3:05 AM. No time to sleep.
Sergeant Leo could be found standing in the office of C.I.D. Team B, downing his third can of coffee. He couldn’t help but stare at the wallscreen for hours, arms folded and brow pinched. He had every file open – from discovering the corpse, locating the thumb, lists of potential suspects, to even reports from searching Frank Tucker’s apartment. All notes large and small were displayed and digitally labelled on every document and photo.
Leo checked at the corner of the wall screen, eyeing the live team notifications. Last read message was from Constable McLamb. 2:10 AM. The sergeant groaned, wiping a hand over his face. He left his nose in his palm as he continued to ponder on multiple lines of thought.
Then the door to the office opened.
“What do you have McLa—Oh, sorry Jenny.” Leo took a moment to rub his eyes. He opened them to readjust to the bright light.
Constable Jenny closed the door behind her. She carried her jean jacket in one arm and her police tablet under the other. Her hair was sticking to her face and forehead as she grabbed some Kleenex to dab the sweat off. “Sorry it took so long. There was an emergency at the hospital, a whole bus full of hockey players that had a sudden case of food poisoning.”
“That’s fine.” The sergeant took a break from the wall screen and filled up a cup of water from the office cooler for Jenny. As the constable nodded a thanks and drank at least half a cup, Leo spoke up. “Anything on Dr. Malcolm?”
“Dr. Malcom was already out of town for a medical conference, five days before Sarah’s time of death.” Jenny gulped more water before she continued. “Even when he got back after we found her body, he had to attend to an emergency surgery. Hip fracture from a senior home.”
Leo pinched at his chin. “He’s clean?”
Jenny shrugged, “Unless he found some way to freeze the body to delay the corpse decomposition AND had a plan of discarding most of the body while he was still at the conference – most likely he isn’t involved.”
The sergeant tapped a fist to his forehead. “One way or another, at least he is one problem out of the way. You must be hungry, I already got Jackson to get us some food when he comes back. Get some rest.”
Jenny nodded and stumbled to her desk. She dropped her police tablet onto the table, sagged into her seat, and couldn’t resist taking off her shoe to let her feet rest.
“Heyoooo!” Constable Jackson strode into the office, carrying several bags of take out in plastic and paper bags. “Daddy’s home!”
Leo rolled his eyes and marched over, giving the constable a light jab with a back hand in the open stomach. “What took you?”
“Yeah, not gonna say traffic was murder. Puns like that are so last generation.” Jackson coughed to hide his cheeky smile and he passed the bags of food over to Leo. “I had to stop by a few places to, uuh, call in some favors let's just say.”
“Anything on Felicia?”
“Everything from her business life, social life, and private life.” Jackson snagged a large cup of soda from the take out bags and made a loud slurping sound. “Felicia Harvey, workaholic. Even on her off days she is always taking calls and hunting for big money clients. It’s to the point where no one can tell if she is just aggressive or addicted to her work.” Another sip and Jackson adjusted his fedora. “Roughly around the time Sarah would have been murdered, Felicia was either at her office or meeting another client somewhere in town. That or skinning her secretary alive on FaceTime – quote me on that.”
Leo frowned. “Nothing involving with murder?”
“Nothing involving with murder.” Jackson mirrored. “Buuuuut. On the way over, I did come across something very interested. Have you seen the latest viral video?”
“Look, Jackson. I appreciate you trying to cheer me up with cute animal videos but--” Before Leo could finish his sentence Jackson dragged the sergeant over to the wall screen. After pressing some buttons on his phone to send the link to the on-the-wall computer, the clip was being show. The sergeant stared for a moment. “...Wait, isn’t that Felicia?”
Jenny bolted sitting up when she heard the name. Not bothering to put her shoes back on she dashed over to the wall to join them, peeking over their shoulders.
A YouTube short played across the wall screen. Felicia Harvey was walking through the street, head held up high with a peaceful smirk. A call came. She answered. The smile shattered, into a face of confusion. Anger boiled in her eyes. She started to talk back, her voice rising into yells. People around her all stared, she turned her backs on them. Finally, she could be seen making a ‘hello?’ ‘hello?’. Finally with a violent scream she tossed her phone away – only for it smash into a nearby light post and shrapnel bounced back into her face! She grabbed her cheeks with a shriek and tripped backwards. The video would then rewinded as she was in mid-fall and looped her accident from the phone exploding and her keeling over like some kind of beatbox animation.
The title of the video was [MID-LIFE CRISIS MUCH?]
3.5 Million Views, 6120 Likes, 2 Dislikes.
“Jackson, where’s the audio?” Leo replayed the full clip and raised the volume. The music was so obnoxious even Jenny had to cover her ears with her jean jacket. Several officers out in the hall would peer through the office window, confused as to why there was loud booming music. No matter how hard Leo tried to listen for any ambience, all he could hear was the music thumping against the walls.
“Leo. Leo! LEO! IT’S NO USE MAN!” Jackson hollered over the noise before he slapped a palm to stop the clip to stop the sound. He started to smack a fist on the volume down button. “Video editing man. Most shorts like these people mute the original track and put in music to add their own spin on the video. Now, in saying that – this is where I was calling in some favors.” Making sure the volume was low enough, the constable pinched the tip of his fedora with a smug chuckle. “I went on this guy’s YouTube channel and contacted him via Twitter messages. Lucky for us he is willing to help and give us a copy of the raw footage – buuuut we gotta wait until after his graveyard shift as the clip is on his memory drive back home. Sooo about what five or six hours give or take, provided his boss doesn’t give him overtime.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“I guess that’s one saving grace.” The sergeant replayed the video and paused it just as Felicia picked up the phone. Fortunately, there was a public clock nearby and it showed the time. Leo tapped at it across the screen. “Did you check the phone company?”
“You wouldn’t believe who called her around that time.”
“Who?”
“Frank – Tucker.”
----------------------------------------
Sergeant Leo and Constable Jenny exchanged confused glances after Constable Jackson responded. The sergeant would walk over to one side of the wall screen and return while dragging his hand across the screen with two pictures of Frank Tucker and Felicia Harvey. His finger tapped between them.
Leo rubbed at his chin for a moment. “You’re saying it was Sarah Tucker’s husband calling his mistress that got her to explode like that?”
“The time checked out. The call was made about 2 hours before we raided the Tucker apartment. It was about a minute long sooo.” Jackson glanced at the YouTube Short, in time to see Felicia smash her phone to make it explode. Given how the short video was made, he couldn’t resist laughing – but stopped when the others leered. “Ahem. Something definitely went down between the ‘lovebirds’. I’ll keep tabs on the guy who owned the video clip.”
“You do that, and--” Once more Leo was interrupted when someone rushed into the office. “McLamb! Finally. Did you find anything about them!?”
Constable McLamb panted a bit before whipping up two folders. Both of them were considerably thick, with many loose photo copy papers and tagged with bright neon yellow stick notes. He handed them over to Leo and Jackson – the latter tossing it to Jenny – and he snagged a cup of water from the cooler to hydrate.
“Okay so,” McLamb gulped down some water “Felicia Harvey. Was born here in the Metro City, had her elementary and high school education here, then went to study abroad at Switzerland to earn her Bachelor and Masters in Business Administrations and train as an insurance agent. Eventually moved back to here in the city several years ago and has been working in Precious Life since.” McLamb then walked to a corner to drag the doctor’s portrait, placing it right next to Felicia Harvey. “Dr. Samuel Malcolm. Born and raised in the states, comes from Manhattan, New York. Whole education and medical training in New York. It’s only about 5 years ago he came to the Metro City, earlier than Felicia Harvey.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Jackson held up a hand. “Slow down there sparky. What is this about?”
“While you and Jenny were checking Felicia and Dr. Malcolm’s alibi, I had a hunch they knew each other.” Leo kept sorting through the printed notes in the folder. “Dr. Malcolm has means, but no motive. Felicia had motive, but no means. I wanted to see if there was a connection between them. Whether they ever met, learned about one another’s affair, and perhaps collaborated to kill Sarah Tucker together. I already updated it on our live chat, but I didn’t get any word back from you and Jenny.”
“Ah sorry Leo.” Jenny held up a hand in apology while. “My tablet ran out of power and I forgot to turn my phone back on after asking the hospital employees.”
Leo gave her a nod of understanding, then frowned at Jackson, “Let me guess: busy investigating YouTube Shorts?”
“Bro.” Jackson gestured his arms to the table full of takeout bags. “God gave me two hands.”
McLamb waited for everyone to settle before he finished his report. “No matter it be childhood, adulthood, career, or even medicine – neither Felicia or Dr. Malcolm show any evidence of having met each other physically. At most we know Felicia was aware of Sarah and the doctor’s affair, but Dr. Malcolm would not have know about the insurance agent. Unless they are hiding their relationship from others with an affair of their own, I’ve got nothing that would link them together to Sarah Tucker’s murder.”
“Everything’s a dead end huh.” Leo mulled over the information was reading through the papers. After a moment he gave a nod and patted McLamb on the shoulder in gratitude. “Worth a shot. Come on let’s eat. Everyone’s tired and starving.”
“Yeah.” Jenny sighed. She put aside the folder and went to charge her police tablet.
Jackson marched over to the desk, rubbing his hands together. “Tonight’s a smorgasbord ladies and gentlemen. I got the full works: Golden Dragon Expression, Taco Del, Kiara’s Fried Turkey, SubHey, Him Tortin donuts and coffee, aaaaaaaaaaaand Jenny’s all time favourite.” He dipped his hand into a paper W&A bag to pluck out, “100% plant burgeeeer. On the house fam—nah, you owe me $7.99 with taxes. Pay up.”
Jackson held out a hand, waiting for payment. Jenny marched over, slapped a tired hand into his empty palm, and swiped away the burger. Just to be sure, Jackson turned his hand front and back – still empty.
“You’re welcome.” The constable mumbled and pulled out a tin container to toss it to McLamb. “Chicken Chow Mein with three item combo. Hope you’re not allergic to deep fried Szechuan calimari. And you my man Leo, get – a Happy Meal!” He held up a small bag with a tiny burger and fries. Leo came over without looking, dove his hand into one bag, randomly picked a submarine to eat in front of the wall screen. Jackson glanced over, but flinched and looked away from the images. “Dude! Please put away the corpse photo! We’re eating here! At least think about McLamb’s stomach!”
Said McLamb glanced at the wall, before turning his chair about to have his back facing the wall screen.
Jenny grabbed a milkshake a sipped her drink as a starter before taking a big bite from her burger. It only took two chews, before she frantically waved at McLamb to whip over a waste basket to her. “BLEEEEEGH!” She spat out her burger into the bucket, coughing and gagging. “Jackson! I’m vegetarian!”
Jackson was in the middle of biting his apple pie when his name was called over. He tapped his phone to mute the forest fairy Vtuber stream he was watching and glared back. “Yeah. I know. Hence why I went out of my way to get you a plant based burger – on the other end of town I might add.”
“No! This is a cheeseburger! Look!” Jenny waved her meal, showing two double meat patties, melted cheese, and some pickles. “What kind of sick joke is this?”
“...Gurl. It’s 3 in the morning. I was lucky to find a place that still sold plant based burgers at this hour! And I wouldn’t blame the college part-timer who got the order wrong! Man was sleeping on his feet! Besides! Plant burgers, regular burgers, they all look the same to me!”
Leo stopped mid-bite with his submarine while he stared at the collection of corpse photo. His eyes lit up with a thought and he walked back over. Not saying anything he picked up Jenny’s burger and examined it.
Double cheese burger, in a wrapper reading 100% plant based. He plucked out his phone, typing Plant burger, and compared the images. Bun, lettuce, tomato, plant paddy. Sometimes with or without red onions.
The detective couldn’t stop looking left and right, from the bitten ‘plant burger’ and the Internet's ‘plant burger.’
Leo gave the police wall screen one last look. He eyed the many body parts laid out on the morgue table, each of their parts cleanly sliced off at the joints. Even the fingers were not spared, save for a thumb.
“...Everyone drop what you’re doing. Restart the investigation. Now.”
== TO BE CONTINUED ==>