Foretold

#4

"Hitesh, give me a second?" I asked.
"Sure." He said.
"Excuse me, Mrs Hawkins." I said and walked to Caroline. I put a hand on her shoulder and she looked back at once, her eyes full of fear.
"May I talk to you for a second, Caroline?" I asked.
"Sure....?" She said.

I dragged her a bit away and asked her, "What's up with you? I can see that something is wrong."
"Nothing, Kaitlyn. Really. I just have some nausea. Haven't had food since yesterday."
"It's fine if you don't want to tell me. Just know that I'm here if you need me, alright?" I said and smiled. She smiled back.

I walked to Marcus with her and asked, "So what have you guys found?"
"No identification. We found a wallet, but it only has cash, no pictures or credit cards. No essential article on her body. Except this." He pointed to her neck. I bent down and saw the symbol ":)" carved on her neck with a knife.
"A smiling face? That's creepy." I said.
"I'd rather say it's a signature." Caroline said, not as scared. Maybe the victim's neck distracted her.

"A signature?" I asked.
"Yes."
"You mean it is a serial killer?"
"Possible."
I sighed. Marcus signaled one of the men to take the body and send it for post mortem. The three of us walked back to Hitesh who was done questioning Joanna.
"She says she was on her morning walk when she saw this. She lives two blocks away. I took her address."

We drove back to the station and assembled in the captain's office.
"Nothing? You found nothing at all?" He thundered.
"Except the smiling face." Marcus said.
"Oh, that's not good news!" Ivanowski said, "Look for the recent missing persons' reports. At least find her identity!"
We got out of his office and Marcus and Caroline smiled at us and started walking towards their desks. I couldn't help but overhear them speak.

"Mark, I need to talk to you." Caroline whispered.
"About what?" Marcus asked.
"Not now." She said.
"Kaitlyn?" Hitesh asked, shocking me.
"Yeah... Yeah?" I said.
"We're supposed to check the missing persons' report... You know?"
"Oh yes." I said and rushed to my desk. I turned the computer on and opened the report which was registered online all over town.
"Okay. Almost all the names have pictures. We can do a picture search of the victim." I said.

Hitesh nodded and loaded the pictures from his camera onto the computer and I ran a search.
'NO MATCHES', The computer showed. I sighed. Marcus walked up to my desk and said, "Hey, email Caroline the pictures?"
"No use. We just ran a search." I said.
"Oh. Nonetheless, email them. We'll see if we can find anything."
I nodded and he walked back. I sent Caroline the pictures and then called the few people's families who didn't have pictures. Nobody matched the description of the victim.

Suddenly, I heard Marcus scream, "Kaitlyn, come over here!"
I walked to Caroline's desk with Hitesh and said, "What? She doesn't match with any missing person."
"Of course. Because she wasn't reported missing." Caroline said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Look here." She said and we looked at the computer. Her face was all over the screen.

"We ran a web search. Google knows everything, you see." Marcus smirked.
"Her name is Mikayla Lee. She's 27, a writer. Here's her email ID. And she's got an assistant. We found her email ID too."
"You guys are awesome." I said, "I'll tell Captain right away."
I walked to the Captain's office and told him.
"Great, proceed with the case." He said.

I borrowed the email ID of the assistant from Caroline and emailed her. She replied within an hour. I asked her to come down to the office and she came down in two hours.
"Hi. I'm Erica. Mikayla's assistant." She said. She looked freaked out and asked, "You said there's something important about her. What is it?"
"Oh, yes. How long have you known her?" I asked.

"Ever since she published her first book. Five years ago. She hired me after that, and we became friends. We're roommates now, infact. I can tell you that she's no criminal. I don't know what she's done, but she's a good girl." Erica said.
"She's not done anything Erica." I said.
"Then?" She looked at me. I looked at Hitesh. He nodded and said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry to inform you that she's dead. She was murdered."

"What?!" Erica seemed to lose her senses. She started to sob "... But I saw her just last night... How could she have died? She told me she'll be back by afternoon..." Erica said.
"Take this." Hitesh offered her a tissue which she politely denied.
"Did you say you saw her last night?" I asked.
"Yes. Right before she left."
"Around what time?"
"10PM."

I asked her about Mikayla's enemies, if anyone was jealous of her, or where she'd gone.
"We were friends, madam. But she never told me where she went. And she was still my boss, so I never asked. I assumed she must be staying over at a friend's house. It wasn't like she hadn't gone out at night before. And I don't believe she had any enemies. Everybody liked her."
"Love affairs?" I asked.
"She had some guy four years ago. They were best friends. She started to like him. He was taken though. She's not dated ever since."

"Does she have a family?"
"None that I know of. Her mother was single. She told me she was seventeen when her mother died of drug overdose. She never told me about her father, I don't think she knew who he was."
I thanked Erica and told her we'd call her again if needed and let her leave.
"So, she left at 10PM." Hitesh said. I nodded and asked him to tell Marcus and Caroline about what we'd found.