The Omen

Literally an eye for an eye

"I find it rather funny on how you solved your first case here in the Philippines" Al said as we entered the train.

"It is only a simple Al" Rafael said as he looked at the windows, "I could have say that you might solve it faster than mine if you were on the field".

"Hahaha! Is that so? Then you should have called me that you are returning back in the first place" Al noticed that Rafael had broken his attention to him, then it was silent till we stopped at V. Mapa.

I noticed beyond the trip, Al had his eyes at me, "what?" I demanded as Al took a deep breath and then began his observation to me.

"Quite a healthy life you're leading my dear" he said as he leaned next to a pole, "your husband would be someone with a healthy outlook in life such as yours to have it, I can see it with the way you move, you aren't lanky nor obese, which shows that you exercise daily and eat right, strange for a woman of two children".

"Rafael would have observed the same thing" I said as I gave him my brightest smile.

"Does he? Well I could have say that he admires you, I always remember him telling stories of your exploits in your highschool days, always referring to you as that dear friend of his" he turned at Rafael who just sighed and then turned away.

"What's the matter m'boy? Nevermind even if you don't know it Raffy has problems with expressing his feelings, always has it, when he brought Anna here I could have sworn that Anna was the one who lead him to spit his feeling out to her" 

"Enough with that Al" Rafael said, the look in his eyes was a sting, pain by the looks of it.

"Fine, fine" Al looked at Rafael then I noticed a sad expression, he sighed then shook his head, we arrived at Araneta center-Cubao and we took a cab and then dropped by at 10th avenue near Roosevelt memorial highschool. We took a tricycle cab and stopped at Camp Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo there Ins. Arsenio was waiting for us.

"Good you're here" he noticed Al and then looked at me, "who is he?".

"Rafael's teacher" I told him as we walked at the streets and then reached the crime scene in the shanties near the Camp, the SOCO and some of the crime scene staff was already there, reporters were cleared as Rafael wanted.

"Good thing I still have my eyes" Rafael looked at the body, male, wearing coat and tie, his two eyes were missing possibly pulled out.

"Shot at point blank range by the looks of it" Al said as he looked at the body.

"Married, work a doctor, could be your occasional gambler but he's alright" Rafael observed as Ins. Arsenio pulled out his phone.

"I'll contact all the nearby hospitals"

"He's a University Doctor Ins. Arsenio, look in the University of Santo Tomas" 

"Why?" Rafael sighed and then pointed at the dead body's pin in the neck.

"Resident doctors in the Universiy of Santo Tomas often had pins given to them, this one was given to him just last year probably in the celebration of the founding of UST's college of medicine" Rafael said as he looked at Ins. Arsenio.

"Then I'll contact UST" Ins. Arsenio dialed his phone, Al was fast as he showed us his Ipad.

"Inspector if  I might say don't look for Doc. Lopez he's dead" Al showed us the picture of the dead person in front of us.

After the initial investigation, the body was taken to the morgue and we followed along, Dr. Leonardo Sanchez is the newest forensic pathologist, well he was a bit proud of his work and he sometimes disapproved of Rafael but he's okay.

"Well I found traces of nicotine in his clothes and also....." he pulled out a plastic container that holds two mahjong pieces.

"A red dragon" he said as he pulled one out, "an orchid and...." he indicated each one of the pieces, "winter".

"It seems that each of the tiles belong to different sets" I observed as I looked at the color of each tiles bases, the red dragon has a blue base color, the orchid has a green base color and the winter has a red base color.

"It's because these tiles aren't for gaming" Rafael said, we thanked Dr. Sanchez who just raised his cup of coffee as we left.

"Basically the one who killed him was someone he outmatched in a mahjong game, you can tell with the way his eyes are shot" Rafael said as we took a jeep and then passed to Binondo, where we went down.

"Judging from the way his eyes are shot, our killer must have hated his eyes" Al said as we walked at the streets of the particular China town.

"Why is that?" I asked as Al coughed and then took a deep breath.

"Well the eyes are the windows of the soul and it seems our victim has a sharper eye when it comes to gambling as well as to his job so that is why he was shot to the eyes" we stopped at an alleyway and Rafael knocked on a nearest building, nothing happened.

"This should take awhile" Rafael said as he smashed his fist at the door and then yelled in mandarin, thirty minutes later a chinese man appeared in front of us, "I need to speak with your boss".