Criminal Case: Pacific Bay

Chapter 24: Hanging by a Thread-Part 3

While Marie and Frank were reviewing what they know so far about the case, Chief Marquez came running up to them holding a piece of paper and told them that The Puppeteer sent them a message. Looking closely at the note, Frank, Marie and Chief Marquez saw that it said, "I'm toying with you!' After they read it, Marie asked, "So what's gonna happen now?"

Chief Marquez then crossed her eyes sternly and said, "The Puppeteer is playing with us and we can't let them win! I thought deeply about this and I concluded that serial killers are Russel's expertise. Which is why I'm reassigning the case to Marie and Russel!"

Shocked to hear the news, Frank protested, "Now wait a second! This is my case and you can't take me off it!"

Russel, who was with Chief Marquez when she was holding he note, laughed at Frank and then he said to him, "Sorry Frank, but this case requires some real brains. Besides, I'm sure Marie is getting tired of seeing you in the same Hawaiian shirt all the time."

Frank got angry and Russel and he exclaimed, "Why you little!" And he was about to lunge at him, but Chief Marquez got in between them both and stopped Frank before he could gouge Russel's eyes out.

She then said, "Boys, now isn't the time to be acting like this! And it doesn't matter who gets to go with Marie either! What's important now is catching this serial killer!"

Frank then rolled his eyes with a humph and said, "Fine. I guess I can finally go and spend some quality time with my turtle like I wanted to."

Frank then clapped Marie on the shoulder and he said as he gave it a gentle squeeze, "Good luck with Mr. Pedantic, Marie. You're gonna need it."

Marie smiled and told him, "I'm sure it'll be just fine."

Russel agreed and looked at her and said, "So Marie, are you ready to journey into the serial killer's mind? Because this is going to be a case to remember!"

Marie nodded and said, "I'm ready as I'll ever be Russ. And I think the first thing I want to do is go back to the scene of the murder."

Russel nodded in agreement and said, "Good idea. We'll retrace the killer's steps that way!"

Once Marie and Russel arrived at the warehouse where Dinah's body was found, Russel looked around and said, "So this is the place, huh?"

Marie nodded and she started to look around until she found a pill bottle that was prescribed to the victim. When she showed Russel, he saw that the doctor's ID number was faded, but Marie told him that she'll decide it. Marie also found a trunk full of carnival props and Russel got eager to learn how she works. The last thing Marie found was a notepad with the Pacific Bay police department's logo on it, which shocked the two of them.

Russel then said, "If one of our team members came to the crime scene without us knowing, we need to find out who it was!"

Marie agreed and knew that she had to recover the faded text that was written in the paper. The first clue Marie looked at was the box of carnival props and Russel watched as she dug through the box's contents and pulled out a card with a message written on it. Looking at it together, the two of them saw that the card was addressed to the victim and the message on it read, 'Dinah, you cannot stop me from seeing my grandson forever!'

After they read it, Marie looked at Russel and said to him, "I bet this came from Dinah's father, Blake Cooper. We know that her father wanted to see his grandson, but Dinah wouldn't let him."

Russel nodded and added in, "But with Dinah dead, there's nobody stopping him now from seeing Louie. Sounds like quite the motive, don't you think Marie?"