Crazy Town

A New Suspect

Police's POV

I press my back against the door of the meeting room in order to open it, balancing my coffee in one hand and gripping tightly onto a stack of documents in my other. As I enter the meeting room I see that the other officers in my team are already seated inside and chatting away casually, the chatter dies down as I enter, placing my coffee and the stack of papers down on the table. As the chief of the current murder investigation at the mental asylum, my seat is at the head of the table, I clear my throat.

'Alright, let's begin as we have a lot to get through' I announce, the officers all nod and turn their attention to me as silence fills the room, I take a sip of my coffee, 'Somebody tell me our findings so far from the most recent murder' 

One of the officers clears his throat, 'We have reviewed the CCTV of the asylum both inside and outside and from that CCTV we have identified three potential suspects and interviewed two of them' 

'Who are they?' I ask, scribbling down notes in my book before reaching over for another sip of coffee. 

The officer continues, 'The first person we identified and interviewed was Ms Eleanor Bradley, she was seen on CCTV entering the asylum in the evening and talking with the receptionist before sneaking upstairs and roaming the halls of the asylum before she was escorted out by a male nurse'

'Who is Ms Eleanor Bradley and what did she say in the interview?' I ask.

'She recently moved to this town and is a personal assistant to Mr James Andrews' he explains, I nod, 'she told us that her friend's father is a resident at the asylum and she wanted to go and visit him, she seemed rather nervous during the talk that we had with her but she is not a suspect, even her timing on CCTV is not close enough to when the murder occurred' 

'So that means we can probably rule her out, but if she makes anymore appearances at the asylum during a night when a murder occurs then we may have to do some more research on her' I tell them, they all nod in agreement.

A female officer then speaks, 'The second person we identified and interviewed was Oliver'

'Ah yes, the infamous town stalker Oliver' I roll my eyes. We are very familiar with Oliver and have received numerous complaints that he is following people and is a bit of a peeping tom, however his actions appear harmless and he just seems a bit too interested in the lives of everyone in this town, but he has no criminal record.

'He was seen on CCTV lingering outside the asylum around the time of the murder, we called him in for questioning and he said that he was simply passing by on his way home and stopped to look at the asylum out of interest' she explains, I grunt.

'Well he does often do that a lot, but it's interesting that you said it's around the time of the murder' I tell her.

'Yes, although he is known to the police for being generally rather strange, his story this time didn't quite make sense as the CCTV shows that he was lingering outside the asylum for almost fifteen minutes before the CCTV was cut off, as usually happens when the murder occurs, once the CCTV had returned Oliver had gone' she further explains, turning her laptop around as a video played. 

It was CCTV footage of Oliver standing on the opposite side of the street, his clothing was dark and he shifted from one foot to the other whilst glancing around the street every so often, the video the cut off and turned black. I scribble down more notes in my book, maybe Oliver doesn't have as innocent intentions as we originally thought he did.

Another female officer speaks up, 'and finally we managed to identify Logan Fisher, well known gang leader in this town, of course we were unable to interview him as we are still unsure of his exact whereabouts, he is seen walking into the asylum and through the asylum and into the elevator before the CCTV if cut off' 

'Interesting, and I'm assuming that there was no receptionist?' I ask.

The officer shakes her head, 'Unfortunately not, the receptionist finished her shift two hours before the murder occurred' 

'What did the autopsy results show?' I ask. 

A male officer hands out a few sheets of paper to everyone, 'the victim was an elderly male, who was shot once, he died around the same time as the CCTV was cut off, there was no indication of struggle or any other injuries, the victim may have even been asleep when he was shot' 

'Is there anything else to add?' I sigh, we are not getting anywhere with this case, there is simply not enough evidence, we have to up our game somehow. 

'Actually there is' an officer slowly raised his hand, 'I received an anonymous phonemail today from someone who works at the asylum who told us that there is a male nurse also working at the asylum who should be investigated, he has been caught several times acting negligently with the patients however the other members of staff suspect that his actions are not mistakes but are done purposefully and have caused serious harm and occasionally death to the patients' 

'How is he still working there then?' I ask, frowning.

'Those running the asylum are also rather negligent and despite several complaints being made against the male nurse, the disciplinary process has not been followed, it seems that they're only interested in making money rather than the lives of the patients' the officer explains.

'Well we will definitely have to look into it and see if it's possibly linked to the murders' I nod, taking a big gulp of my coffee, 'what's the male nurse's name?' 

'Matthew' the officer tells me. 

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What did you guys think of this chapter? Matthew is now a potential suspect along with Logan and Oliver. Who do you think is most likely to be committing the murders? And why? If you cannot remember who Matthew is, then re-read the chapter titled 'a visit to the mental hospital' COMMENT&VOTE