CHAPTER 6: EVERY MYSTERY HAS A CLUE
Rachel and Elaine are walking around the car they were supposed to inspect: Cliff’s car. It has been a while since Rachel had been on a decent investigation. All she did was sit around in the office room checking on pictures taken, filing reports, providing book information to her co-workers, sketching patterns of crime scenes and how it took place on huge pieces of paper, with a little help from Rebecca, that is and also doing things not even an office boy could stand doing. She was mostly inside, not outside and this was one of those days when the co-worker had to find for her something to do to get her out of the office and into the fresh air outside.
Not that inspecting a stinky Perodua Rusa that was stained with blood and gut juice on the roof was much of a fresh air job, but it’s better than nothing.
“I’ve heard that you’ve given the kids the Q zone while you were sending them home last night,” Rachel said while she dusted the bonnet of the car for any footprints or fingerprints.
“Yeah, I did,” Elaine replied while checking inside the boot of the car, which was not much.
“So what did they have to say?”
“Well, I’ve did quite a Q zone on them. All of them said that they were together throughout the whole concert, except Jeremy who went off to take a leak and Gary who wanted to buy some of those neon lights for the guys. They all lost track of time of how long they’ve been away.”
“So you have two suspects that might have taken off to kill that Cliff guy,” Rachel said as she took a look on the still blood-stained car roof.
“They’re all suspects here, Rach,” Elaine said while climbing into the Perodua to check on the floors of the car. “Could be Gary, could be Jeremy, or could be even Nicholas who might have sneaked off to do the killing while his gang went off to do their business. We’re still a few evidences short here.”
“What else have you got from your Q zone?”
“Well, I asked them about their relationship with Lionel, just as Jon and I planned to do, and as expected, they were like peas in a pod. They ate together, they played basketball together, they hang out together, they watch horror movies together and they even slept together when they’re having their boy slumber parties. They are practically inseparable. Except Jeremy, that is. Ever since that prank during the end of PMR celebration, he spent a considerable less time with them.”
“Prank? What prank?” Rachel asked from her front seat.
“Turned out that our Jeremy here had a phobia for the dark. The guys knew about it and decided to give him a little scare or some sort. They tricked Jeremy into going inside Lionel’s storeroom and they locked him in, leaving him there in the dark and forgot about him. It was only when they have done celebrating that they remembered he was still in the storeroom. He was practically in there for hours and when they took him out, he suffered a minor shock. He never went to any of his parties since.”
“Now that’s one bad way of pulling someone’s leg,” Rachel replied. “Do you think that could be his motive to kill his friends, that Jeremy?”
“We do have a suspicion that he would be the murderer,” Elaine replied. “But we can’t go jumping into conclusions yet. It’s not CSI professional-like. Besides, the gang was not the only one who likes to take him for a dummy.”
“Who else would want to pick on him?”
“Almost everyone in the basketball team. Like Lionel said, he was more of a geek than a true basketball player, ‘coz he studies more than he plays. He’s always a reserve, and you know what usually happens to reserves.”
“Tell me about it,” Rachel snorted as she remembered her high school years of being a bookworm of the century than being the jock of the year. “I’m pretty much clean here. Just a few CDs and cassettes and a whole lot of jock junk in here. He even has condoms in here just in case. And I mean ‘just in case’; he had it written on the wrapper. What have you got?”
“Goodness!” Elaine groaned. “Did he actually write that?? Well, I’m clean here too. There’s nothing in the boot but a basketball, a pair of basketball shoes, some dumbbells, an empty water bottle and smelly old socks and also some Playboy magazines. The things kids stash in their cars these days!”
“While you were still looking for the suspects, we have a head-start on how the victims were killed,” Rachel said.
“You do? How?”
“Well, Jude had a hunch on urban legends and…” Rachel told Elaine everything about their find from the book and also her theory on the murderer using horror movies to kill people. Elaine lit up at that theory.
“Did you say murder through horror movies?”
“Yeah, I did. Why?”
“That confirms my suspicion on the suspects, that’s all,” Elaine said, remembering the horror movie VCD-s in Lionel’s home. She stole a look at the ever studious Rachel and asked, “Err, Rach. I was wondering…since you’re so smart and studious and more into books than the real life case itself, why don’t you become an English professor instead? I see you got potential, you know.”
“I did think of taking that job,” Rachel replied as she looked at the roof of the car to see if she had missed out anything. “But I didn’t think it was worth it anymore.”
“Why?” Elaine was surprised. “You got the smarts and you got the look. You are so suitable to be professor!”
“Hmm…That was what my parents said as far as I could remember. It was a pretty tough life back then. I love to study, but all that interest and knowledge has gone down to sheer competition. I study for fun, not for competition. I study for interest, not for survival of the fittest. But throughout my life, it’s just study to be the best, study to be No.1, study to be outstanding…” Rachel let out a sigh before continuing, “I didn’t study just to get into the best primary school, the best high school, the best college and the best university and end up in the best work place having the best career. That is too predictable. I study to enjoy the knowledge and enjoy life, no matter how unpredictable it might be.”
“So you chose forensics?” Elaine concluded the discussion. Rachel nodded.
“At least it’s pretty unpredictable. You can always try to guess who the real murderer is but you always get unexpected results for it.”
“I don’t get it…” Elaine looked around the car, befuddled. “What does Jude means by having some clue in the car?”
“Jude asked for this car to be inspected?” Rachel looked at the car in disbelief. “There’s nothing here to bag except all these masculine junk! There’s no footprints, no fingerprints, no strands of hair, no fiber from clothing, no nothing! Her and her so-called sixth sense is always playing games with her.”
“And to think that she usually go under cars and stealing away mechanical parts—” Elaine stopped abruptly as she realized what Judith wanted her to check. She immediately went on her back and wriggled her way underneath the car. Judith has taught her before how to look under cars and see which mechanical parts are still working or not and how much it could worth in the market to be worth stealing. She ran her hands inside the compartments and soon found herself touching something cold. Slowly, with her nimble fingers, she pulled the thing she just touched which was crammed into the gap between the exhaust pipe and the frame of the car and marveled at the thing she had just found.
“Jude, I seriously owe you a glass of Martini.”
Jonathan was at the shooting range with his old friend Thomas as promised. They greeted each other and stood in their own compartments, waiting for the targets to be lowered. Thomas took out his gun and turned his head towards his old friend, asking, “So, how did life in the crime lab go?”
“Not too good,” Jonathan replied. “I’m still surrounded by idiots and maniacs. And I got this one from one of those maniacs.”
Thomas looked at the plastic bag that was handed to him. It was an army knife, with a jagged blade stained with blood and a little bit of black oily stuff on it. He took and looked closely at it, then asked, “Where did you get this knife? I haven’t seen this knife since my scouting days.”
“Jude said that she had a hunch that the murder weapon might be hidden in the car, so we had Elaine and Rachel had the car inspected. Elaine found this knife under the car wedged between the exhaust pipe and the car frame. That lil’ ol’ bakasaru was actually right. I figured that the murderer could be having a family member who was an ex-army and…”
“Woah, woah, wait, Jon,” Thomas stopped his rambling a moment. “Have you forgotten the safety and standard procedure? The army and the government would never allow you to bring home any weapon after you’ve done your services in the war. It’s simply not done. Unless you’re a cop, which is what you are, or you’re a licensed buyer, you’re not supposed to have a weapon at home at all. Besides, see this?” Thomas pointed at a tiny symbol on the knife just near the handle, “That’s a company trademark. It’s just a typical scout knife.”
“Darn! I’m getting a little weak on this guessing thing,” Jonathan sighed and put the plastic bag away before loading his gun. “I should’ve noticed that trademark. It’s just so small.”
“You never miss out anything as small as that. Seems like you’ve lost your focus due to that ‘bakasaru’ of yours.”
Jonathan glared grudgingly at Thomas and put on his ear protection before he started firing at the target board. He shot all the bullets with such gusto that he had finished them before Thomas got to shoot his third bullet. As the target board came closer, there were a couple of shots that strayed to the shoulder of the target, but most of them were hit right at the middle and right on the bull’s eye. Thomas looked at it in revered admiration.
“Nice shot, Jon. Just like old times.”
“Unlike you, I never lose my focus,” Jonathan replied before reloading for another round.
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