Realization (L Lawliet)

Nine

     L suspected Nikola. He was almost sure of it at this point. Nikola came up with correct conclusions about cases too quickly. 

     After all, it takes a crook to catch a crook. 

     L had way more criminals on his side than good guys. 

     But again, Nikola was a little too innocent. L was pretty sure that a different personality of Nikola's was the real killer. So, he found Nikola's medical files. 

     None of the terms made any sense to him, so he sent the files to Hydrogen for her to translate into dumb English. 

     But since Hydrogen was in London and it was midnight over there, L expected a late reply. 

     In the meantime, the genetics tests for the first five victims had returned. 

    L stared at the screen, thumb pressed in between of his lips. 

    The first victim was named Ava Bahari. She was 23 years old and was one of NASA's prized cosmologists. 

      The second victim was Joseph Grant. He was 21 and had no job, he was a history student studying at UCLA. But the thing was, his test scores were way above average and he studied the one irrational fear L had: History of the Dark Ages, or in other words, witches, warlocks, and witch-hunting.

     The third was Michael Helo. He was the youngest of the group, only eighteen. L could see nothing special about him other than his Wattpad account, which had nothing on there except for his retellings of myths, especially ones that were dark and morbid. 

     The fourth was Katie Lu, nineteen years old and a professional dancer. She had graduated fro high school at the top of her class, but instead of going to college, she danced in some Beyonce video. She was going to be very successful if she had lived. 

     The fifth was Melanie Sanchez. There was nothing special about her. Nothing at all...unless you counted a cameo on Dance Moms as an achievement. 

     L sighed, looking at their pictures. None were exceptionally pretty...except maybe for Helo, and that was just because the picture provided was from an on-stage appearance. He must have had a crap ton of makeup on. 

     He also couldn't see the connection between the fourth and the fifth with the rest of the squad. The rest of them were into theory and myths...and were almost as intelligent as L. 

     L opened up a connection with the police, waiting for them to answer. 

     They did. 

    "What do you think, L?" 

    "Okay, I have a conclusion. I think the first three were main targets for the killer...like they had to go no matter what. The other two were just so he could try and throw us off. After all, they don't fit the pattern I'm seeing so far. But there's only five victims, there's not much of a trend." 

     "And is that pattern that three of them are smart and have an interest in things beyond human thought?" 

     "Yes, that's what I was thinking. Also I noticed that this case seems to be specially designed to torment me...and let's just say witches and warlocks and superstition aren't my favorite things in the world." 

     There was a silence. Finally, the police replied. "Somebody's asking me what happened."

     "Pardon?"

    "Why are you so afraid of superstition?" 

    "Because it's exactly the thing I almost died from...at least...somebody saved me." Even through the voice filter and his normal monotone speech, L's voice sounded softer and started to crack.