Secret in the Morgue

Chapter 2

A pile of dead animals was found, and tons of garbage was scattered from the house of Mr. Jackson. It was reported by one of the concerned neighbors after hearing muffled noises and screams at their house at night. It was also noted that he is suspected of doing some illegal things, such as selling drugs and cocaine. 
 
The data was submitted to the office of Claudette. She read all that information regarding the report of Ms. Scott, the neighbor next to Mr. Jackson. She couldn't handle the screams that woke her up at night; that's why she immediately reported it to the police. 
 
"Would you do something about this Chief Davis?" Lance appeared as one of the police officers who were tasked to investigate the matter. 
 
"It looks like we have to take care of this right away," Claudette said while reading all the reports regarding the case. 
 
"It's just a few blocks away from the office; we could get there in time," he replied. 

Lance Marlowe became a cop after his training. A police captain saw his potential and how quickly he responded to a case. He then had a chance to become a sergeant due to his hard work. Like Claudette, he had a good memory and was the same age as her. She then chose him to be a part of the investigation. 
 
"Let's go," Claudette commanded. She wears her cap and takes her notebook with her. 
 
After 30 minutes of driving, they arrived at their destination. They went to the house of Ms. Scott first, asking for further details regarding her report against Mr. Jackson. 
 
They knocked at the door and were answered by a middle-aged man who was surprised to see police at their doorstep. 
 
"Uhm, may I help you?" He was confused. 
 
"Is Ms. Scott at home? We received a report next door," Lance said politely. 
 
"Oh right! He's my daughter, Elly." He called her name. "Elly, there's two officers at the door. They want to speak to you." 
 
"Yes, Dad, I'm coming," she shouted from the living room. 
 
"Thanks, Dad, glad you came. I never thought my report was sent to you guys. Please come inside and we will talk." 
 
She welcomes the two officers and offers them a glass of coffee.
 
"Thank you for your hospitality," Claudette said in a polite tone. "We came here to get more information regarding your report. Can you please state what you know about Mr. Jackson?." 
 
She sits with them and clears her throat before she speaks. "Uhm, Mr. Jackson is known in our place as a hunter. He always goes hunting for a lot of years. Even my father knew about him being a hunter." She plays with her finger as she talks.
 
"He was a nice neighbor; we knew him as a good guy, but there's something odd about him that I've noticed up to this day. It has been a week since I heard screams at night since my bedroom is next to Mr. Jackson's house. It sounded like a woman who was in pain. I thought at first it might be just his daughter or wife. Upon asking questions to my dad, he said that Mr. Jackson doesn't have a wife or a daughter and he is living on his own." 
 
"Are you sure about that?" Lance assured. "Maybe he had one, but you didn't notice it." 
 
"He doesn't; we were his neighbors for years, and we didn't see someone who lives with him," she replied. 
 
Claudette signals her to continue her story. 
 
"Those screams are always heard at night; it was about 50 seconds, then after that nothing can be heard. I don't know if my dad hears it too, but I even asked him about it and he told me that I was just hearing things." She shakes her head. "Yesterday, I looked at his house to find out if a woman was living inside his house. I found nothing in particular, and then there was a horrible smell coming inside his backdoor. I looked over to where the smell was, and I saw dead animals and some trash all over the place," she added. 
 
"What's this animal exactly?" Claudette asked. 
 
"I believe it is a wild boar. You can tell by the black fur. It was killed a week ago, which explains why the smell is rotten. The worst part is that Mr. Jackson is selling drugs and cocaine, which he stores in his basement. I even found those bags in the garbage near his front door." 
 
"This is a curious case; we will try to investigate it. Thank you for the report. We will give you updates if we find some evidence." Claudette stood up and thanked Ms. Scott. 
 
"It's my pleasure; please don't hesitate to ask me again if you want some answers." She smiled at them. 
 
"Thank you for that, Ms. Scott. We will contact you if we already have leads. Thank you for the coffee," Lance responded. 
 
They leave after thanking Ms. Scott; there's no time to lose at this moment, and they march towards the house of Mr. Jackson. They tried to ring the doorbell, but there was no answer. Lance pulled the doorknob, but it was locked inside.
 
"I don't think he's home." Lance looks at the windows, but there's no one there. 
 
"She told me about going to the back door, right? Maybe we can go inside through the back door," Claudette suggested. 
 
"Right, if it's still locked, maybe I could use my lockpicking technique," he said, laughing.
 
"Don't joke around." She's sounded more serious. 
 
"I'm sorry, chief," he apologized with it.
 
Claudette rolled her eyes and took off his phone to take pictures. Just as they were about to go through the back door, a stench of rotten smell covered the whole place. 
 
"Geez, what is he going to do with those animals he killed anyway?" Lance covered his nose. "It rinks with odor." 
 
She covered her nose as well and took pictures of the dead animals while Lance was trying to open the back door. Surprisingly, the door was unlocked, some papers were scattered inside, and there were no light bulbs. 
 
"Do you have a flashlight with you?" She asked Lance, who was now intrigued with the surroundings. 
 
"I have," he turned it on and gave it to Claudette. "Is this some kind of haunted house? It feels like Mr. Jackson's home has been abandoned for years." 
 
They entered the living room and saw white stains on the furniture. Lance rubs it against his fingers. It was like a powdered substance mixed with water, which now spilled over the table. It seems like some kind of drug. 
 
Claudette goes further into the living room and witnesses some pictures of women at the top of the shelf. She didn't recognize those women; she searched the names in the photos for concrete information after their investigation. 
 
They look every nook and cranny downstairs and upstairs of the house, but there are no signs of Mr. Jackson's whereabouts. 
 
"Oh sh*t!" He muttered. Claudette was surprised by the sudden action of Lance.
 
"Chief Davis, there's something inside here." 
 
Claudette noticed the blood stains on the floor where Lance was standing. She was bewildered; there were a lot of skeletons in the kitchen, and those were not just from animals but human beings. 
 
"Let's call the investigation off for now," she commanded. 
 
She took her phone and took pictures and messaged other police to take action about this mess. They are almost going to get dizzy because of the horrible smell coming from the dead animals and rotten flesh in the kitchen. 
 
"Let's get out of here; I got the evidence we need. We will now head into my office and tell it to the other cops." She then pulled Lance's arms and got outside the house. 
 
"Should we tell it to Ms. Scott about what we witnessed?" he asked. 
 
"We will tell her after that. Go and message Ms. Scott about leaving the neighborhood away from Mr. Jackson. It's dangerous if they keep on staying thin in place. We still don't have any leads of Mr. Jackson's, but one thing for sure he might be out in the woods hunting for another animal." She explains. "But right now, we must first report this to other police officers." 
 
Lance nodded his head and did what he was told. Claudette then started the engine of the car and drove back to the office to discuss the report. When they arrived at the office, she started to write data based on the case they investigated about Mr. Jackson. 
 
Soon after the news had riled up other police officers, she called out a meeting to discuss the matter ahead. 
 
"This was the recent case reported by Ms. Scott. I asked you all to review her explanation, which was summarized by Officer Lance Marlowe. We looked around the house of the suspect and we saw some evidence." 
 
A picture of the house they had taken was presented on the projector. "This is the carcasses of the dead animals he collected. It was already rotten, which caused a horrible smell." 
 
She then shows another picture. "This was the white substance. It's a drug that is mixed with water. She clicked the presentation showing another picture. "This is the blood stains on the floor and the skeletons found in the kitchen of his house." 
 
"Upon our house searched, we didn't see nor encounter Mr. Jackson," Lance added. 
 
"All of that evidence is clear enough that he is guilty about something," Sgt. Cole proclaimed. 
 
"Indeed, Sergeant," she agreed. "My claims to this case appear to be broader. Mr. Jackson is known for being a hunter; the wild boar he killed is sold in exchange for hallucinogens, a type of drug that causes hallucinations and cocaine. These substances will make the user high and lose consciousness. Mr. Jackson brought the women in his house and had them intake the drug, which he mixed with water by offering them a drink." 
 
"After they had drank the water, that's when the drug takes effect. With too little knowledge, the victims are brought into the basement to be examined by him. He cut them with his butcher knife while they were high. He only does these horrible things when the sun goes down. That explains why Ms. Scott heard screams and muffled noises at night. There's even blood scattered around the basement door, which has already gone dry, meaning the murder took place a week ago. The skeletons are the evidence of that crime, and Mr. Jackson is considered a serial killer." 
 
The police officers exchanged glances and wrote some of the details in their notebooks as proof of the case. 
 
"After searching for the names of the victims using the pictures I had as evidence, they are about 20 years of age." She then shows a slide of each of the names and photos of the victims. 
 
"The first woman named Amelia was a 20-year-old high school girl who went missing 5 days ago. She had long blonde hair and had a mole on her right cheek. She was last seen at school, but she didn't come home after that." 
 
"Amelia's corpse was not found in the house of Mr. Jackson since the skeleton is difficult to identify, but we will try to investigate more about the case," Lance added. 
 
"The other woman is Katie; she's 23 years old and a part-time worker in the supermarket near their town. She was last seen 3 days ago and reported to have seen Mr. Jackson with her. It's one of the victims that is related to Mr. Jackson." Claudette then shows the picture of the girl.
 
"The last one will be Clara; she's the same age as Amelia. Mr. Jackson already had a liking for her since she reminded her of his mother. It's pretty ironic, isn't it?" She shows another photo of a girl. "She's the youngest among the two victims. Clara left their house at night; her parents said she left for a party but didn't return after that." 
 
"When did she go missing?" A police officer asked. 
 
"About 7 days ago, her parents were still trying to find her; some police officers are calling out to look for Clara, but unfortunately they don't even know where to start." 
 
"Could she be killed already?" Sergeant Matt asked out of curiosity. 
 
"Well, it might be. We still can't figure out whether one of the skeletons we found on Mr. Jackson is Clara's remains or even the two girls involved," she replied. "The only thing we have to do now is to take action on this and arrest Mr. Jackson."
 
"But we don't even know where he was; we can't just barge in if the suspect weren't there." Another police officer said so.
 
"That's why I concluded that Mr. Jackson was away to hunt. We should go look over the woods and search for him. Who knows, maybe he is now at his home relaxing; it might be the other way around. We should focus on finding the suspect before it kills another innocent girl." Claudette seems to be calm. She knew what she was doing and was trying to make the case closed as soon as possible. 
 
The police officers do their job to investigate and search for the suspect under the command of Chief Davis. Lance then helped her find any leads regarding the victims and to identify their last remains. It's hard to make up who the skeletons belong to.
 
Lance showed up beside Claudette while she was writing down in her notebook.
 
"Ms. Scott and her father had gone off with their relatives for now while Mr. Jackson is not yet to be found." He tells the message to her. 
 
"Good to know; at least we are assured that they are safe. He could have been back in his house and harmed them," she replied in a serious tone. 
 
"The police officers are now on their duty; we sure hope to find and catch him already." 
 
After 2 days of searching, they found out that Mr. Jackson had gone missing. He didn't come back home after the investigation. The police officers are now tired of searching for him until one of them sends a message that they saw a cabin located in the woods near the house of Mr. Jackson. 
 
When Claudette heard the news, she began to search the cabin and found Mr. Jackson's lifeless body on the ground. He was dead 3 days ago, and his body is almost ready to rot. They saw a gun in his hand and fired it into his chest, leading to his death. No idea why he committed suicide, but one thing is for sure: he did it so the police wouldn't be able to arrest him. 
 
Lance noticed some of the pictures scattered on the floor where the body of Mr. Jackson was. Those are the pictures of the three dead women who were chopped off into pieces. Mr. Jackson killed those women and ate some of their body parts. The other parts are kept in a container, but some of them are already rotten and too horrible to look at. 
 
The sight of why he killed those women is too unbearable to imagine. The dead body of Mr. Jackson was cremated and kept in a jar for further inspection. Upon hearing the news of the victim's family, they went pale and shocked to know the condition of the victims after they were killed. 
 
Claudette apologized to the families of the victims and stated her condolences. She couldn't do anything about the situation that happened to the 3 women, but she hoped the suspect would rot in hell and forever suffer in the afterlife. 
 
Lance Marlowe stays by Claudette's side after the grief of the victim's family. He also apologized for what happened to the three women. The police officers put caution tape on the house of Mr. Jackson, and the government plans to destroy his home and burn the things he owns. 
 
Claudette then went to see Ms. Scott and her father and told them the news about it. As expected, they are shocked to know that Mr. Jackson could do those horrible things and still glad she wasn't one of them. However, she feels bad about the victim's death, and if she had known it beforehand, she could have done anything to save their lives. 
 
"This is the case where we didn't catch the suspect," Lance blurted out. 
 
Claudette then faked a smile. "You are right, he chose to kill himself rather than meet his fate in jail." 
 
"Is this the most brutal case you have handled so far, Chief Davis?" He asked. 
 
"Not really," Claudette shrugs. "They're the far worst cases I've handled. Some suspects even do unimaginable things to their victims before killing them." 
 
"It's my first case being partnered with you, so you'll never know some previous cases I've handled," she added.
 
"I do know some; I've read the data you wrote in your notebook." 
 
"Since when?" 
 
"Let's just say when you are busy unraveling the crime that happened by Mr. Jackson." 
 
"I put that on my table; when did you get it?" She asked.
 
"You never notice, I guess," he says, sitting beside her. "Chief Davis, we had the same age, right?". He asked, making her raise an eyebrow.
 
"You've been promoted as a chief when you started doing this job. How did you do that though?" He was curious to know.
 
"Nothing in particular," she said shortly. "Just do your job and work your mind because some crimes need a creative mind to unravel them." 
 
"That's it?" He doesn't seem convinced. 
 
"Some police can't do that, you know, only those who are observers can," she replied. "Officer Marlowe, you are tasked to work with me since you have good memory and it's easy for you to get the job done. It's not long before you've been promoted as a Sergeant either." 
 
"You think so?" There's a spark in his eyes. 
 
"You will someday." She had high hopes for him as her partner. One day he will realize what Claudette meant when he maintains hard work and dedication to his job. 
 
For him, he considered himself grateful for being alive despite having this job and risking his life. Now, when he looks at Claudette, he can't admire more of his job since he had an inspiration to continue because of her.