Distinct Traits are Lethal for Murderers

[ GINA ]

There were blood everywhere; on her thighs, on the floor, on her feet; I saw how it drenched, as my eyes were seeing only that eminent dark red color. It almost covered the dining area.

The next thing I knew - Becca is turning really, really pale.

My head clicked right in after I saw that imagery and immediately screamed for help. Becca was talking to me but I never cared, I just took her by my arms and shouted with the loudest voice that I can.

"HELP!"

No one in my neighborhood nor the residents of the apartment helped me get Becca here at the hospital. I tried to lift her up and give her a piggy back ride from my area, but she's too heavy. I can only take her right through the door and the people who heard me shouting for help a while ago, just went in front of us with their phones filming the moment. No one helped us.

Imagine, there were strong men out there with their muscles and all that shit but none helped us.

There were people who could, but nobody helped us.

FUCK THIS GENERATION. This mentality of people. Ugh, I hate it. They were just raising their phones right in front of us while we were lying on the ground in front of my apartment door.

Men are trash as fuck. Useless. They would just let any person die in front of them and tweet about it.

I am feeling enraged right now.

I knew nothing about it whether it was menstruation, or something serious. like, a thing acclimated to her pregnancy. It scared me for I feel like the blood she lost is too much, almost like falls between her thighs that I saw. I could still picture everything from here.

I went totally blank because of panic. I grabbed her phone out of her Birkin Bag and started contacting the paramedics. I waited for them to come until Becca was feeling sleepy of the blood.

You know when your love one is on the verge of this kinds of situations, It'll make you crazy. Like I did. This.. everything.. it's crazy.

As the ambulance came, they took her and rushed her here -- at South Coast Medical Hospital.

We were taken to the emergency and all I did was follow the medics. As I saw Becca acting dizzy, I panicked. This is what I also felt when she fainted days back. Same hospital. God, I don't know, it feels crazy that we're here again. Flash memories are coming to me little by little as I wait here at the lobby. I don't know but their eyes. The nurses, the staff.. everyone is looking at me like how they did when Becca acted out that time. Their sharp gazes, almost like an accusation of us getting involved into something morbid. It feels terrible. But I know somehow, they were thinking one of us killed their ob-gyn.

THIS MENTALITY. FUCK.

I let the medical team take Becca to the ER via some stretcher stuff. She lost some blood and now I don't know what it's gonna make her. Somehow, at the back of my mind, I feel like I am one of the agents of why this all happened to her. These past few days she's been hardly sleeping and the most recent, I kind of made her feel that I don't want her around me. Like, I kind of said that I want her gone. I know it got into her head.

As I was sitting here with my mind fixed on these various scenes inside my head, a doctor approached me.

"Are you the relative?"

I stood up and made myself easy. "Yeah, I am Gina Salazar. A friend of her."

He extended his arms towards me and insisted for a handshake. I responded to his call. "What happened, doc. How is she?" I added.

He had his face quite blunt. "I'm sorry but.. We assume she had miscarriage."

I shuddered, almost have covered my mouth by the news.

"What? A mis--"

My mind interrupted my thoughts in a sudden. I feel bad that she had miscarriage, but somehow. This is what she wanted on the first place. To abort the child. Yet I was thinking. will she be happy about this when she finds out?

But the doctor said, 'assume', right? meaning, it's just an educated guess.

I continued asking, "Wait, you assume - so you only assumed that it is miscarriage?"

The doctor composed himself, looked directly into my eyes and said "For now, yes. We ran a Human chorionic gonadotropin blood test to her and we saw that the results are fluctuating. Meaning her HCG levels are falling down. But it's kind of inaccurate to tell yet. Normally, need another diagnosis after two days to confirm the results."

What the doctor said made me feel anxious. If ever Becca had miscarriage, I would feel bad for the life of the child that she lost - but happy that she can now take some rest without Stefano's child with her.

Kind of torn between two feelings. I'm stuck in the middle of it.

***

[ JACK ]

Another day, another lead. PawnDawn, here we go.

Stefano Gutierrez's parents called me last night, asking for justice. They were crying about what they lost and they were rooting for me to find answers. They kept saying Stefano is a great son to them and a dad to his only son. They kept saying he raised John Bryan, his only child, by his own.

If that's who he really is, I definitely feel like the person who does this might be of jealousy or of anger. Anyway, what could we know?

I gave his parents some updates and they asked me to promise them something -- that I'll find the murderer who killed their son.

I never promised them anything. I never did.

That's the first rule of being a detective. Never, ever, swear to anyone that you'll find anything for them or whoever. You're going to give them a false hope if ever you fuck the investigation up, or it happened that the murderer happened to be careful of leaving marks.

And, as a new lead, PawnDawn is the place to consider. An now, my team and I, we're here.

I took a step inside the shop as I remember the digging that I did last night:

The owner of this shop, Michael, is now dead. But on the other hand, his son, Daniel, is the one who is currently managing the store. PawnDawn is a shop where you can sell, trade or buy stuff. Some of the reviews online says that they found hidden gems here that they could not find even on amazon. PawnDawn is up for everything, mostly old stuff. Some are almost antique, some are rusty enough to have some restoration. I am astonished by the things they trade and sell, but here, as we were called to find where it leads us - the murder weapon might has been bought.

I took steps to the counter and a guy with his nameplate 'Tristan' greeted me. I greeted him back as I introduced myself.

"Good morning, I am Jack Hoffman, NYPD." I took my badge out of my pockets and showed it to him. "we are here to ask some questions regarding Dr. Stefano Gutierrez's murder case."

Tristan made his eyes larger in shock as he may be thinking, they'll be in trouble.

"UH - oh, okay. I'm going to call Daniel for you sir. Wait a second."

He went inside a door as he said those. He was gone for a minute, but came back with who I suppose, Daniel, right after.

"Excuse me, is there.. any problem?" Daniel asked.

"Are we - Are we in trouble?" Tristan added, stammering.

"It depends on the truth." I replied.

Both of them looked at each other acting frightened. They looked back at me as they figured what this sudden intervention is about.

"I uh, Just want to ask if this was sold here?" I took a photo of the exact murder weapon out of my pockets. A Chinese sword from Han Dynasty. Seeing it, both Daniel and Tristan are now acting uneasy and misled.

"Yeah. Someone bought it days ago."

The confirmation Tristan said made me feel a sort of awakening in my senses. Alright, the murderer might have been here. There, I took my note pad and my ball pen out. I need to make sure I can write all the details down so I cannot lose track of any relevant information. "Can you remember the face of the one who bought it?" I asked them another.

"Yes. Barely though. But I do remember her like.. she was wearing a shoal over her head. Not entirely, half was covered by it. Half, not. I saw that her hair is blonde as it peeks right through the shoal uh.. and.. umh.. That's all I can remember. There were also a lot of customers that day so it's kind of hazy." Tristan replied.

I jot down everything he said and I know that's another lead for this case to go. I think this is getting clearer than what I expected

"Is that everything you can remember? How about.. the clothes she's wearing or something like that?" I added.

"Uh, Wait. Umh, Gosh. Sorry I didn't pay attention to what she's wearing really. But I do remember a.. uh.. some kind of scar on her face if I'm not mistaken."

What Tristan said is a very rare physical trait within the vicinity. That will give the detectives a lot more vision about the murderer.

The details are very clear. Some things are getting unraveled.