It was the first of December, 2018 in Kwinana. It was midnight when they found the body, skinned, lifeless, yet perfectly intact, the detectives can't even find the missing skin. The detective looked over the discarded corpse of a 16-year-old girl, her body neatly placed on the living room carpet on her stomach. Faith was her name, a popular schoolgirl who was also a chess champion for the state of Western Australia.
Joanna struggled to figure out how the victim died, or even how the skin was removed so effortlessly. There were no clear insertions of a knife and nothing to show a mess. There was no blood splatter or blood at all. To Joanna, it was like every liquid from her body was syphoned out of her. There were no signs of struggle from her attacker, it was a puzzle she couldn’t piece together how they could do it. A story of a murder that had no beginning, middle, or end.
The only thing the detective could understand was Faith was skinned in the living room. How did the criminal get inside? She couldn’t answer that question even if she tried. Not even the witnesses could give her a straightforward answer. One of them stated he saw the young woman leaving the house at the time of the murder. An impossible turn of events given the time it would take to skin the kid and when the witness saw them leave. It could be possible that the murderer was another girl of her age, but it could not explain the skinning and how clean it was. That would be something only a professional could pull off.
‘Found anything useful, Joey?’ Detective Liem asked.
Joanna shook her head, ‘no, I’m lost. Found anything yourself?’
‘It’s a pattern, it is the same as four murders that happened five months ago. Either this bastard is messing with us, or they have some mess-up fetish.’
‘Either way, they know how to cover their tracks.’ Joanna looked out of the front door and saw the parents of the kid weeping over the loss of their child in front of a police officer. ‘How are they holding?’
‘Badly,’ Liem whispered. ‘No one is handling the news well at all. Not just that, but people are starting to panic. Word has already gone around about what happened, I even heard that 7News might be here soon.’
Joanna headed to the back of the house where the kitchen was, near it was a glass sliding door that led to a small grassy backyard that needed to be mowed. The glass door was open by the time she arrived; upon close examination, she believed the door was left open before the time of the murder but couldn’t find any dent in the grass that could indicate someone had jumped the fence. Though it was the best clue she had to work with at the time. Maybe she wanted to get some cool air inside? Perhaps that was also how they got in? She reasoned.
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‘Did we interview the neighbours?’ Joanna pointed to the house on the other side of the yard. ‘He could’ve entered the house through that door.’
Liem pulled out his notepad and flicked through the contents. ‘Nope, no one saw anything or even heard of someone jumping their fences.’
Joanna walked around the backyard, trying to get a picture of how the criminal could’ve gotten inside without alerting Faith. The backdoor has a direct view of the living room where Faith was killed. She must’ve noticed them when they jumped the fence. The killer would be someone she knew if that was the case. ‘Are you sure no one else was inside with Faith? Like a friend? Partner perhaps?’
Her partner shook his head after he looked over his notes. ‘Nope, no car pulled up and no one else was expected to meet her. She was also known to be an isolated person despite her popular reputation. She didn’t enjoy company even at the best of times, introverted and all of that you know.’
With nothing to go by, Joanna walked back inside to search Faith’s room while Liem explored the yard for any clues. The room was messy, expected for any teenager. A photo of Faith was on her desk near an unfinished game of chess. She wore glasses, her hair curly and blond, while her face was covered in freckles. The photo was taken when she won the state championships.
Yet, it too had no use to her investigation for nothing of value in her room was taken or tampered with. So, the murderer was not someone who knew Faith or had any kind of rapport. I can scratch that off. Or the killer didn’t kill her for any valuables. I suppose I can leave that open for now.
Joanna left the house to file her report before the forensics team arrived. She couldn’t lay her eyes on the family; she couldn’t bear the thought that she found nothing that could help them out. But deep down, she hoped the forensics team could find something.