I could clearly see on their faces that they didn't share my hypothesis. They didn't think she was killed.
Well, they've seen the body and I haven't. It's natural that they think this way. 'how can he be so sure if he hasn't even seen the scene of the crime' they probably thought
The difference between me and them is that I've seen countless of crime scenes. I know how those sick monsters work. How they kill.
Regardless, I do need to see the crime scene to gather clues. So, I put down my smoking pipe again, and put it on my pocket.
"Shouldn't you not smoke while working?" Marcus asks me
"I agree"
"Hypocrite" Javier says.
I simply chuckle and move towards the scene of the crime, the cube surrounded by that police 'tape'.
I take out gloves from my pockets and start putting them on. However, they interrupt me. What is wrong with trying not to contaminate the scene?
"You don't need those" Marcus says as he enters into the scene of the crime without ANYTHING to avoid contamination
"What the-?"
Javier interrupts me yet again, by laughing. I shoot him that glance again and he explains
"T-the system automatically excludes police members and detectives asigned to the case! I've already added you to the case"
"What if the system fails?"
Javier laughs again and taps me on the shoulder before entering into the crime scene.
"The system never fails, buddy"
I sigh, and murmur to myself "Don't you love this damn negligence?" Whatever, I pocket my gloves again and walk through the neon lights "POLICE INVESTIGATION".
Opaque from the outside, the restricted zone expands across most of the street. Two lanes are also cut off inside the zone. However, not many cars pass by here so the traffic wasn't affected significantly.
The crime scene is absolutely horrifying, for anyone who hasn't seen any. The first lane of the road is covered in blood, it expands backwards from the point of impact.
Raymond realizes that the car did not stop, as the tires from the car left a mark in the pavement, cutting through the pool of blood and expanding it forward.
But the car didn't even try not to hit her, and just kept going forward. Not a single deviation. It just kept going unphased.
As for the victim, she was crashed and sent flying away. Elissa Openheimer's corpse apparently hit the wall of a building in the same pavement she walked through.
That is what the splattered blood on the wall indicates. It also shows that after hitting the wall she slowly slid down the wall, leaving a trail.
And lastly, the limb corpse was impaled by a fence. Raymond approaches her to examine it better.
What a fucking mess.
She walked into the road, was crashed by a car, who by the way didn't even flinch, and then was sent flying all the way to this wall.
Then slid into the fence.
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
She kissed the wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
And I guess she also did.
I approach the corpse and look at it, something catches my attention immediately. Her clothes, something is off.
"Marcus, Javier, check this out"
"Check what?" Javier asks me as he and his 'buddy' approach me. Idiot, just shut up and come.
I walk even closer to the victim, and point at her right shoe.
"There's blood on her shoe"
"No shit Sherlock, a car ran over her"
"Idiot, this blood isn't hers"
"What do you mean?" Marcus speaks, putting his hand on Javier's mouth.
Thanks.
"The car ran over her from the front, it's highly unlikely her own blood went to her shoe." — Javier barks against Marcus' hand, I think he doesn't like being forced to shut up. I just continue — "All the blood that went down, forward, fell on the car, not her feet. Look at the pool of blood, it doesn't go forward, it goes backwards."
We were lucky that the road was slightly tilted downwards, that made it so the pool of blood only went down.
Marcus and Javier seem to more or less understand my point, but I don't see them too convinced.
"Just take the damn shoe and analyse the DNA on her shoe"
As Javier starts retrieving a sample of the blood on her shoe I walk around the corpse. I'm searching for any further clue.
She walked into the road, yes. But if she has blood from another person on her feet, maybe she had a fight before doing it.
I don't think it was suicide, but if it was suicide... There has to be a reason behind it. Maybe she was threatened. Maybe they threatened her sister?
"Eureka!"
Marcus and Javier turn to look at me
"Look at her neck" I say with a smile on, I can't help but get excited when I find clues that these stupid policemen miss.
There are marks on her neck, she was probably choked. Which lets me link the previous clue together.
"Is there any hotel around here?"
"Yeah, 3 buildings down the street, but it's not very well known and barely has any clien-" Marcus replies to me, and I interrupt him towards the end.
"Exactly. If you were a murderer, would you want to go to a well-known 5 star hotel full to the brim?"
"Of course you wouldn't." Javier replies
I walk away from her body, thinking. I take out my pipe again and lit it. And start smoking.
Marcus gives me that look again, the 'why are you smoking?' look. But I ignore his ass.
The clues make sense, but there's something that doesn't quite fit. She was clearly attacked in some way inside the hotel, the blood on her shoe and the marks on her neck confirm it.
However, if she had a fight, how did she walk into the road? Hmm...
Wait, of course she didn't walk into the road.
"So, she was told to meet at that hotel, probably through a mail or a card. Then, once inside the hotel, two things could've happened: first, she was attacked; Second, she was blackmailed but she tried to make her way out by force, failing."
"That doesn't explain why she walked into the road"
"No, it does. After being choked by her attacker, she wouldn't be able to walk on her way"
I take another drag from my pipe.
"Bambi didn't walk into the road. She was pushed into it. Murder"
"You gotta stop calling her Bam-" Javier is interrupted by Marcus midway through his unnecessary emotional complaint.
"Javier, have you downloaded the camera footage already?"
Javier, despite still being annoyed, nods and does some wack shit with his hands. Soon enough a floating virtual screen appears in front of us.
He starts fast forwarding the time.
"Stop" — I say, and he does. — "6 pm, Bambi walks into the Hotel"
"Yes, you got that right. Let's see if she leaves the hotel alone" Marcus acknowledges me. Though I personally believe it took him way too long.
Javier then fast forwards the footage again, and once again I catch the exact moment.
"Stop." — He does — "There, 6:25 pm she leaves the hotel. There's too much people around, can you resume the recording to see if we can get a better angle?"
Javier resumes it at normal speed. She keeps walking up the street, tumbling around as she does. Yet she doesn't fall and keeps going back to a straight position after every slightly tumble.
After about 1 minute walking up the street she stops moving, and turns around towards the road. Bambi is ready to say hi to the metal beasts.
"Stop" — I approach the screen, closer, as I try to figure out anything out of the current frame. — "sounds stupid but can you do the Zoom and Enhance thing?"
Javier chuckles, and zooms in the image. Then, enhances it.
"Of course I can, we're living in 2060 not 2020"
"Eureka! Look at that" I exclaim
"That black thing following her?" Marcus asks
"Yeah, look closer. It's the shape of a human. He's just covering his face with a cloak." — I take another drag from my pipe — "Javier, can you resume at slowmo?"
He nods and resumes. I look closely, I'm waiting for the killer to look towards the camera— "Stop!"
"I don't know how useful this will be"
"Very, Javier" — I reply to this dummass — "This proves that it wasn't suicide, it was a murder. Right as I predicted. Try to save the previous frames, and this one. This one also shows us the killer has amber eyes, we struck gold."
Javier nods. In the meantime, while tech guy is busy downloading stuff, I decide to ask Marcus a couple questions.
"Why did you think it was suicide?"
"We hadn't initially found any clue about it being a murder, and in the media her sister had denied Elissa's existence countless times"
"Mary was just trying to protect Bambi"
"Why do you call her Bambi?"
I just take another drag of my pipe. And another idea comes to my head
"What about the chemical diagnostics? She seemed under some sort of calming drug in the video"
"It's being analysed by our forensic."
"Didn't Javier try to analyse the blood on her shoe"
"Javier tried to match the DNA with the database."
I start walking around, taking another drag from my pipe while I'm thinking
"Again, shouldn't you avoid smoking while working?"
I shush him. It is not the time for his unnecessary shitty rule-breaking argument. "I'm thinking"
I hear him sigh. Why does he even give a fuck? I'm a private detective, I work alone. Who cares if I smoke while working?
It's not like the contractor will send me a message telling me they won't give me my money because I smoked—
"Her phone, have you checked her phone?"
"Well, phones aren't usually used anymore s—"
"I'm not asking you about that crap. What is used to receive messages?"
"The virtual mai—"
"Have you checked it?"
"N—"
"Great. Javier!"
Marcus seems slightly annoyed by me interrupting him three times in a row. Heh, sucker.
Javier quickly approaches us.
"Can you check her ritual nail?" I ask him
"Her what?" Javier seems confused.
"Virtual mail" Marcus says
"Same shit" Ain't it?
"Uh... Oh, right. We didn't"
Duh. These police officers are so incredibly useless. I guess I might ask Javier about the DNA check on the blood on her shoe while he's cooperating.
"Have you finished analysing the blood on her foot?"
"Yes, actually" what were you waiting for then, idiot? I think that, but I decide not to insult him again for the next two minutes. "There's no match"
"And was Elissa in the database?"
"Yes, though not really."
"Yes or no, it's not so hard dummass" I said I wouldn't insult him but I couldn't hold it back. Sorry not-sorry.
"Have some respect, Raymond. We're police officer—"
"Yet you forget to even check her mail for blackmails, threats, etc."
Marcus sighs, ignoring my last fact drop, and finally explains what Javier meant.
"Elissa Oppenheimer does appear in the database, but as Dido Cartago"
"Good, so the blood isn't hers"
"It isn't."
"Murdered, she might not be put together but I will put the case together"
"What the?" Marcus and Javier ask at the same time
"Humpty Dumpty"
That answer doesn't seem to satisfy them. But I don't give a crap.
I take another drag of my pipe.
Let's hunt this ghost of the virtual city.