The princess & the detective

3. The castle

Ohm was running out of time, but he didn't feel like he was making any progress as the tumultuous Bangkok traffic seemed to slow things down even further. He turned on the siren and could see some space opening up in the sea of ​​cars. Even advancing at full speed, he felt like he was driving through the mud, just skating without making much progress.

"Ohm, I need you to come to the address I'll text you. Another victim of the serial killer we're investigating. This time, at the witness' apartment we interviewed a few days ago," was what Boun had said. It was because he recognized the address and the content of the call that Ohm was running so fast and he had panic written on his face. He couldn't even imagine anything happening to Titi. Her youthful face and smart look, kept coming back to him every second.

Arriving at the scene, Ohm was forbidden from entering behind the yellow tape because, in a noob's mistake, he let his emotions take over and ended up forgetting his professional identification at the Police Station. His heart was racing with the anxiety piling up for answers, and the novice officers placed to control the curious people and the press weren't helping by stopping him from getting into the crime scene.

"Boun!" Ohm yelled to get his colleague's attention from the middle of the crowd. Soon the tall blond man nudged one of the officers and cleared his way.

"What happened? Who's the victim? How did they find the body?" Ohm asked without giving his longtime friend a chance to answer.

"They found another body, 1,70m tall and tortured like the previous ones, but…", Boun was interrupted because out of nowhere slender arms sprouted stealing Ohm's attention as they entwined around his waist.

The detective reacted instinctively by hugging the small figure in front of him, but when he recognized Titi alive, he tightened his grip a little. His relief was evident.

"O-Ohm… they k-killed… m-my…", Titi couldn't complete the sentence.

"Shh, I know. But you're safe. You're with me now, okay?" Ohm assured Titi in a tone that served to calm the chills she felt.

While 2 officers guided by Ohm went to Titi's room to get some of her clothes and personal belongings, the detective listened to the coroner's report. Confirming the pattern of the other victims, the only weird new point was that this was the first time the criminal attacked someone inside their own apartment. He usually tortured and killed in one place they hadn't yet found and dumped the body in another, but it was always public and unrelated to the victim.

Another point that drew attention is that, in addition to not being recognized by any of the building's residents, in general, people with such hard existences that they didn't even bother to notice this type of detail precisely to reduce their involvement with the Police, there was an accidental victim. The serial killer had killed Tawan, Titi's dog, who was in the apartment at the time of the murder.

Even without that much time on hand, the serial killer found a way to dominate Candie, Titi's roommate, kill her and do the same to little Tawan. In the case of the woman, the procedure included the removal of the body parts just like it was done with the other victims. As for the animal, it had also been brutally attacked: its ribs were crushed, its soft fur still showing the imprint of the shoe, and its eye pierced by the same scalpel used to cut the woman. No fingerprints, no witnesses. In fact, the neighbors in the apartment at the end of the hallway heard a muffled screaming noise, but they thought it was just the natural noises their neighbor's occupation.

Adding up the information at hand, that is, the fact that this was the apartment Titi shared with a professional colleague and Tawan's death, everything became more obvious. The criminal had already identified her, was angry and was after her.