The sunlight enters through the half-drawn blinds on the window opposite to Rustam's bed, it hits his eyes causing him to awaken from his sleep. He had awaken with a horrible headache from the insufficient amount of sleep he's been getting these days.
He was still in yesterday's shirt, the faint smell of ink and stale coffee was in the air around his room. His eyes fell upon the evidence board, crowded with yellow articles, photographs of crime scene, scribbled notes. He had fallen asleep with the image of it burned in his mind.
With a groan, he gets off from the bed. The room was quiet except for the clock ticking and the rustle of loose papers under his hands which he just picked off from his desk. He keeps them aside and goes through an old stack of clippings ( related to the case ) which he hadn't touched in months, the edge of the papers curled and print almost spoiled.
The clippings contained printed articles which were published during the time when this k*ller was active. His eyes fell upon the titles of those articles:
"Unsolved M*rders Grip Town"
"No Suspects, No Motive"
"Community In Fear"
Most of them were familiar to him, he had read through them since the very beginning of when he took the case but his eyes fell upon one clipping in that stack, it was a sheet. Brittle and forgotten. It seemed as it was a piece of paper he hadn't went through yet.
It wasn't a newspaper but rather it was a police circular, a typed report circulated when this k*ller was actively k*lling people. The ink was a bit smudged but the list of possible suspects related to the case was still somehow a bit visible.
Rustam went through each name of suspects, it seemed that every name involved contained people who were previously held accountable for small robberies and causing violence sometimes but never anything much serious as k*lling in their previous crime records.
There were statements taken of the suspects, information such as where they were present when those k*llings happened, whether or not if they knew about the involvement in these k*llings or if they had any personal issues with the victims that were k*lled. All possible information.
But no suspect seemed to actually have any involvement or possibly be the serial k*ller, amongst all these there was one name: Richard M. and ahead of the name there was a simple statement: "illness reported, no longer considered as a relevant suspect".
Rustam frowned. How come there was a detailed investigation carried out against all possible suspect names but this man named Richard was dismissed in the excuse for an illness? Why was the name Richard even in the suspect list? Who was he?
Countless thoughts ran in Rustam's mind, perhaps this could be the main thing that would link up all this together. He immediately took the paper and pinned it on the board. He stared at the name: Richard. The only suspect who wasn't interrogated, no further information about him on any papers.
Rustam grabbed his phone and immediately dialed in a number, it was a number he hadn't had contacted in months. It was of Patrick's, Patrick was a cop who worked in the police station and was a good friend of Rustam's.
The phone rang twice before an gravelly, old voice answered.
"Patrick here"
He said.
"Patrick, it's me. I need a favour. Old case"
Rustam spoke, his voice low but urgent.
"You don't let it ever go, do you, Rustam?"
Patrick ask him.
"Not when the board still has holes"
Rustam said, his eyes flickering to the board with clippings, photographs and newspapers cutouts pinned.
"I found a name..Richard M. Ever heard of him?"
Rustam asks. There was a long pause on the other line, longer than Rustam expected.
"Richard..."
Patrick mumbled the name, his voice softer now. As if he was refreshing a long forgotten memory in the back of his mind.
"Yeah. The name does sound familiar, Richard was a small-time gambler, very deep in debt. Once he had broken a man's jaw to whom he lost a bet while gambling and that was enough to have us put him on radar. Due to the violent behaviour, he had been considered as a suspect back then"
Patrick spoke. Rustam immediately began to note down the information he was receiving about this man named Richard.
"So then why wasn't he interrogated?"
Rustam asks.
"Because he got sick."
Patrick said.
"Real sick. Some wasting illness, serious enough that he was admitted for treatment, bedridden most of the time. While the k*llings were tearing through the town, Richard was fighting for his life. By the time we thought of circling back to him for investigation, he was gone"
Patrick further added.
"Gone?"
Rustam asks.
"Dead. Buried before the last murder even happened"
Patrick said.
"You're sure there is nothing else on him?"
Rustam asks.
"Not in the files...but the name always stood out in a odd way even to me, had personally wanted to attend to Richard's funeral since I did visit him once in hospital but it was said that Richard spent his last days when he had been discharged from the hospital and no one's got any idea about where he could be buried"
Patrick said. The line went quiet. Over this new discovery, a sense of uneasy feeling takes over Rustam. Richard's said to be gone, declared as dead yet no one's aware where he's buried.
"Thanks, Patrick"
Rustam said before ending the call and staring up at the pinned name of Richard. He'd have to find out more about this man. Something about this Richard just wasn't adding up.
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End of chp 03.