CHAPTER 2
952 Words
Chief Jones had a beautiful mind.
He was well acclaimed for his sense of responsibility, ease in handling cases, clever mind and devotion to work.
He woke up that day like he did every other day, to the loud reprimands of his wife.
"Ronny! Ronny! Your phone's been ringing for so long! Don't you hear it?! For god's sake, get up!"
He woke up with a jerk. It was six thirty in the morning and it was a Sunday. He thought he could rest for some more time.
Come on! Working on Sundays should be a crime!
But being a cop isn't that easy. He got up lazily and tried to steady his throbbing head.
"Sorry honey". With that pathetic attempt to apologise, he checked out his phone.
There were three missed calls from his secretary, Patrick.
He called back to hear there was a murder near the Ashfield Park in Broadway. Patrick sounded a little different and taken aback. He wondered if it was the murder or something else.
He had to go to the spot to check that out.
Ronny quickly showered, changed into his uniform and headed to the Ashfield Park. The sight indeed was different. Now, he understood why Patrick was taken aback.
The murder hadn't occurred inside the park but outside, near the huge oak tree. There were curious people and paparazzi all around the place causing tumult. Ronny pushed his way in.
He ordered his fellow cops to keep the people and the press as far away from the crime scene as possible.
His squad then, stuck a barricade tape all around the tree, twelve inches away from the trunk. So, people wouldn't cross it.
Once the situation was under control, Ronny looked all around the tree. There was no trace of the corpse, just a few drops of blood spilled here and there.
"Patrick, why did you send the corpse away so soon for autopsy? I mean, you could have at least marked the place where the corpse lied"
"Sir, have we ever done anything without consulting you? Look up, at the tree" replied Patrick.
Up? Ronny looked up, confounded.
And then, he witnessed something that he'll never forget all his life.
Caught in the branches of the tree was the victim of a ruthless murder. The wild branches made it hard to decipher who the person was, but one thing was sure. The victim had been mercilessly stabbed at a dozen places. His face appeared battered and deformed. Maybe because he had been up there for hours.
Imminently, Ronny called for an ambulance, forensic specialists and analysts. For some reason, his instinct told him that untangling this case wouldn't be easy.
Chief Ronald Jones had been seated in his car for almost half an hour, waiting for Patrick to bring the details he had asked for. He was still in the Ashfield Park, wondering who could have had the nerve to do such a terrible thing.
He looked at his image in the rear view mirror. He had thick black hair, pointed nose, ruddy cheeks and a thin moustache. All his life, all through his career, he had never witnessed a dead body on top of an oak tree. The more confounding and challenging it was, the more it intrigued Ronny.
He thought about the perpetrator. He or she could be anywhere now. Maybe, even watching him now from somewhere with a pair of binoculars.
Ronny's deep thoughts were intervened by Patrick's sharp voice.
"Sir, I've got all the details you asked for"
Ronny looked at his secretary. Patrick's eyes were always burning with enthusiasm and that's why Ronny foresaw a bright future for him.
"Get in the car" he said and Patrick obeyed immediately.
"The victim has been identified as Richard Anderson, son of Mr and Mrs. Rupert Anderson who run a small business. Richard has been murdered sometime between twelve thirty and two thirty last night. It appears as if there has been a lot of struggle between the perpetrator and Richard before he was murdered. The murderer had stabbed him in several places and had also cut off his tongue before leaving his body"
Ronny's face contorted on hearing that. "I think the perpetrator is a man" remarked Ronny.
"How do you say that, sir?" Queried Patrick.
"Because, you mentioned struggle. Richard seems to be a nice, strong, young man. If the murderer was able to fight him and succeed in killing him, he should be equivalently strong. Besides, the perpetrator was strong enough to carry Richard's body and place it on the branches of that enormous tree. They found any fingerprints?"
"Unfortunately, no"
"Hmm so the guy was also shrewd"
"But sir, I don't understand. Why would he place the body on top of a tree? It makes no sense!"
"You see Patrick, this is a public place. If he left the body on the road, there was a risk of it being found any minute. He must have required ample time to escape and erase all evidences. So, he had to put the body on top of the tree, just to dodge the risk of the body being found too soon"
Patrick nodded but was still confused.
"What is it?" Asked Ronny.
Patrick handed him a sheet of paper. "This was the last message that Richard received on his phone, at twelve thirty in the night."
Ronny read it aloud. Okay, they've got something to start this investigation with.
"Who is the sender?"
"Rachel Evana Louis"
"Wait, I've heard this name somewhere"
"She is the daughter of Mr. David Downey Louis"
Then suddenly, it dawned on Ronny's mind.
"You mean the owner of Louis motors and cars?"
"Exactly, sir."
- Writer
