8 Circumstantial Evidence (1/2)

”No, I am educating you.” I sighed.

”First of all, never show pictures to suspects like that unless you are sure they have done it… or almost sure. Second. Ask questions first and then pull out your psychoanalytical tools. All you've done is made me look at you like an incompetent fool.”

Of course, he was offended. That's what I was aiming for. I knew well that the person he was training under was watching the scene unfold.

”And how did you know this much?” The sarcasm was obvious.

”By now you must have received your primary autopsy report and it has told you that this person has been dead for about a couple of days but that the weather could affect the time of death drastically. Yet you are asking me nothing of my whereabouts for the past couple of days or verifying my story with the others in the group I was traveling in.”

To be fair, I was avoiding his question. I had my reasons for doing so, but not because I was going around murdering people.

”Miss Lewis, your knowledge of dead bodies is intriguing. Were you, by chance, revisiting your site of murder to relive your fantasy?” he had the audacity to smirk.

”Maybe I get the knowledge from the same place you do,” I paused looking at him expectantly, hoping to get his name.

”Jameson,” he said, still smug.

”I was in Seoul, accompanying a professor to a conference and was there for a week. You can verify my alibi with him.”

He pushed his notepad towards me and even gave me a pen.

I wrote down the information quickly and gave it back to him.

His brows scrunched as he looked over the name. Ah, he knows Mr. Singh. He was a renowned scholar, but the expression seemed too sour to be of general knowledge. A student from my University, then.

”I think that will be all?” he looked at me with a sense of intrigue. Did he think I was from the same department as him? ”I am sure that the specialist you are working under… probably as an assistant, knows that this is a case too difficult for you. I hope it teaches you what disappointment feels like. Your books on criminal psychology mean nothing in this room unless you know how to use it and back it up with evidence, empirical or circumstantial. You can't just use statistics and behavioral patterns out of context and think it will get you the right answer, that is never the case in any aspect of life.” I stayed silent for a minute and let him fume. This went on for about ten minutes as he tried to recollect his composure.

”You're wrong,” he started off. ”How would you solve the case?” Under his tone of superiority lay a hope that I could make out more of the scene than he had been able to.

I looked straight past him towards the one way mirror beyond which I knew his superior was standing judging the boy harshly. He was probably doing this to teach him a lesson on level-headedness and bring his ego down a notch. It was definitely a necessary scene. I hoped they could read the exasperation on my face.

And I think they did.

”Miss Lewis, you may leave. We will call on you if there are any further questions.” I nodded towards the mirror and then gave Jameson a cutting stare.