I had just gotten out of my last year of university when I got the call. I was going to be going for a second interview. I was part of a small class of top-level police cadets. But this job was specific to the position I wanted so badly. I was top of my class and had a lot to give. But there was so many people. I had never been one for a crowd.
I sat next to some of my fellow cadets, the ones I had studied with. But then I looked to my left. There was someone she had never met. Someone who she had never seen come into the office. He did not wear the uniform the rest of us did. "Are you lost? Do you need something?" I asked. But no one answer was given. I was worried that the man was hurt. I thought he needed to give a statement. But when my chief came out, the man had vanished. I was called into my interview.
Once inside, I could see a folder on the desk. I had red letters on the top of the folder. The was so much I could think of. Unfinished cases. Recent crimes. But there was so much that it could have been. But I quickly snapped out of my head. The chief sat in the chair opposite me. "So, why should I give you the promotion above of everyone else?"
"I'm hard working, and I have proved my worth on the team."
"To test that, look through this folder. What do you see?"
I picked up the folder. It wasn't heavy as I thought it would be. I opened it to the first page. It was a photo report of the man from earlier. My eyes widened. "You recognize the man?"
" He was in the waiting room earlier. Or I was him. Is this important."
"he's dead. He died earlier today. We need to find evidence in the photos we got. But there was nothing. Can you find anything?"
I looked at the photo of the dead body. It was covered in blood. You could barely recognize the man. Then I looked at the crime scene. More blood. Lots of blood. "The man didn't make all the blood that covers the crime scene. The man clearly didn't die of blood loss. He was poisoned before being stabbed"
"How can you tell?"
"Well, there is clearly more blood than a human body could make. Meaning there was a second victim. You didn't find any other victims other than the man, meaning the second body is yet to be found. The second victim has the murder weapon."
My chief looked shocked. He knew of my strange mind and my keen eyesight. He let me leave and I went back to the waiting room. I was still on call for minimum crimes. But the man was back. This time he was covered in blood and his arm was missing. "Sir, do you need help?" No answer. I slowly crept closer. But before I could grab the man, the chief opened the door. "The person getting the promotion is Lola." he proclaimed. I was shocked that I was picked. But I couldn't think about that now. I needed to find the second body.
I spent the night driving across town. I was off work. I was hoping I wouldn't find anything. But I was wrong. In an alley, close to the small café, a dead body was cut up and stuffed into an oversized teddy bear. I wanted to be sick. I called my friend, who was on duty at the time. She rushed with the detective team. I had to watch as they cleared everything away. Both victims were found.
I spent two days off work, I was out of town. When I returned, I was starting my new position. I was in my office, looking through my new draws. I was organizing my papers and trying to clean my new desk. Then the chief came in. He was holding the same file I had seen before. "I need you to lead this investigation. I'm going to be out for the time being. I'll finish from where you left off when I'm back."
"Yes sir. But I must ask who is on the team. As the new lot may not be best for the job."
"Don't worry. It's all the officers with two years of experience."
The chief leaves and I look at the file. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I opened it to the first page. It was of the first victim. Then the next one. By the time I read all but two pages. I had seen a lot of evidence. Then it was the page of suspects. My jaw dropped. The chief. He was the main suspect. But how?
I ran to the front office. I needed to catch him before he could hide. "Have you seen the chief?"
"He just left five minutes ago."
"Thank you. Did he take a car?"
"No, I checked. He was walking."
I rushed outside and started to sprint. I had to catch him before it was too late. But the further I got, the harder it was to find him, but the streets were empty. I had to try harder. But I had to head back to my office. There had to be more suspects I could track. The chief couldn't have been the only one there. I reached my office. But before I could open the folder, I small group of officers stormed my office. "I'm sorry ma'am. But there was evidence that your office had something hidden in it. I understand this goes against your word to check out in the city, but we need to check."
"Go ahead. I'll help as well."
I began to search through my own office. The drawers. The chair. The shelves. Everything had to be searched. But nothing. "Looks like our lead was a bust."
"Not quite. There is one place I can't reach. A place I never checked before today. The lights."
The tallest of the group reached up towards the small light. It was the only source of light in my office. There had to be something. I was right. A small piece of paper was tucked into the shade of the light. Enough to make it invisible in the light. The man gave it to me, and I read it aloud. "If you are reading this, I have yet to be caught. The owner of this office, the lead detective, knows who I am. Come find me. The chief acted strangely towards me; he told me to solve this case. Looks like the folder hasn't got it all. But we need to find him. Search the whole city." I said to the group. They left and I left for my car. It wasn't fancy but it would be great to help in the search.
After days of searching, he still didn't have him. I was about to announce it a cold case. I had enough of looking and wanted to do some good for once. Then I drove down an alley way. It was the brightest one and nonsuspicious of anything. I was not meant to find it. But I did. The third victim. I called the squad.
Once I was back in my office, I added the photo to the folder. Yet another thing to deal with. We knew the killer we just couldn't find him. Or the second half of the victim.
