“Well Detective Fraulein. Looks like your plan worked.”
“I was expecting the opposite reaction, actually.”
Detective Fraulein wasn’t ready to go home, but she can’t exactly book overtime without justable cause. Not wanting to be yelled at by her superior for breaking the budget once more, she reluctantly traded her thinking sneakers for regular heels.
But just as she got off her butt, a certain Forensic Chemist relayed good news – in a sense. This was more than enough reason to kick off the heels, put the thinking sneakers back on, and clock in overtime. Take that human resources.
Despite her excitement, she frowned, “The intent was to get the Belt Rapist to lower his guard.”
Professor Stone raised an eyebrow, “Belt Rapist? That name keeps cropping up everywhere I go.”
The detective groaned and tossed her phone onto the table to show the social media feeds, “That’s what everyone on the internet is calling him. It doesn’t help when his trademark murder weapon is a women’s belt – always brand new before he strikes. Honestly, everyone are all retweeting him like some sort of comic book villain – can you believe it!?”
Professor Stone sighed, but he didn’t let his negative thoughts put Detective Fraulein in a further bad mood. So he tried to have a positive outlook in all of this, “Either way, it seems lying about the victim’s death gained some merits. Small minnow or big catch – it’s still a bite on your line.”
“We need to nab the bastard when he least expect it. Sending in an army to fish him out of the waters will just make him walk away. So why not let him hunt again when the waters calm. This time we have an advantage, we know what type of women the killer prefers to target.”
The forensic chemist nodded, then asked, “So? Thoughts on this guy who came in reporting the incident?”
"Officer Roland is right – the guy is a nut case," Detective Fraulein clicked her tongue, "Everything you told me about him – just a load of bull. The statement is no better than the beggar’s, all this talk about flying angel of vengeance and whatever.”
Professor Stone shrugged. He would agree, the content of what was reported to Officer Roland was indeed far fetched, but there was something about the description that gnawed at him. Alas, he was forensic – not a sleuth – so he could only move so far within his scope of practice.
Still he did bring up, “You know Detective Fraulein. Even the most deranged hallucinations can come from a slither of truth.”
"Explain."
"People often use references, or something in their knowledge to try and identify things they have never seen before, make relations to get the meaning across. For example, Angel of vengeance could be a man in white and could sprint like an athlete. Or even this horse wagon, an allusion to a car or van."
"...Alright. Say this Kim guy was telling the truth – it’s still bogus. There were no tire tracks near the crime scene. The beggar claimed he practically lived in his trash pit, you’d think in an empty mountain with full of trees he would at least hear a car coming right? And let’s really take the word of this beggar’s delusions – he never mentioned about a guy with a skull tattoo that Kim claimed. No logic, no evidence, no brainer. Define that, Stone.”
Professor Stone wanted to continue with his line of thinking, but upon seeing Detective Fraulein's trademark frown, he decided to change the subject. "By the way, this is the forensic report."
After the detective swiped the folder out of Professor Stone’s hands, he would narrate some of the points for her, “The trashed bottle we found next to the third victim. We were able to recover a full set of finger prints, fresh. We also find more finger marks all over the third victim’s body, which match with the set on the bottle.”
“What would this mean?” Detective Fraulein wondered out loud, “The Belt Rapist always go through the ritual of: wooing the victim and date them for a bit, to make them lower their guard, only to strangle them in the middle of their first sex together.” She added a shrug, “Poison them or forcing them to drink anything, not his M.O.”
“One thing is certain, the third victim never drank anything. The trash bottle does not have her saliva, or any saliva D.N.A. for that matter. I deduce it was left in the trash pit for a while, only to be picked up recently around the time of the murder. As for what reason, I cannot fathom.”
“That...is weird. Serial killers don’t like changing anything to their killing spree, no matter what. They’re always rigid... Anything else?”
“Yes. We found some hair samples that do not belong to the victim. We compared the D.N.A. between the hair and the finger marks from the water bottle – a match.”
“Got him!” Detective Fraulein clapped her hands together, grinding her palms ready to hit someone. “So, does this guy have a criminal record? Give me something, come on!”
“About that...Essentially, you are chasing a ghost.”
“Stone... I’m not in the mood for your jokes.”
"I mean it," Professor Stone replied curtly, "Fourth Page, Paragraph Three. The finger prints we found have no criminal record, no identification record, no immigration record, nothing. It's like the owner of these prints doesn't exist."
"Impossible!" Detective Fraulein fumbled to find the right page in her surprise, only for the forensic chemist to point at the right one. "We live in a modern age, everyone has some level of biometric records somewhere! As if this killer was born yesterday!"
"Spent the whole day, called in a lot of favours. Nothing." Professor Stone sighed as he tapped his knuckle across the detective's desk. "Last thing I want is to elevate this to federal agency, or else--"
Detective Fraulein facepalmed, "Three hometown murders and not a suspect to answer with. If the feds hear about this, it will make everyone in this town look bad!”
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"Also, I took the liberty to bring you the coroner's report." Professor Stone and nodded a gesture towards the folder he handed over. "Everything is similar to the previous two victims of this 'Belt Rapist', but here's the funny thing. While they died of asphyxiation – the third victim died of severe internal bleeding before asphyxiation could take her.”
"...English."
"The first two suffocated to death completely. The coroner stated, the third victim somehow had a better chance of survival, long enough for medical attention to save her. All thanks to this little guy.”
Professor Stone rummaged into his suit pocket and pulled out a plastic bag. He tapped a finger against it to make sure sure Detective Fraulein got a good look at it.
"A sewing needle?" She blurted out from her mouth. "First bottled poison, now needle stabbing? This makes no sense.”
"It's not a sewing needle," Professor Stone answered, "It's an acupuncture needle."
"Stone. I can’t pronounce that without biting my tongue."
"Acupuncture—a longstanding practice rooted in traditional Oriental Medicine. With a bit of Googling, I learned these needles are said to activate the body's natural energy – or Qi they call it – to restore balance and promote natural healing. Something along those lines. It used to be a cornerstone of medicine in the Ancient East, served as a primary method to treating pain and illness long before medical injections were a thing. Now thanks to modern medicine, the art is more or less rendered as holistic healing and therapy.”
".............."
"The pathologist found this needle in the third victim's neck. After asking some professionals, they all agreed – it was placed in a vital part of the nervous system that helped to slow down the victim’s bleeding, keeping them alive just a little bit longer.”
"...Wh...what kind of sick psychopath would force someone to stay alive as they kill them!?"
"No, no. The needle was trying to 'save' the victim. Not drag out their death."
Detective Fraulein dropped the file with a slap. "This guy is a murderer, not some unlicensed prodigy doctor who saves people for ridiculous fees! Are you telling me, this creep has a god complex and decides who gets to live and die – and when!?”
"Now now," Professor Stone hummed, "Let’s be calm about all this."
"Three dead within six months. All young women who barely have a connection with each other! How do you expect this small town to be calm about this!" Detective Fraulein slapped a hand to her table to get her frustrations out. "Clearly whoever left the needle in her neck was involved in the murder!"
"Let's not try and jump to conclusions. It’s too soon to tell."
"Soon? Soon!? Hah. Try telling yourself that if YOU were the detective in my shoes! First belts, now needles – I feel he is leaving it as a calling card to make a mockery out of us!”
Professor Stone wanted to help and clarify the situation, but he knew he would be talking to a brick wall at this point. So all he could say was, "The only thing I can say is this. The acupuncture needle, the third victim’s body and clothing, as well as the trash bottle – all have the same fingermarks. We still have yet to find the murder weapon in question. So there are only two possibilities at this point.”
“Name them, Stone.”
“One: the owner of these new finger marks is the Belt Rapist himself. Two: there are two different people involved, not just one.”
“For the town’s sake, my money is on option one,” Detective Fraulein spat.
“Wait, wait,” Professor Stone waved off the remark, “If the fingerprints and the killer are the same one person – it would make no sense to use a life saving method like acupuncture on the victim. He has never done such a thing on the first two victims. It is my theory, there are two people – but one of them was trying to save the victim, not kill them.”
“Oh come on Stone, this guy is probably using something fancy to throw us off the trace!”
“You say that, but acupuncture isn’t something anyone can learn from a YouTube tutorial. Even the Oriental Doctors I FaceTimed with were impressed with how accurate the needle placement was. It was done by an expert by their accounts.”
Before Detective Fraulein could counter back, someone knocked on the door. A grumble and she let them in, before barking, “Officer Roland? What are you doing here?"
"Uh.” The said officer walked into the wrong atmosphere, glancing between the two warring parties, “P-Professor Stone asked me to come over, sir. H-he wanted me to do a background check o-on the guy who reported the murder. This Kim person.”
“Stone!” Detective Fraulein snapped at her ‘companion’, “Who is in charge, you are me!?” Ignoring the forensic chemist mirthful shrug, she huffed, “Uuugh. And what did you find officer?"
“He’s a ghost.”
"Oh come on, not you too!" At this point, the detective was going to rip her ponytail out of her head!
"I-I’m serious!” Officer Roland defended himself. “I clipped Kim’s face from security cameras and ran him through everything in our system. Civilian database, archives footage, social media – nothing. Like this guy doesn’t exist.”
Somehow the description was enough for the two warring parties to come to a haunting truce.
Professor Stone chewed on his lips and asked, “Officer Roland. Kim had hair all over his seat, at the front desk right? Can you go to collect a sample of them and rush them to my forensic team? Ask them to compared the D.N.A. of the unknown hair we found on the third victim and—Oh please detective, I am asking for a friendly favour not usurping your command, so stop glaring at me!”
“Uh. S-sir. Yes sir—Er, I mean Professor!” Officer Roland quickly ducked out before the truce snapped, but then he staggered, “H-hey, I’ve seen that before.”
"Seen what?" Detective Fraulein wondered when she noticed the officer pointing at her. After looking around, her eyes widen, "This acu-needle thing?"
"Why yes! That! I've seen it somewhere but," Officer Roland snapped at his fingers and cringed his face. "Damn, it is off the tip of the tongue... Does it come with a dragon head?...Oh it does! I knew it!"
The officer slapped a fist to his palm with a yip, "That nut case—Er, Kim who reported the murder. I saw him wearing a bracelet with the same dragon heads! Now that I think about it, one head was missing."
"..."
"..."
“...Sir? Professor? W-was it something I said?”
Detective Fraulein quickly asked, “Officer Roland. Do you have an address, of this Kim?”
“Uuuh,” Officer Roland’s felt his stomach sank, then— “YES! I do! H-his girlfriend. She left her ID card at the front desk! A-and now that I recall she is a regular visitor to the station. She’s from that film company and they come over for research and—I’ll get right on it, detective!”
Who’d ever thought a Chekov’s Gun would be his saving grace. Phew!
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