flame of love

Claire's first investigation.

A Monday morning like never before came for Claire. She woke up as early as 7 a.m., got ready, and was set to leave for work. She called on Mr. Thomas, "Please, can you drive me to work?"

He replied in a cool tone, "Yes, ma'am."

Claire is a very nice lady who respects elders very well. She hopped in the car and left for work. At exactly 8 a.m., she arrived at her office premises. On getting to work, she was received by her boss, Mr. Ray.

"Good morning, sir. My name is Claire, a new employee in this noble establishment."

"You're welcome to Forensic Frontiers Initiative. Here, we are like one family. We are loving, diligent, and prompt. I would love you to work freely and happily with everyone. And sorry, pardon my manners; you can call me Mr. Raymond. Lastly, your office assistant, Deva, will help you with errands and other minor issues."

"You're welcome, ma'am," said Deva. "Let me show you to your office."

Claire was taken to her office.

"Thank you, Deva."

"It's my pleasure, ma'am," replied Deva.

Forensic Frontiers Initiative is a very big company and always had tons of investigations to make. Immediately after Claire sat down, Deva came in.

"I am sorry to disturb you, ma'am. I was asked to deliver this file to you. It's from Mr. Raymond. He said you should go through the content of the file and start working on it as fast as possible."

Claire opened the file. It was a police report saying that a couple was killed one week ago and they needed some forensic investigation to find the killers. This wasn't an easy case because, according to the police, no trace was left by the killers.

For a long time, Vinca Vante has suffered several killings of this nature, and catching the culprit is really very hard. The killers are usually experts and hardly leave anything for the police or FBI agents to trace. It was because of this that the Forensic Frontiers Initiative was created.

To begin a forensic investigation, you have to first visit the scene where the incident occurred.

"Deva, please tell the office driver to get ready because we are going to visit the scene of the incident I have on my table," said Claire.

"Alright, ma'am," replied Deva.

Deva, Claire, and Mr. Frank, one of Claire's colleagues who was also a part of that particular investigation, went to the place where the incident had occurred.

"Truly, the police didn't lie," Mr. Frank said as he observed the environment. "Because at this point, nothing is here that could be used to trace the culprit."

"Claire, can you see anything here? Because it is looking paranoid," he added.

"No," Claire replied. They looked at the environment but found nothing. The deceased were killed by gunshots. They left the scene, planning to return the next day.

*Next Day*

They all got to the scene, and this time they were more determined to find something they could hold onto.

"Mr. Frank, let's check some of these neighboring houses and ask if they heard any noise that night. What time?" Claire suggested.

Just as he said, they checked some houses around the house of the deceased couple, but all the neighbors said they heard nothing. This time, the investigation got more frustrating as they didn't get anything despite their efforts.

"Claire, to her team, no matter what, we have to find something. We will be back again."

*Third Day*

When they were entering the compound of the deceased, Claire noticed an old man sitting on the floor around the house.

"Let's ask this man; he might have seen something that could be useful to us," said Claire.

"Okay then," replied Mr. Frank.

They parked the car and went towards the man.

"Good day, sir. How are you doing?" Claire greeted.

"I'm not fine. Life hasn't been fair to me. I'm going through a lot," the old man replied.

"It's okay, sir. Surely things are going to get better. Just stay hopeful. Please, I want to ask you a question. Did you by any means see anything happen in the house labeled number 32 last week, Monday?"

"I did see something. How much are you going to pay?" he shrugged.

"I am going to give you 20 bucks. Just tell me what you saw."

"Okay, that night it was cloudy, and I covered myself with my sweater. I saw a black SUV drive into that compound, and a few minutes later, I saw that same SUV drive out at high speed. But I noticed that something flew from the car. I don't know what it was, although it looked like a hand glove from my distance."

"Wow, thank you very much. Here is your 20 bucks," Claire said.

"Thank you," the old man replied.

Mr. Frank: "This is a great lead."

Deva: "How is it a great lead? How do we find the gloves that were thrown away last week?"

Mr. Frank: "At least we know something now. One step at a time. The killers used tight latex gloves, and there are many methods to obtain their fingerprints, but we need to find the gloves first."

Deva: "At least let's try finding the gloves. Who knows, we might be lucky."

Claire: "Alright then, let's give it a try."

*The Search*

The search began. They started looking for the gloves, but after one hour, they found nothing. It was getting frustrating for them, but at last, Claire found the gloves. They took them to their office and later to the laboratory so that the fingerprints could be verified.

Upon returning to the office, it was late, and they were all tired. Claire called Mr. Thomas to come pick her up, but he had gone to get some things for Mrs. Emily. Mr. Frank overheard the conversation and said, "I could drop you at home if you don't mind."

At first, she didn't want to accept the offer, but she was too tired to wait anymore, so she hopped in.

"Thank you, Mr. Frank. I really appreciate the drive. I would have still be waiting for Mr. Thomas," said Claire.

Claire: "Good evening, everyone."

Mrs. Emily and Mickey: "You're welcome."

Mrs. Emily: "How was work?"

Claire: "Work was great and stressful," Claire replied as she fell on the couch, expressing how tired she was.

Mr. Emily: "Please go and get a shower so we can have dinner together. Mr. Greg, please set the dining table so we can have dinner. Claire is back."

Mr. Greg: "Okay, ma'am."

Claire took her bath and came straight to the dining table. They had dinner, and Claire said, "Thank you, Mr. Greg. It was a great meal. Aunty, please, I would love to sleep now."

"Have a great night," said Mrs. Emily and Mickey in unison.