Police Squad '91

Getaway

Get out of here.

The cryptic message of The Chemist made Punn want to punch something, preferrably the old fucker's face.

The Chemist was an ex-convict, one of the best scientists in his field, particularly in preparation of all sorts of explosives. He was jailed for helping local terrorists plot an attack to the throne of the Thai King. He was given pardon after almost two decades in prison. After his probation period was over, no one ever heard from him.

But Punn has eyes and ears in places no one dared to step foot on. That's the reason why Arm gave this task to him - find the Chemist and ask where and how someone can acquire Polonium.

Finding the Chemist was harder than he hoped for, but nobody says no to a Phunsawat. They were supposed to meet at an old car scrap yard at 8pm but it's almost 10pm and the asshole is nowhere to be found.

"Pick up you fucker," Punn says as he dialed the number used by the Chemist to text him.

The number is out of coverage area.

"Shit." Punn was about to dial the number again when he felt a presence behind him. He reached for his gun and turned around, only to find a heavily wounded woman almost crawling her way to him.

"H-help. Khun, pl-please, h-help"

Punn quickly scanned his surroundings. When he didn't feel any immediate danger, he went to the woman and helped her stand up.

The first thing he noticed aside from her bruised face was the blood on her hands. Looking closely, the blood was from her bleeding fingertips - all ten of them.

Once the woman was weakly standing with his help, that's when the oddest injury came into Punn's view - on her right thigh, as if carved out using a sharp tool, was the word whore.

Holy hell.

*****

"I had sex with her so she won't suspect something's off between us." Toy said, his voice and face devoid of any emotions. One night in prison probably made him realize that all he can do now is cooperate and try to get his life sentence reduced.

"So you asked her to leave right after you've done the deed?"

"I didn't have to ask. Told you that bitch was fucking someone else behind my back. I knew she would make some excuse to leave."

"So you hired a taxi to wait for her to leave the hotel and drive her to the construction site?" Arm asked. New was able to follow the route taken by the cab so they knew that the taxi was the one to bring the victim to the abandoned site.

"You should know yourself, Khun Arm. With enough money dangled in front of them, even the most well behaved people are capable of committing crimes."

"It's not money's fault. It's the fault of sick pyscho's like you who takes advantage of other people's weaknesses." Tay said angrily.

"How did you kill her?" Arm asked.

"Why would I tell you?" Toy challenged.

Gun spoke through Arm's earpiece. "Tell him the prosecution is willing to reduce the sentence from lifetime to 50 years, on the condition that whatever information he can give us will help arrest the Nightcrawler." The prosecutor was present during interrogation to take note of things they can use during the trial. He was watching in the next room through the one-way mirror.

Arm repeated Gun's offer to Toy.

A small grin slowly formed on Toy's face as he felt like he had the upper hand in the negotiation.

"50 years is too long, isn't?"

Tay spoke throught gritted teeth. "You killed a person, you bastard. 50 years or a lifetime in jail won't bring her back."

Toy laughed. "I want a chance for parole after 10 years in prison."

"Possibility of parole after 30 years. Take it or leave it, Toy. I suggest you don't push it because I'm making this offer once and never again." Arm spoke, emphasizing to Toy who controls the negotiations.

"You'd be a fool not to take it," says Toy's lawyer. It was clear that the old man couldn't care less about what will happen to Toy. Since he has an attorney, Toy can't request for a public lawyer. He's stuck with the lawyer assigned by the Palace who made it very clear that he had no intentions of defending him. He was a mere formality kept in place so Toy can't get a chance to fight his way out.

"I saw a post boasting about killing 3 women and not being caught by the police. You know, one of those sites you find deep in the dark web." Toy said, accepting Arm's final offer.

"It had clear...instructions of how to do things. How to burn off the fingertips, how to inject the sleeping drug and Polonium and how I can freely do what I want as I watch her slowly die by my hands." Toy recalled without an inch of remorse for killing a woman he had shared a bed with.

Off pushed a button to connect to the other room. "Call New and tell him to bring Toy's phone and laptop, the ones we retrieved from his hotel room."

"That's useless." Toy said with a smirk. "I commented on the post saying I'd like to try his method to see if it works and if I'd be able to escape arrest. He told me to send him money and he sent me everything I needed - syringes, chemicals, even a freaking scalpel. But he deleted the post right after I transferred the money."

They were right. With the clean cut made on the skin, they speculated that the Nightcrawler used some kind of a medical tool to make the scars on the victim's body.

"Just tell me what site you used. Give me the log-in details too." New ordered Toy.

"I told you - "

"Just do it, okay? Whatever we agreed on earlier only happens if you can lead us to the Nightcrawler." Tay said.

It didn't take New long before he figured out who the user was. He restored the exchange between Toy and the original post. Digital footprints are something invisible to the eyes of many but under the right lens, one can see what a person clicks, views, watches, posts and comments on everything. On the internet, no one is really invisible.

"I...ah..I think you need to call the cybercrime division." New said to Arm.

"You found the one who posted the content Toy was talking about?"

"Yeah. It's..uhm..well long story short, just imagine that each device leaves its own trail. Hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for but if you do, it'll allow you to find basically any user on the web. I tracked the traces of the original post and it seems like that device is still connected to the internet."

"That means you can give us the location of the device, and hopefully the user, right? Tay, tell the guys to get ready to head out." Arm ordered.

"Uhm...no need to go out. The device is here."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"The device used to post the Nightcrawler modus is currently connected to our precint's wifi."

"He's here."