Justin was about to get started with Gary’s body when Jonathan came in. Judith didn’t attempt to follow him in this time. He came in alone. Justin looked up and noticed his head of crime lab standing at the head of the bed.
“Well, aren’t you as silent as a cat,” Justin grinned, then shifted his eyes behind Jonathan. “Hey, where’s Jude? I thought she always hang out with you.”
“Not this time, Justin,” Jonathan replied. “She had to go to the post office to mail her latest manga to this comic magazine company Gempak. Just when you think you couldn’t pay her enough out of this crime lab job, she’s out there making more for herself.”
“Oh?” Justin muttered while fitting on his surgical gloves. “What’s her manga about this time?”
“Something to do with blood and gore and love at the same time. I suppose her job influenced her artwork somehow. So, how’s our ‘involuntary organ donor’ doing?”
“I found a blood clot on the back of his head, probably hit by something hard and blunt,” Justin replied as he pried on Gary’s head. “I’ll have to say that this blow is just enough to knock him out. It’s not the cause of death.”
“Obviously not,” Jonathan rolled his eyes. “We’ve found the table lamp beside the bookshelf when we did our investigation at his house, with a trace of blood on it. We’ve taken that table lamp as evidence. What do you think about the kidney removal on his back?”
“I must say that I’m impressed with this,” Justin said as he turned Gary’s body around to expose the back, revealing the insides. “This is a very clean cut and what I can make of it is that whoever did this must be a true surgeon, ‘coz these cuts are most likely done using a scalpel.”
“You serious?” Jonathan was surprised.
“Yeah, take a look at this,” Justin said as he lifted the flap of the skin and showed the cut to Jonathan. “See this? It is a very, very neat and very clean cut. Not even a kitchen knife or a penknife could make it that clean. And look at the veins where the kidney is connected. It is cut professionally smooth and clear. Only a scalpel can fit into such edges and cut it without damaging anything part of the organs inside. Why do you think Gary could be still walking—or crawling, to be correct—if this were to be done using any other sharp object? He could’ve been dead in the midway of the kidney extraction.”
“I see your point,” Jonathan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “You know, before Gary here died, he confessed to us about murdering Cliff.”
“Serious? He confessed as in literally or…?”
“He couldn’t exactly talk, but we got a testimony from him alright. He confessed murdering Cliff and all those stuff, it’s just that he didn’t get to tell us how he did it and how did he kill the Han siblings.”
“What, you’re suspecting him of being the murderer of Lionel Han’s brothers and sister too?” Justin looked at him, surprised.
“He said he didn’t do it, but you can’t be too careful about a dying person’s words.”
“I think he’s telling the truth, because what I’ve found from the murders of the Han siblings and Cliff’s murder, they don’t tally,” Justin said. “See, the person who killed the Han siblings had to go into their room through the window to kill them, which means he had to be a good climber and all. But look at Gary’s X-rays I took covering the whole body,” Justin held up a piece of X-ray film that showed the leg, “see, these slightly irregular setting of the joint and this small fracture mend of the bone indicates that not only Gary has dislocated his knee more than once, but he has also broke his thigh bone. I’ve checked his medical records and his physician said that after undergoing intense treatment and rehabilitation, he can’t do any other games except basketball, which he’s playing now. Which means…”
“He can’t even climb a tree without a ladder, let alone a wall of a house,” Jonathan said disappointedly, remembering that at the first crime scene in Lionel Han’s home, he never found a ladder of any kind.
“Exactly, so he really didn’t kill the Hans,” Justin pointed before taking out a surgical needle and some thread. “Besides, your girlfriend has already told me that she had suspicions about Gary being the murderer of Cliff.”
“She’s not my girl…Excuse me?” Jonathan was about to protest but soon stopped short. “Did you say Judith somehow knew that Gary was the one who killed Cliff?”
“Yeah. She said that Gary somehow accidentally revealed his crime while you guys were checking out the crime scene at Alor Setar at the concert stadium. You’d better ask her on that, don’t ask me.”
“Why is it that she tells everyone what she knows and yet she withholds it from me?” Jonathan muttered, his hands on his waist in annoyance.
“Guess she’s still a little sore. It’s not easy for a girl to forget her past, you know,” Justin replied nonchalantly as he sewed the body up. His nimble hands went in and out and were moving professionally fast that within no time, Gary’s wounds were sewn up and seemed like he had never died a scratch before.
“Oh, and I guess you know so much about girls,” Jonathan waved his arms sarcastically. “I can see the way she likes to hang out with you and eating together in front of corpses, and have no care of the world about whether or not you’ll contaminate the evidence on the corpse, and I can see the way you get along with her so well sharing your food and all. You like her, don’t you? Admit it.”
“I do like her, I don’t deny that,” Justin replied as he pulled a sheet and covered the body. “I’ve always liked her since the day she joined the CSI team. But when I saw you and her hanging out so much, I kinda assumed that she wasn’t available and that she was your girlfriend, that is, until she told me about her past with you. You know, from what I heard from her, I don’t think guys are supposed to treat their girlfriends the way you did…”
“You sneaky little nosy brat!” Jonathan hissed, his eyes glaring dangerously at the coroner. “I told you a thousand times, she is not my girl—”
“You know what?” Justin turned abruptly towards his head of the crime lab with a grudging look on his face, and as he spoke, he jabbed his finger onto Jonathan’s chest. “That is exactly the kind of attitude which made you single and a loner until now and that’s exactly the kind of attitude that made Jude dump you in the first place!”
Judith had just came back from the post office and was talking with Elaine while walking down the corridor of the crime lab. She was telling Elaine excitedly about her latest manga she just mailed to Gempak and Elaine was listening just as excitedly.
“And then the boyfriend, the vampire slayer, was shocked to find out that it was his girlfriend was actually the vampire that had killed his parents, can you imagine that?”
“Serious? You actually drew that? What’s next?”
“Then the boyfriend charged towards the girlfriend and was about to stake her when…”
“Judith, come here.”
Judith looked up and saw that it was Jonathan. His face looked pretty grave and all and he seemed like in a mood for punching the lights out of someone. Not that she never saw this kind of face before. She walked towards him nonchalantly.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“What is that I heard that you have already known that Gary was the one who killed Cliff?” Jonathan asked sternly. She was used to that tone.
“Oh, so Justin told you already? Well, then I won’t have to waste my breath explaining it to you again now, should I?”
“I thought all of us agreed upon telling their opinions and suspicions, no matter how small, to me first hand before anyone else.”
“My opinions are of my own and I tell it to whomever I please first. Besides, I probably had my fingers crossed,” Judith replied, folding her arms across her chest. “You’re not the boss of me anyway, well, at least not to me.”
“Hait, hait, you never liked being bossed around anyway, since you’ve been in the streets and an outlaw for so long,” Jonathan sighed, not wanting to argue. “Then would you mind telling me how did you know Gary was Cliff’s killer, at least?”
“Because he had made a slip-up when they got to the crime scene,” Judith replied. “See, they were making much of a racket—anyone would after seeing their friend’s dead body—and I couldn’t help hearing something. You and Rebecca have already taken down Cliff’s body from the tree and were examining him on the ground, and he was already off the tree when the rest of the gundan got there.”
“Yeah, so?” Jonathan was still waiting for the punch line.
“Well, you remember them yelling and shouting and hollering really devastating things when they saw Cliff’s body, right? If you try to remember carefully, what did Gary holler about?”
“That was 4 days ago! How can I remember something so distant as that?”
“Try. Think back. Try and remember what Gary hollered.”
“Well…” Jonathan tried to think back. “I think I do remember him saying that Cliff was hanging on the tree dead…”
His words stopped. A realization came to him and what Judith was trying to tell him made sense. He snapped his fingers, “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?! He couldn’t have any idea about Cliff’s situation of death if he didn’t kill him! We’ve already taken down his body but Gary said that Cliff was hanging on the tree dead! It was impossible for him to know that if he wasn’t at the scene of the crime!” (A/N: Read Chap 5 if you don’t get it)
“See? I knew you’d get it eventually,” Judith grinned.
“Jude, can I ask you something?” Jonathan asked after a moment’s silence.
“Fire away.”
“Are you…I mean are you still sore about…”
“Oops, gotta run!” Judith said abruptly, turning around and heading towards the direction of the analysis lab. “Got lots of work to do if we want to catch the murderer quick, you know.”
Jonathan grumbled and stared grudgingly at the leaving Judith, muttering under his breath, “You are always running away.”
“Oh, and by the way,” Judith turned around to face her head of the crime lab again, “just to make you happy, I also have a suspicion that this murder might be a chain murder.”
“A chain murder?” Jonathan eyed his co-worker curiously.
“Well, you know, as in the first to start the murder would be the next to kill and the person who kill the first murderer would be the next one to be killed again, and on and so forth. ‘Coz I’ve been thinking a lot on this case while we’re at it, and I realized that Cliff was murdered by Gary who in turn was the next victim to be dead. So I figured that it was Cliff who murdered those Han siblings, which is the start of it all. You might wanna check out his house to see if he has hidden any specific murder weapon. And also I think whoever killed Gary would be the next target to be killed. OK, see you around! Ja-ne!”
“Ma…Matte! What do you mean…” Again, Jonathan’s words stopped short. Another thought came through his head after hearing Judith’s theory. He stood there all alone on the corridor, oblivious to his surroundings for a minute there, his brain working as quickly and as calmly as he could.
Soon, he found himself rushing towards Rebecca’s office and asking her to issue a license for protective custody.
“You better remember not to turn on the lights, you lil’ brat! You know what a light sleeper I am and I don’t appreciate being waken up in the middle of the night!”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
Nicholas glared at his brother Jasper warningly as the boy walked out of the room. He then turned back to his Space Impact game on his handphone, pressing furiously at the control panels trying to defeat the alien aircrafts that were shooting at his aircraft. Nicholas’s parents were outstation for the weekend so his younger brother Jasper, who was obviously thinner than him, decided to go out on a late-night movie with his friends to watch a premiere about some new battle space cum romance movie anime. He always had the knack to go out at night when their parents are not around, which is always as his father was a famous surgeon and his mother was an air stewardess.
He played and played for quite a long time until when he was finally done with the last level, the numbers on his digital clock were showing 1:25 a.m. He went off and cleaned himself up before getting ready for bed. After putting on his nightclothes, he turned off the lights and climbed up his bed, hoping that this time, his brother would remember not to turn the lights on. As he dozed off to sleep, the window of his bedroom quietly opened…
Jasper came back home at about 2:30 a.m. after watching the movie anime with his friends and was humming the theme song on his way into his house. He hummed the song while he took his shower, he hummed the song while brushing his teeth and he even hummed the song while he walked into the bedroom which he and his brother shared. As he entered the room, his hand automatically reached out for the light but the stern warning of his brother earlier before he left stopped him. Either that or he had a strange feeling that he would definitely not like what he might see if he turned on the light.
“You got lucky, bro,” Jasper whispered at his brother who was lying on his stomach not moving an inch. Looking at his brother sleeping like a log on the bed, he muttered to himself, “So much for being a light-sleeper.”
So it didn’t occur to him that he would find his brother already dead the next day on the bed with his throat slit and his blood staining the bed sheet and it definitely didn’t occur to him that he would see the wall having a message on it written in his brother’s blood, saying:
AREN’T YOU GLAD YOU DIDN’T TURN ON THE LIGHT?
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