look the other way

chapter 1

Two months earlier:

I stand still, my eyes refuse to look away from the sight before me, scarlet red blood before me, everywhere, "Iris, come over here" the marks on her throat represent she was choked, "Iris?" I finally look away Ben waits inpatient, "yes?"  I walk over to him, "go back to the office, here's the paper work, you're the best in the unit with shit like this, the boss wants you figuring it out, this shit is a mess." I nod and walk back to my car.

present day:

"Iris? you got a minute?" I look up from the computer, "not really why?" I look back at the computer, The Sarah Birchman case, It's been two months since the incident,  the only lead I have is a few witnesses  claiming to have seen a man dressed in black, ironic though, no one saw his face. "well the boss says it's important" I look away from the computer rubbing my eyes, it's been a good three days without sleep, "alright."

"Sir?" He looks up at me, "Iris, take a seat" I do as told, "there's been another incident, one of our witnesses was murdered, we have reason to believe it's by the same man, would you mind going down to the crime site?" I immediately stand, "no sir, is that all?" my question is fast, I don't wait for an answer before I leave.

I grab my keys from my desk and head out the door, everybody watches me, the man is a mess when he kills, no doubt, but he's a goddamn genius, he takes any evidence with him. I just need him to mess up once, only once.

"Iris mind if I come with?" I look at him for a good minute, he's new to the place, might be good for him to get experience, "it's gonna be a mess" he laughs at this, "what crime scene is ever clean?" I let out a sigh "let's go."

The drive is scilent, the traffic piles up for those getting off work, though for me the work day has only just begun, "I'm Roman" the man says, I ignore him, we drive twenty minutes longer until we arrive.

"Follow me, show them your badge they will try to stop you" I say, showing my badge to Marine, the site is surrounded by police and people with curious minds, dying to know what will be the gossip of the town for the next few days, and some family members of the dead girl. "Damn..." the unnecessary commentary comes from Roman, though it could only be me there seems to be more blood.

"The girls name?"

"Sarah."

"Maybe it's just coincidence, but that seems very unlikely, so the killer has a liking to sarahs... interesting, the last girl, the first sarah, she had brown hair and blue eyes to yes?" I look up at Jane, she nods, she's worked here the same amount of time as me, if I can count on anybody to give me information it's her.

"She looks young" Roman states randomly, I nod, "she is- she's 17, she had her life planned, it's not fair, but the longer you work here the sooner you realize nothing is ever fair" Jane's voice is low, she barely talks, a few years back she told me the story of her parents, they were murdered one day while she was st school, that's part of the reason she majored in criminal justice in college, she's constantly spaced out, though that's understandable.

"Jane, do you have the paperwork? I've pretty much seen everything I need too" I take one last look before looking away, I never spend more than 20 minutes at a crime scene, the sun has set the moon is high up in the sky. "Wait, don't you need to look more into it?" Roman asks, I look at him, "whats there to see? I've seen it all, my job is to check out the victim, get the information needed and start coming up with answers, find leads, evidence and shit is all in this paperwork, I'll come back later and see if I can find more." With that I walk away, the world around me is bleak, it lost the vibrant colors it had when I was a little girl.

Alright, back to the office, it'll be another night I don't go home, and just work.