Shoot Your Gun by 22-20s
Detective Nash
Detective Nash entered the common office and was greeted by it’s usual buzz. Various Detectives, suspects, complainants and witnesses lined the office tables or waited in the sidelines. Lucky for him, being a senior detective allowed him few perks, such as his own offices albeit it being cramp and damp. The walls gave a measure of silence compared the cubicles in front of him. Nash just arrived from court, it was the final hearing of his previous case before the gunshot victim. The prosecutor did an excellent job presenting the case and they’re now just waiting for the jury’s verdict. Motivated from the trial and with a fresh case still open, Nash left the court building and went straight ahead to the department once the closing statements were done.
He found his partner lying belly down in the staff lounge sofa, snoring, and drooling all over the place. The coffee table in front of him was littered with files, some he recognize from the gunshot case. He took the largest file from the table, which was about a thumb thick, and threw it at his partner.
“Ugh... What the fuck?!” Tomias van der Westhuizen groaned.
“Wake up, we got work to do.” Nash replied while lighting a cigarette. He sat at the couch across his partner.
“What time is it? Jesus, Nash it’s 11 in the morning, what got you so eager for leg work so early?” Westhuizen sat up and rested his head on both of his hands.
“Court hearing went great, told the prosecutor to text me once a verdict is given. I just got a mood to catch more bad guys.” Westhuizen just groaned, Nash continued: “When was the last time you were home? You look like shit.”
“I feel like bullshit thrown in a washer for good measure.” Tomias pulled his flash out from his pocket and downed two mouthful before putting it aside. “I was here since fucking Monday. That apartment ain’t no home, it’s a dildo attached to the subway. Damn building shakes every time one of those trains passed by.”
Nash shrugged, “Bout time you need a place to crash, I got a couch vacant if you’re interested.”
“No offense partner, but your mother’s cooking ain’t great. Your whole place smells like a knell once she has her hands on the stove. How do you survive that?”
“My sinus nerve has long been burnt out, ever wonder why I started smoking in the first place?” Both of the detectives chuckled. Tomias took another swig from his flask and Nash stub out his cigarette.
“So I heard you’re holding the girlfriend from the gunshot case. How’s interrogation coming along?”
“Nowhere, damn bitch has her lips tighter than a crabs buttocks. I was going at her for a good five hours, never said a word and never asked for a lawyer. I’m letting her sweat, maybe boiling her for a day or two would give a confession but popeye the prosecutor says we wouldn’t need one with the evidences at hand.”
“Good, that leaves just the one case. I came across Tony on the way out, says he forwarded you the autopsy and lab reporters. And have you heard the media? They’re calling it the College Red Rum Case.”
“Damn jokes, giving a case such a fantasy name only because the vic is blonde. The autopsy and lab is somewhere here... ah, here! You’ll find these rather interesting.” Westhuizen passed the file to Nash. Michael glanced over it and read out loud the data that seemed interesting.
“ ‘Cause of Death: Asphyxiation due to a tear on the diaphragm... Notes: No other visible injuries found on the victim’s body. Base on wound analyses, the victim was stab twice, first with a smaller blade and then a longer blade. The initial stab tear her diaphragm and severed the nerves on her spine, causing paralyses...’ She suffocated to death? Interesting, says it was a slow process. She might have been conscious all throughout the ordeal. That’s one sad way to go.
‘...She was then stab again post mortem on the same location.’ So the Murder was either trying to cover up the first stab for some reason or he was making sure our vic here was dead.
‘Time of death: Inconclusive, somewhere between 48 hours to when the body was found. State of the body Indicates that she was held in a hot and humid location prior to discovery.’ That narrows the original CS a bit, if I just have an idea where it is.
‘Toxicology...’ Wait, I am I reading this right? Was she running a pharmacy? Her blood work is all jack up! Ecstasy, crack, pain killers, Adderall, alcohol, roofies, the list just goes on. What kind of... this just doesn’t make any sense!”
“That caught my attention as well. She was both on uppers and downers. Some kind of snowball she had going, less pleasure and more kick. Like she was asking to die. I can’t wrap my head around it. If she survives the murder, she won’t be waking up from that cocktail.”
“Possibly administered by the murderer. If not all of drugs, probably most of it. Looks like our un-sub is someone with easy access to drugs but not only from the street, from what I’m seeing, hard prescrips’ as well. Some these drugs aren’t even available in most drug stores and all of it requires some serious diagnosis.”
“So I figured. I’ve contacted few of my DEA friends to put out feelers. Having that much merchandise would steer a bush or two. Another thing, I got two numbers. Both from the PoI list. We can set up an interview and check them off our list today.”
“Shoot them. It will be nice to get things going.” Nash said after lighting a cigarette.
Detective Tomias van der Westhuizen
What a circus. was the first thing that crossed detective Tomias van der Westhuizen’s mind when he saw where he and his partner is meeting their first PoI, Lilith Adams, a café called Urban Grind. It was like someone mahed fifties décor with sixties colors. If that wasn’t the case then they did a fine job making it look so. Most of its customers were under the age of 30 and probably taking up a course or two in the university. The café’s ambience earned quite a few head shakes from the detective. His partner, Michael Nash, reserved a seat outside while Tomias want inside and order them coffee and one extra for Ms. Adams. A polite gesture never hurts.
The barista, a girl named Kathrin, was accommodating enough that Tomias felt like putting up his best behavior despite his disapproval. He flashed his most charming smile, if you can call it that. It was more like a combination of a grizzly flashing its teeth and a pug’s face. If you can imagine that then kudos because Tomias couldn’t. The barista either didn’t notice or was actually appealed by the late forties’ detective to allow him to ask a few questions. From the short exchange, Tomias learned that the Ms. Adams regularly visits the café. Also she’d seen the victim once in a while. Probably a nice place to put a stake out if the case hits a wall. You never know if you might hear something interesting. Tomias thought. Once his order was done, he left his calling card and carried the three coffees outside.
Nash was on the phone when Tomias took his seat. He was talking with his professional voice to some interested party. Tomias gathered that it was someone from the outside. His partner was not giving out much details regarding the case but informative enough so that the person on the other end of the line would cooperate. They were talking about some blank account online posting private images of the victim.
“Do think you can send it over to our IT guys?” Nash said into the phone. “No, but I would like you to keep the forum up. There might be something to it... Okay, if anything comes up, anything at all. Contact me or my partner. All the data you’ve gathered so far, send it over to IT... Okay, bye.”
“Who was that?” Westhuizen asked while stirring some alcohol into his fap? Tap? Whatever the kids called iced-coffee, its better Irish. Any coffee is better Irish.
“Do you remember a kid named Norman Reed?” Nash replied after lighting a cigarette.
“Norman Reed?” Westhuizen took a gulp of his coffee. “Wait a second, wasn’t he the kid who worked for us as an informant couple years back? Some tech-whiz wasn’t he? What’s he calling you about?”
“Yeah. Apparently he attends the same university as our vic, coincidence? I don’t know but he has a forum up and someone is posting private images of the vic. I’m not sure if there is something to it but the photos may be from the vic phone, seeing that none of her personal items were found in the crime scene. Maybe we can piece together the vic’s movements prior to her murder with the most recent images posted and if we’re lucky the phone might have pictures of the murderer.”
“Knowing us, I doubt we’ll get any breaks.” Their conversation moved on to more casual topics until the PoI arrived, a kid who looks like someone spilled a bowl of rainbows on her hair. She quickly recognized them with the detectives the only ones not belonging to the age group. Tomias passed her coffee once Ms. Adams took her seat. They went straight to business, inquiring about her relationship with the victim. Her statement was informative. She gave a clear view of the university’s night life. Not much different from my days, just different music. Tomias thought. There was something in her statement that gave the detective a gut feeling that she was dealing as a sideline but he has nothing to support it. Anyway, it’s not relevant to the case... yet. Ms. Adams last sentences perked the ears of both detectives: As for the last time I saw Maria alive, it was a Saturday night party on 5th Avenue in the frat house, so that was about three nights ago. The party was a good time, and I think she left with one of the local trouble makers. He goes by many names, but I think his real one is Cooper Harley. I hope that helps.
After she was done, they thank her for her cooperation and sent her along her merry way. Tomias asked his partner once the PoI was out of ear shot: “What’s you take?”
“Ms. Adams’ statement was pretty much what we expected. Our vic is a party animal. The ye-old university student. We already got an idea of the vic’s background from her parents, so there was no surprise there either. The last bit was quite informative though. We finally got a name for the dealer bouncing around campus, a guy named Cooper Harley. And according to her, she saw the vic leave with him three days ago. If that’s true then we can narrow down the time of death. We should check if this dealer has a record. Also we should check out the frat house in 5th Avenue. Maybe sniff out clues from one of the brothers. There’s still too much holes to put these on paper.”
“Talking about holes, we still have one PoI to interview. A girl named Lisa Daniels, the so called ex-best friend of the vic.”
“Shoot her, we’re actually getting a better picture who Marie Todd really is.” Nash replied while drowning his cigarette in coffee.
Detective Tomias van der Westhuizen
The detectives weren’t expecting a reply from their next PoI, Lisa Daniels, within the day but when she did contact them to set up a meeting they were pleasantly surprise. Lisa Daniels calls herself the best friend of the vic, wait, Westhuizen forgot something. He meant Ex-best friend. What made it such the case should be an interesting story. It was evening when they got a reply from Ms. Daniels. She agreed to meet up in a diner close to campus. The detectives have no objections regarding the matter since they would appreciate some food in their system. Nash was surviving on nicotine and caffeine. Tomias only had Irish the whole day which was getting to him. His head felt rather light and his gait was slightly clumsy. They arrived at the dinner just around the agreed up on time.
Inside, Tomias noticed a girl calling them lazily over. She was short haired, wearing dark rimmed glasses and sweats. Her whole posture simply stated: ’I just got out of bed, what you want?’ Tomias made a quick take-out order before following his partner to the PoI’s table. Despte her cotton ball appearance, her demeanor made the two detectives go straight to business. Her statement was within the area of what the detectives expected but when she mentioned a church, Tomias got an itch. When he was working for the DEA, he uncovered that the cartel were using church groups and those so called ‘new age religion ’, which were more of a cult than anything else, to move products across the country. They used the members as luggage to get pass scanners. Most of them were the same age has the PoI and victim and most of them died. Tomias hopped this isn’t the case but with the vic pumped up with drugs, it’s not unlikely. Ms. Daniels pretty much gave the same picture as Ms. Adams, albeit less animal and more good, but she was avoiding her fall-out with the vic. Nash was about to thank her for her cooperation but Tomias pressed her on: “Ms. Danils, can you elaborate on how things... fell apart?”
Even though with a flustered face and a relaxed posture, Westhuizen was still an intimidating man. He doesn’t need to say much to push people into talking. Of course this can have the reverse effect, like what happened with the girlfriend of the gunshot victim. Ms. Daniels was a bit hesitant but she continued on with her statement. She mentioned a pastor who’s rather too devout, even suspected him of brainwashing the victim. She also mentioned a ‘religious healing’ which she described was ‘more like indoctrination event.’ This church was starting to smell fishy but everything was still hazy. With the details Ms. Daniels was giving, the church can be anything. It can be font for drug trafficking, a cult, a sex-slave ring or simply the good old fashion ultra conservative group.
There is one thing both detectives noticed. Whatever was happening behind the scenes, Maria Todd wanted out and things started getting complicated. Whoever or if ever there was a stalker, it could be anybody until more information can be gathered. The detectives thank her after she was done with her statement. They picked up their order and went straight to Nash’s sedan which was parked just outside the diner.
“Things are getting interesting.” Nash started while lighting a cigarette. “So far all the information we gather made things fuzzier.”
“You got me there. We still have to corroborate both statements with the statement we gathered from the parents yesterday but from the looks of it, this case is starting to smell like a big bag of rotting seafood.” Westhuizen said while unpacking the order and contrary to his statement, the bag smelled of grilled cheese and beacon with fries on the side.
“Yeah...” Nash took a handful of fries. “Let’s summarized what we’ve gathered. Ms. Adams statement was what we expected but she did gave us an important clue, where and with whom the victim was seen. Ms. Daniels’ statement wasn’t much different. The important thing about her statement was that church group. Doesn’t the church seem rather too conservative to you?”
“...Yup...” Westhuizen was either too drunk or too hungry to listen completely.
Nash took another handful of fries. “Thought so, it can be anything really and I think it’s worth checking out. We also have to consider the Tech-Whiz’ information, someone is posting private images of the victim online. Damn... there’s still too many holes. One thing is for sure, we have to know more about the victim before we could start figuring out who the murderer is.”
“...Whatever you say...” Westhuizen replied while eating his second burger.
