Sometimes, lies were the only things that would help in a life or death situation.

"I haven't had anything as good as this in a long time!"

"Thanks, Jaune" Pyrrha smiled satisfied, before taking a bite from her own breakfast.

"So... What exactly happened last night?" the blond man asked, before taking a sip from his coffee.

"Well... We talked to Junior about this Ms. Belladonna and he suggested that she might show up there after the botched getaway from yesterday. And then he got us drink after drink..." his partner began to tell him, while he continued to eat "Sometime later, he decided it was time for us to leave,I think that was around midnight, and sent us out the side exit."

"Why did he do that?" Jaune asked confused.

"Uhm, well..." Pyrrha replied, laughing and scratching the back of her head "We probably would have started a bar fight if he didn't throw us out..."

Covering his face with his hands and letting out a groan as he touched the bruises, Jaune shook his head "I told him I'm no good with alcohol..."

"Anyway, just outside this two thugs were already waiting... Tried to rob us, I think." the redhead continued her story "You told them to scram, but they didn't take so kindly to that..."

"Wouldn't be the first time some thugs aren't listening to me..." the blond said with a chuckle, before groaning in pain and clutching his chest

"Damn..."

A laughter escaped Pyrrha as well, before she covered her mouth embarrassed "Sorry!"

Jaune just shook his head with a smile "Don't"

"Can I ask you something?" Pyrrha asked coyly after a moment of silence.

"Sure?" her partner replied confused, an eyebrow raised to complete the look.

"The scar on your chest. Where's that from?"

As if by instinct, Jaune's hand wandered to the spot, as if to protect it "It... It's a long story... Maybe some-"

A knock on the door interrupted him.

Pyrrha froze for a moment, before jumping up and running for her purse.

"Here." she said as she tossed something from it to her partner.

Catching it and looking down on it, Jaune realized the redhead just gave him her gun "What?"

"Okay, those thugs might have wanted something else and are now waiting outside. Just... Just keep them at bay while I get my weapon, okay?" she told him while running for her own weapon.

"WHAT?" Jaune repeated, now more shocked than confused.

"Just get the door!"

"Okay..."

Quickly running for the door, Jaune hesitated for a moment, his left hand on the door knob, while his other hand held the gun ready, in the case he really needed it.

Whoever was waiting on the other side, knocked on the door again. Taking a deep breath and trying to ignore the pain in his chest, he pulled the door open, making sure the gun was visible to the people on the outside.

"Woah!" a familiar black haired man called out as him and his partner dove to each side of the door "Okay, calm down. Whatever is going on, I'm certain we can work this out in a civilized manner!"

"What?" Jaune asked confused, before realizing how he looked, with his chest bandaged up and a gun in hand "Oh! No! Uhm... Okay, this really looks bad, but I can explain..."

"Who is it?" Pyrrha whispered from behind him as she approached, hiding her weapon behind her back.

"The two detectives." the blond replied, looking over his shoulder.

The tension seemed to fall off the redhead, before she quickly ushered the two into her apartment and closed the door behind them.

"So... Uhm... Sorry for the scare just now..." Jaune said to the newcomers, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

"We've had worse, Mr. Arc..." Lie Ren told him calm, but tried to step away from him nonetheless.

"Yeah, you could have been covered in her blood, for example!" the orange haired woman added with a grin, pointing at Pyrrha.

"Very bad example..." the off-duty policeman told her with a sigh "Also, just call me Jaune, please."

Ren gave him a nod before turning to Pyrrha "Thank you for letting us in, Ms. Nikos. We were worried we might not find you here..."

"Why did you think I wouldn't be here?" the redhead questioned, still on guard.

"Junior Xiong sure as hell thought you two wouldn't show up anymore..." Nora told her as she pulled a pack of cigarettes from her coat and put one in her mouth.

"Not in here, please..." Pyrrha told the woman, who was about to light her smoke "And why would he think tha-"

A second later, the redhead shook her head "Never mind... I think I know why..."

"Wait," Jaune said, realizing what his partner meant "you think Junior sold us out? That wouldn't make any sense! Those guys were some ordinary thugs!"

"I... might have lied to you about that..." she told him, lowering her head in shame "Sorry..."

The blond looked surprised at her "... What?"

"Listen, it's complicated. When you woke up and didn't remember what they said, I thought..." looking to the side for a moment to think, she nervously played with her fingers "I thought that if I told you, you might want to stop..."

"Wait." Nora intervened in the conversation, raising a hand between them "Don't say they threatened you?"

Pyrrha looked at her partner for a moment, who was now crossing his arms, but she couldn't tell if it was disappointment, shock, a feeling of betrayal, curiosity or a mix of all of them that were in his eyes "They... They told us to stop working on the case..."

"We were 'approached' as well last night..." Ren told her "But they didn't hold back with us... Apparently two dead private investigators are less trouble than two dead police officers..."

"That's... not very reassuring..." Jaune told him in a matter-of-fact tone, before looking back to Nora and Pyrrha "So, apparently we just stepped into a bee nest... If experience tells me anything, it's going to get ugly soon..."

"And that's the reason we are here... We think we should put all our information together, so we are all on the same page..." Nora told him, crossing her arms.

"Sounds good to me..." the blond police officer replied with a nod, before looking at his partner "Pyrrha?"

The redhead nodded, but didn't say anything else for the moment.

"We should get back to our office, we got most of the physical evidence there..." Ren told them "So you might want to get dressed so we can go there as soon as possible..."

Both police officers agreed and quickly got ready to leave.

"So, what do we know?" Ren asked Nora while the two of them were sitting in a taxi, the two police officers probably right behind them.

"We know that Yang and Ruby lied to me about staying with their dad. Also that they are criminals according to him and probably staying with their uncle..." the woman began to recapitulate, counting with her fingers "Their father was also a member of the White Rose gang and Ruby shares a last name with the leader, Summer Rose. So we could assume that this was her mother."

"It might not be the best idea to focus on Yang and Ruby as the only suspects, don't you think?" Ren told her calm, before continuing "Maybe Jaune and Pyrrha have another suspect that might be it? Also, the two that attacked us on Patch should be suspects as well..."

"Hm... Maybe you're right..." Nora agreed "But shouldn't you be the one suspecting them and me the one trying to protect my friends?"

Giving her a shrug as the cab came to a stop near the entrance to their office, Ren quickly got out of the car "Maybe..."

"Uhm... Ren, you see this too, don't you?" the woman asked alarmed as he came to her side, both looking at the door of their firm.

Where the lock of the door once was, a hole gaped in the now splintered wood. Without saying another word, Ren ran for the door, his right immediately going into his coat to grab one of his pistols. Running up the stairs, skipping two or three steps at a time, he leaped stepped into their office, his weapon raised and waiting to be fired.

The place was a mess. The file drawers had been emptied, paper littering the floor, and most of their other stuff was strewn across the ground as well.

Realizing that someone tried to steal something from them, Ren made his way to the small bathroom that the office had. Apparently it wasn't left untouched, either, as the small medicine cabinet was ripped open and its contents thrown out. As he reached for the loose tile at about knee height, he let out a sigh of relieve. The lockable steel box that was hidden behind it was apparently unharmed.

Quickly pulling out the key to it, he unlocked it and reached inside. Everything he had put in was still right where he left it.

"Woah, what happened here?" he could hear the policeman ask as he apparently entered their office.

"Is it still there?" Nora, who stood in the door a moment later, apparently having pushed past the blond, judging from the sound he made, asked worried.

Sinking to the ground to sit, he waved the photo he had just pulled out, and gave her a nod "All still there..."

With a sigh, she offered a hand to her partner "Well, at least we've got that going for us..."

With one strong pull, Nora brought the black haired man back to his feet, pulling him close.

"Uhm, sorry to interrupt..." both heard the awkward voice of the policeman from the door "But, could I ask you something?"

"What?" Nora asked, shooting a glare at him.

"Could it be that the people that broke in here are the same guys that attacked us last night?" Jaune asked, trying not to anger the already slightly infuriated redhead.

"That's what I had assumed as well..." Ren replied in Nora's stead "Maybe they wanted to steal what we've got so far?"

"You know if they took anything?"

Ren shook his head while slowly pushing away from Nora and heading out of the bathroom with the box under his arm "All still there..."

Returning to the office proper, he saw that the metal file drawers were already standing again and the auburn haired woman was in the process of picking up the papers that were on the ground.

"Thanks, but you don't have to..." Ren told her with a smile before he picked up the remains of his secret stash of whisky "Great..."

"Here... You look like you need it." the woman told him, holding out a flask.

Surprised, Ren accepted the offer and took a swig from it, before giving it back "Thanks... I didn't think you'd be one carrying around a flask of booze."

"It's not for me." Pyrrha replied with a smile as she put the flask away again "I became a police officer to help people. And sometimes this is the best help you can offer..."

"Maybe you're right..." he replied as he put the box on his desk and opened it.

"Yesterday, Ren and I headed to Patch and visited Signal Point, an old mansion on the far side of the island." Nora started to explain to the two, while pulling out a photo, but not showing it to their clients yet "As it turned out, it used to be the hideout of a gang of robbers."

"The Rose Petal thieves?" Jaune asked, the hope in his voice clearly noticeable.

"No..." the detective replied "BUT! We might have got a clue who they are! Now, the gang that used this place was the 'White Rose Gang' ever heard of them?"

"They were notorious robbers some twenty years ago..." Pyrrha answered the question, crossing her arms and leaning against one of the file drawers "But what does that help us?"

"Well, the reason we were on Patch in the first place was to check on two friends of mine, who I went out with to Junior's bar a few days ago. Same night the Rose Petal thieves apparently wreaked havoc there. The day after, they left a letter for me, saying to come visit them with their father on Patch if we want. Turns out however, they pretty much hate ol' daddy and threatened to kill him..." the detective explained to her fellow redhead, while lighting a cigarette "He pointed us to Signal Point where we found this." She handed her the photograph, showing the White Rose "The blond one is him, Taiyang Xiao Long. The one in the white cape is Summer Rose, leader of the White Rose and what I assume the mother of my friend, Ruby Rose. That's one of Taiyang's daughters, the other being Yang Xiao Long. The other two are Raven and Qrow Branwen."

"Wait, Qrow Branwen?" Jaune asked surprised as he heard the name.

"You know him?" Ren asked surprised, not expecting the blond man to have knowledge of Qrow.

"I... Well... Kinda?" the reply came as a stutter "I might have met him once or twice?"

"You did?" Pyrrha asked, as surprised as Ren.

"Yeah uhm... Well you see my father used to be a lawyer. No big fish or anything. He helped whoever and however he could, sometimes also the hopeless cases. Then one day he was hired by this guy, accused of multiple crimes and probably guilty of all of them. But my dad... He gave his all on this case, believing in the innocence of this man. And in the end he somehow won. Against the now DA Ironwood of all people. " Jaune let out a sad sigh before he continued "That was the last case he ever took, quit soon after. This Qrow was really grateful, paying a hefty sum as well. I actually think they are still friends. But... Well something broke in my dad. He became a drunk and violent son of a-"

Pyrrha stopped him as she gently laid her hand on his shoulder "Do you know what became of him?"

Shaking his head in disgust, the blond answered "No and I'm not particularly interested in it, either..."

"The way I see it, you might get us in contact with Qrow." Ren told him, arms crossed and leaning against his desk "Which, for all we know might help us find the Red Petal thieves as well..."

"Yeah, Ren's right." Nora chimed in "So we might need you to talk to your dad and find out where this Qrow is hiding..."

After a minute of quietly mumbling to himself, Jaune finally nodded "Fine. I'll talk to him to find out where Branwen is now..."

"And what are you two doing in the meantime?" his partner asked the two private investigators, before snapping her fingers "You know, I might have an idea..."

"What is it?" the black haired man asked, while Nora was pressing the bud of her smoke into an ashtray she seemingly pulled out of nowhere.

"Junior told us that the driver we arrested, Blake Belladonna, has retired some time ago. And that she now only drives for personal friends."

"If that's true, it would mean that Yang and Ruby should know her!" Nora exclaimed exited, almost jumping out of her chair.

"If they really are the Rose Petal thieves, which I still very much doubt..." Ren replied calm, before looking to Pyrrha again "So, you think if we convince her to work with us, we might get to them?"

With an apologetic look, the redhead gave him a shrug "Well we can hope at least... But you'll need to find her first. But that shouldn't be a problem?"

"Wait, didn't you just say you already arrested her?" Ren questioned her.

With a sigh, Jaune let his head hanging "It's a bit more complicated... She was let go again due to... Ugh... bureaucracy and probably money..."

Nora crossed her arms with a frown "So, any idea where we could find her then? She probably know someone is after her now..."

"Well, you could go talk to Junior. He told us yesterday that she would most likely show up there. But either she didn't or we missed her..." Pyrrha explained to her with a smile.

Surprised, the blond policeman looked at his partner "Wait, he told us that?"

Ignoring Jaune's question, Ren agreed to the redhead's idea "Alright. We go to Junior's and try to find this driver of yours. And you two go to Mr. Arc to find out if he knows where this Qrow is."

Pyrrha gave him a grin "Sounds like a plan."