CHAPTER 13: THE TRIANGLE
The CSI gang was back at the crime lab checking out the evidence they got from the crime scene. Justin were pretty much done with all the bodies from the school and the Putra Jaya accident spot, since they have already analyzed most of the stuff directly at the crime scene, and was typing in the report. They have received an ID on the victims of the car accident (or murder) as twin brothers Derek and Desmond. While Jonathan tried to find out more about the twins, the girls—Rebecca, Judith, Elaine and Rachel—were inspecting the cars Elaine and Rebecca found at Putra Jaya. Judith and Rachel did the Proton Saga and Elaine and Rebecca did the Iswara.
"So what have you got over there, Jude?" Elaine asked from the boot of the Iswara.
"Nothing much here," Judith replied, dusting for fingerprints. "There are no fingerprints or hair or anything that's here for us to find. This murderer is seriously a pro. He's getting better everyday."
"She," Rachel corrected.
"Well, I still have that gut feeling that it could be a 'he'," Judith said indignantly.
"She's got a point, you know," Rebecca agreed. "I mean, it could be Cliff who murdered the Han siblings and Gary did confess in murdering Cliff. They're all males."
"Besides, you said it yourself, right, Jude? That this is some sort of a chain murder and all," Elaine backed her up. "Who else could've done this if it's not a guy?"
"She could be the mastermind behind all this," Rachel said. "Don't underestimate the fury and intellectual of women."
"Yeah, well, not all women are as smart and vengeful as you are though," Judith commented. She took a look at the license plate number of the Proton Saga and exclaimed, "Hey, I recognize this car!"
"You do?" Rebecca asked, curious.
"Yeah, I've seen this license plate number. This car belongs to my neighbour who lives just across the street! He had reported it stolen a couple of days ago!"
"That old car? He still keeps this thing?"
"Well, I heard he got this car from his dad for his 20th birthday. He practically worshipped this car. Loves it more than his wife," Judith grinned. "Looks like he'll be in for a serious heart attack when I tell him what happened to his car."
"Guess that rules your neighbour out as a suspect," Rebecca replied. "One thing bothers me though."
"Why? What is it?" Elaine asked.
"Proton Saga is the first of its kind and Proton Iswara is somewhat the Proton Saga's next of kin. It should be much tougher than its brother, so why is it that the damages on the bonnet of this Iswara so intense?"
"It's a modified car," Rachel voiced out.
"How would you know?" Rebecca asked, although it is pretty much a dumb question for the Human Library.
"Proton Iswara-s are built to be much stronger and tougher than the original version. That's the basic concept for all cars and their next of kin. So logically speaking they wouldn't be able to break or dent that easily like the old version. But when it comes to car races, they usually make their car bonnets lighter so that it can speed faster and all. Usually made out of carbon-fiber metal. I've analyzed a little bit about that mangled bonnet. It is the same material as I've mentioned just now."
"So that means that this pair of twins had a tendency to go for either joyrides or car-racing in the middle of the night. I knew that these races would lead to an end like this."
"Did you say before that this Proton Saga rammed that Iswara to the tree and that the place it occurred was at the remote junction of Putra Jaya?" Judith asked without looking up.
"Uh-huh," Elaine replied. "What? You know something?"
"If my suspicions are correct, it could be another urban legend."
"We thought of that too, since we've been hounded by the press about this," Rebecca noted. "But which urban legend is it?"
"The headlights urban legend." Rachel replied. "The book said that to be able to become a gang member in the olden days, you have to drive with your headlights off and kill the first person to signal the headlights at you."
"OK, now that is seriously sick," Rebecca grimaced. "This guy is way too hooked on that urban legend thing."
"Girl."
"Whatever!"
"Can't find any evidence over here," Elaine concluded her inspection.
"Same here," Judith voiced out.
"Things sure get weirder and weirder," Rachel muttered, believing even more that she made the right choice of profession.
"Another one bites the dust."
Jonathan sighed and rubbed his temples as he closed the file he was reading. He had never expected that today would be a hectic day. It was very rare for them to have a multiple case that actually linked together, not to mention being hounded by the press demanding an explanation behind all these murders in the past few weeks. It's never easy to answer pressing questions from relentless reporters and believe me, Jonathan and the rest of the crew sure had a hard time trying to avoid them.
He had just received further ID from all the victims both from SM Victoria Institution and the Putra Jaya accident scene and discovered that they all share one thing in common: they were some of the members of Lionel Han's basketball team. Him and all his co-workers' fear came true—the murderer was beginning to target the rest of the team. He was considering Rebecca's suggestion of giving the rest of the basketball team protective custody when he saw Judith and Elaine coming in.
"Anything about the car?" Jonathan asked.
"No prints as usual," Elaine replied as she lit a cigarette. Judith grinned naughtily and snatched the cigarette to take a whiff of it, earning a bonk on the shoulder from an annoyed Elaine. Jonathan groaned.
"I'm surrounded by idiots."
"Well, you won't think I'm much of an idiot when you hear that the Proton Iswara's bonnet is made out of carbon-fiber material," Judith said, folding her arms across her chest.
"That's only used when you want to make speed racing cars," Jonathan was surprised. "Why would it be on the Iswara?"
"Duh, obviously because our Mr. Derek and Desmond has a knack for car races," Elaine rolled her eyes.
"That means the killer must have an idea about their car to dare ram them up onto that tree," Jonathan rubbed his chin. "Good work, girls. Carry on."
"Sorry, Mark David," Judith replied as she packed her stuff. "As much as I want to carry on, I have to go out."
"I'm thinking of getting something to eat myself," Elaine agreed. "Besides, there's nothing for us to check anyway and we have no leads."
"Go out?" Jonathan asked, curious. Elaine grinned inwardly. She could tell from the tone of his voice and the look on his face that there was something he didn't like about Judith going out.
"Yeah, you know," Judith replied nonchalantly, adjusting her hair. "As in go out, grab a bite, watch a movie, shopping, you know."
"I know that, doy!" Jonathan groaned exasperatedly. "I meant by who are you going out with?"
"None of your business."
"Well, I'm your superior and I have to know where you're going if you're not carrying on with the work…"
"Jude, are you ready? Can we go now?" Justin's head popped from behind the door of the main crime office where the trio was. Elaine lit up in understanding and thought she saw Jonathan looking slightly darkly at him.
"Yeah, I'm all done," Judith replied, waving goodbye at her friends without looking at them. Elaine waited until the duo disappeared out of sight before turning to Jonathan.
"Hey, Jon. Wanna go get some grub?"
"Not hungry," Jonathan muttered before he returned to his files pretending to be very interested in them. Elaine shrugged as she put out the cigarette butt and left the room, trying hard not to burst out laughing until she's really far from earshot.
Jonathan continued to flip over the papers in the file, his eyes on the paper but his mind somewhere else in oblivion. Somehow he just couldn't concentrate on what he was supposed to read through. After a few moments of staring blankly at the paper (and realizing that there isn't any evidence to pinpoint a suspect anyway), he stuffed them all into his drawer and went out of the crime office.
Judith and Justin were seen walking out of the shopping plaza's mini cinema after watching the horror movie 'McCall's Boys' Justin mentioned before, discussing about it excitedly.
"That movie was so cool!" Judith exclaimed as she sucked the last drop of her Coke. "And to think that it was the youngest son who's been doing all the black magic and killing people! He's like, what, 9 years old? His acting is good!"
"Well, that's the interesting thing," Justin replied. "Kids nowadays. Never underestimate them, ever."
"Yeah. Think of the things a kid would do for revenge, especially what we're facing now. And I thought USA has the highest crime rate."
While Judith and Justin continued discussing hotly about the movie, at a distance away unknown to them, Jonathan was following them from behind. He refused to admit to himself that he was jealous about them—although the thought did come—but he still couldn't help wanting to find out what was going on between them. This thought bit him tirelessly in his head and he just had to satisfy his curiosity.
The rest of the evening was spent pretty normally at typical places: window-shopping, going to the arcades, grab a bite at a food stall, checking out books sold at bookstores and looking for new on-sale VCD-s and finally sitting at a café enjoying a cup of coffee.
"So I heard you girls have been checking out the cars. Any luck?" Justin asked, sipping his cappuccino.
"Nope. None as usual," Judith sighed as she put down her cup of latte. "We're beginning to think that we're trying to find a ghost killer, and an expert at that."
"No ghost killer can kill with such precise detail and would take so much trouble finding out which legend fits who."
"True."
"Uhh, Jude," Justin said sheepishly as he scratched his chin. "I don't wanna pry but…you and the Chief…well, are you guys still on?"
"Not really," Judith replied. She didn't seem to take offence about his question. "We're still friends, but we're not 'on' to each other."
"Oh, well…That means you guys have no strings attached now, right?"
"Uh-huh. No strings attached whatsoever."
Justin smiled inwardly, seemingly relieved. Jonathan, who was sitting a table behind them, could tell that he had something going on in his head.
"Do you, well, do you still have feelings for him though?" Jonathan heard Justin asked tentatively.
Judith eyed Justin for a while and circled her finger on the cup, then muttered, "Justin, what exactly are you trying to say to me? You didn't ask me out just to watch a movie, did you?"
Justin hesitated, a red flush ran through his fair cheeks. Scratching his head awkwardly, he replied, "Well…uh…I dunno…I mean, if you're not having any…intimate feelings for the Chief, I was thinking…maybe you and could go…uh, you know…"
"Steady?" Judith finished his sentence. Hesitantly, Justin nodded. Jonathan looked as if he was going to plant a bullet on someone's head. Judith smirked and shook her head.
"Nah, I can't say I'm ready to go another extra mile between us."
"Yeah, I guessed," Justin replied, slightly disappointed. "You still have feelings for him, right?"
"Well, I can't say I have much deep feelings for him, but…I can say one thing: he's someone who can be two things at one time. He can be unbearable for one time, then he can be insatiable next. He can be boring, then interesting the next. He can be intolerable first, then later you just can't get enough of him. That's what I like about him. He's one of a kind. I never regret that I used to be with him."
Justin smiled wryly as he patted her shoulder. Jonathan, who had heard every word, was stunned. Was that what she really felt? Was she really saying it from the depth of her heart? Did she really mean what she said? What exactly was she trying to imply really anyway? Before Jonathan could make sense of it all, he saw Judith stand up abruptly.
"Take me to the nearest playground!"
"Wha…?" Justin was quite taken aback.
"Take me to the nearest playground! I wanna play the swing!" Judith repeated.
"What for?"
"It's been a while. I just wanna go back to my childhood side for a moment. Come on, let's go!"
"Just the Jude we always know," Justin chuckled as he took her hand. "Come on, then. Playground it is."
"Don't you think you're old enough to be out of this kiddy habit already?"
Judith and Justin were in the playground and Judith was on the swing, practically enjoying the rush as she swung back and forth and demanding Justin to push her higher. Jonathan, who had decided that he had seen enough of this childishness, went back to the crime lab to do more research. Judith laughed out loud as she swung higher. Justin shook his head and sighed weakly—this CSI member certainly was someone very unpredictable.
While she was swinging, Judith's eyes caught sight of the monkey bars. She saw some teenagers who were, like her, reliving their younger years by climbing and dangling over the monkey bars and laughing at people who couldn't hang on the bars more than 5 seconds. When one of them hung upside-down by his legs at the bars, Judith's mind suddenly clicked. The more she stared at the boy, the more her mind began to work. Once her mind suddenly came to a conclusion, she turned her head abruptly at Justin.
"Justin, stop! Stop the swing!"
Justin was so caught off guard that he stopped pushing the swing, resulting it to almost hit his face when it swung back. Justin got back to his senses quite immediately and grabbed the swing handles to stop the swing. As soon as it stopped, Judith jumped off.
"We have to go back to the crime scene!" Judith suddenly voiced out in excitement.
"Why? Which crime scene?"
"The one in Alor Setar! The place where Cliff was found dead!"
"Now?" Justin looked at his watch. "Why now? It's almost 1.30 a.m.!"
"Yes, now. Right now, before I forget my theory."
"What theory?" Justin asked he followed behind Judith to his car.
"The theory of Cliff's murder. I think I have that figured out!"
"What else is there to think of? They have already dismissed Gary's confession to murder because they assumed that he was dying and couldn't think straight. You didn't even record what he was saying—and the fact that he couldn't talk anyway. They've already deemed him innocent. Why now?"
"Trust me on this. With this theory of mine, I bet they would be looking helter-skelter for the confession file on Gary he dismissed."
As soon as they're at their crime scene where Cliff was killed, Judith immediately jumped off the car without even waiting for Justin to hit the brakes, practically ignoring Justin's horrified yell to be careful. She ran full speed towards the tree and recreated the image of Cliff's body in her mind. Justin came running after her breathlessly.
"You are seriously suicidal, Jude! What is it that you see?"
Judith didn't reply. She continued to stare at the tree, visualizing the crime scene, her trailing from the branches to the place where Cliff took a leak. She grabbed Justin's sleeve without a word and pulled him towards the tree.
"Give me a boost," Judith ordered. Justin obliged, still puzzled about his co-workers mysterious attitude. Judith climbed up the tree and inched her way slowly towards the middle of the branch where Cliff was hung. She soon discovered that there were a few hay-like strings attached to the natural dents of the branch's skin, looking just like the material from the rope tied on Cliff's ankles. She held on tight to another branch above her and stretched over to see that there were tiny pieces of plastic stuck onto the branch opposite the one she was on. She took that and the hay-like strings and pocketed it in.
"What do you see, Jude?" Justin asked anxiously from below.
"Here's what happened," Judith gave her deduction. "On the night of the murder, Cliff sneaked off to have fun with the girl, but the steam was cut off when he had to take a leak. What he didn't know was that Gary was so used to his unorthodox habit that he knew Cliff was going to ditch them beforehand. Things were hectic there, so the other guys didn't know when Gary left to buy neon lights, so probably he went out about almost the same time Cliff snuck off with the girl and did the dirty work the mastermind had planned for him."
"How did he do that, pray tell?"
"He hid up here in the tree in waiting and he had the trap waiting for Cliff. He laid a noose on the ground that covered the place approximately where Cliff might stand to take a leak. While Cliff did his business, he quietly pulled the rope and let the noose tighten around Cliff's feet, descended quietly down the ground holding the loose end of the rope, came behind Cliff and slit his throat before pulling the rope with all his might until he was sure Cliff was hanging above the car. Which explains the dragging marks..."
"Wait a second!" Justin stepped her deduction. "If Gary had been going up and down the tree to slit Cliff, why aren't there any footprints at the place where he was slit? If there weren't any footprints where Cliff was dragged, he should have left some there!"
"Because," Judith said as she plucked a few very tiny pieces of cloth on the spot next to the hay-like strings, "he was wearing socks. Even if he had left any footprints there, it wouldn't be easy for us to trace it to him 'coz anyone could have the same size of feet he did. Besides toe prints don't exactly penetrate through socks."
"But he couldn't climb trees! He had dislocated his knees many times and had quite a fracture on his thigh bone, making him unable to climb without help."
"He didn't have to," Judith replied. "He had his hands. I found some plastic material on this branch here. He was wearing plastic gloves and he was swinging from branch to branch and was also hanging upside-down with his legs to disembowel Cliff."
"That explains the absence of prints on the car," Justin said as he rubbed his chin in comprehension. "But how could he...?"
"I've read his school records. Before he was in basketball, he was in gymnastics for a year or two. That's where he got all the dislocation and fractures. He was risking another injury on his knee to do this murder. If he had stayed hanging there longer, you would've found injuries on his body. Plus, with his expertise in going under cars, that explains the army knife between the exhaust pipe."
"Darn!" Justin slapped his head. "Why didn't I check that one out?"
"What happened, Justin?" Judith asked as she hung suddenly upside-down almost close to Justin's face, taking him by surprise. "I thought you're the best coroner in the crime lab."
"Well, I'm not exactly perfect..." Justin replied, looking away with a flushed face. Judith grinned mischievously, not realizing that the branch she was hanging from was beginning to break. When she realized what happened, it was too late. The branch snapped and she fell headlong towards the ground, landing on top of Justin, her lips dangerously close to his. Justin blushed even worse as he realized his eyes were staring straight into Judith's dark-brown ones. Judith smiled and gave Justin a peck on the lips—a sort of friendly kiss.
"My hero."
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