Police advice? (Fictional.)

Anybody out there have a good enough handle on how detectives work that they'd like to help me brainstorm for a non-fannish romance project? I have one of these situations where, like, I need X but not Y, blah, blah, parrots and sugargliders, and shouldn't search warrants come into this process at some point, but in some way that doesn't distract us from hot people making out.

In other random news, my bento obsession as been re-ignited by the discovery that there are Moomin bento boxes. Whyyyyyyy must they make things I want and shouldn't spend money on? You know you've got it bad when your thirteen-year-old tells you you shouldn't buy any more of a thing until you sell a few of the ones you already own.