Sophia walked into the squad room, sipping her morning coffee. Her partner detective Patrick, looked up from his desk.
"Hey, Sophia. How is it going?"
Sophia shrugged, "just tryna wake up. Long night" she said
Patrick nodded sympathetically. "Yeah, I know the feeling. Hey, we've got a new case coming in. Looks like a high-profile one"
"What's the details?" Sophia asked walking over to his desk. He filled her in on the case and she listened intently. Missing details was one of the first mistakes many encountered when dealing with a case. And that never occured to her before. Her interest piqued and her mind was already racing with many possibilities.
Just then, their sergeant, captain Martin called out, "Sophia, can I see you in my office for a minute?"
Sophia raised an eyebrow wondering what this was about.
"We've got a high-profile case coming in. A brutal assault. Multiple injured, two dead" captain Martin said filling her in on the details.
"What's the motive?" Sophia asked knowing very well that usually the killer always has a reason for playing out his games in such a manner. No one would just go about killing people without a reason unless they were a psycho.
"That's the thing, we are suspecting something to do with sexual assault, all the victims were in that kind of thing and the survivor, a young girl, is still on life support. Things are not looking good"
"Do we have any leads on the suspect sir?" Sophia asked, having a gut in her stomach that it must have been a revenge attack.
"The only description we have is a tall, dark, muscular man with a distinctive tattoo on his hand"
Sophia's mind raced, a revenge attack, young girl fighting for her life. Perhaps it was the father doing all that,or a brother or an uncle. But her main suspect would be the father because a father would go to any length to protect his daughter even if it meant taking someone's life on the way.
"You need to find this man before he kills more people. Some of the men he attacked are ex-militants" captain Martin said in hesitation.
The case was more complicated, obviously the rest of the men weren't going to sit around hiding from the police. Sophia had a strong feeling they'd be hunting the suspect as well to avenge their men. Which meant not only did she have to look out for the suspect but also for the rest of the men that survived the assault, who were just as unpredictable and dangerous given their background as ex-militants.
Sophia and Patrick arrived at the crime scene, their eyes Scanning the area located under a famous bridge spanning a busy highway. As they approached the scene, a thick smell of smoke and metallic overwhelmed them. Sophia's eyes took in the gruesome details, two dead bodies lay sprawled on the ground, surrounded by a pool of blood. She put on some gloves and squated beside one of the bodies to take a closer look. Sophia noticed a harmer just beside the head of the dead body.
"I'm guessing this is the murder weapon" she said as she carefully picked it up to place it in the evidence plastic bag. "But I do not see where it was used" she said. Then it occured to her, the victims face was somehow twisted and blood spread like a dark halo around their head. Sophia took a deep breath and slightly turned the head to the side.
And there it was, a depressed skull fracture.
The wound was a jagged gash on the victims head, about two to three inches long, implying a violent, blunt force to the head. The skin was torn, with fragments of the skull visible beneath the surface. A small amount of brain tissue protruded from the wound.
"He must have really wanted him dead" Sophia whispered to herself as she got up. She looked around, the afternoon sunlight filtering through the bridge's structural framework, casting dappled shadows on the ground.
"Take note", she said turning to Patrick who was examining the other dead body, "he attacked them at night" she said, fully aware that with the bridge's structure, by nightfall, the area would be shrouded in darkness. "And for this one, he was attacked from behind with the harmer directly on the head"
Patrick let out a low whistle, "this is a real bad one, Sophia. This guy's dick has been cut off"
"What!?" Sophia walked over to Patrick, not sure if she should be feeling bad especially after what they did.
"Whoever we are looking for, is no ordinary man" he said taking off his gloves
"Tell me about it"
After they'd had enough the crime scene, they headed to the hospital to check on the young girl. Nobody told her she was so young, Sophia assumed the girl was about 10-11 years old. Anger simmered within her as she watched the child lay motionless in the hospital bed, her fragile body covered in bruises.
Sophia felt the urge to cry as she listened to the beeping of the machines that indicated the young girl was still with the living.
"Poor child, they even tied her to a chair or something" Patrick said with a hint of sadness in his voice. A reddish-purple colour surrounded both her wrist, possibly with a clear impression of a rope or a binding material.
"We should go" Sophia said
"Are we not going to wait for her to wake up and get some few details from her?"
"She's not waking up anytime soon" she said, walking out of the hospital as her mind ran wild with thoughts. 'Who does that to a child? What do they gain from doing all that? The father or whoever it is must have been devastated, no wonder he's after them all' she was so lost in thoughts that she did not see the man coming in her direction and eventually she collided with him
"I'm sorry" she apologised hastily. However the man's reply sent her heart racing and shivers to her body.
"It's oky", he said in a voice that echoed memories. She spun around, but he vanished into the crowd in the corridor before she could see his face. Yet, the familiar walk of the stranger lingered in her mind, a distinctive stride she thought she'd never forget. Even after ten solid years had passed, she could never forget it in her memories.
Patrick's grip on her wrist brought her back to her senses, pulling her towards the car. "You seem fond of hospitals, I am not" he said
But Sophia's mind went lingering back on the stranger. Tall, muscular and shrouded in a hoodie, with his hands buried deep in his pockets.
Was it Michael?
The voice, the walk, the height, the body; all resembled Michael. But the strangers physique also matched someone else, the suspect's description. Was this her long lost love or was it the man they were looking for?...
#@annabelpiggy
#shortstories
#romance