THE COLD CASE (Completed)

MARILYN ROSEANNE

They completed their discussion, and lieutenant Maguire and captain Stentley were about to head out.

"I spoke to the D.A, and he has approved it. You're officially our consulting detective. Welcome back, Bruce."

Captain Stentley was thrilled to know that Bruce would be a part of the case, but he was also worried. He was deep in thought during the car ride back to the precinct.

"Hey cap? You look worried. What's up?"

" I'm scared. What if this is the wrong move? There's a reason he had to retire."

Lieutenant Maguire may have not known about this, but captain Stentley definitely did. He was right there when Bruce was made to retire. It was about 10 years ago. Bruce was a detective, quickly rising up the ranks at the precinct. Stentley was still a sergeant then, and he'd been on the force for slightly more than a decade. On the other hand, Bruce had only been made detective a year ago, and there were already talks of him being promoted to sergeant. Ideally, one would have to wait for 3 to 5 years in order to be eligible, and then write a test too, but because of Bruce's mind and his exceptional ability to solve cases in no time, the commissioner wanted to make an exception for him.

Everybody would only speak of Bruce. Most out of jealousy, and the rest out of appreciation. Either way, Bruce was all that went around. Bruce seemed to like it, and the cases he solved started to give him a rush. Each time he was assigned a case, he'd fully immerse himself in it. It was always a treat to watch him solve cases, but nobody realised that Bruce started to get addicted. Addicted to winning all the time.

He was maybe a month away from being promoted to sergeant, when the unthinkable happened. There was a case that had been deemed unsolvable. It was a string of B&E's where none of the residents were left to live. The murderer would clean their house like it was his own. Detective Jeffrey and detective Lisa Brent had been assigned this case, and not one shred of evidence could be found that could give them a lead.
Everybody looked at Bruce because he was their only hope of solving the case. Bruce too had been riding on a high of solving every case that had been handed over to him, and made a public announcement that they'd have the killer apprehended in 72 hours. All the newspapers and media outlets had their page 1 news, and Bruce had a killer on his hands.

He dug into the case files, but he couldn't make any sense of it. The files were completely empty. He then decided to visit the crime scene for himself and take a look at what the others might have missed. He went to each of the 9 houses. All of them had been wiped clean. There were only chalk outlines of the body, and nothing else. No blood, no DNA of any sort, no murder weapon, not even a hair. These houses belonged to big industrialists, and a lot of them were neighbors to each other. He didn't have any witnesses, or even any lead. 9 houses had been broken into, their owners had been killed, their houses had been wiped clean, and there was no information on any of the happenings. There was an insurmountable time pressure that Bruce had taken on himself, and there was no backing down now. With every passing minute, Bruce started feeling more and more helpless, and more and more desperate to find a clue.
Bruce was so engrossed in this case that he started sleeping in one of the houses too. He tried every possible thing he could in order to get anything that would lead him to a suspect. He checked up on their daily lives and routines, their common friends and rivals, their dentists and doctors and staff members and employees and he ended up more clueless than before. Time was against him, and the promise he made 72 hours ago had come back to bite him in the rear.
He had failed everyone around him. The papers were criticising him of his failure, and everybody around him looked at him with sympathy. He hated this sinking feeling he felt inside. He took this to heart, but more importantly, he couldn't stop thinking about the case.

For weeks, he stayed home and tried to piece together any evidence that would help him earn back his reputation. After he returned to the force, he started doubting himself on even the easiest of cases. He couldn't stop thinking about the one black smudge in his career. He didn't want to stop thinking about it. As time passed, the case had to be closed, and Bruce's career had been tarnished forever. His anxiety grew, his sleep reduced, and his obsession with the killer continued.

Looking at his mental and emotional state, the commissioner decided to send him to therapy and pause his promotion for a while. The therapy sessions ran for months, and ultimately the therapist decided that he had to quit the force and isolate himself in order to feel at peace. So, against his will, he had to retire indefinitely and was put on a welfare program to help support himself.
The only reason captain Stentley decided to ask for his help was because lately, he started to realise that he was going through the same cycle of doubt and anxiety that Bruce did 10 years ago, and he couldn't afford to stay at home like Bruce did. The only thing that distracted Stentley of his wife's murder was his work, and if he went down the same path Bruce had gone down, he'd probably kill himself.

He knew how sensitive this case could be, and the repercussions it could have on both Bruce and himself, yet he took the leap, hoping to find some answers along the way.