Song Stories (Part 1)

Chapter 4

20XX/10/03 - Morning

With a solemn expression he looked down on the young woman's corpse that lay in front of him. Her clothes were tethered and stained with blood from the at least a dozen cuts her body had sustained. It had once been an elegant outfit, business like, classy - but without seeming prude. Maybe she had worked in an office, but not the ordinary, boring kind. One that had its employees not only sit behind a desk and receive calls but had them deal with other people or had them go out in the open too. Her style of dress and make-up suggested she had needed to present herself but without losing respect or credibility. Had she been a sales-person? Or maybe she had been a-

"Leon! Any suggestions on this one yet?"
"Urgh..." A pained grunt came from the man in the blue police uniform as his superior hit his shoulder with more force than had been necessary. He quickly pushed the object he had held in his hand into the pocket of his jacket before addressing the detective.
"Well, she most likely got murdered."
"Wow, astute observation. But I could have deduced that myself without bringing in my best man."
"Best ma- Joseph, you know I'm nothing more than a small fly officer."
Leon's words drew a laugh from the older man. "Still with the humble approach, huh? You've brought men down that were way scarier than our little scissors fetishist here. And yet, here you are, still in that lowly officer's get up."
The dark blonde pulled on his collar to give his neck a little breather from the restrain it posted. "Yeah, well... You know I'd never see myself in a position like yours. Way too much responsibility. And all those rules you gotta follow-"
"The rules that apply to officers just as much as to detectives?"
"Heh... Yeah, well, as a detective everyone actually keeps their eyes on you though, to make sure you actually follow them."
"And that hinders you in your work."
"Hmm, let's say some rules don't exactly encourage getting any results."
"Hahahahah! Ever the free spirit, eh?" The detective slapped his broad hand on his shoulder again, drawing another strained sound from the other man. "Well, alright. I'll leave you alone with our beauty here for a while. I'm afraid I gotta say a few words to our friends from the news or they might get some naughty ideas like stepping over the tape. But do me a favor: Don't pull any of your reckless stunts while I'm not looking. Do ya hear me?"

With a nod Leon watched his superior stalk off. Feeling a little exhausted from the conversation, he let out a sigh before turning back towards the corpse. That's when his blue eyes caught sight of a woman sneaking around behind the broad stone pillars that supported the abandoned building. He scoffed to himself in disbelief.
"Hey, Miss! This is a crime scene." He called out.
The brunette flinched in surprise at being caught red-handed and her head turned into the direction his voice had come from. She nervously wiped her hands on her blue pair of jeans before giving him a charming smile. "Heh, yeah, well. I know." She shouted, trying hard to sound nonchalant.
"Oh? Well, great, if you know, then what are you doing here?"

Seemingly deeming his question as an invitation to come closer she stepped towards him, as she rummaged inside her pockets. Leon raised an eyebrow as she pulled out a notepad before hurriedly stuffing it back with a frustrated groan. Then he understood.
"Ahhh, I see. You're a journalist!" he exclaimed with a strange newfound energy.
"What? Uhm, yeah-"
"Well, why didn't you say so earlier! Step up, step up!"
The woman looked at him confused as Leon walked up beside her and placed his hand on her back, gently pushing her towards the corpse. "Let's see, let's see~" With an enthusiastic smile on his lips he crouched down. "So, as you can see our victim, god bless her, is blonde. She is, excuse me, was rather young. No wrinkles there. She also had a rather pretty face. A shame she died, really."
"Uhm, why are you telling me this?"

"Oh, right, right. That's obviously not what you're interested in. You can see all that with your own eyes after all. How stupid of me." Leon proceeded to point towards the several cuts that slowly were beginning to turn a copper color as the blood had started to dry a while ago. "See these? You can only see like six or seven of them from this side, but if you turn her over, there are at least another eight more of them. They're also rather inconsistent. Some are quite deep while others barely scratch the surface of the skin. It also seems like our culprit didn't really target any of the vital organs – well, he hid some of them, but not with precision. It's more like they managed a few lucky strikes. Anyways- Shouldn't you be writing all that down?"