Rowan was sitting at his desk, staring at the board that was hung up in front of him. It was cluttered with pictures of different crime scenes, some that had never been solved and other just recently closed. He was the best detective around, always getting answers whenever he needed them. All except for one killer in particular. Bloody Rose. The detective had been trying to find her for two years now, but he could never quite figure out who it was, no matter how hard he tried.

She was a smart killer- he had to give her that- but not smart enough to fool him. No one was. He'd find her someday, but right now there were just too many questions that needed to be answered. Was she working alone? Was she working for someone else? Or was she on her own?

The tom got out of his chair and walked over to the board, a developing headache not the only thing vexing him. So many cases he'd solved over the years, and all but the ones that traced back to her had been solved. What made her ones so different? He started to think back to previous murders. The only solved one that he could think of that was anywhere close to her ones was with a cat nicknamed 'Talon'.

That night was a dark night, with the moon hiding behind the clouds. Rain was falling from the sky above, and Rowan was at another crime scene, when he heard something from the trees above. He dismissed the noise, thinking it was just a raccoon, but he was was wrong. If only he'd picked it up that it was nothing innocent like a raccoon, his partner might have lived. Him and his partner, Moth, continued to examine the scene, when the supposed raccoon jumped down and tackled his partner. Before he could do anything, the creature slashed the other detective's sides, causing him to cry out in pain. It was too late. His breaths became faster and faster, until they suddenly began to slow down, and then stop. Rowan tackled the attacker and quickly put him in the collar before handing him off to the police. The rest of the night, he had sat beside his friend, grieving into his cold, dead body, with only the howls of the wind and his distraught sobbing keeping him company.

He'd never forget that night. The saddest night that he had ever experienced in his life, and probably ever would experience. He had wanted to kill Talon himself, but they wouldn't let him. No matter how hard he had fought, he was pushed away as they closed the large, iron door behind the cat that had murdered Moth. He had finally gone home and laid in his bed, unable to drift into oblivion. Even after sleep finally arrived, it was filled with lamentations and bloodshed, and he woke with a cold sweat and a pounding heartbeat that wouldn't go away.

Then there was the most recently solved murder, which had happened a moon ago. A young litter of kits had been killed while playing with each other. They were mauled by a serial killer. It was quickly found to be that the killer was a hit-man, working for a cat named... Storm, was it? Both were thrown in prison for forty moons. That one had been quite easy, and it wasn't the most exciting case he'd ever had either.

But this... Bloody Rose. What made her so different from the others? He had tried everything that he had ever learned in his entire career, but none of it seemed to work. Every case of hers was empty of clues—other than the rose petals she left behind—and even they were useless. Each and every one of them. He'd find her one day, no matter what it took.

As he was staring at the board, the murders she'd committed blended together in his mind. He'd been trying so long to find this cat, and nothing came from his efforts. Everything he did amounted to nothing. Perhaps he was nothing- no. Surely he was worth something. Even if he spent his life trying to find her and failed in the end, just one of the many that tried and failed. Of course, as soon as he found her, and he had her under his claws and behind bars, he'd be well again, and everything would be worth it. This entire long train track, all the deaths and the cries of those wounded would finally amount to something. He would no longer be the useless cat he was right now.

 As he mused, he was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. "Come in," he said. The door opened to reveal Captain and another cat. 

"Hello there, Captain," said Rowan with a slight, professional nod.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Rowan. I have some news for you. This is your new partner, Ebony. She will be working along side you for a while. I know that you didn't have a heads-up, but I think she might be able to help you find Bloody Rose."

"Yeah," said Rowan with a little chuckle, "hopefully."

"Anyway, I'll leave her here so that way you guys can meet each other and whatnot. Goodbye for now," she mewed as she turned around and closed the door behind her.

A new partner, he thought to himself as a disturbingly familiar horror seized him. What if the same thing happens to her like what happened to Moth?

This chapter was brought to you By Blue! (Edited By Olivia and edited again by a mysterious admin). Edited yet again by a mysterious entity that may or may not be Catty.