The Preci.ous.se Stone

Visit Police Headquarters

After that evening, we didn't have to wait for long. On the morning of 3rd January 2016, Holmes came to my room, while I was getting ready for the day, and asked me to accompany him to police headquarters in Cedar. After having a quick lunch on the way to the car, Holmes came down dressed more than usual. He wore the normal shirt and trousers, but along with it, he had worn a long overcoat and a funny hat. It seemed as if he has made quite a reputation of showing himself like Sherlock Holmes.

On our journey, Holmes sat in silence behind, while the driver and I were chatting about the general news of the locality and the crime rate of the town.

After we reached the headquarters, we were introduced to Inspector Light. It seemed as if he was quite up to his family surname. When we entered his room, it was well lit and cleaned to every single corner. Holmes had been silent all along the way and even inside the cabin. Light, told us about the case, the same details in the newspaper, and the results of their failed investigation. On seeing Holmes's face and body expression, Inspector Light apologized to Holmes saying," I am really sorry sir for not calling you within the two weeks of the crime. But, to compensate for the loss that I might have incurred in your investigation, Mr. Kareja's room is still locked and no one has been allowed to enter it, to date. As for the body and the evidence, all of them are well preserved as they were. " On hearing this, Holmes relaxed his body posture a little bit. This action showed that Light might be taking some lessons from the master.

Later, we were led to the morgue room. Here, the body of the late Mr. Kareja as said by Inspector Light was well preserved and quite cold. But, the sight was indeed a very disturbing one. He must have been five foot and 7 inches tall, his face pale, with a curved back showing us the reason as to why his jewels looked so fine and elegant. His fingers were burnt to such an extent that the muscles underneath can be seen, with skin as its soot. The face was cut in so many angles that the bone and the face structure cannot be maintained, and his face can't be resurrected. The bullet marks were in very precise order and position and were being shot from a very close range as the area near it was black due to gunpowder. There were in total 12 bullet shots, one in the head, both the eyes, one in the mouth, one in the heart, two in the chest, mostly both the lungs, one in the abdomen, both the elbows, and both the knees. The killer might have wanted to make sure that no aspect of the body is left to be preserved or used for charity. Blood loss was severe and the color, well you might say matched with the red wine the gentleman was drinking that night. Other than that there were marks, where hot wood might have been placed, as for the hair, I think it was shaved clean before the torture began.

Holmes asked me for the time and procedure of death. I told him that the man was first made unconscious, then the killer shaved his head, then the torture, and at the end all of these slices and bullet shots.

Holmes asked Inspector Light for all the investigation reports to date. Holmes spent about an hour seeing through the files and dismissed them as either being incomplete or inappropriate. He said that many details were missing and someone might have tampered with the body and the evidence after their discovery and also in the morgue and evidence room. This statement shocked both me and Inspector Light for a while. Inspector Light was on the edge of shouting at Holmes, but Holmes took him in his confidence and told him that it was being done by someone who knew about the case as closely as Light knew, and was still looking at us. Light at first thought that it might be just a coincidence, but later, having a belief in Holmes's skills, accepted his observations and his tone of anger changed. He said," Mr. Holmes, how can you pass such an observation. I have personally chosen all the officers for this investigation. I have both faith and trust that none of my team members might have done such a thing. But, if you think so, why not meet them in the conference room? " Saying this, Inspector Light departed from the room and went to arrange a meeting in the conference room. After around fifteen minutes, we were asked to join them in the conference room. Here, as Inspector Light had said. His team had covered every department of the police department for this investigation. Every official in his team was the assistant of a particular branch and had a completely clean record. Holmes was standing there and staring at each officer's behavior. He asked some general questions regarding their views of the case and later assured Inspector Light that there is nothing to worry about, and he might have been wrong in judging his team. With that, our visit to the police headquarters came to an end.