The third victim

Just as Ryan finished reading the message, he called Vivienne and the other side picked up instantly.

"Can't sleep?"

He had to admit. That cold voice of hers had some kind of calming effect on him as his rapid heartbeats toned down a bit. He walked towards the wardrobe to grab a new t-shirt.

"Nightmare," he answered.

"May be you should get some counselling done with a psychiatrist," she suggested.

Although Ryan was acting as if nothing was wrong and doing his job as per usual, the psychological trauma he received had not been small.

"I still want to wait and see," he answered.

This was the first time he was haunted by such a dream anyway.

"Well, it's your problem," she replied nonchalantly.

"Can you... can you tell me more about that girl, your friend?" Ryan asked hesitantly.

It was true that he was curious about the victims of his parents' crime but he was not sure if knowing more about them would help his condition. He could hear Vivienne's sigh from the other side although it was soft enough to miss.

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything. What do you guys talk about? What does she like doing? What's her favorite color? Anything at all."

With that, they talked for almost one hour about the girl.

"So, she taught you that song?" Ryan asked as he sat leaning on his bedroom wall. One of his long legs was straightened on the floor, while his other knee was flexed.

Vivienne told him that the girl taught her the song, "You are my sunshine".

"No wonder you like it a lot," he added with a smile.

"She must have missed the sunlight a lot," his voice turned softer and more solemn as he remembered that the girl spent 5 years in a basement cell.

"Who doesn't miss the sun in this city?" Vivienne remarked.

Indeed, it was very rare to see the sun in this city enveloped with fog the whole year. May be Vivienne was trying to comfort him so that he would not feel too guilty.

"Thank you," Ryan said.

"It was nothing," she answered.

"I think you stayed up all night. Sorry for bothering your resting time."

"I'm talking with you while closing my eyes and lying on my bed. That doesn't consume much energy."

Ryan felt like laughing because of her matter-of-fact explanation.

"Sweet dreams," he said.

"Yeah." With that reply, she ended the call.

Ryan also drifted off to sleep in that position. He did not even bother getting into the bed as he did not want to drive away the sleepiness he was feeling.

However, he was rudely woken up by his phone ringtone about an hour later.

"City X PD, Captain Carlos," he answered the phone in a confused state.

However, what he heard from the other side immediately made him alarmed.

"What?!" He roared.

"How dare they!" He added as a cold glint passed through his eyes.

Julian felt a shiver from the other side of the call as he heard his captain's chilly voice. It was his first time to witness his captain's anger.

After noting down his captain's instructions, he rushed out to the reported crime scene. He dared not slack off at all as he knew that his captain was really furious this time. It was very unfortunate of him to be the on call detective of this particular night. He also called his weird partner on his way.

He parked in front of Shelly's apartment to pick her up. Unlike her usual self, Shelly's eyes were serious as she exuded a murderous intent. Julian realized the graveness of the incident and that his captain was not the only one in wrath.

While Julian was recounting to her about the patrol officer's report in detail, the talkative Shelly did not breathe a word at all. Soon, they arrived at the crime scene. Only after he got out of the car, did he take a deep breath. It was quite suffocating to be in an enclosed space with Shelly while she was fully releasing her frosty aura. They took the gloves and shoe-covers from the forensic team before entering the perimeter.

Under the scarce sun rays of the dawn, a body was lying with his face down on the pavement. It was a tall man wearing worn out long coat and pants. His brown hair some of which had already turned silver, was scruffy. His complexion as pale as white sheet just like the first two victims of the drug.

Julian stopped in his track while he was only two metres away from the corpse. Although he was not close with the victim, knowing that he was a fellow officer like him made his heart leap up to his throat. If he was feeling like this, may be she would be in a worse situation.

His thoughts made him look towards his partner who was walking towards the victim with steady footsteps, her face cold and unfeeling. Julian let out a soft sigh. Of course, with her long years in this career, it would not be the first time for her to experience such situation.

He also steeled his nerves and approached the corpse. Before he checked the corpse, he heard a firm voice from behind him.

"Drive away those people."

He looked back to see his captain commanding the officers who rushed out to control the onlookers and media. He also saw Allen persuading the media to back off. Well, a police officer's death is not a case to be disclosed to the public, at least not now.

When Ryan approached the body, Julian stepped away to give way to his captain.

"This bull-headed old man, how could he die so easily," Shelly said without looking at Ryan. Although she was trying her best to calm her voice, Julian could still feel it shaking with anger and sadness.

Ryan did not respond and crouched down to lift up the victim's face with his gloved hand.

'It was really him.' He could not believe it until he saw his face with his own eyes.

He really died.

After seeing the victim's pale face, he proceeded to check his fingers. As expected, he saw the needle marks under the fingernails.

"The same way?" Allen asked as he just arrived behind Ryan.

"They went after the wrong guy," Ryan said as he checked the corpse for further clues.

"Because the State Police arrested the professor and the kid, they thought he was the one who gave them the information," he added.

Allen nodded. "It's possible as he was in narcotics and also snooping around Moretti's cartel."

"Damn it! He never listened to other people's advice," Shelly grumbled while gritting her teeth. After hearing that Ryan and Allen had to give some information to the State Police Department, she had warned her stubborn senior to be careful but it seemed he did not pay heed at all.

"We'll go check the neighborhood," Shelly said and left with Julian.

While Ryan was busy studying the corpse, David came and crouched down beside him.

"The body just started stiffening. He's been dead for around 2 hours. The cause of death is blood loss yet no injury in visible areas except for the needle marks. It's more or less the same with those two victims several months ago but I'll confirm the details after the autopsy. Other than that, we've found nothing. No blood. No prints. No hair. No trace of the culprit at all."

Ryan responded to David with a nod. It was plain to see that he was trying to hold in his seething anger. David also did not disturb him further and quietly left after saying his findings.

"They have such swift information network," Allen said.

"We only got the professor yesterday and they have already made a move," he added with a sigh.

After not hearing from Ryan, he continued.

"You know we really didn't have a choice. If we let the kid and the professor go, the situation would get more out of hand."

"I know."

Despite what Allen expected, Ryan's voice was calm. Too calm that it was even a bit scary. When he looked at Ryan, he noticed that Ryan's eyes were too dark to grasp what the latter was thinking at all.

After checking the crime scene to his satisfaction, Ryan gave instructions to the officers on site, including Shelly and Julian. Then, he left to the victim's house together with Allen.

"Why does he live like this?"

Allen could not help but make that comment after seeing the messy room filled with musty smell. There were newspapers, clothes, food and even files scattered on the floor. Except for a bed and a TV, there was no furniture in sight, not even a chair or a desk. There were also no more room other than a bathroom.

Ryan did not reply but started checking the files on the floor. Most of them were undoubtedly related to the new drug. He collected all the files and photo evidences and piled them up in one place.

Allen walked into the bathroom also started looking for clues. At that time, an officer appeared at the door.

"Captain Carlos," the officer saluted.

Ryan remembered him to be one of the officers of narcotics department. He returned the salute before asking, "What is it?"

"He told me to give this letter to you in case anything happened to him."

Ryan nodded and took the letter from him. After seeing the content, he excused the officer and walked towards Allen.

Then, he crouched down and started knocking on the tiles of the bathroom floor.

Allen gave him a quizzical look and asked, "Is there anything wrong?"

Ryan passed the letter to him and continued his actions.

The letter had only two words, "Bathroom floor".

Allen also started to help Ryan and soon, they found a tile which made a hollow sound. They removed it to see a plastic bag containing a USB stick. They both decided to keep this stick to themselves instead of collecting it as evidence and they also destroyed the letter.

After checking the room to their content, they left the apartment and started questioning the neighbors.

They all testified that they saw him came back after work but left after changing his clothes and that was the last time they had seen him.

"I think he left to investigate the cartel. Don't that guy even rest?" Allen said incredulously.

"He won't rest until he had put all the criminals in this world behind the bars," Ryan replied. He had somehow understood how that person's mind worked after hearing about his story from Shelly.

"That's the kind of cop Lieutenant Parker was," Ryan added.