THE INEVITABLE

CHAPTER 4: Double Trouble

Even the flickering light at the chief's office shined brightly when John said that he had another clue that would be useful in identifying the killer.
"And what would that be?" asked Harrison.

"The recording when the killer enters and comes to stab Raymond, contains a clue to reach the killer. At the moment, when the killer raises his hand to stab Raymond, his full sleeve comes down a bit, exposing the watch he was wearing." said John, with a sense of accomplishment in his heart. He was about to catch the one, who killed his best friend.

"So what? Thousands of people might have the same watch. How are you going to find the killer with that?"
"It is a limited edition men's bracelet watch, released by the company, HOPSIN WATCHES. Only 500 watches have been released so far. "

" So the killer is one among the 500. But how do you plan on finding the one in five hundred?" asked Harrison.
"I didn't finish the sentence. HOPSIN WATCHES released the watch for different wrist sizes. They have issued bracelet watches for men, that come in different sizes, corresponding to the size of the wrist. So now, we know the killer is a man." Said John.
Both John and Harrison were in deep thoughts, when John's phone rang and broke the silence.

"John, this is Paul speaking. I don't know how to say this. But.. " Paul hesitated to continue.
" What happened?" asked John.
"We have a situation here. The blood samples obtained from the crime scene have been stolen." said Paul.

"What? It is one of the main evidences against the killer. How could you lose it? Do you have any idea how important that is? How did this happen?" asked a confused and outraged John.

"You know that I have a private vehicle right? As per the procedure, I parked the vehicle in the parking slot. After I came back, the samples were missing.", said Paul.
"There is a security camera in front of the HQ right? See the recording." said John.
"I already checked it. The file containing the recording was deleted." replied Paul
"Did you just say that the file was deleted? Just like how it was deleted in the crime scene?" asked John.
"yes"
"Okay. I'll call you later,"

John finished talking with Paul, and broke the news to the chief.
"What are we going to do now? One of the key evidence is lost now. How are we  going to proceed further?" asked Harrison.

"Only the forensic team members, and other authorized officers from the department can be granted access into the parking. All the officers in the force know about Paul's new bike. The recording is  deleted, just like in the crime scene. My suspicions are true. The killer is among the police force. He is a police officer.", said John H. Carter.
"I agree with you John. But how are we going to find the one?", asked Harrison.

"Let's put down all the data collected so far. The killer is a male, and his height is 5'6", and we have his hand size. So, we can zero in on his wrist size. He has the limited edition men's bracelet watch released by HOPSIN WATCHES, for different wrist sizes. If we collect the list of people who bought a watch in that wrist size and collect the height of all those people and whoever is 5'6" in that, is the killer." concluded John.

John went to the HOPSIN WATCHES HQ and collected the list of people who bought a watch in that wrist size. There were 60 people who had a watch in that wrist size. He then collected the height details of all the 60 people and compared their heights with the killer's. Only two out of the 60 were 5'6". John found it hard to believe what he actually saw.
It was Alex and Parker, the two officers assigned in assisting John with this case.
One of them was the killer.