Salt and Pepper

Chapter 3

If there was one thing that Krist hated the most about his job, it was when he was required to be at a crime scene, especially when it involved dealing with dead bodies. Right from his childhood he had always wanted to be a cop. Fighting for justice and saving the day might be some of the ideas that influenced him to choose this job. But there was one more thing which had given him the final push to plunge into this field.

He loved the thrill of a chase.

The case he was currently working on was the most challenging he had ever had and he was loving every bit of the chase. But that doesn't mean he was happy seeing another mutilated dead body.

"Oh my God! Whoever the killer is, this guy must be a sick psychopathic villain like the ones in the movies. I mean look at that. That looks like he used him as a punching bag before throwing him into a shredder" Oaf was freaking out beside Krist obviously disgusted and scared at the same time on looking at the body.

The guy's face was mangled beyond recognition with various scars and bruises and some of them were still caked with blood. His clothes were torn and had blood stains at various places. He was missing three fingers in his left hand. Krist was sure that he must have been tortured before he was killed.

If he remembered correctly Dr.Prachaya had said something about Mr.Phassakorn being tortured before he was killed. Would this murder have some connection with the other murders too? Or was he missing something?

"Officer Perawat" Krist heard someone calling out his name bringing him out of his thoughts. He gave a curt nod to the guy before him who was wearing a uniform indicating he was a cop too.

"Any ID on that guy?" Krist asked craning his neck towards the dead body which was now being transferred to a body bag by two other officers.

"Yeah. We found his driving license. Goes by the name Pachara Chirathivat. 28 years old. Lives in Bangkok. Have informed his family about his loss. His mom would come to the hospital to receive his body. She was in great pain and was crying a lot when she answered the call. We weren't able to get any more details from her."

"Yeah. That's understandable. We can continue the interrogation with her later" Krist nodded and continued, "Did you find any clues or evidences in the crime scene? Anything to raise a suspicion?"

The police officer shook his head indicating that they haven't found anything of that sort. Krist shifted his eyes, from where two officers were using a white substance to outline the place where they found the dead body, to spare a glance at the officer that had reported him the details about the victim. "Okay. I will take it from here" Krist said dismissing the guy. The other cop gave a curt nod before leaving Krist to his own thoughts.

Krist let his scrutinizing eyes scan his surroundings in a quest for something that could give him a lead to find out who the killer was. But there was nothing in that abandoned factory that looked out of place. Krist was standing in the middle of a wide open area of the factory. To his right was a tattered old building with paint peeling off most of it's walls. There were some broken machinery sprawled all over the place collecting dust.

Far along the background he could see another small building which looked like a warehouse. Maybe they used to stock the final products there before transporting them to various destinations. He decided to take a stroll around the worn down leather factory in search of any more clues.

The smaller building was totally different from the main building. While the main building was entirely covered in dust and had a look that no human had stepped foot into it in years, the smaller building was clean to a point. It was like people have been using the space for quite sometime now. About twenty huge sleek steel tables were pushed to the corners of the building. And when he went closer to examine them, there was not a single speck of dust on it. He pressed a finger to the steel surface and dragged along to inspect for any dust being settled, only to come back with a spotless clean finger. The tables were squeaky clean which raised his  suspicions further. Because if the factory was closed down and abandoned as people claimed it to be, then it should be cluttered with cobwebs and dust just like the main building. But it isn't and there could be only one explanation to that.