Chapter 1
January 02, 2012 – and the Midnight before.
She watched him drag the dead girl up the stairway, out of the basement, into the room upstairs. Fear filled her heart; she knew it was her turn soon. She cursed herself for not being able to get out of that hell. With her limbs tied up and cloth stuffed in her mouth, the only thing she could do was stare at the reeking and pungent walls of the basement, the leaking roof and the windows closed shut with wooden planks nailed across them. Though she was held hostage for the past one week, she never spoke to the girl brutally killed before her eyes by the well-built young man.
She heard the floorboards creak above her. The flickering light had gone dim for a fraction of second and then glowed in all its glory. She turned her head and saw the door of the basement open and close; a shadow emerged on top of the stairs, slowly descended down and stood before her. A vehement smile came upon his face and his eyes gleamed at the girl. She felt weak; tears rolled in her eyes; and she felt so brittle. She knew it was going to be another similar day, when he stabbed her or made gashes carefully on her body.
*
“What do we have?” Kia asked.
She made her hair into a single plait and adjusted her shirt as she entered the alley. A white, long-sleeve shirt on blue jeans. Gun holstered to the belt on the right side of her waist and the police badge glittering on the left. Sports shoes and very little make-up. Her dressing was always the same whenever she was on duty.
“Another girl dead, just like the first one,” Dr. Jennifer said. She was leaning over the dead body examining it with a forceps in one hand and a magnifying glass in the other.
Last night’s breeze carried a sickening and bloody foulness until it was morning again. The glimmering rays of the sun were the first to gaze at the blood in the alley. The girl was leaning against the wall, with her hands and legs stretched wide, head carefully supported against the wall. Blood was dried up on the cement pavement around her.
The police cars lined up at the entrance of the street and the siren of the ambulance broke the silence of the early morning. The newspaper delivery boy was the first one to see the body and call the cops. The passage was sealed and the Crime Scene Unit was at the scene. The backs of their shirts showed ‘CSU’ written in large fonts and white color. The whole area was enclosed by yellow tape with ‘Police Lines – Do Not Cross’ inscribed all over.
“Do you think it’s the same killer who killed our Jane Doe?” Kia asked.
“Might be. The cuts are cleaner this time and even the throat was slit in professional style. Either this is the same killer or someone decided to take advantage of the opportunity and killed this girl trying to pin this on your killer.”
“Anyway, we don’t have an official count of three to classify them as a serial murder. So, we will process them as two individual murders for now.”
“Fine. I’ve a seminar at the State University. You have to send the body to the lab. I’ll do some tests when I return from the seminar.”
“Okay. Enjoy,” Kia said as Dr. Jennifer walked away.
“Ah! The brilliant scientist teaching the young minds,” Ash remarked pushing a pocket diary into his vest and then kissed Kia on her lips.
Kia and Ash had been friends and partners since she joined the police force. They started off as colleagues and worked on several cases. After they have been made part of the same homicide team, they fell in love with each other.
“Oh come on! At least someone in our team interacts with living people. Any ID on our victim?” Kia asked Ash with a smile. She liked his hair and masculine body. He went to gym everyday but he was not huge. She considered him to be just perfect.
Though they both knew they were right for each other, because of Kia’s personal issues, they never moved in together. Ash tried to convince her many times but to no avail. She stressed on the fact that she was still not ready to forget her past and move on.
“Nothing so far. Nick is trying to see if someone in the neighbourhood knew her.”
“Send the body to the crime lab. I’ll take a look at the crime scene.”
A lot of people gathered, understandably, along with media, around the entrance to the Venusstraat, a small yet busy street in the otherwise calm and peaceful city of Kallo. Discovery of such a gruesome crime shook the heart of every inhabitant. As a skilled ex-CSU and the head of Kallo homicide team, Kia Hills had a lot running. It was the second murder in a week and she was nervous if it would escalate into serial murders.
*
