The Forensics Of The Origami Murders

Chapter 8

Current location: Gabs' office. Time: Monday afternoon, 1.53 pm October 3rd. Mission: writing my dissertation. Or, that's what I was supposed to be doing. It was surprisingly quiet, especially for a Monday. I suspected the lower-than-usual crime rate to be the result of Origami Killer-induced increased public vigilance. Gabs had given me the afternoon off to work on my dissertation about identical twins and epigenetics. She even offered me her assistant's desk as neither of them would be needing the office space for the rest of the day. So far, I'd sorted my notes into a neat list, and altered the appearance of the bullet-points three times. And... that's about it. I removed the earplugs, closed the music library on my phone and opened my email to read Madison's response – again. Sent: Saturday, October 1st at 2.30 am. She was still struggling with insomnia, poor thing. I had yet to give her a proper reply. In a sleep-deprived and impulsive whim, I thought it'd be a great idea to play Nancy Drew amateur detective and I'd involved Madison, like a George Fayne-sidekick. Now, I wasn't so sure. I skimmed through the short text, even though I knew it by heart. She was as reticent and vague in her response as I'd been in my phone call to her a few days ago. She did however, reveal that in all cases but two the fathers had disappeared shortly after the boys had been reported missing. Could we meet for a coffee to discuss this further, perhaps? Despite histories of domestic violence and/or alcoholism and/or gambling, I wondered why no alarm bells had gone off.

Jane had called yesterday to inform me that she'd been in touch with one of her former MIT-tutors, and that they might be able to enhance some of the 3D models, but in the next sentence advised me to not hold my breath. Nonetheless, it was great news. After spending two days weighing back and forth about whether to contact Norman or not, typing out and deleting over and over about 20 times, I finally had an excuse to get in touch:

Hi Norman. GJ the other day, it was a pleasure working w/you. Dr. Lavigna might be able to get a better read of the tire tracks. If she does, I'll be in touch. Take care, Lisa xoxo

I'd been going for a well-balanced blend of formal and informal language, making sure to keep it short and casual. Had I been too informal? Too personal? Within less than a minute, I got a reply.

Sounds good. Keep me informed. N. Jayden.

I don't know why I felt so disappointed by the short, straight-to-the-point response. Or maybe deep down I did. I shrugged and put my phone down – like I could expect anything different from him anyways - and picked it back up again, for the twentieth time or so. Nope, pretending to not care still didn't help. I was tempted to send another text, but according to Charlene, the FBI agent would be busy all day interrogating suspects connected to the comfort zone, tracked down by Blake and Ash last week. As detailed in the police reports, the prime suspect, Nathaniel Williams, a deranged, extremely religious man – scribbling bible verses all over his apartment type of deranged or, suffering from a mystical-obsessive neurosis combined by a persecution complex as Norman had written in the report, had found Blake and Ash in his home when returning from buying takeout last Thursday. Repeated threats and intimidations by Lt. Arrogant Jerk and his lap dog, resulted in the suspect pulling a gun on Blake rambling about Anti-Christ, leaving Ash 'no choice' but to neutralize him with a stun gun. The electric shock combined with an unknown cocktail of assorted drugs - prescribed and non-prescribed, caused a severe cardiac arrhythmia, rendering Williams unfit for questioning until today. As I read through the report, I couldn't help but to wonder what'd happened to the takeout.

Another suspect, Nicolai Korda had flung his coffee in Blake's face and fled the scene resulting in Ash chasing him through an open market in the Chinese district. He'd gotten away but thanks to an APB he'd been relocated yesterday evening. He too, was to be questioned by Norman and Blake today. The last suspect, Gordi Kramer, had been taken in Friday night while hosting a party, but he'd used his über-rich fathers' connections, and was out on the streets again in less than two hours.