POLICE PRECINCT (Same Time)

Ryan's father Mathew was sitting in his police precinct doing some paperwork while his partner Elise was eating green salad sitting in front of him. 

"Elise, I wouldn't have given the detectives exam if I knew that I would have to so much paperwork. I don't know how you complete yours so fast." Mathew complained with a sulking face as he was writing something. 

Elise looked up with a smirk on her face and said "I loved to write since I was a little girl and your paperwork is double today since you went to the crime scene yesterday. What was his name though?"

"Ronan Carbrey…he was an Irish Neurobiologist who came to America on a tourist visa 3-years ago. He was in our system because he tried to break into Stark Industries. He was seen on camera trying to break in but then he escaped when the alarms went off."

"Wow…stealing from the IRON MAN…that's gutsy." Elise laughed.

Mathew was about to say more but the phone started ringing.

"It's mine." Elise said as she pulled out her cell phone and started talking.

"Yes, that's me…uhuh…alright. We'll be there in 10 mins." Elise said on the phone and cut the call.

"It was the ME's office…they have finished the autopsy of Mr Carbrey. Let's go." Elise said as she got up from her seat.

"Thank god…I was going to die of boredom." Mathew said as he also closed his file and got up.

The two of them drove to the ME's office which was just a few miles away. 

As they reached there, they saw 3 bodies kept on different slabs where 2 of them were covered in white sheets from head to toe while the third one was covered halfway. 

"I had quite the bizarre night yesterday Detectives." A voice came from behind them. As they looked back, they saw a white man in his 50s sitting at the table typing something on the computer. He was squinting his eyes as he looked at the computer screen through his glasses. It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that the glasses were on the edge of his nose. 

"Dr Scott… it's good to see you too." Mathew said. Hearing this the old doctor chuckled pushed back his glasses on his nose bridge and stood up. 

"Welcome Detectives…let me show you something interesting." Dr Scott said and picked up the file kept beside him and started walking toward the half-covered body. 

"Here is your body and this is the report." Dr Scott said as he first pointed at the half-covered body and then handed the file in his hand to Elise. 

They both knew that the file Dr. Scott handed over was the ME report of Ronan Carbrey. Mathew and Elise followed Dr Scott and stood on one side of Ronan's body. 

"Firstly, this man isn't as old as he looks. I know you two know this but this isn't as simple as someone putting on makeup or getting plastic surgery." Dr Scott said. 

"When did getting plastic surgery become simple? And if it wasn't any of those two then how does he look like that?" Elise asked. 

A smile appeared on Dr Scott's face as his eyes widened and he said "That's because he is actually this old. His body has really aged."

Mathew couldn't believe what he was hearing so he interjected "How is that even possible Doc? Are you saying that Ronan Carbrey is actually this old from before or that he isn't Ronan Carbrey?"

"I am not saying any of it…I meant to say that he has actually aged this much in a very short time. The photo and age of Ronan Carbrey you have in your records is right and this guy is him…its just that in the past 2 years this man seems to have aged close to 30 years."

"You had something in the morning didn't you doc?" Mathew asked in a joking manner to which the doc shook his head and said "No…I can't tell you how much time it took to age 30 years but he definitely did. His muscles indicate that at a point they because extremely robust almost like that of a superhuman but then they started detoriating as well making his bulkiness short-lived."

"You think he took some kinds of steroids to bulk himself and it did bulk but then he became like this?" Elise asked as she glanced at Mathew.

Mathew shook his head and said "He wasn't some gym freak…he was a neurobiologist. I think he must have tried to make something he shouldn't and it went horribly wrong."

"That is the most logical explanation you can come up with right now…let's talk about how he was murdered then." Dr Scott said to which Mathew looked at him in confusion and said "As far as I saw yesterday, wasn't a straight knife in the heart that did the deed?"

Dr Scott nodded and said "Yes but the precision and finesse of the attack caught my attention." 

"You mean to say that the person must be a professional killer since he was able to pierce the heart precisely." Elise questioned.

Dr Scott nodded and said "Yes and not only that. I was able to get the general shape and size of the blade which killed him." Dr Scott then took the file from Elise's hand and turned to the last page which had a photo of a knife.

"This is called Tanto…it is a Japanese combat knife. It was used by Samurais and Ninjas and the knife must be of high quality If the cut is this clean. There aren't many places in the city where you can get a knife like this and that too of high quality." 

"Now we have something to start with." Mathew said as Dr Scott covered the upper half of Ronan's body with the white sheet. 

"Thanks, doc…we'll take your leave then." Mathew said as turned around to leave when Elise stopped him and said "Wait a min..Doc can you tell me about the two bodies that I sent yesterday…the accident ones."

Dr Scott made an interesting expression and said "Oh that is another interesting thing and those two would have died even if they didn't have an accident."

"Ya the paramedics told me…the two of them had liquid in their lungs." Elise said. 

"haha…not just any liquid Detective." Dr Scott said as he walked toward the other two bodies and uncovered one of them.

"They had water in their lungs. You see the blue skin…that's the indication of that." 

"Huh…water…I thought you would say something interesting like our case." Mathew said to which the doc glanced at him and said "It is interesting because their entire body has no indication of being to any swimming pool or water body and the water in his lungs is packaged drinking water. The stuff used to eliminate contaminants from the water was found in that water. The fact that it was the same for the two of them suggested that the water was put in their lungs purposely maybe someone tried waterboarding them but even this this much amount of water should go in. Their clothes and hair were dry so they weren't waterboarded either."

"Slow down doc…with the amount of assumptions you are coming from…you might take our job someday." Elise said and then looked at Mathew. 

Just by seeing the expression on her face he understood "I'll talk to the captain and get this case assigned to us. This Ronan's case albeit interesting isn't ours so we'll take the accidental one."

Elise felt proud she and Mathew had bonded enough to understand each other without saying a single word.

NYC Airport

SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson had just come to New York City and called Agent Romanoff. It took a few rings but she eventually picked up.

"Natasha…I have trying your phone for the past several hours…where are you?" Phil asked.

"Currently in hiding…I am wanted by the NYPD and the FBI." Natasha replied.

"Why? What did you do?" Phil asked in a worried tone. 

"It is for impersonating an FBI agent." 

"But didn't the SHIELD analysts give you a rock solid id and back story?" 

"Yes they did but a few minutes after I reached the precinct, someone deleted my entire profile from the FBI database. And since the profile was the only thing that tied me to the FBI, they are now looking for me. I am going to Tony Stark's residence right now."

"Something like that can only be done by either the Director of the FBI or someone from inside SHIELD. It must be some kind of mistake. Let me look into this. I will meet you at Stark Residence." 

(I know not a lot of things happened in this chp so will be posting one more in a couple of hours)

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