It's something there absolutely needs to be more laws about, as footage definitely does exist out there. Even on the clear net. Fake footage, like that in horror movies is legal because well, it's not real. But footage that is real, but isn't produced for the intent of snuff... is legal.
It shouldn't be. Everyone knows that. But it's a hard thing to make laws over as the internet is such a big thing and hard to control and track down the sources of said footage. In the case of a physical copy it's much easier to track the source and perform arrests where you can. Detectives have been trying to get stricter laws about the situation for years, but it's not as easy as it looks.
If being a detective has taught you anything, it's that there's some sick, sick people out there. That's why you take life's joys so seriously, and hold them close to your heart. Because you know not everyone is that lucky, and it's just nicer right focus on the food rather than the bad.
"I've never done a case like this before... where do we even begin? We know the person in the footage is that unidentified Jane doe found last year... if we identify her the maybe we can identify her killers and since they're the ones that made the footage we can follow the trail to whoever sold the footage to Max..?" You rambled.
L gave you a slightly confused look. He got where you were coming from, but it seemed complicated to go all the way back to the start when usually the best was was to work backwards. Make the effects reveal their cause and such.
He reached for his notebook, and scribbled out a response. He'd been getting better at talking, but long responses were still a bit of a struggle for him.
I think finding who disturbed the footage ti max will in turn reveal the identity of the killers, that will eventually lead to who the Jane doe is. I've done a few two in one cases before and that's how I tackled them, although I'll admit this one is different and I've never done something like this either. So I'm not sure the best approach.
You were both kind of stumped. You specialised in hate crimes and discrimination cases so this was very different to what you usually did, and while L had done all kind of cases, real snuff was so rare he'd never come across it before.
"Maybe... man I feel like we're at another roadblock. I mean the person who supplied with him the poison COULD be the same one that gave him the footage... but what if they're different people. Then we have a THREE in one case! Maybe this is a whole ring of criminals? Maybe it's the mafia? Maybe it's a gang? I dunno but it's confusing the hell out of me" you whined.
L got that feeling too. That it could potentially be a ring, although that just made things more complicated. You'd both been thrown down this rabbit hole of crime and the whole situation went way deeper than you first though. Like, you thought it would be a murder case and that's it, now it's a poison, snuff footage, potential criminal ring case! The whole situation has just flipped on it's head.
He scribbled some more on his notebook, this time with a new pen you'd won him at the arcade. It had a panda on the end and when you pressed down on the paper as you wrote it lit up. If this case was so dark at least you could light it up just a little with some cute pens.
What really bothers me is we don't know the age of the Jane doe... forensics say she's anywhere from 14-25. So if she was underage when she was captured and killed then we have a whole other situation to clear up, even harsher charges and legal work to do. Also I just don't like seeing children get hurt.
That was true, if the Jane doe was underage then it turns from a murder-snuff case to a CHILD murder snuff case. Which is a whole new can of worms. Crimes against children are the absolute worst ones anyone can commit, those who harm kids should be doomed to rot in the darkest, most dank, cold, disgusting prison for all eternity. And when they die they should go to the deepest pits of Tartarus. You HATED child abusers, you always have.
Being adopted meant you heard a lot of horror stories from fellow adoptees. You were fully aware of the horrors of the world when it came to children. You were extremely lucky to have loving adoptive parents and a good childhood.
L couldn't say the same though, he was lucky that he eventually ended up with Watari who loved and cared for him. But before wammys house his life was absolutely hellish. He too know the horrors first hand, and he hated people who hurt children more than anything else in the universe.
So when he saw the first few minutes of that grotesque footage, with a victim that could potentially be a child he felt sick to his stomach, and his mind was fuzzy from the shock but he was sure he disassociated a bit.
This was one case he wanted solved, so justice could be served. But he wasn't sure if he had the guts for it.
"L? Earth to L?"
He snapped out of his daze not even realising he'd began to write but dazed out half way. He was too busy thinking about how this case might go and if he could handle it.
"Hm? Oh- right hang on..." he muttered.
"You good?" You asked.
He continued to write, letting you read over his shoulder.
I'm fine, just never been that good at cases involving kids. And since this might have just turned into one I guess I was caught off guard. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and if that Jane doe is a kid... I don't know if I can stomach it.
It's not open you see the worlds greatest detective phased by his cases. But you knew by now that whatever happened to him as a kid really hurt him, and this was the lasting impact. I mean, he could barely talk for gods sakes! You didn't blame him for being uneasy about the whole thing.
"We'll figure it out ok? And if it gets too hard I can take over. My rage will drive me though it" you replied.
You could just tell from a empty gaze in his eyes that whatever happened was still haunting him to this day, it made you sad to see him like this. And angry at whoever dared hurt him.
"Hey" you spoke.
He turned to face you, giving you a weak smile.
"We've for this ok? And as long as you have me no one will ever hurt you again. I'll smack any bitch who tries. Promise"
He smiled brighter, pulling you up against him for a hug. You gladly returned the motion and snuggled him tightly.
"Thank you" he said.
"Anything for my strawberry boy" you replied.
"I love you"
"I love you too hun"