Snowfall

As the first snowflake settled, it whispered secrets of a winter tale waiting to unfold.

The snow was unusually heavy tonight. The weather forecast showed it would continue its downpour all through the night till daybreak. I’ve never really liked snow; its soft icy nature, yet frosty cold feel.

I hated it even more when I had to work overtime. The heating systems in the office were barely functioning. Then again, when has anyone ever cared for the comfort of the police?

I reclined in my chair, head hung back, and stared at the slow turning of the ceiling fan. I’d been stuck here writing reports due to the absence of urgent cases. I’d been hoping to snag a big one in hopes of gaining a promotion, but that doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon.

“I’d kill for anything, anything at all to pop up.”

I’ve always heard the phrase “be careful what you wish for” but never really paid it any mind. Perhaps I should’ve.

“Shouldn’t a detective be glad the city’s safe?” My teammate Gray pointed out.

“I mean yeah, but it’s a little too safe. No murders, thefts, not even pickpocketing.” I picked up a case file and hit it on my desk.

“I get what you mean,” Jasmine, another member of my team, said. “We should be happy the city’s safe, but that also puts us out of work.”

“And yet, we’re always stuck doing overtime,” Nate grumbled from behind his desk as he angrily clicked on his keyboard, causing us three to let out scattered sighs of frustration.

I’m the team leader of the Crime Investigation Team here at the station. My little team of four includes me: Jess Sanders, detective of six years, who’s had only one major crime case solved in all those years, one involving illegal organ harvesting and trafficking.

Gray Baxter- my colleague who entered the police force at the same time as I did is extremely skilled in martial arts with a huge knack for interrogation.

Jasmine Powells- a professional hacker, excellent with computers who once hacked the police database and as a result was admitted into the police force after undergoing some training.

Nate Roberts- the newbie on the team who’s been with us for almost a year. He was the top of his class at the Police Academy and is known for his impossibly precise aim with a firearm.

Yes, all these impressive people on my team but with no case to showcase their talents and skills.

“Well,” I sat up in my chair, “I’m gonna take a nap. Wake me up when something happens.”

Jasmine snickered and nodded with a salute, “Will do, ma’am.” I smiled at her antics before placing my head on the desk.

We knew that was very unlikely to happen given how things have been in the past.

Or was it?

My head shot up from the table at once. I was dreaming of falling and that jerked me out of my sleep.

Bright light seeped in through the white window blinds signifying it was daytime. From what I could see, the snow had stopped as well. I looked around the room still groggy and noticed my teammates sleeping on their desks and on the old peeling couch.

I blinked a couple of times and fully opened my eyes. They drifted up to the walk clock on the wall some distance from me. The consistent soft ticking of the ‘second’ hand made me feel uneasy for some reason.

A bad feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.

The phone suddenly rang from Jasmine’s table, startling me as well as she who sat upright and pushed her glasses up her nose bridge. “Jasmine Powells from the Crime Investigation Unit speaking.” She sniffled and nodded as she listened to the speaker.

“What?” She said after a minute, eyes wide and fully awake, and slowly looked up at me. “Thank you. We’ll be on our way.”

“What’s wrong, Jaz?” I asked her.

She put down the handset and began typing on her keyboard. “Someone reported a crime.”

Gray lifted his head slowly from his desk next to mine. “What kind of crime?” He asked, stretching his arms above his head and yawning.

Jasmine looked at the two of us before saying, “Murder.”

My lips twitched with a smile and I shifted in my seat. “What are the details?”

She tapped one key loudly and turned her monitor screen to face us. “The sunlight this morning was hot enough to melt all the snow that fell last night. A couple going on a morning jog saw something red soaked in the snow and noticed it was a body. They were the ones who just reported it. And some reporter seems to have gotten wind of it too.”

I glanced at the news article and rose from my desk, unable to hide my smile any longer. “Let’s head out.” The two of them nodded and rose as well, with Gray putting on his jacket and Jasmine wrapping her brown scarf around her neck.

“Nate! Wake up!” I yelled at his sleeping form on the couch as I tucked my phone into my front pocket. “We have a case.”

He pushed the old blanket off his body and placed his feet on the ground. “Finally some action around here.”

“Gray, call the patrol officers in the area and tell them to close off the scene so it won’t be tampered with.”

“On it.” He typed on his screen for a few seconds before bringing it to his ear.

“Nate, you drive.” I brought out my car key from my jacket pocket and threw it at him who was now standing next to us.

We all headed out of the office, out the building to my black jeep. I took the passenger’s seat while Nate entered the driver’s and the other two sat at the back.

“I’m typing in the location,” Jasmine said as she keyed it into the GPS.

After about 15 minutes, we finally arrived at the scene. Passersby were eager to see what was going on as the officers stood in front of the yellow tape blocking the scene.

The road was blocked off by a sea of people and Nate parked behind them. We exited the vehicle and made our way to the front, pushing past the sea of people.

I walked up to one of the officers and showed him my badge. “Has the site been tampered with?” I asked, shoving the badge back into my pocket.

“No, ma’am. Thankfully the road was fairly deserted, save for the civilians who reported the crime.”

I nodded and walked past him, pushing up the yellow tape and entering the scene. “And forensics?” I asked Gray who followed.

“They should be here any minute.”

I nodded again and observed the scene. I took closer steps to the corpse, my feet crunching in the small layer of snow. At first glance, the victim was male and looked to be in his thirties with an evident stab wound on his abdomen.

The blood had dried and frozen with snow bits still scattered all over his body. I knelt beside him and closed my eyes for a few seconds, saying a word of prayer over him. Then I picked up the hem of his untucked shirt and raised it.

“It’d be nearly impossible to scratch off any DNA from this,” I observed the multiple incisions on the lower part of his abdomen and stood up. The sound of sirens was heard and the guys in forensics rushed to the scene in their white overalls, masks, cameras, and gloves.

“The killer must’ve known it would snow all night. Best way to cover up their crime without even trying.”

I nodded agreeing with Gray’s comment. “We can’t outrule it being a premeditated murder. The murder weapon is most likely not here.” My foot kicked the little snow dusting the concrete.

I looked at Jasmine who stood outside of the tape and said to her, “Get all the camera footage of this location.”

“Already on it,” she said and turned around, laptop in her hand as she headed back to the car.

“Could I get two pairs of gloves?” I asked the lady who began taking pictures of the man. She nodded and walked toward their van before returning with the gloves. “Thank you.”

I handed one pair to Gray and wore the other over my hands. I began searching the man’s pockets for some form of identification. In his right pocket, I felt a cold metal. I brought it out and noticed it was a phone. Clicking the on button, I could see it was still functional, but it was locked with a passcode.

I handed the phone to Gray who placed it in a film bag he obtained from another technician.

I knelt closer to his body and felt in his other pocket. There I found a wallet that contained numerous dollar bills, at least a few hundred, untouched. An ID card was also inside, allowing me to put a name to this anonymous corpse.

I could make out his face matching the picture on the card, so I tucked it back in and handed it to Gray. I continued observing the man’s clothing and for any other obvious injuries when Gray spoke, “The money’s been completely untouched and so was his phone. Definitely not a robbery attempt then.”

I nodded without saying anything. The body didn’t seem to have any other prominent injuries, but an autopsy would give us more information. I rose to my feet and began examining the environment.

This city is not as populated as neighboring ones, so we have a few roads not frequented as often. Due to that fact, there was only one security camera mounted near a streetlight.

On both sides of the road, barren land lay covered underneath melting piles of snow.

What was the victim doing here late at night?

Was this crime executed in the spur of the moment?

Or was he being followed by someone he knew?

I closed my eyes briefly and inhaled the cold morning air with a smile. Sniffing out clues is my specialty. I love piecing together clues and finding answers to the unknowns, the question marks.

And most of all, making sure the victims affected received their justice.

I opened my eyes and made my way back to my jeep, pushing past the crowd once more. “Gray, once forensics is done examining his phone and retrieving his identification details, go bring the information,” I said, opening the door and sitting behind my steering wheel.

“Roger that,” he replied, taking the passenger seat.

“Jaz, how’s it going with the security footage?”

“Almost….done. Done.”

I nodded and strapped my seatbelt in. “Nate, go find the couple who reported and get their statement.”

“Right away,” Nate said, exiting the vehicle and mixing in with the crowd in search of the people.

“This guy’s nuts!” Jasmine exclaimed and brought her laptop to the dashboard.

She pressed play on the footage shown on the screen. “It’s hard making out much because the snowflakes were large and covered the screen continually and there’s only one camera, but look.”

I turned my attention from her to the video and watched as the victim walked staggeringly on the road with a man dressed in all black and a hoodie covering his head, following him.

The mystery man quickened his steps, grabbed the victim’s shoulder, turned him around, and stabbed him repeatedly with a glinting weapon. The image was scratchy and we couldn’t make out their faces.

The victim immediately dropped to the floor and his blood soaked the cold ground. “Get the footage from the streets next to this. Let’s see how long the guy was following him.”

“See what happened after,” Jasmine said, staring at the screen.

I narrowed my eyes trying to make out what the murderer was doing. He walked to where the victim lay lifeless, stared for a few seconds, head tilting side to side, and walked away.

“What’s he doing?” Gray asked quietly.

He walked toward the streetlight where the camera was mounted and stood a few feet in front of it. His face was still covered in the large hood so we could not see who he was, despite being illuminated by the light.

He then tilted his head to the side once more and raised a hand. He shook it side to side in a slow wave, shoulders shaking, almost as if he were laughing.

Jasmine pressed pause on the footage and took away her laptop. “Seems like we’re dealing with a psychopath.”

“That just makes it all the more fun,” I pushed the start button and the car engine vibrated. “Let’s head back to the station. Once we get new information, we’ll look into the people around the victim.”