Miscalculated Crime
He was too shocked to even know what he will do. There, in front of him, lays the bleeding body of Keya Gul. He took him for about a minute before he dials a dispatcher for assistance. Minutes past then an ambulance came to pick up the body.
They even check for the body's impulses but none were found. Keya Gul is pronounced dead on the scene. Chief Moss had just done his dinner at that time when Major calls. He immediately went back to the precinct to see what was going on.
He met a baffled and scared Major on the sidewalk as he was being checked by the ambulatory team. "What happened?" Chief Moss asks. "I don't know, Sir," the young man said while shaking. "Calm down first, Major. I will just call of whose officer is available around this time," the chief said as he took his phone and dials Lilibush, Amorphous, and Cantaloupe.
Good thing all of them are available, so they immediately went over to the precinct to check on Major and to gather information on the crime scene. "Died from suffocation, huh?" Cantaloupe said as he walks around the dead body.
The forensic team came in minutes later after the detective said that. "Good evening," their leader greets the detectives on the scene. "Hey, how's your evening?" Lilibush greets back. "So, uneventful until you called," their leader answers.
"Ours, too," Lilibush agrees. After hours of checking and talking, Amorphous came over to the forensic to ask for some clues and information. "So, what do we have here?" Amorphous approaches them as he draws his notes and a pen from his back pocket.
"Brutal. This guy was killed brutally," the medical examiner said. "Brutally? By what means?" Amorphous asks. "A broken face, a broken nose, broken ribs, missing ankles, and broken legs," the medical examiner said as she sighs.
"Whoever did this to him is pretty sure mad to this guy," the examiner said. Amorphous frown at her at first but when he saw the current state of the body he almost gags and now, agrees that the killer might've been really mad at Mr. Gul.
He lists down everything that he could list and went out of the room. Amourphous went straight to Lilibush and Chief Moss to report. "That is one of a disgusting body. I've never seen shit like that before," Amorphous said as he walks his way down to them.
"How is it?" Lilibush asks. "Dead and disgusting," Amorphous simply replies. "You won't even want to look at it. I almost gagged," Amorphous added.
"Is it that bad?" Cantaloupe asks. "Dude, he is almost unrecognizable so, yes. It is that bad," Amorphous explains. Cantaloupe gags at that thought. "Can I see your notes?" Lilibush asks. "Sure," Amorphous answers.
Then lend him his notes for Lilibush to examine them. "A broken face, a broken nose, broken ribs, missing ankles, and broken legs," Lilibush lists down. "Yikes! Is it from the same mystery killer?" Cantaloupe asks as he listens to the long list of broken to their dead body.
"Looks like it," Lilibush said. "How so?" Amorphous asks. "Well, we did listen to that emergency call from earlier in the morning, right? And he even admits that he knows the mystery killer from the interrogation that also happened earlier in the morning," Lilibush said as they walk down the hall to their office to check on Major.
As they open the office, they found Major talking to someone on the phone. Major looks at them with fear in his eyes as he puts the call on speaker mode.
"Father, I am sorry. I can't tell you how much I despise this persona of mine. I hate to be the reason for you to be disappointed so I hid my true self from you. Father, I am sorry for deceiving you. I am sorry for lying to you.
Father, this might be the last time that we will talk to each other or you might hear this voice message when I was dead. But, please accept him for me. Please, Father. I love you," then the phone dies. Major looks at them before saving the voice message under the file name "Ian's dying wish".
Lilibush looks at Major as he was about to faint when Chief Moss enters the room. "Major, are you okay? Why does it look like you are about to faint?" The chief asks. Cantaloupe takes Major's phone and plays the recorded voice message then he puts the volume up. The chief curiously listens to the recording.
At first, it was a long silence as if thinking this could just be a prank. But he was not ready for what he heard. It was his son's voice, trembling in fear and asking for forgiveness. Chief Moss knew about his son's love affair way before Ms. Sorrel spread his dirty rumor.
He learns to accept it as time went by. He was even excited to meet the guy who tamed his son as he was known for having an anger issue. But that meet-up didn't happen because his wife told him that Ianthe went away with him. He was not mad or anything, he was just a bit disappointed that he didn't get to see the man.
But as he listens to the conversation, he asks Cantaloupe to grab a pen and paper. The chief placed the phone on the table, sat down, and replays the recording. As he writes down the words that were emphasized, he smiles to himself knowing that his son just gave them the clue they all been waiting for. A name that has been a mystery even to the well-known detectives. Finally, he was named and it was all thanks to his son.
He could still remember when his son always asks him to play this game back when he was still a kid. He didn't even realize that it could be useful to today's killings. As he finishes the last word, he looked over at the words written on the paper.
"Persona, Reason, I, My, soRry, tO, mesSage, plEase," he said as he emphasizes every letter then write those letters on the other side of the paper. "P-R-I-M-R-O-S-E," it spells. Lilibush and the others look at him with amazement.
No wonder he became the chief of police despite his young age. Chief Moss was still in his 50s so having that type of chief gives them the boost to strive harder for the sake of their people. After writing down each letter, the chief looks over to the boys gaping like dead fishes on land.
"We have a name," he proudly said. Their respect for their chief went up as he rips the piece of paper and went to one of the computers in the office to see if the name has a previous record. The others just follow him to the computer like disciples and watch as he solves the crime by himself.
He types down the name but nothing came up, as much to their disappointment, their chief just smiles and looks at them. "Tomorrow, I would like the three of you to check every victim that had been recognized to see if the killer has a mark," he said while pointing to Lilibush, Cantaloupe, and Amorphous.
"What about me, chief? What should I do?" Major asks. "We will visit your boyfriend," the chief replies as he stood up and shuts down the computer. "B-boyfriend?" Major asks. "The florist. Isn't Mr. Sage your lover?" The chief calmly asks. "N-no. W-we just had sex and that's it," Major stutters while the other three are loving how the young latter tries to prove his point.
"It's the same thing," the chief pushes. Major just gape and decides to drop his argument because he knows that he won't win against their chief. They went out of the office and into the parking lot. They decided to sleep in for the night as they have a big day tomorrow.
"He is not my boyfriend," Major said to Lilibush and Cantaloupe and asks them if he could stay in for the night. Lilibush just laughs and Cantaloupe snickers. Major was a bit red then Lilibush starts his engine. They all went home while they tease the young latter who just got a message from his alleged boyfriend.
~0~0~0~
From: Ren Sage
To: Detective Major
Time: 11:11 PM
Message:
Keya Gul is dead and so is Ms. Sorrel. Hey, detective. Who do you think is the next victim of the city's mystery killer?
~0~0~0~
Major furrows his brow when he got the message. How did Ren know that Mr. Gul is dead? They haven't been news about him.
This time, he didn't shrug the thought about the florist's text message. He even shows it to Lilibush and Cantaloupe. Even they furrow their brow to the message.
Could it be that Ren Sage knows their killer? Or Ren Sage is their killer?