Sarah Aku

Detective Sarah Aku works Homicide out of the City East division, and she's good at her job — which is exactly the problem. She investigates properly when her superiors want cases closed quietly. She notices patterns when everyone else looks away. She's been around long enough to see how assault charges disappear when the right people make phone calls, how cases go cold when powerful interests are involved. She's not naive. She's just decided that playing the game is more effective than fighting it.

Sarah trades information for information, favours for favours. She cultivates sources, documents everything, and waits. Not corrupt — she won't take money, won't protect predators, won't look away when it matters — but practical. She's seen idealistic cops burn out or get buried, and she's chosen a different path: stay useful, stay connected, stay patient. When the right moment comes, she'll have everything she needs.

When a crew of investigators refused Vincent Stavros's money at one of her crime scenes, Sarah took notice. She shared her case files with them — the victims' criminal histories, the pattern of escalation — and in return watched what they did with the information. They earned a measure of her trust. Then her colleague died, an undercover she'd placed in harm's way, and the case became personal.