The Owlsburgh Christmas Bombing (Day 1)
Shallow breaths could be heard from the empty alleyway. The man's thick fingers trembled as he connected the final wires together. "My... my... family will be saved!" he nervously reassured himself. "Nothing will go wrong!"
He attached several rectangular devices on the wall. A tiny green timer ticked down from the five minute mark. The man dashed from the place, grunting and crying as he pushed his legs as hard as he could. He instantly stepped on the gas pedal and sped straight out.
"Five... five more left to go..." he gasped.
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The wailing sirens shook Detective W up. He groggily rubbed his eyes, and looked outside. Everything looked fuzzy to him. "Argh... did someone have a kitchen accident again?! It's four o' clock in the morning!" he groaned.
Multiple red and blue siren lights flashed and the wailing got louder. Detective W blinked, and this time, he walked to the balcony, and looked at the situation carefully. Below him was a long river of police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks.
"What the..." he just stood there, stunned. "This is way too much police cars for a kitchen fire..." He looked left, and saw an enormous plume of smoke rising from far away. He slowly stepped back into his room, and turned on the TV apprehensively. Detective W's eyes nearly popped out when he saw the red headlines.
"LOCAL OWLSBURGH APARTMENT BUILDING BOMBING: AT LEAST 50 INJURED, 14 CONFIRMED KILLED. 21ST AND GROUNDCHERRY"
"Oh boy..." Detective W mumbled. "16 years of peace... it's finally broken..."
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You bolted into Detective W's apartment. Once you saw the news, you immediately ran to the office, not worrying you disheveled clothes. "Boss! Boss!" you hurriedly shouted. "You've seen the news yet?!"
Detective W sighed, closed his eyes, and enjoyed his morning tea. "Yeah, my friend," he uttered calmly. "The Owlsburgh Bombing?"
"It's... horrible," Ha-Eun shuddered. "The body count was updated... At least 70 injured, 26 killed. Why would people do such a thing?"
Detective W shrugged as he bit a spicy cracker. "Who knows? By the way, Officer Victoria had contacted me for a citywide law enforcement meeting. Us private investigators were encouraged to attend. If they allow it, you guys are more than welcome to join!"
You mentioned, "Is the meeting held at the police station? It's just two blocks away. "
Detective W nodded, and put on his black trench coat. "It's time to pay the police station a nice visit."
The three of you tried to match Detective W's pace as he walked to the police station. In the end, you had to run.
Detective W walked into the pristine police station. Several officers were already in the waiting lobby. They were grouped in the corner, talking about a dead policeman. Some were even crying.
"Seems like no one is in a good mood today!" a cheerful, bubbly voice suddenly filled the waiting lobby. A pear-bodied, blonde-haired woman with a beige trench coat walked in and slapped Detective W's back. "How is it going, homie?!" she chuckled.
"So far, so good. How about you, Private Investigator Belladonna?" Detective W forced a smile.
Belladonna's bright blue eyes locked onto Detective W's. "Aww. That's good, W. Smile a bit more, W. You'll be more handsome that way..." she told Detective W in a honey-like voice. "Much more handsome..."
You saw Ha-Eun fidgeting visibly. You, who had no idea what's going on, distracted her by playing a game of "I Spy" with Ha-joon.
Detective W's face, however, remained expressionless. "Belladonna, any new cases so far?" he asked coldly.
"Aw... W, you're no fun..." she replied in her honey-like voice. "No fun at all... this is the only case I'm assigned to..."
Detective W crossed his arms, and nodded. Suddenly, two people emerged behind the large, rusted metal door. "Attention, everyone!" a caramel-skinned man with an afro commanded. Behind him was a short female police officer with brown hair and glasses.
"Good morning, Chief Thomas!" All the police officers instantly yelled. "Good morning, Deputy Chief Esposito!"
"We will hold the meeting in the back meeting room! We have several things we need to cover!" Victoria ordered.
Everyone in the waiting lobby rushed in. Victoria stopped you, Ha-Eun, and Ha-joon from coming in. "I know you're W's assistants," she explained. "But, this is a meeting only for licensed private investigators and the police. A bombing case is nothing to toy around with. Maybe next time, kids."
She instantly shut the door on you. You took a deep sigh, and sat in the lobby.
"Kids?!" Ha-Eun felt affronted. "We're not kids! I'm almost 22!"
"I'm 19! We're adults!" Ha-joon added, coming to terms with Victoria's denial. "Well, we're not detectives, but let's do some of our own investigation! Can't let W down like this, right?!"
You nodded and said determinedly, "I will text Boss that we're gonna do some of our own investigations. There's got to be a way we can help with the case..."
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Before the presentation began, Chief Police Thomas urged, "My fellow policemen! Detectives! Private investigators! I need you all to work together this time, as this bombing case concerns all of Owlsburgh! We will catch that terrorist!"
"Aye, sir!" everyone in the room bellowed.
Deputy Officer Victoria went through the presentation. "Before I begin, my fellow officers and detectives, this meeting is confidential! None of this has been reported to the media! The field investigators had already collected all the available evidence from the scene!"
"Aye, boss!" they clamored. Victoria was rest assured.
"This is the footage from the security camera nearby the explosion site... 5 minutes before the explosion... " she introduced. "This is at around 21st and Groundcherry Streets."
It showed a masked man with black jogging pants running desperately from the site. He tripped, and instantly got back up. The man then limped to a white car with an undiscernible license plate. A red sash seems to be hanging out from his pant pocket. The sidewalk was also void of people. The time on the footage showed: "December 25th, 2018, 03:45."
"Deputy Chief, would you mind zooming in on the person's pocket? Around the 00:10 mark, please," Detective W asked nicely.
"Sure." Victoria did what Detective W said, and analyzed the video footage. "W? I don't see anything...?"
"My bad... start from 00:09, please, and stop at 00:11."
Deputy Chief Victoria sighed, and started the video from 00:09. The video, by this point, was fuzzy. However, there was a visible, yellow thing falling from the pocket. "Can that be considered as evidence?" Detective W wondered.
"That might," Victoria replied hesitantly as she pushed her glasses in. "We just need to know if the field investigators had found it."
"Have we narrowed down the list of suspects?" Detective Mwangi, an eye-patched, veteran detective in the field for thirteen years, gruffly asked.
"No. But, we do have a general pool of suspects which we can whittle down," Chief Thomas answered for Deputy Chief Victoria. "So far, from what we can tell, the culprit is about 5 feet 9, has a masculine figure, thick fingers and a weak jawline. I know, that isn't much to go on."
"It's better than nothing," Detective Mwangi admitted.
Victoria went to the next slide. On there was a picture of several wires, black plastic shrapnel, and a single green timer. "We can safely assume this bomb is a timer bomb. How movie-like... and cliched it is..." she remarked. "We found several of those."
"What's your conservative estimate on the number of bombs planted on the apartment building?" Detective W asked.
"Around... 5. There could be more. But, wow! I'm surprised by the timer bomb's explosive force," Deputy Chief Victoria guessed. She did her signature thinking pose-her head tilted, eyes upwards with her hand on her chin.
She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, giving up on the estimation. "The final thing I want to show you today is the Owlsburgh map. Find it on your phone, take a picture, or commit it to memory-do whatever you can to keep it fresh in your mind! This is Owlsburgh, our city! We have to protect it!" she demanded no less from everyone in the room.
"YEAH!" the entire cohort of police shouted. "PROTECT OWLSBURGH!"
"Dismissed!" Chief Thomas exclaimed proudly.
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Detective W had just seen your text. He quickly texted you a thumbs-up, telling you to send all pictures of probable evidence and the bombing site's surrounding area. He chuckled as he saw your pictures.
You sent him several selfies with Ha-Eun and Ha-joon. You also sent the videos of interviews you did with random people on the street. Detective W's eyes widened as he saw the videos.
"Wait... how did my assistant get this lucky...? It's almost impossible...." Detective W murmured, almost dropping the phone. The three interviewees shown in the three videos matched Chief Thomas's description exactly, albeit the skin colors. They were all a bit taller than Ha-joon.
He scrutinized through each video carefully. The first video's interviewee was a white man with messy, green-dyed hair. The four questions given are: "What did you think about the bombing? Where were you when the bombing happened? Did you see anything else during the bombing? What do you think the police should do?"
The green-haired man answered while fidgeting, "The bombing...? It was such a shame. Many lives lost...I saw it in my bedroom, second floor. At around 21st and Pommel Street. I also saw a white car running from the scene! Who knew it could happen in just mere minutes? The police should catch the criminal, of course!"
The next video showed a tawny-skinned man with dreadlocks. The same three questions were asked. The dreadlocks man answered, "I just feel sad for my friends. Their family lived there... to think that they were injured... I was sleeping in my house around that time, of course. Oh? The specific address? Around 17th and Groundcherry streets. I saw nothing else besides smoke. The city should upgrade its security. We've been too complacent."
The final video exhibited a balding man wearing a silver bracelet. He angrily droned and waved his cane, "Kids these days, always bombing things when they're not happy! Back in my days, we used to solve it with compromises! If that didn't work, a boxing match it is! My house was around 2 blocks away from the building! 21st and Amaranth street--just where I can see all the youngsters' cars speeding past red lights! I saw a white car speeding in front of my house! What are the police doing, being this incompetent?! Shame on them!"
Detective W checked the videos one more time. The green-haired one has a visible limp, while the dreadlocks man held a crutch. On the balding man's right leg was a medical walking boot.
He checked the Owlsburgh City map one more time on his phone, this time alternating between street and 3D view. He checked 21st and Pommel Street first. It was three blocks south of the apartment. In that area, one side of the street was two story houses. The other side had three story houses. He went further south, this time to the bombing site. The metal fence on the downward ramp to the highway obscured the first floor of the bombed apartment building.
He then grabbed a spicy cracker from his bag and ate it while he analyzed 17th and Groundcherry Street. It was 4 blocks east from the bombed apartment. A green, grassy park was in between them, and fancy two story houses were on 20th street. The trees in the park veiled the six story apartment building, leaving the top barely visible.
He finally went to 21st and Amaranth street. Amaranth street was about 2 blocks north from Groundcherry Street. Between those streets were all two story rowhouses and three story rowhouses. The three story houses were closer to the apartment building. The three story buildings all had balconies on every floor. There were several young trees planted in the streets.
"Seems like all their actions and descriptions are good..." Detective W muttered. "Could I be mistaken? Could I?" He mulled over it some more.
He closed his eyes, stroked his goatee, and thought deeply. Within a minute, his eyes sprang open, realizing the flaw behind one of the testimonies. He chuckled. "Someone gave out false information, and they tried to gloss over it? Suspicious indeed..."
He quickly texted you all the information he knew--even the confidential information in the meeting.
He followed up with, "If you can deduce the correct flaw in one of the video interviews, I will double your pay this entire week. I'm serious. That major flaw changes the entire case! This case needs all the help we can get, and that means I need you to stay on top of your game!"
Your mouth almost salivated at the thought of being paid double. Whatever you do, you have to get it correct!
What was the flaw found in one of the interviewee's statements?
----------------Owlsburgh Bombing, To Be Continued--------------