Dorian Mystery - Art of Murder

Chapter V

On the table there were 6 patches. The one with the message I think it was already burned and irrelevant as of this moment.

The victims were:

Paul Lemmington: Age 75. Born in June 1946, he used to work as an attorney during his lifetime, but he was retired until he was brutally murdered. He was killed in the same night as Barbara Delgado.

Barbara Delgado: Age 34. Born in February 1988, she used to be a reporter for a famous newspaper that always hit the tops. She was killed the same night as Paul Lemmington.

Henry Milson: Age 59. Born in January 1959, he was a pilot that always put his passengers life before his. He was killed during the second full moon night.

Saratosa Maldive: Age 27. Born in August 1994. She was a regular housewife, taking care of her children. No job or anything to indicate she works something else aside of taking care of her kids. She was killed during the third full moon night.

Oswald Peterson: Age 22: Born in December 1999, he was a student to the National University. He was studying to become an engineer. He was killed the same night as Iris Pelagus.

Iris Pelagus: Age 17: Born in January 2005, she was attending the highschool, good grades, no reason for anyone to want to kill her. She was killed the same night as Oswald Peterson.

'I try to see the pattern, but I can't see any clues.' Junior told me after making the list with the names of the victims. Indeed nothing seemed to connect these people as they were not knowing each other, not their families were aware of this, however there was something else hidden in plain sight.

'Check this.' I told him after I finished my personal deduction.

Junior looked puzzled and admitted that was something interesting to look into. The killer has murdered at first crime scene and the last one with the portraits two different people in the same night, but during this time he only killed one person.

'You think it's a code?' Junior asked while I was thinking of the reason why he would kill them.

I looked at him and nodded as a yes, that must be a message from him.

'So we have PL BD HM SM OP IP? Might it be an anagram for something?' Junior replied very intrigued by this riddle.

'If it is, then it's a tough one.' I replied and looked into his note. My assumption was that it was an anagram as he stated earlier, but there were either too many or too few details in here.

I separated the letters and started to make words out of them: P L B D H M S M O P I P.

While most of the words were not suspicious at all, one word stood up and made my heard racing. Was it her?

'Bishop?' Junior looked surprised on my reaction reading that word.

'Bishop... after all these years.'

'I don't understand.'

I looked at him and told him about the Queen's Jewelry and how I found the letter.

***

I've read that letter aloud and initially I thought that it was a dumb genius, but actually she was a genius. After I finished reading the letter I heard a clap somewhere in the confession room. Looking there, I saw a woman with long dark hair, brown eyes. She was full of pride and laugh.

'Hahaha congratulations, detective, you've finally learned how to read, but you're too late. She kept on laughing while applauding me. I was intrigued since she was waiting for me, like she knew I would be coming.

'Who are you and where are the Queen's Jewels?'

'Oh, you mean this? I just wanted to have some fun.' She answered me on a sad note after she pulled up the jewels from her army pocket.

'Ok, playtime's over, give me that back.'

She looked at me angry now and I could cut the tension with a knife if she would not had thrown the jewels in air and ran away. I picked up the item, but she simply vanished and I never saw this woman afterward. But this case was very weird because she sent me this message using chess pieces, directed me here just to run away?

Junior listened to my story very closely and was surprised, just like I was, on how that adventure ended.

'Hmmm, maybe there's more than meets the eye.' He replied after I finished the story.

'What do you mean?'

Junior turned the notebook page and he started to explain me his theory.

'What if she is The Artist?'

I was looking at him surprised of this deduction, but declined this theory as she was just a thief. A maniacal one, but still a thief.

'That leads me to the second theory, what if this woman that you've met inside the church is working with the real Artist. This would be the only way the killer would know your face and find out about your identity.'

'If it is as you say then why did she thrown the jewels and ran away back then?'

Junior looked at me and simply said:

'Maybe this is all part of a bigger plan.'

That could be a theory, but to investigate someone for so many years? It's been how many? Ten? Fifteen years ago when the Missing Jewels incident happened? Improbable, but at least it was a lead.

'Tonight's full moon.' Junior said.

I was shocked when I've realized that he was right, tonight is full moon and he will be hunting again. We need to find out who's his next target before it's too late. But how can we do that? Seems he killed just to send us this message, but how is he picking up the victims? Was it because of their jobs suiting the book? Or was just something random to fill in his message?

The patches were all arranged on the table and examining them hadn't revealed any additional Morse Codes. Maybe it was something else hidden in them. One of the most important lessons I've learned in life was that in order to catch a killer, you have to think like one. I closed my eyes and tried to get into the killer's mind.

He likes to call himself the Artist. He kills people only during the full moon. Is he finding the full moon giving him more energy or finds it more romantic? He leaves a patch with the victim portrait near the victim's body. Is he interpreting it as a gift for a very special occasion? The celebration of the victim's death?

Might it be this way. Either way this guy has to be stopped.

I opened my eyes and noticed how Junior was still focusing on the anagram to see if there were other clues hidden there. I took the plastic bag and put all the patches inside, but right there and at that precised moment, I was able to see the clue, right through the plastic bag. I thrown the patches back on the table and started to arrange them until I found the right combination.

'I think that I found the next place where he will be building.' I shouted all of a sudden, startling Junior.

He looked on how the patches were intertwining and created the silhouette of a building.

'Looks like a pharmacy.' He remarked after inspecting the details much closer.

'Do you think we can find it in time?'

'Based on its shape, I can say it's a sole building and not integrated in other blocks or buildings. This can narrow my search to let's say three or the most five buildings in the city.' Junior said and started to search on his phone the addresses of those buildings.

'Let's check them all real quick.' I answered him and took a photo of the silhouette with my phone to check something.'