EVERGREEN WOOD《COMPLETED✔》

IRON CLUE

Chapter 11

Noah was about to turn the lying man's wrist when a grumpy voice blared, "What are you kids doing here?" he tried to usher us out of the shop. "This place is sealed."

We were half way through the shop when we bumped into agent Savvaro. She inspected us from head to toe.

"Leave them. They are with me." Agent Savvaro showed her ID to the cop and he let us go.

"I suppose you were in the celebration occurring in Café Dine?" She kept accessing the surroundings and then turned to us. Noah and I both nodded.

"I'm not pissed that you guys showed up here. Though I should be. But I need you two to help me with the case. Come on let's see the body."

"He's not dead. Just knocked out," Noah said in a low voice. I remember him pressing his fingers on his neck trying to get a pulse.

"You sure? We got report that the manager found a dead body." She circled the man once and then tried to get the pulse the same way Noah did. "Thank good lord."

"Look, there's some blood near his right hand," I told her and waited for the grotesque scene.

I gasp in horror as agent Savvaro turns the wrist of the man. The same mark. But this time it wasn't as ghastly as Genevie's. It was merely a blister, no blood. More astonishing was that it was not distinct, like the brand was not set in one place.

"Jenny do you know what it means?" Noah shook my shoulder. "This blood belongs to our culprit."

"You're right Mr. Flickermen. You might get off the hook easily." She examined the hand for a few minutes. Then she gestured for the paramedics to take the man.

Agent Savvaro stood up and took officer Wild to the corner. They were having a serious conversation in a low voice which quickly turned into and argument. Noah rubbed my shoulder in assurance.

Agent Savvaro came back and handed us gloves. "Don't touch anything unnecessarily. Only a teen can understand how a teen thinks. So, you two are officially in this case."

"What?" I was astonished I guess.

"Why would we want to put our life in danger? What if the guy comes for us next?" Noah pulled me behind him.

"Because we are desperate. This is not a series of murder. What type of psycho would sedate someone, brand him and leave? And from the carefulness of each event, we are sure that the culprit is mentally stable." Agent Savvaro looked at Noah who was not convinced yet. "On the other hand, I have to put Mr. Flickermen under arrest for the assault of Ms. Stone and this guy. Not only were you in the crime seen but also the evidences point to you."

Noah blinked swiftly taken aback by agent Savvaro's words.

"We'll do it." There was no way I was going to le them arrest Noah. I looked at Noah and pleaded with my eyes. "Fine," he said with exhaustion.

Agent Savvaro dismissed the cops which left 4 of us in the shop, officer Wild, agent Savvaro, Noah and me. I couldn't get a hold on the fact that agent Savvaro blackmailed us into the case. What good does it do to her? We are no where near capable of handling this type of gruesome case. She has a big game planned and when I figure it out, I'm gonna beat her at her own damn game.

Agent Savvaro takes a dropper and takes the blood sample from the floor in a air tight test tube. Then she pointed towards the dented cardboard box on the left side of the counter.

"He put up a fight before going down. But the medicine kicked in and the punch. He lost balance." Officer Wild nodded at her observation.

"Let's get the UV and look for finger prints," officer Wild suggested. He brought out the tubular UV. As agent Savvaro turned the lights of, he started scanning for fingerprints. Noah and Savvaro took the prints and gathered them.

I let my eyes roam around the counter top, the side table where there's a beautiful vase and a tiny golden oil lamp. With the sudden flickers of UV lights in that direction, a part of the oil lamp glistened. Clearly some oil has leaked and smeared on the surface.

I turned back to the place where they were working. I stayed back because I might displace important evidence. Agent Savvaro didn't push me. They were taking all the finger prints they could find. But another thing caught my eyes. There was something under the counter. I didn't have a clear view in the dim UV, but there was definitely something.

"Officer Wild, can you turn the UV under the counter? I think I saw something." I ducked and slid my hand to the guessed position. At first I was only groping the floor. Then my finger curled around a hard object. I pulled it out and nearly rolled my eyes to the head.

Noah turned the lights on and I saw the object I was holding. The mark. It was the brand probably made of iron. I was still warm and a bit oily. Agent Savvaro propped open a zip lock and I put it inside.

"We found the brand. We can get the finger prints from it. We shouldn't leave the other fingerprints. He might not have been alone." She turned to get back in collecting fingerprints.

'You won't find any prints. He came with gloves," I was pretty sure of that.

"What makes you say that?" Officer Wild cocked his head.

"See that lamp over there? The culprit had touched it accidentally and got oil in his hands. Since there are no prints on the lamp, he had gloves on. The brand had oil in it. See. my gloves are oily too." Agent Savvaro took my hand and smelled it. She nodded in agreement.

"For this same reason, he was not able to keep the brand steady in one place. It was slipping constantly resulting in a non distinct mark in the victim's wrist." Noah patted me in the back and grinned. There was no way you could tell he was reluctant in getting involved.

"Still thinking it's a mistake to get them involved?" She asked officer Wild. He looked at his feet as a gesture of apology.

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"A man was found knocked out in the antique shop of the central mall at Evergreen Wood. He was drugged at a high dose. There was evidence of violence on his face and wrist where lay a blister. The manager of the shop Mr. Ziegler identified the man as Bradley Steven Cooper. He came back after taking a phone call and found two people struggling. Then he saw the criminal knock out the victim and kneel down beside him. When Mr. Ziegler screamed for help, the anonymous ran away." There was a footage of Mr. Ziegler describing what happened.

"I came back after talking to my wife on the phone. i saw Cooper and another guy trying to  hit each other. Then with one blow he knocked out Cooper. Then he was kneeling down for finishing what he came to do. To kill that good old boy. If I hadn't shown up, he might've finished him. May the God help us." The camera was back to the reporter.

"The police are not commenting on the event. As for the other-" I turned the TV off. This was all that was running in every channel the whole day. Even in school we were shown the news then given a speech on how to stay safe and watch out for trouble. Thank goodness no other students saw us go to that antique shop after the attack. Only Luke came to ask Noah where we were. Because, apparently the police showed up in the dine and told everyone to leave and Luke couldn't find Noah. He didn't even look once in my direction when he was talking to Noah. And to tell the truth, I didn't even care.

Agent Savvaro called to inform me that there were traces of oil in the brand which is the exact same kind of the lamp. She praised me for having a quick thinking ability. I hung up the phone as soon as I could. 

No doubt after knocking him out, the attacker was branding the guy. But due to the unwanted appearance of Mr. Ziegler, he couldn't hold for long. So there wasn't a proper burn. Also he left the brand in a hurry.

So, the culprit doesn't have his brand, the forensic has it. So, he cannot attack another one in near future. Also, he gave a gap of 2 months between two attacks. 2 months is enough time to make a new brand. Unless he has a stack of them. Hopefully he wouldn't attack for 2 months. 

We have a presidential campaign to win.