Salt and Pepper

Chapter 2

Four murders in three months.

Krist was staring at the case file on his desk with his head held in his hands and his elbows supported on the desk on either side of the file. He was frustrated. No matter how much he was squeezing his brains out to come up with a theory behind these murders he was turning up empty handed. And every lead they got turned out to be a dead end and they were back to square one with no idea how to proceed further. Though Krist always likes a good challenge, the pressure from the higher officials above to close the case as soon as possible, was increasing day by day. And with him not even remotely close to solving this case, he was growing restless with every passing minute. And to top of it all off, the media is on his ass, like fangirls on an on screen BL couple, surrounding him everywhere he goes, to get updates on the case. Honestly what's the world coming to? Whenever he goes out, teenage girls running with fliers and gifts towards a couple of boys, who are all smiles and are being cute with each other, was becoming a common sight. And apparently, he has been observing that the fan base for a particular couple is tremendously growing just after their debut in some series called SOTUS. What's with all these newfound love becoming popular with young girls for men loving men? To be honest girls aren't even going to be in the picture with storylines like that, and he had always wondered why are girls so crazy over it? Then again he had never understood girls in his life.

Anyway back to the problem at hand, he was not worried about the pressure he was receiving. Oh no. He had been trained to work under much tighter timelines and much more pressuring situations. He had even managed to solve cases within a week in the past. That was not the reason for his frustration. He was angry because they were questioning his methods. The chief had outright told him in today's meeting that he should not be overconfident in all cases and try to come up with some alternative theories too and look at the case in a different angle. He should sometimes consider the fact that he might be wrong and should not hesitate to ask for help. Sometimes even the greater minds tend to miss the obvious clue staring right in their face because of a tiny bit of their overconfidence, the chief had said. And if he had been in a nightclub or a boxing ring and some one else had taunted him like that, the guy would be on the floor by now after receiving a sucker punch to his face. But this was his superior and he held his ground through gritted teeth maintaining a poker face as much as he could. But he had lost that tiny thread of patience he was holding on to, after the chief announced that he has been assigned with a partner for handling this case so that he could go on the right track and finish the case sooner when he has the perspective of another detective. He had not stopped with that.

"Besides Officer Suppanad has more experience with solving murder mysteries. She was a part of the homicide crime division in Taiwan. And she had come here on a special request to deal with this case. She was pretty well known for her achievements and had solved many cases which were a brain wrecking challenge for the department. So Team, give your support to the new officer. Be nice and try not to kill each other" he addressed the team, but the last sentence was said with his eyes fully trained on Krist like he was saying 'that means you Krist'. He rolled his eyes at that but kept his mouth shut besides the obvious urge to talk back to his superior.

Now one hour after the meeting he was still looking through the case files and the more he looked the more frustrated he became.

"Keep going and you will be bald by the end of the day" Oaf said from the table opposite to Krist stuffing his face with a Khanom Tarn* and sipping his black coffee. 'Where did he even get it?' Krist thought and remembered after a moment, 'Oh right! He is a regular customer to the little roadside shop next street run by Aunt Mo.' He had even become her favorite with how much he visited her shop. Oaf had a sweet tooth and literally raided every shop that smelled like sweets. But he never admits to his guilty pleasure and even mocks Krist for his obsession with pink milk. 'Pot calling the kettle Black' Krist thought with a scoff sparing another glare at his colleague.