When Shadows Come to Light: Searching

It had been eleven months since Cara’s death. There weren’t any investigations going on, and pretty much everyone had forgotten about her. Except Ace. He hadn’t stopped looking for her, or proof of her death. Many people thought he was crazy now, but he didn’t care. 

The facility had been trying to get him to investigate other cases, as that was one of his main jobs there. He’d taken a case about some suspicious vandalism, theft and hacking. While Ace wanted to prioritize looking for Cara, but he really had no choice. 

A hacker, seemingly the same person or group each time had been hacking into their files and breaking in. The only thing was that they didn’t know what they were doing. They never seemed to actually steal anything, at least that’s how it looked on the surface. 

Ace was quizzical as to how him working on the case would actually help anything, but worked on it anyway. His only lead was the tag the person or people left saying ‘My good opinion, once lost, is lost forever.’ 

The last time he had heard that was when Cara had left. It was the last thing she had said to him. It couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? What were they after? Whether it was Cara or not, there had to be a motive. What’s the point of breaking in without actually stealing anything- and doing it repeatedly? 

They seemed to be targeting the same place each time: the office. It seemed like a logical place, as all of their files and computers were stored there. Ace decided to do a stakeout to try to get to the bottom of the case that seemed to be linked to Cara’s death. 

While Ace’s stakeout seemed to be fruitless, he attempted it several more times, sleeping on the office floor for a week. He had nowhere better to be. Each time, he found nothing. 

Until that night, that is. He was settling in to stay up another late night, and heard the familiar creak of a floorboard. He perked up, looking to see who it was. There was no one in sight. He got up to find Mr. Yates, when he bumped into a solid object. He couldn’t see anything there. 

Ace grabbed the arm of what he realized was a person, stopping them from leaving. They tried to kick him, but he pushed them against the wall, trapping them. He put his arm across their neck gently, holding it with enough pressure to get a response. 

“Ace…stop…” the figure gasped, still invisible. 

“Wait…Cara?”