Butthole 2.0

"Rough night boss?" The newspaper boy asked.
"No, it was way smooth..." Detective Santos sarcastically replied, his head still aching from that blow the other night.
"Sorry about Jones sir, he took a bad hit. You know who did it?" asked the newspaper boy.
"No. I don't know." Detective Santos replied as he hurriedly went to his office.
"Damn it...Why would they hit Jones? Why didn't they kill me? Jones' is disposable, he has no real connection to anything except for being a runner. Why...."
A loud knock breaks his thought.
"Santos open up, this is Santiago"
"Come in Captain" Detective Santos quipped after opening the he door.
"One question, what happened? Why did your asset got hit and you don't? Frankly, you should be dead by now just because you're wearing a badge." Captain Santiago blurted while standing on the door frame.
"Look, the meet is discreet. Nobody knew about it. Jones was about to spill the beans on Romualdez and his network when they took us out. Next thing I knew my head is bleeding and Jones is dead. Didn't got the chance to glance on our attacker." Detective Santos said.
"Forget Jones, you have any lead on Mario?" Captain Santiago asked.
"All I know is he's the ringmaster for Romualdez. Nobody really saw him before but one cop claims he knew Mario and saw his face. Too bad he went AWOL, spooked? Definitely." Detective Santos quipped.
"You better find him before they do. Make this case air-tight and jail their sorry ass." Captain Santiago said before stepping out.
Detective Santos went back to his chair and slumped.
"Both cases had hit a wall and there seems to be no way around it. Jones is dead, Pepe is AWOL, no other viable leads for either case. All I know is that they're connected to Romualdez's case. It has to be...." Detective Santos thought, "I got to find Pepe. I got to make sure he's ok."