HAPPY NEVER AFTER

Chapter 3

PART ONE

Knight in Shining Armour

Chapter 3

The clock is alarming louder and louder every minute. It's already past six in the morning, Cindy Rollings, still half asleep, trying to reach her blue kitty clock on top of her mahogany table which arrived just yesterday after buying it on-line the last day. Spending a lot somehow doesn't concern her, she's the only daughter and her parents were both business tycoons. Despite of her bountiful life, she chose to live independently and worked so hard to earn everything she had. Now, she's the infamous Agent Rollings of California'sFederal Bureau of Investigation, a crime scene investigator.

She had turned it off and glanced at it only to realize she was almost late for work.

"Damn it, sleepy head", she said to herself as she hurriedly undress herself to take a bath.

Her apartment is quite big with plenty of expensive upholstery that was sent by her mother on her 22nd birthday. She had her own living room. It had two big black cushions full of white pillows, a wooden table at the center and two long lamp shades beside the cushion seats. There's a flat television screen attached to the wall and a set of theater showcase. On the left side, was a hallway leading to her very own kitchen which is spotless clean. On the right was her bedroom with its conjoined bathroom. All blacks and whites. She simply love that color.

She turned the shower on and set it a bit hot since water's so cold at that hour. It felt so good against her skin, feeling like she wanted to stay there long but time is ticking and she still got work to do. Suddenly, her phone rang.

"Oh man, I'm coming", she said as if someone can hear her.

Still dripping wet with her hair damped and her body covered with her favorite robe, she snatched the phone from her mahogany table and answered it  courteously.

"Agent Rollings, Good Morning...", 

"This is Sergeant McKinley, we need you here at East Washington Boulevard STAT, something came up", said by the person on the other line.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute", she assured then hung up. She hurriedly fix herself in front of the mirror, she wore a white shirt with her black vest and a blue skinny pants with a matching pair of her black Converse shoes. She glanced at her own reflection, hair was originally brunette but dyed blonde. She had perfect curls and it matched her deep blue eyes, fair skin and slim body. Perfect. She then went to her kitchen, made a coffee quick and pour it in her black tumbler. She is now ready for work.

She took the stairs instead of the elevator since it would be much faster. It would be a good form of exercise too, her room's at the 4th floor. No sweat. She reached the parking lot and headed her way to her car, a red Volkswagen Passat Sedan. It was her father's present on her 22nd birthday. She looked for her keys inside her black sling bag and found it. She opened the car, positioned herself on the driver's seat. She had been licensed to drive when she was still studying at Harvard University and until now, she didn't have any traffic violations or records regarding her driving. A careful person. She inserted the key and started the ignition, she started backing up and turned left to the main gate where it automatically opens when someone's fingerprints had been scanned and identified. The whole building were also installed with various hidden cameras and alarms so the place was safer after all. She drove all the way to Washington Blvd and found the media flocking around. This is what she really hates when she arrived to certain places.  She stealthily parked her car  behind the LAPD's so she wouldn't be noticed.

"Excuse me", she said as she struggled her way to the crime scene. 

She saw the yellow tapes with the words "DO NOT CROSS THE LINE" and looked at the two officers with their neat blue uniforms making sure not to let anyone to pass through the scene. She approached them and showed her ID, they let her in without any hesitations. They showed her respect and that's what she wanted.

It was a public comfort room, as she entered it, she could smell the death itself. She was very glad she hadn't took her breakfast, her stomach now is churning because of the foul odor coming from the inside.

"Oh, there she is", murmured by one of the officers.

"Here, Agent Rollings", called by Sgt. McKinley, waving his gloved hand and mask still covering his mouth.

"So what do we have here, Sergeant?", she asked while walking towards where the body had been lying down. She was motioned to come closer and take a look of the victim while she was given the initial reports and information gathered by the LAPD which arrived an hour earlier. A 22-year old woman, daughter of the owner of Brimmingham Jewelry Stores all around Western countries and she had been running their branch near Washington Blvd for three years now. It was said that she ate her lunch at Cafe' France exactly 1:45 in the afternoon and after that she never returned to her office. She had been missing for three days, police made an action regarding her disappearance.

The body had actually been found by one of the patrolling police when he decided to piss at the public comfort room then called his partner that night. They both reported what they saw and noticed during their shift as well as the police assigned before the body showed. The officers on duty the day before said that the body was not there so the possibility was that the body was brought there but no solid evidence yet. There were no tracks of blood indicating that she was dragged and no prints all over the body. Impossible. Agent Rollings had plenty of questions in mind and it seems that the data were making no sense.

"I knew what you're thinking, Agent Rollings", McKinley said disturbing her thoughts and had been reading her facial expressions. She turned red and felt hot, they may be thinking that she thought of LAPD's not doing a very good job. But it was not like that, there's something missing in this report and certainly that missing link will lead them onto something and eventually catch this pychopath.

"Well, I called you here because this is your forte Rollings and we really had this confidence on you", McKinley said sarcastically.

"Yeah sure", she said with a smirk. She didn't know if McKinley had something against her but she felt that he didn't like her at all. Soon, they will be leaving the place and the scene will be cleaned up so she took all her time to find any evidence and looked at it on different angles maybe she will discover something. 

The nude body's angle looked horrible, it was as if being sprawled all over the floor enought to have broken arms and legs. The woman was pretty with her shoulder length brunette hair that matched her fair complexion and slim body. She had a pretty deep blue eyes too just like hers except that it would almost escape out her sockets and a luscious lips open wide as if she wanted to shout or say a word. Her face was cut in different directions and a deep lacerations on both sides of her mouth, maybe 3 inches long, which made her appeared to be smiling. She was reminded of the brutal Black Dahlia murder of 1947 which had never been solved and no leads as to who murdered her. She looked at the report again, exact time of death was about six hours from now,  the unusual thing was that she had been sexually assaulted after she was killed with the use of something sharp since her vagina had been lacerated. Semen was the only evidence that they had.

Cindy could not hold the pain in her chest and the clouding of tears in her eyes. She wiped it away and looked at anything that might arouse her interest. But nothing. Nothing. Dumbfounded, she walked away and told LAPD to clean up the mess. She will work herself to death on this case, this could be a mad psychopath making his debut.

McKinley was waiting for her outside and as if he read her expressions again he said, "Oh, Agent Rollings, soft hearted", with some sort of mockery. She just ignored him, carrying the pertinent documents on her left hand, she marched out of the flocking press. All of them, tried to follow her, pushed their microphones toward her to have some statement regarding the murder, she said nothing. At last, she was inside her wheels when her phone rang.

"Agent Rollings", she said as she pressed the phone against her ear.

"This is McKinley. Look, I'm sorry earlier but I need you to go to the office now, the head wanted to introduce you to someone", he said straightforward then went off. Still pressing the phone on her ear, she sighed and decided to eat first since her stomach had been growling and might still have the appetite after encountering the victim's body.