Chapter 5 The letter M
Cassidy's brows pulled together in a deep furrow. “What's that supposed to mean?”
Jack let out a soft chuckle. “Take a quick breath. Almost everyone in town had investigated him—ladies especially.”
But that still didn't clarify her confusion. “I don't understand, Jack.”
“He's kind, calm and attentive.” he explained further. “The old folks want him for their female children, the ladies for themselves and the men why he gets so much attention.”
“Is he that popular?” she asked, feeling kind of uneasy.
Jack nodded. “You can say that. I didn't know you that's your type.” Jack replied, taking the seat beside her but Cassidy didn't miss the pain in his voice.
She didn't think too much about it as her mind was already occupied. “So how does the investigation always go?” she pressed further.
“Always the same,” he answered. “Apart from minor quarrels with the locals, his records are clean.”
“Can I have the records?” She demanded, her voice filled with flaring suspicions. “You know nice guys with clean records are always—”
“The monsters,” Jack completed again, opening his desk drawer. “So am I also a monster whenever I'm kind to you?”
Cassidy opened her mouth to reply but then that unfamiliar scent from the crime scene and Arthur hit her nostrils. She snapped her gaze toward the direction only to discover it was from Jack's drawer.
“What's that scent?” she asked, her eyes fixed directly on his drawer.
“Scent?” Jack asked, turning to face her. “What scent?”
“I don't know but it's coming from there,” she replied immediately, pointing towards his drawer. “It smells so unfamiliar like—”
Jack branded a bar of soap before her, heightening the scent. “You mean this?”
Cassidy's hand reached for it quickly and the scent truly came from it. “What's this?”
“A soap,” he answered, closing his drawer. “It's produced in town so it should seem unfamiliar to you. Did it—”
“Where is it produced?” she asked, cutting him off.
“Five blocks before the express road,” he directed, placing a file before her. “Want me to take you there?”
“No, thanks.” She replied, standing up with a file. “I owe you one for this.”
Before he could reply, she was already inside her unit. His fingers slowly curled around the edge of the table.
“Haven't I waited enough?” he mumbled under his breath through clenched teeth.
Once sitting on her desk, Cassidy began flipping through Arthur's file and as Jack had said it was clean. Apart from quarrels with the locals where he was always right and helping out.
“Are you interested in him too?” Sam's voice came from behind making her flinch and the paper slip off her hand.
“Of course not,” she replied awkwardly as she quickly bent down to pick up the file.
“So…” Sam drawled, taking his seat.
“Just my gut instincts,” she said, shoving the file somewhere on her desk as she took her seat.
“If you say so,” Sam smiled like he didn't believe her. “What about the file? Did you find anything new?”
Cassidy opened her mouth to tell him but then changed her mind. She hasn't investigated it further so until then, no one else has to find out. “Not yet,” she said, opening the file.
Sam didn't say anything else which allowed Cassidy to concentrate. To her shock, every victim had the letter M on their body, it may be the same area but never the same spot.
Slowly, she lost track of time as she immersed herself into the file trying to find any other clue—anything at all that would help her make sense of the case.
She didn't know it was already noon nor when Sam went to have lunch until he dropped a sausage roll and milk on her desk.
“Eat up. Don't want to be sitting next to a ghost.” He teased playfully, taking his seat.
“Thanks,” she said, already digging in. She didn't have dinner yesternight nor breakfast this morning, so maybe she might really turn into a ghost soon.
She had barely eaten half of the sausage when Draco rushed inside panting like a wounded lion.
“Get your lazy ass moving!” he yelled and she was sure his voice had echoed through the station.
The murder had taken place at an old abandoned barn at the edge of town so it took them only minutes to get there. Cassidy didn't know when she instinctively rushed in first but the scene that welcomed her was gruesome.
The victim was positioned the same exact way like the first victim she had encountered but there were bloodied footsteps from the doorway of the barn to the spot where the victim stood.
She neatly avoided them and made her way closer to the victim. But when she stopped six steps away from the victim and looked up, colour drained out of her face.
The victim's body was cut into pieces; head, arms, legs, torso, fingers, toes and then carefully stitched back together with a thin fishing line. Every severed part was stitched back together with near, surgical knots so the figure could still stand upright.
The scale on his right hand was unbalanced as one side held his bloodied heart and the other his severed fingers and toes. His eyes weren't blindfolded because there were no eyeballs in the socket, instead his mouth was tied up with a black cloth.
Her breath hitched as goosebumps prickled her skin, she staggered back and slipped onto the floor. Apart from Draco no one else entered the barn.
“Still bent on catching him?” his voice rang out, void of any emotions.
Cassidy struggled to get feet, forcing her shaking knees to carry her weight. She didn't understand why Draco wanted her off the case so bad. Isn't he fazed about these scenes?
“Having second thoughts?” Draco asked, dragging her back to reality.
Just as she opened her mouth to reply, the cloth covering the victim's mouth suddenly let loose and his eyeballs came rolling towards her feet. A scream tore through her throat as she stumbled backwards, almost hitting the ground as the eyeballs stopped four inches from her.
Her pulse hammered in her ears as she lifted her gaze slowly towards the victim. With the mouth cover gone, his whole white teeth were out and on his canine was the letter M.
