†††
JOELLA GOT OFF her car after she parked it in the driveway, she was walking towards her gate when someone called out to her.
"Hey, Joella! Where were you? I've been looking for you all day." it was her perverted neighbor, Romian.
She just smiled awkwardly at him and opened the gate.
"Hey, don't ignore me. let's talk more hahaha" He walked closer, "Can I come in?"
"No, Romian, please go home."
"Oh, come on—" He touched her arm.
"Hey! how many times do I have to tell you? stay away from Joella, Romian!" The chief of police who was passing by scolded him.
He just laughed and walked away.
"Thanks, Chief" Joella turned to the chief.
He smiled, "Be careful next time"
"Urgh, just let her. let's go." His wife, Mrs. Pedere, rolled her eyes.
She entered the house and walked in on her daughter and nephew playing with their phone while the TV is on. "You've been playing since I left, and you didn't even bother to clean the house?!"
"Whatever, mom." Her daughter rolled her eyes, and the nephew just laughed.
"And at least turn the TV off, you're not even watching!" she shouted and went on to clean and cook dinner.
She went upstairs and saw her eldest son about to leave with his friend, Kyler. "Where are you going? it's already late"
"It's none of your business." he walked past her.
"Hey, I'm talking yo you!" she grabbed his arm, and turned to Kyler with sharp eyes "You're a bad influence to my son! stop teaching him bad things!"
Alvin took his arms back and glared at her mom before leaving with Kyler who's staring at her mockingly.
Joella doesn't understand why his son hangs out with that boy who's known in town for being a troublemaker.
She was so exhausted and went straight to her room to rest.
•
Joella woke up by the sound of the television, she glanced at her clock and it was 2:00 AM. She groaned as she get up, open the door of her room and shouted: "Turn off the TV and go to sleep! Don't make me go down there!"
She heard her daughter cough and the TV turning off.
"Drink some water and go to sleep!" She said before closing the door. It didn't take long untill she dozed off to sleep again.
But an hour and a half later, Joella woke up feeling a weird uneasiness.
She have this strange feeling that someone is staring at her. Joella scanned the room with her chest pounding; her heart almost dropped and her blood went cold when she saw a dark figure standing in the corner of her room.
†††
THE POLICE WERE mortified when they arrived at the scene. A 16 year-old teenager was lying dead in the couch of the living room, without undergarments.
They went upstairs and opened the door of the mother's room and welcomed by a horrifying scene: Blood splattered all over the bed and the floor, a headless nude body at end of the bed positioned in a sexually inviting way, and a decapitated head placed in the corner of the bed, facing the door.
Most officers couldn't help but throw up by the sight. Investigators were having a hard time because the crime scene was already compromised since Vincent's footsteps were all over the house.
The only clue they have is a piece of button in Joella's hand that she seem to have grabbed from her killer's shirt.
During the interrogation with Vincent, he mentioned that Joella got in a fight with her son and his friend, Kyler. Given that Kyler had a long record of trouble, they also added him as one of the suspects.
They also interrogated Alvin, but the boy broke into tears as soon as he heard about the death of his mom and sister.
"I may always talk back to her but I could never hurt my mom." He bawled.
another suspect is Joella's ex-husband. According to their neighbors, Joella and Mr. Alonzo always had screaming matches when they're still together, and they're relationship ended in bad terms.
meanwhile, on the other room: the officer and the chief were in charge on interrogating Kyler.
He was highly suspicious since of all the people they interrogated, he was the only calm one after finding out about the incident, he was even scoffing and grinning whenever he finds a chance.
"Why would I even kill that woman?" he crossed his arm.
"You have a long time grudge against her because she reported you many times, right?"
he rolled his eyes, "Yeah, so?"
The interrogators are starting getting frustrated when someone knocked.
"Hey, chief" He handed him a ziplock bag, "We found a button on the crime scene."
The interrogators glanced at Kyler before looking back at each other with the same thing in mind.
•
The interrogation went well and the officers were smiling as they went out of the interrogation room.
"You saw his polo shirt, right?" The chief of police asked his subordinate, Carl.
Carl chuckled "looks like we got our killer."
"Is it the neighbor?" one of the officers, Mia, spoke up. "Romian Diqheed, the one always bothering her. Everyone's seen him harass her, and he's got no alibi for that night."
The Chief waved her off. "We already got a strong evidence, a suspect with a record, and grudge against Joella. Don't waste time on a guy who just likes to flirt."
While interrogating Kyler, they saw one of his polo's buttons were missing. They asked him about it and the boy was smirking the whole time, confidently saying that it wasn't him.
They got to their office and greeted with the other officers' loud chattering.
"Really?! I'm a huge fan of her, she's very well known in our industry."
"Yes! I'm so excited!" she exclaimed.
They instantly hushed when they saw the chief and the others walk in.
"What's all this fuss about?" he raised a brow.
The girl squirming earlier stepped forward "Boss, I just got a call, four of the most famous detective consultant are coming to our department."
"Famous detective consultant? why?" confused.
"Apparently, they want to take a look on the Alonzo Case." The officer shrugged.
His face brightened up "They're going to find evidence to make that bastard pay?"
"Yes, since Mr. Alonzo and Alvin wasn't satisfied. They wants more explanation."
The chief nodded "I see, then why are you acting like a celebrity is going to arrive?"
"Chief, they're super famous! They're known to have solve and reopening even the hardest, and already cold cases. It's incredibly impressive given that they're not even in their 30s yet."
He scoffed, "They're just bunch of children?"
"They're still waiting for your consent, Chief. Please allow them, let's give the family of the victims a peace of mind." Mia pleaded.
"You know, I agree that we have to give the family more assurance. alright then."
Afternoon came, and the office door opened revealing two women and two men dressed casually.
The woman in front scanned the room and introduced herself "Good morning, chief Pedere. I'm Elara Quinn Morales, I'm a consulting detective."
The chief shook her hand and gave her a big smile. "I look forward to working with you, Ms. Morales."
She nodded and gestured to the people hebind her. "These are my assistants: Kairos Vale Creed, Mary Odyssey Lopez, and Ezren Vexley Silas."
The three grimaced in unison upon hearing the word "assistant"
They shook hands with the chief, and everyone grabbed their chance to talk to the four.
Elara, Kairos, and Ezren immediately went to business and looked at the files, while Odyssey was busy chatting with the other officers. Typical.
"That case was mortifying, I gotta say, it's one of the most unhinged case I ever read." Odyssey's gossip voice is so loud it made Elara frown.
"Yeah, it was the most brutal case we ever had! imagine, we were just having our yearly celebration that night and when we were informed about that case the next morning? it still brings me shivers to this day" Mia said.
"Wow, it must have been a shock"
"Yes, but the killer wasn't. He's already a well known troublemaker here, a week before that day, the chief caught him stealing so he grabbed him by his collar and pinned him to the ground." She dramatically said.
"Woahh— wait, you have a yearly celebration? for what?"
'These people are so loud, their topic isn't even relevant to the case.' Ezren thought, scratching his forehead.
"Oh it's just a tradition, this year wasn't as happy as the other though since most of our co-workers are married and their wives called them home early so..."
They went on gossiping not minding the other people working.
•
Elara was busy reading the details when Odyssey approached her with a big smile.
"Look, Quinn! Officer Terra said this Resto bar serves good BBQ and beer, let's try it!" she exclaimed.
Elara's eyes was still glued on the paper "Get away from me, Maria, or I will smash that phone of yours."
Odyssey pouted and approached Ezren instead but Elara already appointed him and she decided to just join him.
"Chief Pedere" Elara entered his office.
"Yes?" he said looking up from his papers.
"Can you gather everyone here tomorrow?" She said, scanning the room. " all of your suspects, including the family of the victims."
She gave him the list she made.
The chief smiled and nodded "I'll give them a call"
†††
THE NEXT MORNING, everyone in the department is pumped up because they're about to see Detective Morales say her deduction in front of everyone.
Elara closed the folder she's holding, getting everyone's attention.
"Is everyone here?" She asked after reading the case file.
Everyone gathered in the room as per Elara's instructions.
"yes" Kairos confirmed.
"uhm, Detective Morales? Are we not gonna wait for Detective Silas and Lopez?" an officer interrupted.
Elara glanced at her "It's fine."
"Excuse me, Detective Morales, but why am I even here? I'm not a suspect, and I have no business with that bitch." Mrs. Pedere protested with a sour face.
Elara had Kairos summon her here, and she's being a pain in the ass since arriving.
"Hey!" She shrieked when Elara snubbed her. "You're just a mere consulting detective, why are you acting like a boss?!"
"You, being called here implies that you are a suspect, Mrs. Pedere. So respectfully," She glared at her. "Shut the fuck up." Elara snapped making the Woman look down in embarrassment.
"Let's start, shall we? Here's my perfect deduction." Elara leaned against the table and close her eyes.
"You broke in to their house expecting everyone is already asleep, but you were wrong; you found the 16 year-old teenager awake watching TV and she saw you. Of course you had no other choice but to also get rid of the child." Everyone in the room looked at each other, confused, having no idea as to who the investigator is talking to.
She exhaled roughly. "You strangled the teenager to death, and heard Mrs. Joella's voice from upstairs warning the children so you immediately grabbed the remote and turned the TV off."
Her expression darkened as she continue. "You realized that you can't do your plan as long as Mrs. Joella's awake so you decided to do the unthinkable to the 16 year-old girl's dead body while you wait."
"An hour passed and you finally decided to go to Mrs. Joella's room; you stared at her for minutes waiting for her to wake up before you raped her and cut off her head. You made sure everything's clean and no evidence could be found and you fled the scene."
"Romian." Elara's eyes flicked to him making him flinched.
"You've been staring daggers at me since I walked in, waiting for me to say your name." She paused. "You're disgusting, and everyone in this room knows it. But you're retarded," She closed her eyes again. "Not you."
Romian's shoulders sagged in relief and humiliation.
"Mrs. Pedere... you despised Mrs. Joella because your husband shows affection to the victim. In fact, the two had an affair for a long time. But Mrs. Joella realized that she didn't want to upset her children, so she broke up with Chief Pedere—but of course, you didn't know that."
Mrs. Pedere's jaw dropped and her eyes widened.
"It was almost a perfect crime, I must say. The scene was clean and all evidence were disposed of. But you did something incredibly wrong, you made a mistake; and that is letting me look into this case" she paused to open her eyes, gaze locked to one person in the room. "Chief Pedere."
The chief looked at Elara with eyes wide open. "W-what the hell are you talking about, detective Morales?!" his loud bark echoed around the room startling everyone that was already flabbergasted and speechless by the investigator's announcement.
Detective Creed immediately marched towards Chief Pedere and grabbed his arm.
"Get your hands off me!" The chief fought. "The evidences clearly points to that brat over there, why are you pointing your finger at me?!" he pointed at Vincent.
The corner of Elara's lips rose. "Okay, let me go into details then."
Mrs. Pedere broke down crying. Mr. Alonzo, has been staring daggers at the chief while listening to Elara's deduction.
"Like I said, you were having an affair. She broke up with you and you found out that they're moving to a different city for good, and it made you very upset. So what did you do? you thought that if she won't be yours, then she's better off dead." she announced firmly.
"So you started to form a plan to execute your evil intentions. You set your eyes on the easiest target—the friend of the victim's son—Kyler, given that he has bad records." Kyler's eyebrows formed a line.
"You intentionally had the button of his shirt fall when you grabbed his collar: Came back, you picked up the button and kept it to frame the kid."
Kyler lost it and almost attacked the Chief if he wasn't stopped by the police on stand by.
"Hah! You don't have an evidence to prove that." he confidently said.
"Mhmm, you're right... I don't have that yet." Elara said with a mysterious look in her face.
Chief scoffed and aggressively took Kairos's hands off his arms.
"Feeling confident now, eh?" Elara smirked once again.
Everyone's eyes shifted at the door as it opened, revealing one of Elara's assistants, detective Silas and Lopez, with a laptop in hand.
"We have gathered everything, Detective Morales. Please check your phone, I already sent you everything we gathered." Ezren said.
Elara smiled at him "Great timing. Detective Lopez, you may start now."
She stepped aside and let Odyssey set up the projector and present in front of everyone.
"Alvin, and Kyler was seen in another City robbing a poor old lady that night." she paused.
Mr. Alonzo glanced at his son as evidence flashed through the screen.
"Mr. Dait is on strict medication because of his illness, the medication has a chemical that puts extreme drowsiness. He had history of having convulsions whenever he misses his medication."
Odyssey showed Mr. Romian Diqheed's medical records. Ezren then walked towards Elara—who's busy staring at her phone—to whisper something.
"I also gossiped with the Alonzo's neighbors and confirmed Miss Elara's suspicion that you and Mrs. Joella were feally having an affair." She added.
"Thank you, Odyssey. Very good on finding these evidence, you may sit now." Elara stopped her.
"Both victims showed no signs of resistance, suggesting that the person they saw was a person they already know and trust. Who would even think that the kind and trustworthy chief of police will do something horrible, yeah?" she looked at everyone in the room.
"Being the victim's affair partner makes you a primary suspect as well. And as my assistant just showed you, everyone in this room has a strong alibi... except you, chief."
"B-but the chief was with us that night" Mia protested.
Elara looked her in the eye "Was he with you at 2–3:00 AM?"
"N-no, but..." Mia lowered her head.
"Your department was having a party in a resto bar the chief suggested that night—that was coincidentally just a 5-minute drive from the victim's house. The chief told you that he'll be going home.... except he didn't."
"H-how do you even know all of that? you're just throwing guesses!"
She smirked "I don't guess, I don't have to. And besides, I may not look like it but I listen to people gossip." she said, making Odyssey chuckle.
Elara paused to play the last slide of the presentation, showing a CCTV footage. "Hmm... the chief's way home was on the other side yet he took the opposite route."
"If you look in your Google maps, there was no U-turns in that route so it's impossible that you just took a detour on your way home."
"N-no, this is impossible." The chief broke.
"You underestimated us and accepted our offer," she looked him dead in the eye. "You were expecting our deductions to point on Kyer, right?"
"It's really him! Joella's clever so she put his button in her mouth for us to find! it wasn't me!" the Chief said, making Elara chuckle.
"C-chief," Mia looked horrified, "I never told you where the button was found."
He was dumbfounded.
"Didn't I tell you, Chief? My deductions are absolute." she smirked and walked to the door as the family and all the other suspects in the room started attacking the chief.
"Case closed."
† END †