Seven

Part 3

Philip walked into the office late. He carefully closed the office door behind him and walked up to the front desk with a calm look on his face.

PHILIP
"Hey Noah, sorry I'm late again. Have there been any new cases that were turned in recently?"

The officer scowled.

OFFICER ALVAREZ
"You will refer to me as Officer Alvarez here. And we've got one, but we aren't letting you take it."

Philip looked at the officer and lifted one of his eyebrows.

PHILIP
"I think I can handle it, Officer."

The officer smirked, trying to hide his annoyance.

OFFICER ALVAREZ
"I'm being serious, Philip. This case has no leads and you're already on thin ice."

PHILIP
"Exactly, if I solve this case, I can get myself back on the right track."

The officer gave up on attempting to keep a calm demeanor and sighed with a frown.

OFFICER ALVAREZ
"Philip, I'm gonna need you to follow me."

Philip followed the officer into the interrogation room. It was a square, dimly lit room with a large table. Philip and the officer stood on opposite sides of the table. Philip stood with his arms crossed and the officer sat in a chair, both of his hands resting beneath his chin. The officer stood quiet for a while, then sighed heavily.

OFFICER ALVAREZ
"Look, Collins. I am being serious when I tell you I think you can't take this case. This case wasn't turned in, it was passed down from another station because they didn't make the deadline to take it. You are always late and you're not the most professional person, but you're the thing keeping our reputation high enough to run this building, we can't afford to have you fired because of this."

Philip shook his head to move the hair out of his face. He had a straight look on his face with the sudden change in atmosphere.

PHILIP
"I don't know why you're taking this so seriously, officer. I'm sure it's just another random case that's been blown out of proportion. I can assure you I know my stuff, it's probably not that bad."

OFFICER ALVAREZ
"It's not the material Philip, it's the person. It's been two weeks and we still don't have a single lead onto where they could be. We have been struggling to keep our heads above water since Wilar left in 1987. I'm not going to get this place shut down for a murderer."

PHILIP
"Well then, can I at least see the file?"

Officer Alvarez hands Philip a very small file of what seems to be several dead end reports. Philip flips through them slowly, reading them thoroughly. He reaches the end of the file, where he sees an info page, most of it seems to be blank. It's full of question marks and blank spaces, along with a single blurry security camera photo of the culprit in the corner.
The photo was of a girl with very short dark brown hair, mostly covered up with a red beanie. She seemed to be wearing mostly winter clothing, such as a large puffy coat and snow boots. This was odd considering they were in the middle of summer.
Philip stared at the fuzzy photo for while making different confused and disgusted facial expressions.

OFFICER ALVAREZ
"..You okay there Philip?"