Crippled Lies

(Chapter 2: Eyes Can be Deceiving) Katie's POV

Katie drove to the new crime scene at the Windsor Heights Apartment Complex. She had gotten a phone call around 2:30 a.m. from a fellow detective and friend, Tommy Mendez. Always eager to work, she quickly got up from bed, got dressed, and headed to the scene. As she drove, she thought about the phone conversation.

"Hello?"

"Childress, we got another case. It's a 33-year old Caucasian woman, name Stacy Jenkins. So far, it looks like a suicide."

"Okay, well I'm on my way. What's the room number?"

"364."

"Kay, see you soon."

Katie soon arrived at the scene. She walked over to the body. She had multiple deep wounds on her wrists, showing that she had cut her wrist. There was blood on her right temple and at the end of the table and drops of blood on the floor from where she apparently hit her head.

"Where's the weapon?" Katie asked as Tommy looked around uninterested.

He threw his right thumb over his shoulder pointing towards a wall, "Bathroom."

Katie squatted near her body and looked at her face. She had a bruise print on her left cheek. It appeared that she had gotten into some kind of altercation. She slowly rose and walked towards Tommy, who was muttering to himself saying he was ready to go back to bed as he looked longingly at the door.

"From what I can see, she was depressed about something and slit her wrists. Apparently not dying quick enough, she got up from the covered toilet seat and started walking towards the front room. Weak from the blood loss, she got dizzy reached for something and failed. Literally, get it?" Katie asked Tommy, who just rolled his eyes as Katie laughed at her corny joke.

"Please continue, Childress."

"I was just adding a little humor. Geez. But, she fell and hit her head right on the temple and died. Who found the body?"

"One of her friends found her."

"Okay, well I'm gonna look around a bit."

Katie walked into the kitchen, and she saw the open knife drawer. She then headed towards the bedroom. She saw open drawers and a white suitcase with black polka dots on the bed. Walking over to the bed, she opened the suitcase to see clothes strewed everywhere, as if she was in a hurry. She walked back out of the bedroom perplexed. She looked at Tommy as he explained to the other officers that it was a suicide.

"Well, if it is indeed a suicide, she must have been pretty anxious to get to heaven because there's a suitcase packed."

"A suitcase?" Tommy walked into the bedroom to confirm the new finding. "Yeah, that is strange. It looked like she was in a hurry. Was she going on a business trip?"

"There are no dress clothes. There aren't any toiletries either which means that she was planning to leave ASAP, until she had the certain urge to off herself."

"Something doesn't add up; unless someone staged this to look like a suicide to cover up a murder."

"That does seem like a possibility, but we need to get more information on the victim. She was living with her boyfriend right? This the guy?" Katie pointed at a picture on the wall where she and assuming the boyfriend were smiling on the beach.

"I guess so. We'll get the information, and we'll call him."