31 Those Who Want To Chase 1 (1/2)
Alina City Police - West Alina Branch was greatly dumbfounded by a case they got just yesterday's noon. The headquarter now was full of people debating and putting up conspiracy theories and hypotheses after receiving the result of an autopsy. The results left them all dumbfounded and disbelieving. A few detectives were even forced to not go home as they worked on it and dealt with the analysis, investigation, interrogation of witnesses and listing out of possible suspects.
It was about a **** plus murder case of a female teacher from one of the known second-rate private schools in the city. In a society where much more gruesome murders happen left and right, the case should have been another hateful but typical one. The officers would normally take the details, carefully comb out all possible clues leading to the identity of the malefic murderer, and then pacify the mourning family members with their swift enactment of justice.
Unfortunately this time, a few links in the steps were missing. Something was very unscientific with the findings of the autopsy and even a higher up was greatly alarmed to give the police chief of the branch a call the very next day.
”Reporting to Superintendent, the findings have been double-checked and everything matches the first.”
At the side, Simonne Gomez stood with a straight back in the chief's room as he watched the bitter expression in his superior's face while reporting the whole incident. The worsening face of his middle-aged chief and the occasional unintelligible shouts he was hearing from the receiver allowed him to perfectly infer how angry the other party was.
He was the one who delivered the report to the man. Of course, the chief didn't like the report but he was not given the time to lash out to Simonne because someone from the main branch called over.
'Poor Chief...'
The balding middle-aged man probably noticed his pitying expression and got annoyed, so he waved at him to leave and return to his post.
Simonne walked out of the chief's office and sighed in depression as he thought of the weirdness of the case.
”This is my first encountering a rape-murder case where the proof of **** is there, but the proofs of murder are missing. Just how the heck did that happen? And why at sis' school?”
Simonne had not forgotten that her sister, Wendy Gomez, was studying at the school where the crime took place. He was left with little breathing space as before he was included to the workforce in charge of this case, he was previously busying himself with another kidnapping incident while also trying to work on investigating the recording his sister sent him a few days ago.
It tired him so much, both mentally and physically.
As he strode towards the hall where other detectives assigned to the case congregate and brainstorm together, another man in police uniform jogged to him from the nearby cubicle in charge of compiling reports with a stack of papers in his hands.
”Bro Simonne, the lab sent another report. They triple-checked and worked without rest to speed up the process, but no trace nor fingerprints or anything with DNA was left around or even near the neck of the victim.” The person was another detective with the same SPO2 rank as him. This one started shaking his head in dismay, the bags under the eyes very dark due to not always getting enough sleep.
Really, in a bustling city like Alina City, crime reports happened from time to time, and the police never had nothing to work on. Society had never been a totally peaceful place.
”Rey, I can't believe it. If there's still no change despite that, then did the victim really die of asphyxation because of getting strangled?” Simonne asked.
The two of them were now walking side by side while discussing the intricacies found out about this rape-murder case.
”The lab attested heavily. It is really the cause, and the reason we're all stuck up in an endless loop about the murder itself is the lack of evidence.”
”How about the **** part? There's a clue there, right? The body has traces of abuse. At the same time, a student was reported suspicious because he suddenly disappeared.”
”Your sister, Miss Wendy helped out yesterday and she was the one who pointed that out. The student is known for his playboy tendencies, but nobody expected him to go that far as to actually **** a teacher. However, since Miss Wendy suggested, we looked up into him, and all traces of his whereabouts could not be found..”
”DNA samples?”
”We managed to acquire one when his classmates pointed out to his school bag that has been suspiciously left in the classroom. There's a strand of hair on it, also some saliva on the cap of the pen. It's unbelievable. But all evidence clearly point to him as the prime suspect, if not the only one, for the ****... but once again, not for the murder. There's no evidence for the murder whatsoever even after doing our best to find one!”
At his colleague's outburst, he could only say.
”...Logically, it's not really tricky. It's just because the chief instructed us to not assume it's a work of a single person that we're going nuts here.”
Simonne pinched his brows in irritation. The fairly handsome man's head was truly aching. He badly wanted to get some rest first because he had yet to get any sleep. And he felt like retiring from this detective case.
He was sure there were more troubling cases out there in the whole world, even brain-wrecking cold cases from decades ago, however, he was confident there should be not many like what they were holding currently that was as tricky as this. Where could you find a corpse obviously dead due to strangulation, but the handmarks found had no fingerprints? The **** was a good proof by itself actually. But the higher ups were not letting their own detectives to conclude it just like that. Just what the heck?
”Miss Wendy is still as helpful as before. At least we can have a part of us tracking down the whereabouts of that rapist student while the others depart to trace more clues and getting testimonies, even interrogating possible witnesses and suspects. However, I totally believe that the student is the culprit.”
”I'm thinking we're all idiots to not consider the student doing the strangling with a pair of gloves, or finger gloves... or using his clothes to not leave marks.”
The man next to him whose eyebags were glaring at Simonne sneered.
”You're the idiot. The ladies of the department brought that up yesterday but the lab sent evidences that no gloves were worn, and there were evidence that the victim was strangled with bare hands. I know it's very ridiculous. But like I said earlier, our forensics already triple-checked.”
”...Is the killer a magician who can erase traces at will?” Simonne blurted out an impossible angle.
They were already at the front of the room's door. With his right hand turning the knob, Rey Salazar hysterically laughed and then sarcastically told Simonne.
”Bro, yeah, maybe, maybe our world is changing into a magical one. Or it is probabyly ending, and it propels all sorts of criminals to start enacting their immoralities to our fragile society. What say you?”
”... Maybe I lacked too much sleep. Or maybe my detective brain is offline. You know, even a computer frequently running for more than 24 hours can lag.”
”This is why handsome boys are weak. Look at me.”
The gaze Rey received was a mocking one. ”You're ugly. Maybe you're the criminal.”
Simonne received a nice smacking on the head and a few jabs to his stomach before managing to join the clamoring crowd of pandas in their gorgeous blue uniform.
”Wendy, you are here again?”
The reply he got was a giggle, ”Brother, you look so terrible like you're the one raped.”
Simonne shook his head and went to his sister's side who came to the station wearing a comfortable blouse and knee-length skirt. He flicked her forehead and messed with her tied up hair. Wendy naturally protested with a few cries but Simonne did not stop ruining her ponytail as he turned to his nearby colleagues. His workmates merely shrugged at his questioning gaze.
”Team Leader Job allowed me in, you know, I can help,” Wendy explained, her eyes looked at her brother with confidence as she tried to smooth down her disheveled hair. Then she voiced out with worry. ”How's the progress?”
”You knew already because nothing changes.”
Simonne took a seat and then watched his scattered colleagues pacing back and forth to debate and come up with few stories and conspiracies.