Free Web NovelChapter 16: Chapter 16 - Clue and suspect
The Captain sighed and cursed at himself.
"Sorry but, I can’t let go of the case. The hunch is getting strong by the second." Vincent said.
Trust your gut, the Captain had lived by that motto all his life. And it had always served him well.
Vincent couldn’t see but a smile came to the Captain’s face.
"Fair enough, kiddo. I will give you some rope for this one. Let’s see if you hang yourself with it or not."
He disconnected.
Vincent sighed and put the phone back into the pocket. Dawnstar looked at him with her green eyes, feeling pity.
"You got chewed."
"No." Vincent sighed again. "But I need to show results as fast as possible."
He began to think, he had checked all the places.
"I found this." Dawnstar showed him a pink letter.
He grabbed and read.
To my beautiful girlfriend, with lots of love. Can’t wait to be in bed with you tonight. freewēbnoveℓ.com
Jake.
’Charming.’ he thought and remembered another place to look at. It was probably from her boyfriend named Jake.
He walked toward the main system of the room and connected with his identification card. He took out the phone and connected everything in here with it.
He took out a messaging log from Emma’s chat.
First her phone. Jake Goldberg had called 50 times over the past two weeks but funny enough, he hadn’t called her once during the three days.
He checked other apps and showed the same result. Bombarded with calls and messages but stopped three days ago.
"I found the first suspect." Vincent said to Dawnstar.
"Really?"
He nodded. "But we need to make sure first."
"Are you a lead detective?" The forensics agent asked as soon as he entered the living room. He was tall and thin with a thick mustache.
A second agent followed him, the complete opposite of the first one.
Vincent nodded and introduced himself, showing his card.
Both agents stared at the card and looked at each other.
"Something wrong?" Vincent asked.
"No, not at all." The first agent shook his head. "You just look a lot younger than any other detective we’ve ever met."
This was getting old. Vincent thought and smiled.
"I am Kevin." The tall agent introduced himself, extending his hand. "This is Max." He nodded at his colleague. "Is this your first case?"
"Yes." Vincent nodded, shaking both Kevin and Max’s hands.
"I’m not sure welcome is an appropriate word but ... welcome to the toughest division of the city. Not everyday is the same here. So what do we get?" freewёbnoνel.com
"Come here." Vincent said, guiding them to the bedroom and explained everything he knew about to the two.
"You are definitely right about one thing." Kevin said, staring at the woman. "This suicide scene looks all wrong."
Vincent paused his search of the apartment to observe both forensics agents at work. They took their time examining the body, the bed and everything around it.
"I know that her skin’s color and elasticity have completely changed." Vincent said. "Which makes identifying difficult but do you think you would still be able to recognize the bruise? Anything that helps the theory that suffocating happens before dying?"
"Using UV light, probably. With this state, decomposition hasn’t started yet so it is okay." Max, the shorter one answered.
He took out a handheld light and switched it on, adjusting the intensity of the wavelength and began to study the victim’s neck.
After a few seconds, he changed his position. Kevin grabbed the hair and lifted the head up, allowing Max to search her nape.
Vincent waited patiently.
"Here we have it." Max said.
Vincent felt a tingle of excitement run through his body.
"See this, long, darker marks here?" Max indicated the spot on the victim’s neck.
Vincent nodded, listening.
"That would have been caused by something or someone, applying strong pressure to the back of her neck." Max explained. "We have a second mark, it is smaller."
This one was oval in shape and much smaller, about half an inch in diameter.
Vincent had already put both bruise marks together in his head. The one on the front of the victim’s neck had probably come from a thumb. The longer one on her nape from the remaining four fingers in her attacker’s hand. While choking her, the attacker had kept the fingers close together, instead of spread apart.
"I can tell you this, right now with certainty." Kevin said. "Whoever strangled her had very big hands. He only uses one hand to grab her neck. There is nothing to indicate that he used both hands."
Vincent nodded.
"But she didn’t die from suffocation." Max said.
"Yeah, I know." Vincent said. He then left the two agents in the bedroom and entered the living room.
Officer Leo was chatting with Dawnstar, asking for an autograph.
When he noticed Vincent, he immediately hid the paper and smiled in embarrassment.
"It is for my niece." He explained.
Vincent waved his hand with a smile. "It is okay. Anything for door to door?" He asked.
The officer pulled out his small notebook and recited.
"This apartment is sandwiched between 2411 and 2415. The neighbor in 2415, Mrs Chur, remembers some shouting coming from the apartment three days ago. She said, "The walls here are quite thin."
"Time?" Vincent asked.
"According to Mrs Chur, it is quite late, past ten in the evening."
"How certain is she about the time?"
"As sure as she can be. She said she was already in bed and she always gets into bed around 10." Officer Leo explained.
"Could it have been from TV?" Vincent asked, staring at the destroyed speaker.
"I did ask her that and she said no. She recognized the voice as Emma and a male."
"Sexual noise?" Vincent asked.
"I asked her that and again she said no. They were pretty angry shouts from both parties."
"What about 2411?"
"The apartment is empty at the moment. According to Mrs Chur, it has been empty for some time."
"Anyone else?"
"There is one. The building didn’t have night security. But Mr Guilt from apartment 2211 said he saw a tall man leaving the building in a hurry, the same night and time when Mrs Chur heard the yell."
"That is good. Time?"
"Around quarter past midnight. Mr Guilt worked in a gym so he always came home late. As the elevator opened the man in question rammed in him. Mr Guilt, whoever the man was, looked in a hurry and was nervous."
"Would he recognize the subject if he saw a photo of him?" Vincent asked the important question.
"He said he would."
"Good job, Officer Leo." Vincent said.
There was a knock on the door.
Vincent walked and opened it.
Standing there was a short, plump man. He had a bandido moustache and slicked-back black hair with touches of gray.
"Detective." Officer Leo said, "this is Mr Smith, the building’s supervisor."
"Nice to meet you, Mr Smith." Vincent introduced himself. "Thanks for coming. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"
"Go ahead."
"Okay, do you know Emma well?"
Mr Smith shook his head side to side.
"Not very well. I know that she is an interior designer. Very pretty and very nice. It is a shame that her husband died at a young age. And she always says hello when she meets my wife and daughter. You see, my little girl is five, just starting kindergarten."
"Congratulations." Vincent said with a warm smile.
"Thank you, but that is all I know about her." Mr Smith said.
It was understandable. There were 32 floors in the building and 16 apartments per floor.
"But you should speak to Emily Garnet from room 1402. She and Emma were friends. She is a beautician. And she has many clients in the building including my wife."
Vincent noted the room number and thanked Mr Smith.
"Does the building have a doorman?"
"Only in the morning."
"CCTV?"
"Not for this mouth. I am planning to clean up from the start." Mr Smith said with a sigh.
"Thank you for your help, Mr Smith. I might need to talk to you again."
"That is not a problem, you know where to find me."
He closed the door and turned to Officer Leo. "Take the profile and Jake from Emma’s network and connect with the intelligent division. Ask them to pull out all the files and when you get the file. Show me and show Mr Guilt the photo to identify."
Officer Leo nodded.
Vincent called out Dawnstar.
"Come on. We need to head downstairs for questioning." Vincent said.
