09:45, VOID Headquarters, Beach Road, 04 Jan 2075
“Oh, that’s a nasty one,” Hai Yue commented as she watched an eye-witness video of a bar brawl between Shawn and a few members of an overseas triad he was investigating for suspected human trafficking from two years ago.
“Yeah, that was what got me transferred to VOID from Major Crimes,” Shawn admitted as the video showed him completely no-selling a chair shot to the back before turning to grab his assailant and throwing him out the glass window.
“But that outfit really fits the scene. Leather jacket, black t-shirt and jeans. Only thing that feels wrong is you wearing sport shoes and no hand protection.”
“I’m not a member of a biker gang.”
“And yet you own a Harley-Davidson and has a picture taken of you hanging out with biker gangs in America,” Ellen retorted.
“What happens outside Singapore, stays outside Singapore.”
“You should be careful about what he says, new girl. That guy has a lot of dark secrets that would get him into trouble if the girls he flirts with find out about them,” Ellen jokingly warned Hai Yue, who chuckled in response.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Ellen had been somewhat cordial towards Hai Yue after the two were introduced to each other, unlike how she behaves around the other marshals of the Night-Sea Patrol. Perhaps it was Hai Yue’s casual attitude in contrast to the other marshals’ uptight behavior or the fact that they finally have a female marshal attached to VOID that might be the reason why Ellen isn’t as nonchalant towards her as she usually is towards Othersiders, but Shawn knew better than to voice out his opinions on this matter.
Speaking of the marshals, almost all of them appear to be uneasy now that Hai Yue was around. The harimau jadian Ismail, a big fellow known for his boisterous but stern character, was suddenly tongue-tied when addressing Hai Yue after finally showing up to work (Ellen’s joke ended up being half-true: Ismail was indeed in Bukit Timah, but was searching for clues regarding a foiled werewolf attack that happened there earlier this week). In fact, Shawn noticed Ismail’s discomfort giving Hai Yue her duty orders despite the latter being nothing but professional and polite towards him.
Kobi, the buaya jadian, was evidently more submissive towards Hai Yue due to being of a lower rank than her. His excessive bowing towards her eventually had her grabbing him by his snout and telling him to relax, which only made him even more tense. As for the remaining two marshals who joined the attachment squad earlier than Hai Yue, they have been out of sight ever since Shawn brought her into VOID’s headquarters.
“By the way, I don’t mean to sound rude, but what species of Othersider are you, Hai Yue?” Ellen asked.
“Oh, that, well, my people are-”
The phone on Ellen’s desk ringing interrupted Hai Yue from answering as Ellen pressed the speaker button.
“Ellen, Shawn, it’s Joel. Zai and I have just finished up at Dr Moyo’s lab. We’ve got a pretty messed up case on our hands.”
“How messed up is it?” Ellen asked.
“Five dead bodies, all victims suspected to be associated with the Scorpions and a lot of teeth. Bringing the accumulated evidence back to the office now.”
“All right, I’ll set up the table and all,” Shawn replied.
“Is the newly-attached marshal there? Met Ismail on my way back and he ask if we could get her involved in our current case since he already got permission from Shankar.”
“Why not? She’s in the office right now.”
“Is she, like, hot? Guys at Second Squad were talking about her, you know, like jeans, thighs and near-perfect face structure.”
“Unless they want to get charged for sexual harassment, I suggest that they might wanna keep their mouths shut,” Shawn replied.
“Warning duly noted.”
Five minutes later, Joel and Zai had arrived at the office, both carrying boxes of files, photos and a laptop, with Shankar also finally emerging from his personal office to greet Hai Yue and introduce her to his other two subordinates.
“There’s one more officer in the squad but he’s away on vacation at the moment, but you’ll meet him in a few days’ time,” Shankar explained to Hai Yue, who nodded before turning her attention to the screen as Joel started the briefing.
“All right, Third Investigation Squad, we’ve got a nasty one here. First, let’s welcome our new colleague from the Other Side, Marshal Hai Yue of the Night-Sea Patrol, to the Violent Othersider Incidents Division. Now, I do not mean to sound rude, but unfortunately, you arrived at a bad time. We’ve got a mass murder case on our hands. Our apologies for not being able to give you a proper welcome.”
“Oh, that’s fine. Almost every new Marshal in the Night-Sea Patrol are welcomed with a murder case within the first five minutes of their first day into the job.”
“That’s a sucky way to welcome recruits,” Zai commented.
“Comes with the job. Only time we celebrate a marshal is on their retirement day. But let's get back to your case.”
“Thank you, Hai Yue. Now, at 0755 hours today, a group of kayakers were heading to an equipment rental shop at Sembawang Park via Jalan Mempurong when they came across the five victims. Condition of the victims’ bodies can only be described as ‘mutilated’. Some are missing limbs, some are missing portions of their torso, we’ve got one that’s been, well, literally ripped into half. Initially, only three corpses were found, but police officers searching the area found two more near the site of the abandoned gate near the road. Zai, the photos, please.”
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Zai placed several photos taken from the crime scene at Jalan Mempurong onto the table. The carefree look on Hai Yue’s face disappeared, replaced by a serious expression as she leaned forward to pick up one of the photos.
“That’s just wrong,” Ellen commented as she stared at one of the photos that showed the front part of a mutilated body.
“Most of the missing portions of the torsos appear to be around the neck and shoulder region,”
“Five victims in total. Three Chinese males, Koh Richie, 25 years old, Lee Man Chong, 26 years old and Tan Wenjung, 23 years old. One Malay victim, Syahmi bin Abdullah, 25. One Thai-Chinese, Aroon John Ng-Chaiyawan, 24. Zai have run all their names through our database and found all of them to be members of the Scorpions.”
“Great, one of the most fucked-up gang in Singapore. Any info on them?”
“Well, Richie and Man Chong had just been released from jail recently. They were both found guilty of rioting and assaulting public servants six years ago. Wenjung is a National Service defaulter. Syahmi has no prior cases despite it being known that he is one of the main enforcers of the Scorpions’ northern branch. Aroon is the black sheep of a family of prominent doctors and has been in and out of jail for petty theft.”
“Of these five, Richie, Syahmi and Aroon are suspected of being involved in a deadly assault on a pair of siblings whom both the police and the Scorpions suspected to be part of the Kiba Corps, one of the Scorpions' main rivals. The brother was left in a coma and eventually pronounced brain-dead. The sister was… The sister died on the scene after being raped. Two prominent members of the Scorpions were eventually found guilty of the crime but the aforementioned three escaped punishment due to a lack of evidence... Still can’t believe that we’re unable to bring charges against the Scorpions despite the CCTV footage,” Joel explained with a look of disgust.
“So their deaths might be related to a gang dispute?” Shawn asked.
“We’re not putting that off the list of possible motives, but I doubt a gang dispute would end so violently. Victim’s bodies were mutilated, parts suspected to have been bitten off literally. Unless one of their rival gangs have started recruiting cannibals, ‘gang dispute’ is somewhere near the bottom of the list,” Zai replied.
“Even back when the Scorpions were known as STING, their violence ends upon their victim’s death,” Shankar added before continuing, “Any idea why they were at Jalan Mempurong in the first place?”
“I did managed to get one of the local pontianaks that witnessed the killings to talk. Seems like these guys were there to meet someone, based on the conversation she overheard. She and her fellow pontianaks were intending to frighten them away from the place because they’ve been hiding stashes of drugs and other contrabands in the area which royally pissed them off, but then whatever killed these five guys showed up and scared the pontianaks away.”
“They didn’t see the culprit?” Ellen asked.
“Too fast. Only thing they knew was that the first two victims were still alive for almost a minute when their wounds should have killed them instantly.”
“Wait, the killer moved so fast that the victims don’t even realize they’re dead?”
“Well, they did notice right before they expired.”
“Tikbalangs?” Shawn suggested.
“No, tikbalangs are herbivores and peaceful beings despite their appearances. My theory is that the killer ate part of the victim, or at least swallowed what they bit off. Did you find the missing parts, Zai and Joel?” Shankar asked, to which both men shook their heads.
“We did find a lot of teeth inside the victims. About five at the scene, but when the corpses were brought back here, Dr Moyo at the forensics lab pulled out at least thirty to forty more,” Joel said as he placed a ziploc bag containing one of the teeth that he found at the crime scene on the table.
“Must be pretty weak teeth to just come off like that,” Shawn said.
“Or our culprit was so violent that they did not even bother about losing them,” Ellen suggested.”
“There is also the matter of a particular set of footprints that we found. It’s a bit difficult to track, but I’ve managed to isolate them while printing out the photos,” Zai explained as he took out an A3-sized photo of the bloodied footprints, with the ones belonging to a pair of webbed feet traced out in white.
“Interesting, whoever these prints belonged to was changing from a human form to whatever they were,” Shankar said.
“We back-tracked the footprints and they started from the Simpang Kiri River. The distance between each print was pretty wide, as though their owner had long legs-”
“Or had enough leg strength to propel themselves further than ordinary people before taking the next step,” Joel added.
“There were some dents in the guard rail alongside the river too, so I believe our killer was hiding in the river itself and pulled themselves over the railing before charging towards their victims.”
“Well, at least we now have a good guess of how the whole massacre occurred. The problem now is to figure out what Othersider is responsible,” Shawn said as he held up the tooth evidence, “Anything we know about this?”
“Dr Moyo ran some tests on the teeth that we found. They belong to either some kind of reptile, a piranha or a shark. What about you, Hai Yue? Do you think you might be able to identify our culprit’s species?”
Hai Yue, who had been quiet during the entire discussion, nodded as she stood up, took the tooth from Shawn and placed it next to the picture of the changing footprints.
“The Night-Sea is home to many aquatic Othersiders including myself. Given the evidence, native Othersiders capable of assuming human forms are the buaya jadian, taniwha, siyokoy or tambuakar,” Hai Yue suggested, “As for foreign ones, there’s the jiaolong, ahuizotl, grindylows and fuath.”
“That’s quite a lot of species.”
“Like your Singapore, the Night-Sea is considered a transit hub for various kingdoms and territories on the Other Side via land and sea. In fact, some of the marshals of the Night-Sea Patrol hail from species and clans that don’t normally live in the Night-Sea.”
“Any way you can reduce the suspect list?” Joel asked.
“Yes. I believe human countries require Othersiders that want to live on the Human Side to register themselves, right?”
“That’s true, but we currently have around forty thousand registered Othersiders living in Singapore. It would take some time to narrow down the names,” Shawn said to which Shankar replied, “Well, it won’t be the first time we have to go through that damn list. We’ll do that and isolate all known aquatic Othersiders on the list. In the meantime, Hai Yue has the authority as an attached marshal to conduct her own investigation on the case. Hai Yue, if you need anything from us, please, do not hesitate to ask.”
“Appreciate it, Mr Shankar. If I find anything on my end, I shall pass them on to your squad as well. Speaking of which, I have a request.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve been here in your human country hundreds of times, but all of it was as a tourist and not a marshal. I might need some human presence to assist me if I am to conduct my own investigation, so can I borrow one of your men during that time?”
“Of course! We have a volunteer here,” Shankar replied as he tapped Shawn’s shoulder to the latter’s bewilderment, “When you need him, just give me a call and I’ll send it to you.”
“I don’t remember volunteering,” Shawn complained.
“Right, you didn’t volunteer, you were volun-told.”
“In that case, sir, don’t start complaining if I ever get into a bar brawl again…”
“Hai Yue, please make sure he doesn’t do that if he’s with you.”
“No problem. In fact, I think I would need him now. I would like to go to where you have placed the corpses at so that I can inspect the wounds myself.”
“The morgue? Oh, that's easy, I can bring you there,” Shawn replied.
“There’s something else I need. I heard the VOID worked with ghosts even before we marshals started sending attachments to you all. Do you happen to know any ghost in the area?”
Everyone turned to look at each other with obvious irritation and resignation written all over their faces before Joel looked back at a confused Hai Yue and said, “Yeah, we have one that haunts the building that sometimes helps out with certain cases.”
“The way you say it, sounds like this ghost might be a problem.”
“Because he does has a problem,” Shawn admitted as he scratched the back of his head, “And trust me, you’ll find out why faster than I can explain it to you.”