story concept: a self-declared apolitical detective who is really really good at putting things together and figure out any sort of puzzles got called to a murder case. A wealthy billionaire who doesn't even need a job was killed under mysterious circumstance, locked doors, empty mansions, deserted islands, no sign of an intruder, and every staff has their alibi checked out.
So the detective, being put in this newly formed taskforce to bring the perpetrator to justice with limitless resources from the state, is now under the uncomfortable microscopic pressure from the state, wealthier interests, and strangely no media. The detective pays no mind to these pressure though, only to the strange case, and the fact that after some more digging, there seems to be more cases that happened similarly. Wealthy, resources beyond comprehension billionaires which strangely no close family and yet lots and lots of friends and relatives keep dying off in gruesome fashion with no explainable causes.
But the detective keeps pressing on, eventually being employed by yet another billionaire as a retainer, "to keep an active watch and protection against murderous attempt", so they say. The detective jumps on to the chance, hoping to figure out this mysterious case of possibly a serial murder, possibly motivated by class struggle.
Welp, the billionaire got killed anyway, but the detective realizes something is off with the staff. After all, the detective has been employed by the billionaire, they have become a part of the staff. The detective goes undercover, and figures out it is a whole conspiracy.
It is the staff. But no, not any specific group of people. It is a playbook. The staff of each murdered billionaires, numbering in the hundreds if not thousands depending on each one, employed to manage estates and assets and anything else mere mortals can't even comprehend across the globe. Coordinate across the globe. The killing is easy. The taking the billionaire's wealth in non-insignificant amount and making it untraceable, unnoticeable, and delivered to the people most needed, takes the larger effort. Millions of dollars moved around the world, unseen, undetected, because well when those billionaires talk in trillion, a million means no more than a penny to them.
The detective keeps up the intrigue and by themself, builds a massive RICO case. Several different group of staff with only a shared method connects them together. What's the motive? What's the charge? How to bring all of these people "to justice"? What's the prosecution? What's the argument? The more the detective works the case, the more they begin to realize something about themselves.
Perhaps the staff need not a motive. After all, the job of the detective stops at figuring out the puzzle. They need not concern themselves with the legal system that creates such a job as a detective.
The next day, they retire and, as a private citizen, join a protest.
