The Strange Mark

Chapter 1: Tri  “On Christmas Eve? Are you kidding me!” I exclaimed. These people cannot cool it even for just a holiday, well, perfect time to kill, isn’t it? I said to myself with pure sarcasm. These brutal murders have been happening for ten weeks and we are not even warm to anything. Truly little evidence, barely any witnesses, cameras? Somehow these murders kept on happening in blind spots of the cameras or in shady alleys. I ordered the officers to set up a cordon for the scene. As expected, just like every scene in the past ten weeks, extraordinarily little evidence. My partners did their jobs, as it was Christmas Eve, most stores are closed and there is barely anyone around as everyone is celebrating with either family or friends. Most of the stores open were 24/7 convenience stores blocks away from the scene.   “Laurenn, the victim has been estimated to be deceased for about 30 minutes we’re done with collecting all the evidence we could find, same old same old, mangled eyes, 40 stabs, most consistent killer we have in our career so far.” Farren said. She’s my roommate, colleague, and friend, and the other is Arryn. We’re the famous trio of detectives in the city, probably even neighboring cities heard about us too. On our first year, we solved a cold case in just ten weeks, by then, we already became legends, but now? I doubt that, since this case might be cold soon, very much like the victims. I’m not willing to give up though, I don’t want to leave a couple of families unjustified.  Hazel, Arryn, and I have been friends since university. After graduating, we moved out of the campus dorms and moved into our own place, a three-bedroom apartment near our workplace, like 10 minutes away when going on foot.   I ordered the officers to take back another lifeless body back to the lab for further investigation. “You guys want to grab snacks from the convenience store down the block before we continue this investigation?” I said to Hazel and Arryn. We we’re all hungry because despite having food at our place, we got interrupted by the call, so you could imagine how quick they were to say yes. When we got to the lab we examined the body, Hazel is already ready with the camera to photograph any unusual things we find.  “This mark, I’ve seen this before, but I forgot where I saw it.” I said to myself with an exceptionally faint voice. I asked Hazel to take a photograph of it, Arryn fell asleep on the desk nearby when we were closely looking at each detail. “She’s cute when she falls asleep huh?” Hazel said. I responded “Yeah, she looks tired though, she’s been sleep deprived since we started this case, she must be worried either for us or for her family, I mean we could be - “I got cut off before finishing what I was saying.  The phone rang and Hazel picked it up “Again? Sure, we’ll be right over.” She turned to me and said there was another. We went on scene, this one was more gruesome than the earlier ones, everything was decapitated, hands and legs detached from the body, eyes mangled. I said to Arryn “Could this be another killer or the same?” she responded with a question too “How could you be sure that we only have one or if we have many? Perhaps copycats?” But this one felt different somehow, it felt like we had another one, perhaps one more brutal than the other or others, we don’t really know, after all we have no evidence, right? We have nothing, literally, nothing.  “Laurenn?” Arryn called out, she found fresh blood on gauze pads in the trash bins, we fished it out and requested an evidence bag. This is the only evidence we have so far, it could be the killers’, or it could be the victims’ we don’t know for sure. After searching for other possible evidence left behind by a hopefully, progressing stupidity of the killer. While searching for evidence, I noticed one thing, “Arryn.” I called out with a stiff voice, a little bit creeped. She came to me and realized “Isn’t that the-” I cut her off and said, that’s the cordon of the scene from an hour ago.  “The first victim was estimated to be 30 minutes deceased, and this one is estimated to be 45 minutes deceased.” I added, to which she concluded that they were only 45 minutes apart, she added “The murderer probably-” I cut her off, or murderers we don’t really know, I said, then she continued “Right, if the estimated times are correct, then the culprit or culprits was probably killing this one when we were investigating the first one.” A voice that sounded mad said behind us “Hey Lovebirds! Next time try to wake me up, will you? Or at least leave a note? Especially with these brutal unsettling things happening around I was scared out of my mind trying to think where you could’ve gone to!” It was Arryn.  She looked kind of mad but relieved that we were okay, she was the oldest among us three, we saw her as an older sister, that’s just how she would treat us, she would tease us, annoy us, and all older sibling stereotypes, she would tease us with a “hey lovebirds” every time we would interrupt and pile on our knowledge of the scene and case, or when we would quarrel about useless stuff or in general when she’s pissed because of our stupidity. To say she was worried about us because we just disappeared without any note while there were murders happening for weeks would be an understatement, she probably would have lost her mind if she hadn’t seen the police vehicles down a couple of streets from our workplace, she noticed it was near Maple Street where the first murder took place. She then came to Melody Drive, it’s near an intersection, and it’s where the second victim of the night was discovered.   “Have you seen possibly any evidence left by the murderer?” Arryn said to me. I said that Hazel found fresh gauze pads soaked with blood in the trash bins. I also mentioned that it was already being sent back to the lab with the body. “Well, that’s another street we need closed for at least a couple days or a week while we investigate it to see and make sure that we didn’t miss anything, this is getting old, working on the same case with no leads is frustrating.” Hazel said as she stood beside Arryn and I after talking to the officers about sending back the only piece of evidence and the body, as well as about closing the street.  As we walked back to the building, which was a few minutes away, Hazel got another call, I sighed and said, “Where to?” As she hung up the phone. “Stardust Street, she said, I thought to myself, Stardust Street? Isn’t that the street connecting Melody Drive and Maple Street? When I looked at Arryn and Hazel, they also knew. We called for the officers to start a 5-block radius lockdown of the crime scenes, the murderers or murderers could be anywhere in that radius if they’re not fast enough, they were probably startled or caught by the officers roaming and staying near the first two streets.  Once heading back from the direction where we came from, we saw a tall dark figure running towards our direction; well, our hard training came to good use. “Hey stop right there!” I yelled at the figure. I’m not a fast runner, so Arryn chased the figure down, the figure then begged not to get arrested once they were pinned to the ground, I then took off the mask of our possible suspect, well, to our great disappointment, he was just a thief. “Oh, a thief” Hazel said. I really thought this was it, that we’ve finally caught the killer, or one of many. Well, they always say, when you expect things to happen, you get disappointed if the outcome isn’t what you expected.  We brought him back to the officers near the scene “Nope, he’s not, sadly.” Hazel said before the officers could even ask if this was our killer. “Just a thief” I said sounding disappointed. I never thought that we’d gotten this deep in the case, to the point where when we catch thieves, we just get disappointed by it now, compared to when we first started. I asked if there was any luck with finding anyone suspicious, but no, everyone was in their homes. The radius was swept thrice to be sure. Is this killer that stealthy? I thought to myself.   Any evidence left behind? I said to Hazel and Arryn, when they showed me a kitchen knife, just a small one, but it has blood, hopefully this one would finally lead to something. We sent it back to the lab along with the body. “One body each?” Arryn asked. I replied with just a simple yep, as we stood looking over the body. While investigating back at the lab I wondered, how could anyone if there was just one, possibly kill three in a night. So, I asked Hazel and Arryn. Arryn, of course the oldest and smartest among the three responded with “Well, it’s possible. If it’s only one killer then, he or she must be very stealthy to sneak around a knife similar to the one we found, however since it’s small, it’s very easy to hide in pockets, next he or she must be very careful not to get caught and not to get blood on his or her shirt, which is very difficult since blood splashes.”  “So, if there were more than one?” I asked, and she continued “ If there were 3 or more killers, same scenario with the first one, however these three or more killers must have had a way of communication, and they must be in sync to kill at the same time, however there was a window between the times of death, so it could very likely be possible that those windows could have been the time that the killer, just one, changed into different clothes in case he or she had blood on his or her clothes, but this killer could also be one member of a very big I don’t know, club?” Hazel was just standing over the body with her jaw open and Arryn said “Close your mouth Hazel or a fly would get in it.” Which made me laugh out loud, hey you keep quiet and keep exploring, love bird she teased then chuckled. Which made me shut up as well.  A little while later, the DNA tests of the blood were negative for each victim, however we got disappointed with what blood that really was. “Pigs?! Am I hearing this right, Pigs!” I said in A tone. The other two were disappointed as much as I. Hazel said “Perhaps the pig’s blood was a distraction, a ray of hope. Whoever this killer is, they’re cruel.” the they’re cruel part made me turn to Hazel and say “Yeah Sherlock, you got the “they’re cruel” from them killing pigs for blood when the murderers, or ers, are literally killing people, a lot of people, oh, and you eat pork.” I said sarcastically.  “Hey Love birds!” Arryn teased us again, for the second time this month, which made Hazel and I give her a dirty look, she’s been teasing us that a lot more lately. “Hey you know if you guys came out as a couple you wouldn’t be treated any less of a person, right?” She said looking serious, but we just stared at her with confusion and dropped jaws. “Now, close your jaws flies might get in it, let’s go home and rest for a bit, we could work on this when we wake up.” Arryn said again. She’s been very talkative and such a tease lately, what has gotten into her? As we walked back to our apartment. I thought about stuff relating to the murder, could there be one? Or is there more than one? I shook of those thoughts and went to look at both Hazel and Arryn.   They’re all I have, while the three of us were in university, they comforted me when my family died due to a plane crash, they were coming here to visit me. I blamed myself a lot for their deaths, because if only I just studied near home, my family would still be alive on this day, but they offered me a lot of reassurance, they gave me space when I needed it, to summarize, they were there when I needed them most, they stayed during my ups and they stayed during my downs. Once we got to the apartment, I walked in first, never said a word and went straight to my room. I locked the door then I just plopped and stayed awake on my bed, I was full of thoughts, I couldn’t rest my mind.   As I lay awake, I thought of whatever the hell Arryn said, the teasing, it’s making me think of one of my best friends since university in a different way, should I ask Arryn about this? I’m not even sure. “Laurenn, Laurenn!!” Someone shook me out of my thoughts, it was Hazel, I just stuttered a lot trying to get words out of my mouth but ended up blurting nonsense and looking stupid, when I was able to make out words, I said in confusion “How the hell did you open my door?”. I sat up and noticed Arryn by the door holding back her laugh as she held up a credit card, while I just glared at her. “You look like s**t kid, did you even nap?” Arryn said. “Uh, I guess not don't ever open my door like that again, if it’s locked it means I want privacy and I’m not a kid.” I said while glaring at her still. It’s like she knew something about me that I didn’t.  “It’s been 2 hours, go take a shower, we’ll wait for you downstairs unless-” Arryn said, clearly, she wanted to tease us again so I cut her off and said “You could go ahead to the lab, I’ll go after I shower.” They left and I plopped back on the bed, those were just crazy thoughts I said to myself, I took a quick shower and headed out. I stopped to grab coffee on the way. When I got to the lab, I heard Arryn say “We’ll never know, I guess we just have to wait for her-” She stopped talking when she heard footsteps coming into the room. “Why stop talking Arryn?” I asked, she just brushed it off and said that it was nothing, my curious mind and I can’t handle that. So, the whole day while investigating I was zoning out. Eventually Arryn got tired of looking at me looking so out of it and so tired, so she eventually asked.  “Are you okay?” Of course, I said I was fine, even though I had a lot of thoughts not relating to the case but to me personally. She didn’t believe that and sent me back to the apartment to rest. I tried to argue but there was no point, she was ignoring my explanation, pointing to me being okay, so eventually I gave in and just went home. While at home I figured I’d just sleep since I was feeling exhausted anyway.  I woke up to a knock on my door, I got up and when I opened my door I said “Oh, 2 Idiots.” then they showed takeout from my favorite Chinese Restaurant, I quickly rephrased “Oh, 2 idiots with dinner from my favorite Chinese place.” I motioned for them to come in since I have the biggest room with a hangout space with just chairs and a coffee table, very much like a mini living room in a corner of my room. While we ate, I asked “Anything new?” to which Arryn responded with a no looking down.  We were all losing hope in ever solving this case but working on it knowing you’ll save plenty more lives from notorious serial killer or killers makes you want to work harder to solve the case. I zoned out just staring at my food and I just jumped to Arryn spraying me slightly with water from the spray bottle I used to water the small plant on the table. “You’re so out of it today? Care to Share?” She asked with a concerned look on her face.   “Oh, it’s nothing, just thinking of possibilities in the case.” I said, then I made up some excuse of me being tired so they would leave, and I’d be alone with my thoughts. However, when they left, I just ended up sitting on the chair I sat on staring into the air. I thought about how safe it felt before ten weeks ago. Ten weeks ago, we didn’t have to worry about roaming around at night or at early dawn, now, most people are home before twelve midnight, no one would go for runs at five in the morning.  I’ve been restless from overthinking, are we next? Are we being watched by the killer? Do they know where we lived? Is our apartment bugged? Is our office bugged? Everything that has happened from the past cases we worked on from the beginning of our careers came back to me. The bugging, the stalking, and everything else. Every night I cry to the thought of my friends dead, thinking that we’d be next on the list. They’re all I have, and when they’re gone, then what do I do? I’d be lost without them.