"Be smart in choosing what little pleasure you partake in. Sometimes those little pleasures can betray you."
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â™™Kai Hamiltonâ™™
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What most people, usually from the lower district don't fully realize is how the BRF is slowly making the playing field more and more unbalanced.
It's the little things that come with their "gifts" that really highlight it. A new school building just between the two districts? Sound like a wonderful idea until you realize that it is a private school and there are all these little things in order to apply unless, of course, you can buy your way in. Their official statement would be they were trying to make a "better community with focused education".
Kai distinctly remembers that particular even when growing up.
But still, it's technically a benefit. And almost all of their project are similar vine to that. Anything that is remotely beneficial to those of the lower bracket, is equally beneficial to those in the upper in some usually unspoken manner.
And as fate would have it, Kyle's and Honda's business happens to be a part of the BRF. So it was probably going to be useless to investigate unless it was absolutely critical or this case got any worst.
Kai honestly feels like something, his job is really nothing more than a joke. While Kai had been a bit lost in thought, Kyle pulled out a box and a lighter. The lighter looked pretty standard but it was the box that caught Kai's eye.
"I'm surprised you smoke." Kai suddenly said.
Kyle looks over to him with a calculating look as if trying to figure out why he was even asking. He pulls a single cigarette from the box. The box was dark-colored, with a royal purple design spanning it. A crown sat at the top with the words "Venus Touch" written in gold.
"Yeah, I smoke...help deal with stress.' Kyle said with a pointed look at Kai.
Kai doesn't really pay too much attention to his rudeness as the smell of smoke fills the room. However, there was something else with it, a rather unique smell in fact.
"Are those special brands? I've never seen it before?" Kai asks.
Kyle still looks rather disgruntled but he does answer.
"Don't know, Honda was the one who got me into them. The greedy bastard didn't even tell me where he gets them before he died. This is my last box." Kyle said with a shrug.
"I see."
"He did say these were a special brand though, made me even pay him for them."
"Hmm, the smell is quite distinct." Kai commented.
Kyle just let out a noncommittal noise. Kai could feel Rafeeqa's eyes on him in wonder probably for this odd line of questioning that didn't appear to have anything to do with the case. The interrogation continues onward for about 20 more minutes before finally. Kai asked more questions about the cigarettes and then moved on to a different seemingly equally useless topic. Afterward, Kai dismisses Kyle who leaves still in an angry fit. Kai and Rafeeqa enter the observation room which was connect to the interrogation room. Morris, Jaivon and Arthur are all there. Morris looks a little less than pleased with the progress that he thinks was made.
"So we get nothing..again?" He grumbles with a grunt.
"Not quite." Kai repsonds.
Everyone in the room turns to him. Morris is confused as he was listening in, nothing really jumped out at him as useful.
"What do you mean?"
"The cigerattes." Kai said.
Now everyone's face takes on a confused tone, Morris's face is a bit more angry than confused.
"What the hell are you talking about Hamilton."
"Don't those cigarettes look familiar to you? If he didn't pull them out and give a bit of background on them I wouldn't have even made the connection."
Everyone else falls into silence as they think back to where they could have seen such an elegant design. Rafeeqa was the first one to realize it.
"Wait... didn't Price also have a couple of boxes similar to that in his office? I mean everything was really thrown around but I defiantly remember there being a few there." She said.
Everyone else also had that realization as well. Throughout the mess that his office was left in, was a couple of boxes of this Venus touch brand. And that wasn't the only thing.
"Wait, Honda had one on him also when we found him." Jaivon said.
The puzzle pieces are starting to click together slowly.
"Okay, so they all smoke the same brand? So what?" Morris said with a shrug not really thinking this was such a big deal.
"Well, you heard Kyle before. Honda wouldn't tell him anything about where to buy these cigarettes. And that they were something special? Probably expensive too." Kai said.
"Okay sure but it could be just a coincidence. I mean, rich people like expensive things isn't rocket science, Hamilton." Morris pushes back, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Sure, but it's something that links together people who probably wouldn't be caught dead in each other's presence!" Kai urges.
Morris doesn't appear to impress at all about the connection. The room falls into a tense silence. It is broken however and surprisingly by Arthur.
"Why not just look into it? Even if it is something that we can't ... pursue it is a lead if anything."
Morris looks at Arthur and the two seem to share some sort of unspoken conversation before Morris just waves his hand.
"Fine, whatever. Just don't cause anything problems. You hear me?" He said as he looks directly at Kai.
"Sure thing boss." Kai said with a small smirk.
Morris just lets out a grunt and then dismisses them all together. As they leave however Kai frowns a bit in thought.
He didn't mention one very vital bit of information.
Honda and Price weren't the only ones he had seen with these particular cigarettes.
It was something so small that Kai had honestly written off. But now that it was something that had come up in a case and also with the rather dubious information that he had been given. He also wishes he could hit himself for never noticing it sooner.
This particular brand of cigarettes wasn't publicly bought, that much he knows for sure. It was something only catering to the upper crust of Briagas.
In particular prominent donors of BRF.
Kai is certain Lance Halloway had them, during the party he was certain that he saw him with a box of them. And another one was Aresio. While in his sitting room, Kai remembers vaguely seeing a similar box on a desk. However, those two aren't really the ones that shocked him the most.
He remembers quite vividly, given however much time the man takes chewing Kai out for whatever issue he's caused with some rich snob. There sitting on Morris's desk was a box of that very same ciggerattes.