The distance (original)

Night call.

I STARE AT the bright screen as I get a call, getting out of my sleep for this call. I sigh and open the computer, seeing a worried looking Katherine.

"What's up?" I ask.

"Sorry, you're normally still up—," she says.

I shrug.

"Needed sleep for ones. But it was about time to wake up I guess," I say.

She nods, taking a sip on tea.

"So what's the tea?" I ask.

"So there was a—," she starts.

"No, I mean literally," I say.

"Oh! English breakfast," she says.

"It's midnight for you. Why would you drink something meant for breakfast at night?" I ask.

"We really don't have time for this! Ones AJ is on, I can tell you what I came here to tell," she says.

I nod.

"How's your relationship going?" I ask.

"I mean, it's not the worst at all, in fact—," she says.

"Spill the tea," I say.

"No, we are doing well, that was all I have on my relationships," she says.

"Good for you," I say.

Dear Evan Hansen starts playing in my head.

"Good morning!" AJ says.

"Yeah, for you. For me, it's 2 fucking am," I say.

"I mean it isn't exactly that late for me either, 8 am," she says.

"I still have silence going on, it's until 6 am. Now, Kati.... what was it you wanted to talk about?" I ask.

"Well erm.....," She says.

I nod.

"Spill," I say.

"Well there has been a very talented murderer," she says.

"Oh. Colour me intrigued," I say.

"So this murderer isn't working alone and they can be tracked down to Scandinavia—," she says.

"Almost mentioned my country. Suomi mainittu! Torilla tavataan," I say.

"And somewhere in Southeast Asia," Katherine says.

"How come I'm not surprised?" AJ asks.

She realises what she said.

"NO NO NO NO! We are not murderers, I mean, since I was invited into the chat I kinda assumed I'm apart of this," she says.

"I would totally invite you just to listen in," i say.

"Weird flex but okay," she says.

I laugh. Memes, the things that are both terrifying and funny all the goddamn time. Shame EU is pretty much against them in all ways.

"Oh sorry, we are going off," I say.

I look at Katherine.

"You want us to look out?" AJ asks.

"Yes. The place the body was in was clean but the window above was broken—," Katherine says.

"Is it too much to assume the body was thrown in through the window in question?" AJ asks.

"No, it's genius," Katherine says.

"How long has the body been dead?" I ask.

"They think about two days," Kathrine says.

"What building was the body in?" I ask.

"A bingo room, downstairs was a club, it has been unused due to a mildew problem," Katherine states.

"How long has it been unused?" AJ asks.

"Four months, according to the owner," Katherine says.

I nod.

"What condition was the body in?" AJ asks.

"Death by chocking most likely, seeing as the marks are in the neck. Tongue is cut out, they're unsure if it got cut out before the murder or after it," Kathrine says.

"Was there glass from the window?" I ask.

"None, a few in the victim but the floor is squeaky clean," Katherine says.

"Who were they?" AJ asks.

"Sarah Smith. She was 45, had three kids and her husband divorced her and moved into Spain, leaving her with the three kids in question," Katherine says.

"Have they been interviewed? The kids," I say.

"You really think they—?" AJ asks.

"I do think it's possible. We've seen such," I say.

"We found something outside that suggests something larger, a note that ends with 'your Scandinavian partner.' This is a suggestion, of course but we have a reason to believe the victim got the note from our murderer seeing as it's torn quite a lot," Katherine says.

"But you're not sure?" I ask.

"Not completely but we have also noticed things in the victims hand. They're deliberate, we can tell because they're in such good condition. They straight up say  and I quote, 'I am a murderer with outside help, good luck defeating us. Salamat and heippa.' Now I'm not certain which languages they are but you probably would be, They're apparently from Southeast Asia and Scandinavia so I immediately thought of you two to do this," Katherine says.

"Heippa is Finnish," I say.

Well this hits closer than I thought. I thought they'd be Swedish, those pussies always would murder for anything to make up for the fact they didn't fight in the war. Guess whaaat? We were with the nazis! Isn't that fun?

"Oh shit," Katherine says.

AJ nods. I probably missed something by hating on Swedes. I love them but as a Finn, I am allowed my thing with hating on Swedes.

"Can we get more information? Is there more to the killing? Did it happen in a certain area?" AJ asks.

"No, I can't find this to be in an important area. I don't even know if this murder will be a stand alone or not," Kathrine says.

"I doubt it," I say.

She looks at me.

"Look at the language in the note. It's fucking going to happen again, it's very clear in the text of the thing," I say.

"In case it's not, does Sarah have bad blood with anyone publicly?" AJ asks.

"No, Sarah is fairly reserved according to everyone. In fact, the only two that anyone knows to have had any opinions on Sarah are her ex husband and her aunt," Katherine says.

"Oh shoot. What kind of opinion do they have?" I ask.

"The ex husband has been proven to be in Spain during the attack and the aunt has not answered us yet but due to poor health, we suspect it wasn't her. She is in a wheelchair, she has trouble loving her arms too much due to some illnesses and most importantly, she's documented as not leaving her house a lot, she's Welsh. Why would she come up so much just to kill someone? With a wheelchair? It wouldn't make much sense," Kathrine says.

"KATI!" Kati's significant other yells.

"Yeah, Love?" Katherine asks.

"They're asking for you about someone called Sarah, they're saying that they would an another person in alike conditions!"

Kathrine nods.

"Bye guys! Keep your eyes open!" 

She closes the call.

"Well, time to start looking for possible assistants of a murderer," I says.

"Yeah, I'll get straight to work," AJ says.

I nod.

"Good luck, AJ," I say.

"You too," she says.