Jade sighed a little at Alex’s… shifty attitude but smiled gratefully when Killian stood up for her. “Don’t worry. I respect that you want to protect your client's umm, privacy in this case but I assure you, betraying your cousin is the last thing on my mind. I… I would never… I mean, I know how to keep important information like this secret. It won't go any further.” she said blushing briefly.
Alex nodded a little. "Alright. It better not, or we lose a prime informant, and I'm not the only one who would be pissed." he rubbed his forehead for a moment. "The informant, whose name I will not divulge and will call him, from henceforth, CJ, stated that your father, Killian, told the leader of the gang where the body of your mother is buried. CJ, however, was not in that meeting and so his knowledge is, at best, second-hand, and he has given us three different locations, all over a half mile in size. Lots of area to cover."
Jade stayed quiet and listened closely after a brief nod of agreement.
"Again, this is all allegedly. For all we know, CJ may be lying to us about all of this in order to try and weasel information out of us; it's happened before, though it would be very strange of him to give information about this case if his information wasn't true, or at least if he didn't think it was, simply because again, this is a cold case about just one woman." Alex said.
Killian nodded slightly. "I see."
Jade looked over at Killian and gently took his hand. She had no plans to give up on this case after today.
Alex finally grabbed a laser pointer and used it to gesture on the map. "The places with the blue pins are the areas CJ has given us; I've outlined the areas with string so that you can see what I mean about them being large places to search. It would be really expensive to get cadaver dogs out there, especially when it's a cold case."
Jade frowned a little at that but gave a short nod, understanding what he meant. The really hard part, under normal circumstances, would be convincing the police to go along with this… But the three of them were unlikely to ask for that kind of assistance anyway.
"There's just too much to search. If we could narrow it down to even just one location, then maybe it would be easier to get cadaver dogs, but with three large locations? No way." he shook his head a little bit. "We have a suspect, but no witnesses, confessions, or concrete evidence. We have three large locations for a body, but no certainties. This case is…making very slow progress but without a confession or new evidence, I don't know if we can move forward again."
Killian frowned faintly, looking at the areas on the map. "But I know my dad did it."
"I know that. He's also the prime suspect. But there's just no concrete evidence we can use to say it was him, and he certainly hasn't ever confessed to it, or at least not on tape or to an officer." Alex said.
Jade furrowed her brow, thinking back to her encounter with Killian’s vile father. She recorded everything while in costume using her helmet but… If anything, that man twisted her words more than give her anything helpful. In fact, she believed that he had stuck to the story of Killian’s mother running away or disappearing.
Killian clenched his jaw faintly, but nodded. "Yeah, okay."
"I'm sorry." Alex said. "She was my aunt and I want justice for her as much as you do, you know that."
Jade squeezed Killian’s hand assuringly. “We’ll find her. Even if we have to dig up those locations ourselves.” she promised firmly even though she kept her tone soft. Slow progress was better than none and if they could find her body it would be much easier to get the legal system behind them.
Killian nodded a little bit. "Yeah." he gave her a faint smile.
Alex cleared his throat. "Actually, uh, if you dig at those locations with the knowledge that a body could be there…it's not really legal?" he said slowly.
Jade almost rolled her eyes at Alex’s warning. Of course, she knew that. If “Jade” dug there then he would be right, it would be a problem… However, “Brainwave” would be a different story. She took a slow breath and nodded. “I understand. I just really want to help.” she said meekly.
Alex nodded slightly, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Yeah. It's a cold case and that sucks, cold cases are some of the hardest cases to solve. The bad news is that we can't figure out a way to weasel a confession from Henry; he has a story and he's sticking to it. The good news is that we have CJ, who may be telling the truth."
Jade nodded again. Hardest, yes, but I enjoy a challenge. she sighed to herself, looking back at Killian. She actually spent a fair amount of time looking over old cold cases when crime-fighting was slow and she had a contact in the police station, a few actually, and could get the actual case file since getting a confession would be borderline impossible.
Killian nodded faintly at Alex's words. "Yeah. Okay. Is there…anything else?" he asked slowly.
Jade smiled softly at Killian and gave his hand another gentle squeeze.
Alex shrugged faintly. "I don't know. As far as I know, there's just those locations. We're still trying to get more details out of CJ, about other cases as well, just to see if the information he's giving us is sound."
Jade sat quietly, not having any to add at the moment. Though she did look back up at the map and memorized the possible locations.
Killian nodded. He knew why Alex wasn't telling him the real name of "CJ"; one, to protect the informant, and two, because he knew Alex knew Killian had been involved with the Ten Cranes in the past, and Alex didn't want to risk Killian knowing who CJ is and interfering with what the police were doing.
Jade didn't really care who this CJ was at the moment, just as long as he gave reliable information and stayed out of trouble. Though if she did know who he was, she would have put him in her own version of witnesses protection. It was just as secure, if not more so, and harder to crack.
"Any questions?" Alex finally asked.
Jade shook her head, not having any questions and not sure it was her place to ask.
Killian shook his head. "No."
Jade gave a small smile, appreciating what Alex was doing and had told them. It was definitely something she could work with.
Alex tapped his desk for a moment. "Alright."
Jade glanced at Killian, wondering if he was ready to leave already since the trip seemed to be shorter than she had anticipated.
"Is, uhm, is there anything that can be done short of cadaver dogs?" Killian asked after a moment.
"I'm not sure. I'm looking into that, though." Alex said.
Jade blinked a little at the thought, a bit surprised that she hadn’t considered it. She felt like there might be another alternative but wasn't sure what it might be… Something to research when they got home or had a chance later.
"Mostly we just need to narrow down the areas, which is difficult when your only source is second-hand at best."