CHAPTER 12: THE MURDER CONTINUES
“A lady? How can that be?”
The CSI team who gathered together at the recreational room gave their reports of their findings to the head of the crime lab and Judith was the most surprised to hear this news from Rachel and Rebecca.
“Well, that’s what we heard from that Jothan Lo guy,” Rebecca shrugged. “He said no one buys axes these days and he remembers perfectly who and when a certain axe was bought.”
“He even kept a record of it and it was confirmed,” Rachel chided in. “The woman bought the axe about 2 days before the Han siblings’ murder.”
“Darn! That’s even further than whom I suspected,” Jonathan said, a little annoyed. “Are you saying that now we should be looking for a burgundy-haired woman who goes around killing people because of a prank done by drunken kids a few years ago?”
“It’s not impossible,” Elaine replied. “She could be Jeremy’s girlfriend or some obsessed person who has a crush on Jeremy to be going on a killing spree like this.”
"And we thought we've got our guy this time," Justin muttered, as equally disappointed as the rest. "Hey, guys. Do you realize our victims are often missing a portion of their body parts?"
"Meaning…?" Rachel looked at Justin questioningly.
"I've been doing a little bit more autopsies on those victims and I realized that they often have some portion of their body parts missing. Like for example, the Han siblings. They were either missing an arm or a leg. For Cliff, I saw that there's a clean cut somewhere at the end of the large intestines, which means that our killer Gary has taken away a portion of it. And then Gary on the other hand was missing his kidneys. And finally Nicholas was missing a digit…"
"A digit?" Elaine wrinkled her nose.
"You know, a finger. That's what they call it in a numerical way," Justin continued. "His left pinkie got cut off, if you haven't noticed. I can't say what, but I bet it's another trend from a movie that was copied out while the culprits were doing these murders."
"Well, I don't remember any movies that showed the killer collects human body parts as trophies," Judith scratched her chin. "Except the movie 'The Bone Collector', but then again, the killer collected bones."
"Well, whatever it is, we've got to put an end to this thing," Jonathan voiced out. "I've been receiving news that the people out there are getting restless and demand to know who has been doing all these murders. Even the press are hot on our heels now."
"Woah! Now that's what I call a serious publicity effect," Elaine wiped off an imaginary sweat from her brow. "Alright, now that men is out of the question, what are our leads to…"
"Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt your meeting," Elaine's words were interrupted by the secretary coming in with a cordless phone in his hand. In this CSI office, they have an unofficial policy that people should work in pairs (man and woman) to cultivate teamwork, and secretaries were of no exception.
"Don't people knock anymore? State your business," Jonathan said authoritatively.
"Mr. David, sir, there's a phone call for you, from a guy called Thomas Chung. He said it's really urgent," the secretary said as he handed the cordless phone to Jonathan.
"Isn't that one of your gun-mates?" Judith asked, surprised. "What's he gotta say?"
"I have no idea," Jonathan shrugged before answering the call. "Hello, Jon here. What's up? Yeah, uh-huh…What? Are you sure? Where? OK, I'll be right over."
"What is it, Mark David? Another case?" Judith asked as soon as Jonathan hung up the phone.
"Yup, we have a multiple crime scene tonight, and I guess we need some help from all of you," Jonathan replied as he got his gear together. "Some of you will have to go to Putra Jaya. There's an accident happening at one of the junction. The rest will have to follow me to our famous Mr. Lionel Han's high school. Which do you guys prefer?"
So, after much wondering and pondering, Judith, Rachel and Justin decided to go to Lionel Han's high school. The rest--Elaine and Rebecca--decided to take the Putra Jaya. After gathering everything they need for their crime scene investigation, they went on their separate ways.
"Woah! Now that is what I call an accident scene!"
Elaine and Rebecca have reached the junction at Putra Jaya where the accident was said to happen. Many reporters and civilians were crowding a few feet from the mangled car trying to get a glimpse of the victim inside. From far, our CSI agents could see that the mangled car was a Proton Iswara. Cameras were flashing and loud chatter among the people could be heard. There was a newscaster broadcasting the scene live and was talking to the cameraman. As soon as she caught sight of Elaine and Rebecca who were trying to squeeze their way through the crowd to do their job, she quickly rushed up to them.
"You must be CSI agents Elaine Majon and Rebecca Liew, right? Can you tell us what is going on here?" Her questioning was beginning to attract other reporters to come and ask questions.
"We don't know yet," Rebecca replied. "That's why we're called in here to check it out."
"Is there a possibility that this could be connected to the other cases known as the 'Urban Legend Copycat Killer'?" another reporter asked. Soon more questions poured out.
"Have you found out who the culprit is?"
"Which urban legend is it this time?"
"Have you have any suspects? Any leads to this case?"
"Is there anything you can do to find out the killer and stop these killings?"
"Sorry, guys, but we've got work to do," Elaine replied nonchalantly as she flicked her half-finished cigarette at one of the reporters that irritated her. "We have no comments on this issue."
With more reporters hounding behind their wake, Elaine and Rebecca flashed their badges at one of the police in charge and were let in.
"What's the story here, men?" Elaine asked.
"One serious accident, ma'am," the police in charge answered. "That Proton Iswara just rammed itself onto that huge tree over there and got itself really mushed up. The two victims in the car didn't survive. We're trying to get an ID out of them. We're suspecting maybe drunk driving."
"Thanks," Rebecca said. "We'll take it from here."
As they waited for the paramedics to take out the victims and carry them out of the car and into the ambulance, Elaine turned to Rebecca and asked, "What are the chances of people surviving this kind of car crash?"
"Second to nil," Rebecca replied, wrinkling her nose. "The tire tracks looked as if this car has traveled at about 80km/hr and that tree he just hit is like, what, almost as hard as steel? Judging by the tree's growth and the thickness of the trunk, there is no way he could survive this."
"Guess you're right. That bonnet of that car is like corn beef. Remind me never to buy a Proton Iswara ever."
"Anyway, did you hear what the reporter said earlier: 'Urban Legend Copycat Killer'? What was that about? How did they come up with such names?"
"Publicity gimmick," Elaine replied, putting on her plastic gloves. "Makes a news more interesting and get people coming back for more. It's a news thing. Come on, let's get to work."
Rebecca and Elaine soon got into their ever familiar CSI routine: checking for car faulty, sabotage and the like. As usual, Rebecca wound the loose end of the red ribbon around her neck. While Elaine was checking the inside of the car, Rebecca noticed something and gestured her to come.
"Hey, Elaine, take a look at this."
"What is it?" Elaine said as she moved towards the boot of the car where Rebecca was kneeling in front of.
"Check out these crunches. What does this tell you?"
Elaine looked closely and saw that there were forced in dent marks on the boot of the car and on one particular spot of the dent was a rusty-looking mark. Rebecca took out her camera and took a picture of it.
"Looks like rust," Elaine replied as she scraped a sample of it into an evidence bag. "It seems as if someone forced this Proton to hit the tree, and by the number of dents, he must've done it over and over again just to make sure his victim go corn beef together with the bonnet."
"Exactly. There is no way that someone in a car accident hitting headlong towards a tree would get dents in the back. And this much dents too for the fact." Rebecca deduced.
"Which means…"
"This is no drunk driving accident. This is murder."
"But how did this perpetrator do it without being noticed? Surely someone would see one car banging another car and forcing it to a tree." Elaine asked, surprised.
"This is quite a remote junction. Not much people pass this junction, especially at night. Pedestrians don't even dare go around here." Rebecca took a quick look around. "Anything can happen without being noticed and it'll take until morning before anyone knows what's going on. How's about retracing those steps?"
Elaine nodded and, with small evidence number tags in her hand, she stepped carefully along the road following the tire tracks. Rebecca, after done taking pictures of the car, followed behind Elaine taking pictures of the parts where she laid the evidence number tags. (A/N: Imagine that this scene, the crime was replayed, like in the CSI series) Elaine came across a few tracks that indicated a struggle and an abrupt halt, and she tagged them. After about a few miles down the road, she realized that she was running out of number tags.
"Darn, I'm fresh out. Got anything to replace number tags?"
"Well, I have a few chalks," Rebecca said, grinning with a few chalks in her hand. "I carry them around just in case there happens to be a body so that I can draw the shape around it. He he he…"
"That is sick," Elaine sweatdropped as she took one chalk from Rebecca. She continued numbering the road until she finally came across tire tracks that came from both the way they were walking and the opposite way. It was like some other car--the culprit's car, maybe--came from another direction and swerved around to chase the Proton Iswara. Rebecca got the cue and took a picture of the other tire tracks found.
"These tracks look like they come from an old version of the Proton. A Proton Saga maybe," Rebecca commented.
"I guess this is where the chase began," Elaine agreed. "Let's go back to the crime scene and check for the rest of our so-called Proton Saga's tire tracks. He has to go somewhere."
"Are you mad? He could have brought the whole darn car back home, and that could be miles! Are you suggesting we follow it until the end?"
"No one is dumb enough to bring a wrecked car back home, especially when he had used it to bang another car. Come on, let's go before the trail gets cold."
So saying, Elaine and Rebecca headed back towards the crime scene and this time, they took the other road. Sure enough, there were the 'Proton Saga' tire tracks on the road and like before, Elaine continued to number them and Rebecca continued to take pictures of them. They walked down the road for quite a long while until finally, at about 4 miles down the road, they saw something that looked like a car. They quickened their pace and sure enough, there was a very old Proton Saga with the bonnet pretty mangled up, but still intact enough to be driven for so long a mile. And as they have hoped, the rusty metallic Proton Saga logo of the bonnet matched the rust in the evidence bag.
"Looks like we've found our murder weapon," Elaine said as she started searching the car for clues.
"If you call this a murder weapon," Rebecca joined in the search, "that has got to be the biggest murder weapon I have ever seen."
The rest of the CSI team, namely Jonathan, Judith, Rachel and Justin, has finally reached SM Victoria Institution where Lionel studied. It was an all boys' school and it was evident that they were going to expect dozens upon dozens of boys, except for Form 6, which was the only grade with girls.
As soon as they got out of the car, like Elaine and Rebecca, they were swamped with reporters who got there before them. They were showered with questions about the Urban Legend Copycat murders and what will the authorities do about this. Jonathan, as head of the crime lab, waved their questions away and refused to give any comments. Justin and Rachel, who seldom go out to crime scenes, were quite intrigued at how hot and widespread this case was getting to. They flashed their badges and were let in.
"Hey, Thomas," Jonathan greeted Thomas who was giving instructions to his other gun-mates Aaron and Leslie. They turned around and gave him high-fives.
"Hey, Jon," Thomas grinned. "Glad you could make it."
"What are you guys doing here? I thought you SWAT team people wouldn't be involved with petty crimes like this."
"We do now," Aaron replied, sighing as he ran his fingers through his hair. "After the murder of 3 little children and 3 teenagers all using the ever familiar urban legends, the authorities are not taking any chances. They are considering this person very dangerous and could be a threat to the public. They are treating him as a cold-blooded serial killer and are recruiting people from the higher authorities to nail down this criminal."
"Her," Jonathan corrected. "We have reasons to believe it's a her."
"In other words, they brought you guys in," Judith said as she popped a Wrigley's Spearmint gum into her mouth.
"You must be the famous bakasaru Jonathan's been talking about," Leslie said.
"Guilty as charged."
"She's not such a bad package as I thought," Aaron rubbed his chin, eyeing her with interest. "You sure got good taste, Jon."
Jonathan gave them a warning She's-not-my-girlfriend look while Judith acted as if she didn't hear anything. Rachel decided to get right down to business, "What's the story here, guys?"
"Well, apparently we have a double crime here," Thomas replied, jerking his head towards the hostel. As he led the CSI agents towards the hostel, he continued explaining. "The victim's dorm mates found him dead at the hallway with his throat slit and another one was hung from the frame of the bathroom door in front of his disemboweled dog."
"Disemboweled dog?" Justin asked, getting familiar with this kind of case.
"Yup. They say that this guy has been rearing his dog secretly in his dorm and his other dorm mates were kind enough not to reveal it to the teachers. They have found a weird writing in blood on the wall though, saying…"
"'Humans can lick too', right?" Rachel asked.
"Uh, yeah, how did you…?"
"Another urban legend," Judith replied. "Owner of a dog heard a strange noise and reached for the dog which licked her hand, and found the next morning the dog dead and words written in the dog's blood 'Humans can lick too'. You can guess who's been doing the licking."
"Now that is sick," Leslie's face screwed up in disgust.
"What about the hallway victim?" Aaron asked.
"My guess would be the urban legend where two roommates were going back to their hostel and one of them still had some place else to go," Rachel, the Human Library, explained. "The latter hit the hay and woke up in the middle of the night hearing scratching sounds at the door. The next morning the latter found out that the former roommate was dead in the hallway and was scratching the door trying to call for help."
"Well, that's what we've got from the victims' dorm mates," Thomas replied and gestured the police guarding the crime scene to let them in. "You guys really did your homework."
"That's what we CSIs do," Jonathan replied before turning to his co-workers. "Alright, Rach, you and I go check on the hallway kid. Justin, you and Jude can go check the dog case. I think our bakasaru is more interested in gutted dogs than slit throats. And Jude, spit out that chewing gum."
Judith ignored him, chewing deliberately loud and amusing the SWAT team members. Jonathan sighed in defeat and they went on their separate ways. Thomas, Aaron and Leslie were beginning to think that they're going to see more amusing things between these two bickering colleagues.
As soon as Judith and Justin reached the dorm with the dead dog, they could see the dorm mates sitting at their double-decker beds, looking really ashen as some of the police were trying to question them about what they saw. Our CSI agents flashed their badges at the police before getting down to work.
"What's the ID of our dog lover?" Judith asked one of the policemen.
"His name was Terry Soong and his dog was named Jasper," the police replied. "His dorm mate who slept on the top bunk was the first one to discover his body. He claimed that Terry was an early waker, always waking up earlier before anyone else."
"What time did he usually wake up?" Justin asked.
"Mostly at about 3 or 4 in the morning. He heard Terry getting off the bed and he went back to sleep. He didn't hear anything else. When he woke up later and saw Terry's hanging body, he immediately blacked out and is still unconscious. The bathroom is over there, detectives."
The dorm had only one bathroom to share and it was left untouched for Judith and Justin to check. Which means that the gruesome dead bodies of the dog and the owner were still hanging at the exact spot when they were found (Gross!). Sure enough, there were bloody writings on the wall that bear the scary words HUMANS CAN LICK TOO. Judith took one look at the blue face of the owner and the noose around his neck and said, "At least he didn't suffer."
"How do you know?" Justin asked while he was taking blood samples from the dog and the writings on the wall.
"Try smell his face."
Justin did and his face lit up in understanding, "It's chloroform."
"Uh-huh. The culprit made him sleep first so that he won't make a sound, then she looped the noose around his neck and let him die in his sleep hanging there."
"She really followed everything here in detail," Justin said as he pointed at the gutted dog. "She followed exactly how the dog in the urban legend was disemboweled and wrote the exact words on the wall. She must've taken the effort to even lick Terry's hand just like in the legend. That's sick, man."
"I just don't understand how the culprit could ever do this without leaving any evidence around, not even a strand of hair," Judith said, a little frustrated as she powdered the place for any prints. "And I can't seem to shake off the feeling that it's a he who did this crime. I mean who in the world could possibly pull a rope that was hanging a 7 feet 4 guy if it's not a guy?"
"I dunno yet," Justin said as he took pictures of the whole place. "Unless she's been working out or something. You'll never know."
"I still think it's a guy," Judith insisted before Justin suddenly snapped the camera at her.
"Cheese!"
"Hey, what was that for?"
"For fun," Justin grinned. "Don't worry. I'll separate this section from the rest of the film."
"Weird," Judith muttered, making some last minute checks before gesturing one of the policemen to remove Terry from his hung-up position.
"Err…Jude, I was thinking…well…after investigating this batch of evidence, if you're not going to anything later tonight, would it be OK if you hang out with me?" Justin asked sheepishly.
"What for?" Judith asked, curious.
"Well, you know, just hang out and, uh, go watch a late night movie or something. There's this new horror movie called 'McCall's Boys' and I was wondering if you could…"
"Are you asking me out on a date, Justin?"
"Well, if you wanna put it that way…yeah, I am."
Judith stared at Justin for a while without a word, making Justin feel awkward. He wasn't good in reading people's faces like detectives do when they interrogate their suspects, and he sure couldn't read what was going on through Judith's mind. Come to think of it, no one can.
"I'll think about it," Judith said finally.
"Is that a yes?" Justin asked, hopeful.
"I said I'll think about it, OK?"
"Alright. Take your time."
Sometimes, he wished that she would actually give him a straight answer.
Meanwhile, Jonathan and Rachel were checking out on the dead student in the hallway. There were quite a number of other boys and a few girls from Form 6 crowding around the area to see how bad the situation was but was shooed away by the police on guard. Jonathan asked one of the policemen questioning the dorm mates to turn the face-down boy upright so that he could check out the damages.
"What did you say his name was?" Jonathan asked.
"Kevin Pang," the police replied. He looked more of a rookie than a pro. "We received a call from one of the kids here reporting about his case and then a few minutes later it was another call talking about that dog owner case."
"I see."
"He was right out there, trying to call for help and all we did was just locked the door and went back to sleep until he's dead!" one of the dorm mates cried in devastation. "It's all our fault he's dead! It's all our fault!"
"We didn't know it was him!" another dorm mate said. "We thought it was some kind of a cat. We get loads of cats around here and you don't know when they sneak in and jump on you. We…We just…We just thought…"
"There's nothing else you can do now," Rachel tried to pacify the dorm mates who were beating themselves up about this. "It's not entirely your fault. Just calm down. Did he say anything before he left the dorm last night? Anything suspicious?"
"Well, he said he was going to go out and meet somebody," the first dorm mate replied. "But he didn't tell us where."
"Did he say who he was going to meet?"
"No, not even that. We assumed he was going out on a secret midnight date with one of the girls, so we didn't wait up for him."
"Alright, thanks," Rachel said. She went towards Jonathan who taking blood samples and asked, "Well, any leads?"
"Nope. No fingerprints except the victim's, no other foreign footprints, nothing. He's getting better and better. And the slit wound are just Nicholas's, clean yet not too deep. Enough to make him choke in his own blood and suffer a long, painful death."
"Ouch!" Rachel wrinkled her nose. "Now that's gotta hurt!"
While Jonathan continued to check the body, Rachel looked around in search of clues. She noticed a long trail of blood from the victim's dorm down along the hallway. She remembered reading in urban legend that the roommate had dragged herself down the hallway all the way to her room. She decided to follow the trail while taking a few pictures in the process. She was so engrossed in following the trail of blood that she wasn't paying attention to where it was leading. When the trail finally stopped, she looked up and was quite surprised to see where she was. She phoned Jonathan and told him to get to where she was quick.
She was actually in a basketball court.
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