A murder mystery with more than one side.

 

“Bring in the suspects” Mr. Lee ordered me in his heavy velvety voice.

“Yes sir.” The case this time could have been rather simple but sadly we faced a rather strange ‘twist’ and a murder incident which should have taken a few days’ time to solve, was now eating up all our extra time.

I joined the MPD a few months back. Watching detective series and books made me come here and I love every bit about it except when I have to face the families of victims. The reason I am not enjoying this case right now is because this case is not as complex as Mr. Lee is making it.

We found the body two nights ago. . . .

 

“Uwaaah… that’s horrible”, Mr. Bracker who is always the first one to arrive at crime scenes came in late and acted just like he would. Making painful and disgusted faces during the discovery of murder victims was part of his unamusing hobbies. Frankly such conduct used to tick me off at the starting but I am used to it by now. Another reason I did not react was that this time he was right. It was a horrible sight indeed. Floating in a sea of blood, a high school girl lay dead with numerous stabs all over her body. The most difficult part to see was her mouth.

Her half cut tongue was dangling out of her mouth. Her jaws looked rigid as if a lot of force had been applied to pull them apart.

She had been stabbed inside the mouth as well.

“Miki come here” Mr. Lee called out to me from the corner of the room. He was bending down and looking closely at the edge of a table. “What do you think about the case?”

All rookies are assigned under well established, or experienced officers. That is how you learn in this department. I considered myself particularly lucky for having been placed under Mr. Lee. He is the youngest among all the other big officers, his cases are always interesting, he is even considered a prodigy because of how he can solve any case and last but not the least, he is the most wanted heartthrob of the department. But Mr. Lee is not particularly interested in anyone, he loves his work and I admire that part of him. But Someday I would make him admire me and he will say that he is glad to have me as his subordinate. Of course in a work related sense!

“The case? Well it looks like a revenge plot to me. I mean… the way she was stabbed, it couldn’t have been anything else.”

“Hmm… revenge…” Mr. Lee murmured as he turned his head and looked at the body.

“Yeah. Especially the way her mouth has been… um… dealt with, I would say that maybe it was something she said.” I was not thinking very strongly when I said these, just casually making assumptions but Mr. Lee eyed me in an amused manner.

“Words you say” he smiled his charming devilish smile that he used to give when he found something amusing and abruptly turned around to leave. “No I was just wondering aloud-“

“Quick lets go.” I was cut off midway in my feeble attempt to defend myself against anything that he might think ‘stupid’ of me and we hurried to the car. Normally murder cases took a lot of time but this one was more concise. The one who found the body wasn’t the police but a civilian. A middle aged man, probably in his 40’s *I had not read the report yet* found the body and miraculously, the culprit as well.

. . . .

Headquarters:

We were reading the report when a constable came in with two men, or rather one man and a boy.

“Please have a seat.” Mr. Lee signaled the man to a seat across the table and the man sat down quietly. Just as I had guessed, this man was in his 40’s. He is 43. The boy kept standing still looking at the ground.

“So you are Mr. Gin? You found the body and called us?” speaking politely Mr. Lee leaned in on the table with a comforting smile on his face. “Yes sir. I saw this boy killing the girl!”

Mr. Gin obviously was still on the edge. It had only been a few hours since the time of the crime. His eyes were blood shot and he looked exhausted.

Sympathizing with his condition I looked up at the clock. It was fifteen minutes past 12 am. The investigation which had started at 9 in the evening had dragged on till a report could be made and the suspects could be questioned.

“I understand but you need to remain calm-“

“No you don’t! Why won’t you talk to me?!” the boy at the back looked at us helplessly with tears rolling down his cheeks.

“All you did was make a report on what he said! You are not even talking to me!” Well he seemed much more exasperated than the old man.

“How dare you… first you sin then you fight back!” the man got up from his seat and grabbed the boy by his collar. The whole room got into a commotion as the three of us; me, Mr. Lee and the constable, tried to separate our two suspects who were latching at each other’s throat.

Quickly enough we stopped the two. Mr. Lee held back the boy while the constable was holding on to Mr. Gin. “Please listen to me!” the boy shouted through his tears and shook uncontrollably. I was amazed at how Mr. Lee was able to hold him so tightly.

“We will. Calm down. Trust me we will listen to you next.”

He assured the boy kindly and after the boy started calming down. “We are just following procedure. It is customary to talk to the caller first after all he is the first suspect.” The boy looked at Mr. Lee in confusion and so did Mr. Gin.

“What do you mean the first suspect?” Mr. Gin almost croaked.

“Of course. You are both suspects of this case and we will follow the case accordingly.” Mr. Lee again smiled at the man and asked the constable to take them back to different rooms.

“We will do this separately now I have seen what I wanted to.”

The constable looked confused as well but followed his orders. I keep calling him Mr. Constable because I forgot his name but that was hardly my problem at the moment.

“Why call them together in the first place?” if we were just following procedures then it was obvious to talk to suspects individually.

“Just wanted to see what they wanted to display. Kim can you get me a coffee please?” he signaled one of the other rookies who had joined along with me and sat on a sofa. I heard Kim mutter something under her breath, something like ‘why don’t you ask your assistant to get it for you’.

She was probably referring to me. Mr. Lee heard it too and replied “Aww don’t be like that after all Miki has work to do”, I smirked at Kim and she scowled back at me.

“What do mean by display?”

“You’ll see what I mean, soon” and with that Mr. Lee leaned back and closed his eyes while he waited for his coffee.