chapter five

CHAPTER FIVE

Another morning of work, I said to myself as I brewed my morning coffee, another day of delivering bad news and catching perpetrators, I was going to the place I dreaded going to the most in my career as a detective, the coroner's office to get the autopsy result, hopefully the results would pull me a step closer to figuring out what happened to Ashley.

I got to the office and found myself searching for my new partner, he wasn't at his desk, I sat at my desk first thing I have to do was to document the outcome of the interview yesterday, I love working in the field but this documentation process I don't really like. I had worked on it for about one hour when Gabriel walked in, 'Already slacking off on your second day at work?' I asked.

'No way, it's actually pretty embarrassing but I got lost on my way here' he said.

I laughed 'I mean you could just have used google maps'

'I realized that a little bit late and don't laugh, I'm new here remember' he answered

'Sorry' I said still laughing.

'When you finish mocking me why don't you tell me what we have on our plate today'

"Well we would be going to the coroner's office, don't worry I would hold you tight so u don't get lost again'

'ha ha, very funny Ari'

'By the way, what's with you and trying to give me nicknames, and all them are whack' I asked

'Don't worry I will come up with the best nickname you have ever heard very soon'

'Well, we will see about that Gabe'.

He was right, our last night outing made our relationship better but of course I wasn't going to say that to his face.

We got to the coroner's office, his secretary ushered us in to the morgue, the coroner Mr Fernando had just worked in with his mouth chewing, I looked and saw he was snacking on an apple, typical Mr. Fernando he was always eating something every time I walk into his office, he dumped the stalk into the trash can cleaned his hands and then he pulled out a tray and there in laid Ashley's corpse, 'Hi Ariadne, it seems you have gotten yourself a partner', he said.

'Yeah, this is Gabriel, he transferred in newly' I answered

'Well Gabriel, I hope you are settling in nicely, Ariadne is my good friend and I hope you don't give her any trouble' he said to Gabriel

'Don't worry, Ariadne and I would make a good team', Mr. Fernando looked at him unconvinced.

"Well, down to business, the cause of death is drowning-induced asphyxia, which means she was still alive when she was thrown into the river, and from the marks on her bodies especially her wrist and feet, I can tell that she was wrapped in something with sharp edges or thorns probably barbed wire used for fencing, based on this information, what must have happened would be that the culprit tied her hands and feet with the barbed wire, and maybe she passed out so the culprit loosened her up and wrapped her up in but her in plastic wrap but didn't cover her face for some reason, dumped her in the river and then she drowned, a very gruesome way to die in my opinion, imagine waking up to find out that you can't breathe, water is filling up your lungs quickly, and you can't move your hands and legs to save yourself' Mr. Fernando said shaking his head at the thought. 'Time of death was 2am-4am' he finished.

'Damn, humans can be so cruel' Gabriel cursed

'Poor girl, she must have been really frightened, well we need to figure this out as soon as possible' I said

'I will send the details over to your office, but I think you should go to the hardware store because barbed wire are usually sold there', Mr. Fernando chipped in.

'Yeah, that is our next stop, have a nice day Mr. Fernando' I said walking out with Gabriel walking beside me, we got outside 'I mean…why would someone do that?' he asked

'Well, that's what we are going to figure out', I answered

'You know, I have worked on over 50 cases and every time I am always surprised, I don't think I would ever get used to this', he said'

'Neither would I, I remember my first case, a married man was murdered by his girlfriend, I remember telling his wife what had happened to her husband, I don't know what hurt her more, the fact that her husband had died or the act that he was cheating on her, she kept saying "are you sure it's my Stevie" when she finally identified his body she fainted and had to be in the hospital for 3 days, the shock was just too much for her', I narrated.

'hmm…why did the girlfriend kill him?', he asked

'Apparently, they got into an heated argument one day about him not divorcing his wife, she got a bedside lamp and broke it on his head, she got scared and ran off, the man bled to death'

'Love is a really dangerous emotion I guess'

'You mean lust, because he definitely didn't love her enough to leave his wife for her'

'I guess you are right, lust and anger' he said.

'What was your first case?' I asked

'A kidnapping, we got the kid back alive though, her parents were really rich and the kidnappers wanted to make easy money' he answered.

We drove to the hardware store, discussing about previous cases we had solved and the unsolved ones, he spoke so calmly, analyzing each case he had solved with so much gusto, from our conversation I could tell that he really enjoys his job as do i. I found myself interacting more and more with him, where did my shy nature go? I asked myself. Gabriel was bringing out my other personality, I am a shy, stuck up girl to everybody, but only my close friend and family knew the talkative, care-free Ariadne.

We walked into the hardware store flashing our badge to the store attendant, we took a look around and indeed we saw the barbed wires on sale, plastic wrap also. 'The killer could have easily got all his supplies here' I said out loud.

'Did anybody come in here to get barbed wires and plastic wraps on Tuesday the 15th' Gabriel asked the attendant'

'oh I don't remember, but we can check the cctv records of that day but you would have to get it from the manager' the attendant said, walking to the back room, where the manager was.

The manager got out the records and we started watching for clues, the killer could have as well had the barbed wire in his possession previously or bought them weeks ago, there was no knowing what exactly we would find or if we would find anything at all, but we watched for 2 whole hours looking at a 24 hours footage and then we got something.