Blood Flower (girl x girl) [COMPLETE]

chapter 9: An Empty Pot.

"Keith, I'm not sure if you should step in."

Keith frowned as his team leader held out a hand to prevent him from entering the area barricaded off by police tape. All cases that were assumed to be done by the Duct Tape Murderer automatically went to their team. There was no reason for him to be blocked.

"Who's the victim, sir?" Keith asked, pushing the leader's arm down and standing on the tips of his toes trying to see within the perimeter.

Various police officers surrounded the area, making sure that the scene within would remain uninterrupted by the public or from animals. The forensics team was already all over the scene dressed fully in white. There was the familiar sound of the camera shutter going off as evidence was being recorded. As usual, when it came to reported deaths, the atmosphere was solemn and quiet. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"It's... It's not a pleasant sight."

"Is it someone we know?" Keith questioned, raising the police tape and stepping under it. His team leader was on his heels, still stuttering and not able to get his words out properly.

The police officer stepped around the forensics team, walking towards the body in the centre. Already, he could see the trademark duct tape over the victim's mouth, along with black messy hair with dirt. The body was half-buried in the soil of the hill, with dried blood covering the victim's face. Keith walked closer. Currently, the team was trying to unearth the rest of the body and pull it out of the dirt before further decomposition took place.

"Keith. Keith, we need you for questioning. You're the last one to see her alive at the moment," a police officer said, tapping his shoulder.

He squinted at the body, trying to make out the facial features.

"Who is it?"

"Lara."

Lara. Of course, he knew that already. It was just impressive how unrecognisable she had become due to all the dried blood. She really had gotten roughed up last night. Keith's eyes roamed her body in the dirt, before glancing at the photographs the forensic team had taken so far. Once again, it looked like there was no key evidence left behind that would allude to him nor "Vella's" identity. She had done a good job once more. Keith let out a sigh, running his hand through his hair, knowing that he had to make sure he looked shocked to the rest of his team.

"You drove her last night? Where to? And did you know if she was meeting anyone?"

"I drove her to the new street. She said she was going on a date, but that's all I know," Keith replied, pinching his nose bridge.

Boy, he was tired. He had spent the last few hours cleaning up the blood from the bedroom. Thankfully, the police were still far away from locating the original site at which victims were killed, which were: showrooms. Rooms modelled to look like what a potential finished apartment would look like, and barely visited by people except real estate agents and their interested buyers. They didn't have proper functioning surveillance systems in place, nor did the area have many people since it was still undergoing construction. Keith still had to do a thorough job of changing the bedsheets and removing all signs of blood, but he was not too concerned about it. The stakes weren't too high yet since the police hadn't caught on. There was little pressure on him in terms of the site cleanup.

"A date. So it furthers our theory that the murderer might be a man?"

"I guess so," Keith sighed, lowering his head to hide the grin. How stereotypical of them to assume that Lara had been going on a date with someone of the opposite sex. Well. He had no intention of correcting them anyway.

"Sir! We got something!"

Keith turned around. A forensic scientist was waving for his team leader to come closer, directing him to something around Lara's abdominal area. Curious, Keith stepped closer too. He needed to ensure that nothing important slipped its way into the police department's hands.

"A white flower, not from around here," the man reported, holding something between his tweezers. "It was in her pocket."

The flower. The flower that "Vella" had given her to celebrate their first date together. Keith frowned, shoving his hands into his pants pockets as the forensic scientist bagged the flower carefully. From afar, Keith could hardly tell that it was a white flower. Lara's blood had stained most of the petals a dark red.

Looking at the flower in the bag, the team leader called the man holding the camera over. Keith's frown deepened. It was only a flower, there was nothing impressive about it. In fact, the two of them had made sure that the flower was extremely common and found in many flower shops in the area, so that even if the police found it, it would be hard to track the buyer. Why the fuss?

"There's something scratched in here. Take a picture."

Keith froze.

"What was it scratched in with? This line here looks so curved," another forensic scientist pointed out. They looked around, before bending down. They brought the bagged flower by Lara's hand.

"Looks like it was carved into the flower stem with her fingernail. I will need to do further checks before I can confirm it."

"Can you identify what it says?" Keith's team leader asked him, leaning closer to look at it in detail.

"Again, I need to look at this better back in the lab," the man sighed, as he tilted his head to the side. "But it looks like... A letter 'K'?"

***

Written on 23 Nov 2022