Somewhere on the outskirts of town, '20.38'
It was already dark outside. Stephan parked next to an abandoned, dilapidated house. He turned to Samantha.
"We're going to split up, this is the biggest homeless camp in the whole city. I'll go inside the building to ask and you go through the tents in the area," he said bitterly.
"If you have a problem with me, let's clear it up right here and now," she bravely looked into his eyes.
Stephan raised an eyebrow. "Let's focus on the case," he snapped, "we have to stop a serial killer. Now is not the time for your personal feelings."
"It doesn't work like that, how you plan to deal with cases with me when you don't even want to look at me," she accused him.
However, Stephan managed to get out of the car in the meantime and slammed the door behind him.
"Fine, if you want it this way..." she mumbled and followed his lead. She got out of the car and walked over to the nearest tent.
It was dark inside the building, although the windows were broken, but the penetration of moonlight was prevented by thick clouds in the sky. Stephan shined his flashlight and went through the room from the ceiling to the floor.
The walls were covered with graffiti and pieces of clothing, syringes, papers and other rubbish were lying on the floor. The air was filled with the smell of vomit and feces.
In one room he found a group of men in dirty clothes trying to light a fire inside the building.
"Where do I find Mrs. Milina Malcolm?" he asked without greeting.
Beer cans and hard liquor bottles were rolling around the men, some of the seated men were bending from one side to the other. The most sober of them turned to Stephan. "Look for her outside buddy, she's right in front of the building."
After answering, they continued to ignore him. Stephan turned his flashlight towards the exit and aimed it out of the building. His eyes found Samantha, who beckoned him to come to her.
She was crouching next to a leaky and dirty green tent, when he crept up to her and looked inside he saw a tiny woman. Her facial features were similar to Milo Malcolm, she couldn't deny that she was his mother. She was thin, her clothes were relatively clean, but the smell of cigarettes emanated from the tent.
"Mrs. Malcolm, we're here to ask about your son," Samantha addressed her in a calm voice.
"Milo? What did that jerk do? He should just be locked in the bass as far as I know," she croaked.
"We are not here because of Milo, in one of our cases we discovered a DNA sample that is very similar to Milo's, but not the same. And therefore we assume that you have another son, but he is not mentioned anywhere in the records," she explained.
The woman's eyes widened in surprise and her mouth parted. "I... I don't have any other children. It must be a mistake," she muttered.
"Ma'am, I can see that this is a sensitive topic for you, but it is very important to our investigation. It can save a human life," she tried to convince her.
Milina gently shook her head with her mouth still hanging open. She was wiping her hands on her thighs and her eyes were fixed on Samatha's hands. Nervousness oozed from her.
"Where can we find Milo's father," Stephan tried with another question.
"He...he's locked up, he's in a psychiatric hospital," she said, "he's been hallucinating heavily ever since we met, but a few months ago he attacked colleagues at work and was completely out of it, he's been locked up ever since."
YOU ARE READING
NIGHT STRANGLER
Mystery / ThrillerA young woman was murdered in her apartment at night. The best search team 'ALPHA' was called to investigate the case. However, without member Stacey, they can't keep up like before. Therefore, they are joined by Samantha, who also lost her entire t...
