The Midnight Murders

PROLOUGUE

The ringing of the phone peirced through the tense silence of the office, echoing around the large room.
Chief of police, Raymond McCann, reached out an unsteady arm and picked up the receiver.

"Hello? " he asked. "Who is it?"

He glanced at his watch, and then checked the large wall clock. 12 midnight.

"Hello again, officer."

"I said who is it?" Raymond repeated.

"I would like to report a dead body." The voice on the other end said, ignoring his question.

"Right," Raymond replied, stiffly. "Where are you?"

"Upper east side."

"Right," Raymond said again, jotting it down. "And do you have any idea who killed the victim? "

"I do."

"Well?"

"It was me, officer"

Raymond looked around the room, at the several other officers listening in to the conversation, bewildered.

"I see, is the body intact?"

A pause.

"It is at the moment."

"Okay," Raymond said slowly. "Do you want to wait there for a patrol car to come and bring you to the station?"

"No, I don't think I will." The voice replied.

"Okay, well-"

"Goodbye, officer."

There was a beep as the person on the other end of the line hung up.

"Damn!" Raymond slammed the phone down.

"Thats the third call exactly like that we've had in three nights." Raymond said to the room. "Each night exactly the same, right down to the same voice."

"We need to do something, Ray." One of the officers said, standing up. "we need to save this city before there isn't a city to save."

Raymond sat for a moment, fiddling with his expensive pen, and then got up, breathing out heavily.

"Find me someone to sort this out." He said, finally. "And I want it done quickly, with no attention brought to the matter." He added. "This must not get out. There would be mass panic! Jacobs, you retrieve the body with Harrow. Harrow, I want that thing examined to with in an inch of its life." Ray paused, as if in thought. "Well, an inch of its death," he finished. "I'm going to get a coffee, I want a report on my desk in the morning, and no one breathes a word about this, do you understand?"

He scanned the faces of the officers looking back at him, glanced back at the clock, and strode past them out of the room.