The Crime System

The Severed Maimed Mystery

Detective Luke Sullivan watched as the team scattered, heading back to their desks. Bella Lane grabbed his arm and pulled him aside, her expression concerned.

"Luke, what's gotten into you lately? Have you lost your mind? This is the notorious Maimed Case! What were you thinking about making a bet like that?" she demanded.

"The Maimed Case? What's the big deal?" he said with a shrug.

Luke searched his memory and found the relevant information. His mind drifted back to around this time last year. He was just a rookie detective then, but instead of working the case, he'd been assigned to help the forensics department set up their new equipment.

"What's the big deal?" Bella Lane threw up her hands in frustration. "Several officers lost their badges because of this case. If it was that simple to solve, we wouldn't still be talking about it!"

Then it clicked for Luke. Last year, around late May, their city had been rocked by two incidents in what became known as the Maimed Case, causing widespread panic. The victims' right hands had been severed with surgical precision using some kind of sharp instrument.

The investigation had stalled, and one of the victims wouldn't stop complaining to the media. With reporters swarming all over it, the case became a public relations nightmare that dragged the department's reputation through the gutter. Several officers, including Team B's previous supervisor, were forced to resign. Team Leader Priscillia had gotten her promotion during that shake-up as a replacement. Despite throwing everything they had at it, the department still hadn't cracked the case.

"Are you really this clueless? Or are you messing with me?" Bella Lane's eyes were like saucers. "This morning at 6:30, near Banyan Street, we had another Maimed Case!"

"Another one? You're kidding," Luke said, genuinely shocked.

"Yeah!" Bella Lane nodded emphatically. "Why else would we have an emergency briefing? Didn't you notice everyone was on edge? Team Leader Priscillia hasn't even had her morning coffee!"

"Oh..." Now it made sense to Luke why most of the detectives were missing when he'd stopped by earlier to check out some apartment listings. They were all working this case.

As Bella Lane filled him in on the details, Luke found himself increasingly fascinated. Looking through the case file, he studied the information about the latest victim - a thirty-six-year-old stay-at-home mom married to a construction supply contractor.

"This doesn't add up," he muttered, scanning the file. "How has this thief managed to avoid capture? In this day and age, with surveillance cameras everywhere, we should at least have some footage."

Bella Lane just shook her head and sighed, explaining how the thief had managed to stay off camera. She suggested he start saving up to pay for the monitor, doubting he could win the bet.

"Come on, kid, don't be such a downer," Luke said coolly. "If this guy's bold enough to strike again, I guarantee we'll catch him."

Despite Bella Lane's warnings about his bet with vice captain Vincent, Luke remained confident. "Don't worry about it! Anything can happen. Hey, maybe I'll have this wrapped up by tomorrow! If you want my theory, the Maimed Case thief is probably the victims' husbands. These wives spend too much money shopping, so the husbands decide to take matters into their own hands - literally!"

That night in his cramped apartment, sleep eluded Luke. He kept worrying about his Crime System vanishing. Without it, how could he solve the case or win the bet?

Despite his rough exterior, Luke took his job seriously. He went over the case files repeatedly, committing every detail to memory. The more he studied, the more fascinated he became by its complexity.

As he pondered the various elements - how the thief avoided cameras, the brutality of the crimes, the surgical precision of the cuts, and the specific targeting of middle-class women in their mid-thirties - his eyelids grew heavy until he finally drifted off.

The next morning, Luke woke up coughing. "Cough...cough...cough..."