Chapter Text
It was Spring break, and Peter had nothing on his calendar. (Except binge watch Dog Cops and recalibrate his web shooters.) It was nice, lazy, relaxing. Peter was pretty sure it was killing him.
Season two of Dog Cops had just started when he got the call. “Spider-man, it’s Yuri. Could you swing by the precinct? I have an issue that would benefit from your unique skillset.”
There really was a God.
“I dunno, it’s my day off-” he responded, already pulling his suit up his legs, phone smooshed between his cheek and shoulder. “But I’m sure I can convince a certain grizzled detective to help out.”
Yuri groaned, “I will hang up right now-”
Peter pulled on his mask, doing his best Nick Cage impression, “Part man, part spider, all cop.”
The line went dead and Peter grinned as he launched out of Aunt May's apartment window.
Captain Yuri Watanabe met him on top of the 3rd precinct, unceremoniously pressing a copy of The Daily Bugle into his chest. “Seen the news lately?” she lit a cigarette as Peter took in the front page story, ‘Murder in Manhattan’ was stamped above the grainy picture of a high end apartment complex wrapped in police tape.
Peter’s brow furrowed as he skimmed the article. Someone had been ritualistically murdering people throughout the City. Each victim was found in their homes with a half eaten apple perched on their blood soaked chest. Gross.
“That’s victim number three.” Yuri expounded, taking a drag from her cigarette.
“This is a little bigger than the stuff you usually give me.” Peter stated, handing the folded paper back to Yuri.
“Don’t get used to it.” She groused. “It’s a high profile case now, his latest victim was Horace Rosenthal. A Judge. We have no leads yet, not even a connection between the victims.” She took another long drag of her cigarette. “His first was a priest, the second was a reporter for a small local paper.” the smoke drifted from her lips. “The press has started calling the guy ‘Sin-Eater’ ." Yuri told him.
Peter thought it made him sound like a Punisher knock off.
Yuri snubbed the end of her cigarette on the concrete rail and pocketed the stub, “We’ve been digging into the victims, found some shady stuff, but nothing that would be motive for murder.”
She gives him the addresses of the first two crime scenes and promises to have the lead detective call him to collaborate.
Detective Carter called as he was swinging to take a look at the first crime scene, Peter redirected to the third as requested. The man sounded gruff, and not pleased that Yuri had called him in on the case. But overall he sounded receptive. Peter counted that as a win.
The Judge’s apartment was a few blocks away from Hell’s Kitchen. One of the area’s Peter habitually avoided after nightfall. DareDevil was pretty territorial of the neighborhood, but Peter was sure a police invitation was just as good as calling ahead for a reservation.
Yes hello, I’d like to reserve an ass kicking at the docks. Is 11PM available?
“Spider-Man.” Carter greeted him gruffly, pulling him from his thoughts.
“Detective.” Peter nodded in return from where he had perched on the wall of the apartment building. “How can I help?”
“You can get down from there for one. Makes my neck hurt just looking at you, kid.”
Fair enough, Peter could do that.
“Second, the PDNY doesn’t need a vigilante to do our jobs. But since Yuri called you in on this you can take a quick look around, see if you spot anything we may have missed.”
Carter lifted the police tape and Peter ducked under it. “Anything to help.”
The Police had searched the high end apartment top to bottom. But Peter went back over everything anyways; Whistling at the closet that was the size of his dorm room and climbing the walls to peer into the vents. One particular vent caught his eye, a bookcase with a sliding ladder directly underneath it.
"Detective Carter, can I have a moment of your time?" A young woman's voice cut through the steady murmur of the forensics team. A colleague?
"How did you get past--Who let her up here?" Carter barked down the hall. Not a colleague, journalist maybe? Peter removed a vent cap and pulled a small laptop out of the space.
"Detective Carter I just have a few questions concerning the Sin-Eater case-"
Definitely a journalist. Peter plugged the machine in, managing to guess the laptop's password on the first try. And scoffing at the lax security measures.
"Ms. Page, you know we can't discuss the particulars of an active investigation with the press." Crater cut her off. Peter tapped at the dead man's laptop, scrolling through his internet history and making a mental note to have someone delete his after he died.
Ms. Page bulldozed on, "Can you confirm that Pastor Donald Lee was stealing money from the church?"
"No comment." Carter grit out through his teeth. The tone alone was confirmation.
“I’ve done some digging into Judge Rosenthal and found that he may have been accepting bribes and influencing juries-” Ms. Page had some facts, facts that Yuri may not have had. Another officer came by to gently guide the woman back the way she came.
Peter whistled at the emails, all pointing to corroborate the accusation the Journalist was throwing around about the deceased judge. Carter stomped into the room, blinking up at where Peter was perched on the back of the couch, laptop in hand. “What did you find?”
“Logs, emails. There’s some pretty, shady dealings in here. Take a look.” Peter passed the man the laptop. “Who was that, back there?”
“Karen Page from the New York Bulletin.” Carter snorted, “Published a piece sympathizing with Frank Castle a few years back.”
“Oh, yeah. I’ve seen her work. She’s pretty good.”
“She’s a pain in the ass is what she is.” Carter grumbled, scrolling through the documents Peter had found cursing softly.
A well informed pain in the ass. Peter would have to swing by and chat when he had the chance. See if she had anything else to share with the class.