Jacob+Bogdanov

Prologue:

It was the night of Wednesday the 15 th. A cold April night reminded you that it still isn’t spring, but definitely not winter anymore. I was still young at that time, around 30, but I still remember every detail like it happened two days ago. Or, however the saying goes. What made this night so special was it was my first real crime scene investigation. I used to work a desk job in the police department, filing the papers for other people who didn’t have enough time to do it themselves. If you asked me if I liked my job back then I would have said yes. The pay was good, medical, all that jazz, but now, I would say I hate that old job. Now I get a chance to step on the front lines and have some nobody do my paperwork. And to think I only got moved up to Crime Scene Investigation because the last guy ran away and joined the Mafia. So, back to that April night. I drove into the scene in my old white camery, it took a while to convince the police officers at the end of the street that I was a real cop and that I haven't gotten my real cop car yet, but they let me in eventually. I was a little late to the scene but as I approached I noticed not one human body, but three, all lying next to each other, arms perfectly by their sides and no visible wound.

Chapter 1 Here I am again. Sitting at my old desk, filing the same old papers. Apparently after three days and no results they decided to put someone “not an idiot,” as my boss put it, working this case. Somehow it became front page news and all anyone could talk about, but I wasn’t able to pull the details together, don’t get my wrong its not like I’m clueless, it’s a hard case with little evidence. The Three dead people were one man one woman and a teenager, all from different states and for all any of their friends and families know they were not within 100 miles of Washington DC the night of the killing. The scientist down in the lab couldn’t even figure out what chemical they used to kill the victims, so I don’t know how they expected me to know where to even start. I found one thing however. They all have a mutual friend on Facebook, Rodney Polk. I paid the man a visit before they kicked back to a desk job. He lives in a gated community, in a multimillion dollar house and takes care of his sick parents. So unless he had time to drive around and pick up three strangers across a 400 mile radius, kill them, dump their bodies and still make it back without his mom, or the neighbor hood watch noticing, then he can’t be a suspect. One thing I did learn about the victims was that Rodney met all three on different online forums. The three separate forums were all for different things, the woman wanted cooking recipes, the man wanted to talk about sports and the teen about video games. I ran a search to see if anyone else was part of all three forums and came up empty. The crime scene was no help either, none of the bodies had any DNA that did not belong to them, none of them were missing wallets or valuables, so I decided to go back to the crime scene and maybe take a step back and see if any nearby building has video surveillance, but then I was put back in my desk job, and the closest I got to the crime scene was filing papers. Chapter 2 So here I was again, sitting at my old desk, doing the same old job. And this is when the story gets interesting. Because I had a desk job I had a chance to see most of the paper work and photos that came through the office, so I decided that I didn’t want to just sit by and do nothing so I started to make a copy of all the photos and evidence we gathered at the crime scene. That night I burst into my house, my bag bursting with papers. I open up my bag and dump everything out onto my dinning room table. I live alone in a small apartment. I bought it when I first joined the police department, but haven’t had need for more space or luxury. It’s very small. Just a living room kitchen and dinning room and bedroom and bathroom and that’s about it. The view from my second story window is into a back alley facing someone else’s window, so I keep my shapes closed. At work I am a crazy neat freak and my desk always looks in pristine condition, but my house is the exact opposite. I haven’t used the drawers in my bedroom in a few years so I usually just keep my clothes on the dinning room table, but today I decided to take all those clothes and finally put them away, well I didn’t actually put them away, I put them on the couch, but just not on the table. I start organizing the papers in some order to try and figure out anything I missed before. I couldn’t let this case get away from me. Amy Greenfeild, 53, lives with her husband and three kids, born in New York, raised in New York, never left 20 miles away from her house. Works at a large hospital as a nurse. She has been married to her husband for 20 years and have not spent a night apart since. Nothing unusual. Nothing that stands out as “This is Why I am Dead!” They make it look so easy in the TV shows, there always seems to be that one mistake that the killer makes and the heroic team of cops always catches the bad guy.

But there has to be some detail, some reason linking this victim to the other two. Unless this is some random act of murder, and then I will never be able to put two and two together and find the killer, or at least not before the hot shot Ted Marcus can solve this crime. After they realized what case we were dealing with here the Lieutenant thought it would be a good idea to put on a more experienced member of the task force. “But I only just got put on this case!” I angrily blurted out. “It’ll be best if we can have a real genius like Mr. Marcus working this case for us. He only is called in for the big cases, the ones that no one else can solve- Don’t take offense for being put back to your desk job, it’s a tough case.” “Lieutenant, I was only a part of this investigation for one day. I didn’t even have a chance,” I was still yelling. “Calm down. If another spot opens up I am sure you will be the first to be moved up- Oh wait… there is also Harry…” he seemed to get lost in his train of thought until, “But don’t you worry, you will be second called up to detective if anything were to happen to the people on it now. Sorry, make that third. Ford, she just got back from her maternity leave and is working a desk job temporarily…” the Lieutenant seemed lost in his train of thought so I decided it was a good time to get up and leave. “Nice talking to you lieutenant,” he didn’t even notice as I stood up and walked out the door. Nice job it must be. As I walked out he continued talking to himself about who knows what. There’s something weird with Ted Marcus. How come he can solve all the crimes that no one else can. What makes him so special. Maybe he’s involved in the mafia and they tell him all the secrets and links to who did what, and how things actually happened, you know, the stuff that the cops don’t see, the people who the cops don’t ask. But more likely he is just good. He sees the details that everyone else looks over as unimportant. So how can I do the same. How can I see the details that no one else sees. Especially on this case where we have so few details to start with. Marcus supposedly can crack any mystery, he can even guess the end to mystery movies. This past few days, these long, past few days, all I have heard is all the cases Marcus has put under his belt, and how the last one, he managed to find the killer because he noticed that the killer had to have worn special shoes, but thats not the crazy part, the really ridiculous part is that he figured it out because the man walked with a strange step, all figured out because of a footprint, which lead them to find a list of people with that particular posture problem who use those shoes, and it all came together from there. Maybe I should take a look at the other two victims. Derek Foster, father of two, one boy one girl, happily married for 12 years until this. Born in California to a poor family, worked hard and made it to college, moved to Maryland after he met his soon to be wife in college. So no connection on where they live. What about Facebook. That’s public information, so I can just see if they have any mutual friends, or maybe some group, interest, anything they share in common. Still nothing. So why this man. What did he do, who did he talk to that got him killed. Could it be that Derek and Amy were sleeping together and that’s what got them killed? But then how would the teenager fit into this story. I decided to sleep on the thought, it was already past one o’clock in the morning. As I lay there, all I could think about was what detail, what piece of evidence would Ted use to solve this murder. What does he eat that makes him so smart, what does he do differently than everyone else? Does he just think like a killer? Because I find that pretty hard because I’m not a killer, and that doesn’t seem like a profession I want to get into. Then my mind started to wander and to think what has been up with the Lieutenant? He has really been out of focus lately, and that’s not like him. When I first got the job in the homicide department, he always went out of his way to make sure I was doing fine and everything was going well. It felt like he took interest in getting to know me, and when I talked to fellow coworkers they all said the same thing. And now he walks through the office and he has something on his mind. He doesn’t say hi to anyone, or even stop to grab a cup of coffee. Bill who has his desk next to mine says that there’s a rumor that the Lieutenant and his wife are going through a rough patch, but Bill was also the man who tried to tell me that because this isn’t school and no one checks attendance you can show up late and nobody would notice or there was another time that Bill tried to set me up on a blind date with his cousin, who he didn’t mention was deaf, which doesn’t make for great dinner conversation. Bill is a good friend however. His crazy stories and abstract reality makes showing up to work a bit more entertaining. He also thinks it’s his personal goal in life to find someone for me. He keeps saying, “Jack, come on. You have to settle down sooner or later, and now is the perfect time!” And every time I always look at him and with a big grin say “how about we think about this tomorrow?” Which is my way of avoiding the question, and avoiding actually getting close to anyone. I guess you could say I’m not too much of a people person. They say that an only child has a wild imagination and need their time to themselves. I don’t think my imagination is THAT wild. It’s not like I’m always thinking of crazy absurd situations that might explain reality. But ever since I was little, I seemed to be better off alone. And in high school nothing changed. I had a few short relationships, none of which amounted to much and in college the same thing happened. When I finished school and entered the real world, I was too focused on getting a job and doing well at that job to worry about women. And here I am today, still without a relationship. I work too hard and spend too much energy coming to work to then have to come home and then pay attention to someone else, because that’s what I did all my life. My parents were not great people and put me through a lot. Thats why I decided I wanted to work for the police. I wanted to put people like that away, before they have a chance to ruin a kids life. Whenever something bad happened at home, and I had to go to school the next day, I always came in with a smile. I knew the text book definition on happiness and why people smile so I also smiled, so people wouldn’t see what I’m actually feeling, what is actually going on in my life. Still that is what I do. I put on a happy face so I don’t have to have people try to comfort me, so people don’t try to talk to me, and so people think that I’m not miserable. I blame my parents for messing me up.

It was another one of those nights. Too much to think about leads to not enough time to sleep. I rolled over and looked at my alarm clock which read “4:45” and I decided I had lay in bed long enough and I could now get up and roam my house for an hour or so, until I needed to start getting ready for work. I left my bed room and went into living room, half of which doubled as my dining room, which now looks more like piles of pictures and documents from this case. I walked past the table and sat down and turned on the TV. I decided that TV was a better idea that thinking about this case, which I’m not even working on, and anyway I spend too much time thinking about it. I guess I always wanted to do something bigger with my life than sit behind a desk. When I thought I would join law enforcement I thought I would be a hot shot FBI agent that can find and put people like my parents behind bars. But apparently the FBI only wants the best of the best, and I didn’t cut it. My second choice was homicide, again to be a detective on the front lines takes a lot of prior knowledge and skill which I wasn’t qualified for coming from one of the cheapest police academies, but they did give me a desk job. I thought it would be cool to watch people solve crimes and see the paperwork and details that no one else can, don’t get me wrong that part is great, but I want to be more than just another replaceable desk job. I looked at the clock and it showed “6:30.” I don’t even think I can tell you what shows I was watching on TV. Now I got into my usual morning routine. I threw some toast in the toaster, and went to take a shower. When I sat down at the table, eating breakfast I looked through the new york times on my laptop and checked my email. I got dressed and left the house at 7:10. I was on the road for twenty minutes, leaving me thirty minutes before I had to be sitting at my desk five floors above the basement garage I was in now. So I walked down the street to a coffee shop and ordered my regular. I walked back to the police department and in front of the main entrance I saw the Lieutenant standing there talking on the phone, no, yelling on the phone, so I decided to not make things awkward and try and slip by without him noticing. He was facing out to the street, and I tried discreetly walking past and into the building, but of course, right as I was walking past he hangs up the phone and turns around and sees me. I give him a small nod of hello while he stares at me. The only thing I was hoping now was that he would take a moment before coming inside so that we wouldn’t have to walk next to each other making awkward small talk. I got lucky. He seemed to be taking a moment before coming inside so got away, until twenty seconds later, while I was waiting for the elevator and the one and only lieutenant walks right up next to me, still looking angry as ever. The elevator doors open and the lieutenant and I, along with a few other people, step into the elevator. I take out my phone and pretend as though I have forgotten something and need to text someone, which seemed like a better alternative then standing there completely silent with my lieutenant ready to blow. The police department is an old historic building, and the elevator isn’t too much newer than the building, making it feel like crawling up the stair could be faster. And to top it off I could feel the anger that the lieutenant seemed to be emitting. When the doors finally opened on our floor the lieutenant stormed out straight for his office.

I walked over to my desk and sat down. Bill was talking to Detective Ford about what had happened the pervious afternoon. “ ‘Lieutenant, I was wondering if-’ and then he just interrupted and said, ‘Not now Ford, get out of my office’ and that was it. I left before he got any angrier, but I don’t know what his problem is.” Bill jumped on the opportunity to use this as an example of his ‘lieutenant and his wife are having problems’ story. But what if he is? Could he actually be having trouble at home? That would explain everything. The angry phone calls, his recent change in behavior and his distraction from work. I wish I could say I could relate, but I really can’t in any way. I can imagine though what he’s doing now locked in his office on the phone. “No. No honey, maybe I have not been the best husband and father for the past ten years ever since I got this job, but someone has to support the family. Someone has to make money so that we can live in the house we do, in the neighborhood we live in and live the type of life we live.” Then he pauses and listens to what she has to say. He starts pacing around the room losing his temper as she explains how he hasn’t been there for his own son, for her, and that he is consumed by his work, the way she has tried to make it clear that it’s not working and that she wants more attention from him besides the morning hey, and the evening good night. The way she found another man who cares about her. And that his own son does not even know you because you never spend time with him. And the lieutenant hung up without another word. Or he could just be arguing with the plumber who broke most of their piping and that could be why he was so mad this morning.

The only person I was ever close to was this girl back in middle school, Mindy. She lived in a big house in the nicest past of town, and I lived across the town in a small apartment that might as well have fit inside her bedroom. She was my get away from home. We used to watch movies for hours after school until I had to go home, which always ended up in me walking so that Mindy and her parents never learned where I really lived. When I hung out with her I actually was happy and never thought about what was waiting for me at home. We had fun together and liked each other a lot, not in the boyfriend girlfriend type of like. More of the we made great best friends. At the end of eighth grade he parents decided to send her off to a private school in Europe and we promised we would keep talking and emailing and sending letters, but she met a boy there, and I disappeared out of her life. So thats when I got my first job. I worked every night at a restaurant washing dishes. At first I thought I was doing it for the money because my parents kept asking me when I was moving out, and when they could leave for Mexico, but the job was something to keep my mind off that. It replaced Mindy as my get away. Every night of the week for three hours, I got the chance to get away from my house and people I knew and just work. If I wasn’t paying attention washing dishes I would be less productive and might get fired, so all my concentration was on working. Not anything else like if there will be any food at home when I come back, or will I have to clean up the mess my dad makes when he comes home drunk and angry and starts throwing things around. Just work.

“Hey. Hey, you there? Hello??” Bill had his face practically touching mine. “Yeah, what, do you need something?” I just realized that I was completely in a day dream. “No I’m fine, but you, you are not in it today. Is everything okay?” Of course I wasn’t going to tell him that I’ve been making copies of all the paper that come through me and bringing them home, or that I was thinking about the lieutenant and that Bill might be right about his home problems theory. So I just said, “No no. I guess I must have just dazed off there for a second.” “More like a few thousand-seconds.” Bill chuckled and grinned at his witty comment. And I also smiled and pretended to be amused as I turned back to my work. Did I really just zone out for a few minutes? I can’t remember the last time that I have done that during work. I thought this was the place to get away from that. There was something about this case that really was shaking me, throwing me off. They finally found the cause of death. They all were injected with a lethal chemical, it wasn’t the original product, but more of a home made mixture of harmful chemicals that are virtually undetectable. And to make it even harder two of the victims were injected underneath their finger nails and the third on a freckle that made them hard to find. How could the killer manage to inject these people without them struggling? At least now we know that the killer is somewhat of a chemist and has access to medical supplies, not much but more than before. The news paper already came up with a catchy nick name for this killer. The press is convinced that we are dealing with a serial killer and that this is not his first victims. I guess that’s another reason the lieutenant is so stressed, the press always trying to get an insight into the latest case and the progress we have made. But it didn’t seem to bother him before. At that moment I felt a slap on the back. “Hey Tim, Tom, Timmy? Whatever your name is, did you finish up the latest paperwork on this triple killer case?” It was Ted. I don’t know if he doesn’t know my name or if he does it to annoy me as much as he can. “What paper work? I guess I haven’t received it yet.” “What are you talking about,” He reached in front of me and from the middle of my desk picked up a folder labeled ‘URGENT’ and stuck it in my face, “This one, the one I had brought over to you this morning. Ok, Look here. I’m going to head out to my lunch break but when I come back I want all this paper work filled out so I can do my job and catch killers. You see, this town needs me to be on top of my game to catch the nastiest killers and if you can’t fill out a simple fifty page packet for me, then I will have to do it myself. And if I have to do it myself, I will be bored out of my mind because we all know that your job sucks, and then I won’t catch the bad guys. So do us both a favor and fill this out before 2 o’clock when I come back from my one hour lunch break. Have fun.” And with that he walked straight for the elevator and left before I could even say a word. I looked at the clock, it read ‘11:30.’ “One hour lunch break, ha.” It wasn’t as much as a laugh as a sign of my disgust and hatred for him. He is not even that great of a cop. What I was looking at before he kindly asked me to do his paperwork was some of his other, older cases. As I was looking through I started to realize a pattern to his madness. He put together the evidence, grabbed the first most likely suspect he could find, stuffs them in an interrogation room for hours on end, alone, then shows up out of the blue and yells at them until he can get a confession. Half the people are probably scared out of their minds and confess because of the pressure. But still, Ted could do anything he wants, and if he has problems with someone or just doesn’t like them, he talks to the lieutenant and that is it. They get fired. So I decided to just get to work and not question him anymore, or at least not now when I have fifty pages to fill out. I got home around five o’clock and turned on the news, sat down on the couch and just relaxed. It was another boring day and that night Bill persuaded me again to go to a restaurant with him and his girlfriend and another woman who he thought would be perfect for me. I guess I just didn’t know how to say no, or he didn’t hear me say no over and over and over again, until he finally annoyed me to the point I said yes so I didn’t have to hear him ask me again if I wanted to come. So I decided I would relax for a bit before I got dressed and went out for dinner. That didn’t last long and in a few minutes I got up and went to my dinning room table and added the new papers I copied today. So now we know the murder weapon was a few house hold chemicals that could be found in just about everyones shed and medicine cabinet. I looked down the list of ingredients, iodine, weed repellant, and many more things I didn’t recognize, but who ever did this had to know more than an average American about chemistry. And the part that confuses me the most is how he managed to kill them without them resisting. He could have seduced them with another drug, but nothing popped out off the list of chemicals found in their bodies as a sedative, and I don’t know how he could of pricked them with a needle underneath their nail without them noticing. I looked over to the edge of the table and opened the final file about the teenage boy. At this point I was so focused on all the other details I completely forgot to read through the this third file. Jimmy Wilson, a high school student from Cardozo High School located right outside of Washington DC. He was the only African-American out of the three victims, and only seventeen years old. He grew up in a large family with both brothers and sisters and he is the third oldest in the family. At high school he is a brilliant student and most of his teachers thought he could make it to college. His mom seemed devastated by the loss of her son, but the father said he saw it coming, that Jimmy hung out with the wrong people and that it was bound to happen sooner or later. Maybe it would have been worth driving down right then to ask him some more questions about what his thoughts were, but dinner plans, I couldn’t stand up Bill. He would have probably started to make a theory about what’s going on in my life and then spread rumors to everyone else in the department like he did with the lieutenant. Dinner was.. Interesting. Bill somehow got the idea that because he invited me that I would have wanted to pay most of the check. My ‘date’ thought that it would be fun to try and touch my leg under the table, while Bill and his ridiculously young girlfriend spent most of the night making out, enough so, that they left almost all their food on the plate. To make matters worse my ‘date’ needed a ride home because Bill picked her up with his girlfriend and apparently Bill wasn’t taking his girlfriend back to her house so I was dumped with the responsibility of driving her home. Don’t get me wrong, this is in no way the worst date I’ve been on, but it definitely comes close to third worst. When I got home all I could do was walk into my bedroom and fall face first into my bed. Seven hours later I woke up to the sound of my alarm buzzing. I checked the time and it read “6:30.” I hopped out of bed and went straight into my morning routine. However there was a weird feeling inside of me, it didn’t feel right falling asleep without thinking for hours on end. It felt like it had been weeks since that last happened, but it was a good feeling. Finally being able to wake up rested. I walked past my dinning room table and didn’t so much as glance at it. I have no idea what got into me. Why all of a sudden I wasn’t interested. All I wanted to do was go back to my old job, well I was in by old job, but all I wanted to deal with was my old job. Not having to worry about solving a crime or not or even catching the wrong bad guy. All I have to worry about is filling out the paper work. Whether the bad guy gets away or not. Whether we caught the right guy or the wrong. There’s a bunch of stress that comes with trying to be the hero. It’s not all that it’s cut out to be. There is no big reward at the end of the day, only another case to solve. I guess staring at my dinning room table for hours on end trying to solve a case off of copies of all the papers that went through my desk. I walked into work and didn’t worry about if there was a big break in the case, or if someone had a new suspect or theory because it didn’t matter to me. I only sat down and did the paper work. Also I realized how productive I am when I focus on doing my job and not Ted’s job. I even paid attention to Bill when he told me about last night and all the crazy things he did with his twenty two year old girlfriend. I guess I missed it the night before because he can’t stop telling me that she is twenty-two. He told me how he took her to his house and all of what they did. You think he would be more discreet about this because I thought he had a wife and kids and was in a happy marriage. So I asked him. And he looked at me funny. “I got a divorce a few months ago… are you feeling alright today?” Bill continued to look at me like I had gone insane. And for all I knew I might as well have. I was so busy and distracted with my life that I never stopped to listen to Bill or anyone else. Even before this case I was constantly in deep thought about something, but now, nothing. Something must have snapped in me last night after these past few days. How could I have not heard Bill ever talk about getting a divorce? I wonder what else I missed while in my own little world. “Oh yeah, of course, I was just messing with you.” I gave him a little grin and pretended like I tricked him. He looked at me and then decided to go back to his work. I guess he’s not used to me cracking jokes, and especially like that. I decided at that point that I wouldn’t ask stupid questions like that anymore. Next time I would just sit and listen and look interested. Today they made some big break in the triple killer case. Everyone was talking about how they might have finally found a link between all three victims and that should bring them to at least one suspect. I wasn’t interested. It’s not my place to catch the killer. It my job to file the paper work and make sure that everything is done on time and properly. I can’t keep trying to be the average person by day, and then come home and try to catch the criminal. I don’t even know if I have all the information because if there is something dealing with internal affairs or a high level criminal case then the FBI comes in behind our backs and conducts the same investigation, but they always end up catching the killer. Even if we beat them to it, we have to report to them and they come in and catch the killer and take credit for it. I walked into my apartment and didn’t even want to look at my dinning room table. I didn’t need to throw myself into this case just because I was put on it for one day. It wasn’t my place. And even if I solved this case and became a detective, I don’t know if I could deal with this constant pressure to solve a crime. So instead of spending hours staring at files with missing papers with my unexperienced eye, there was no way I could solve this on my own. So I decided that I should try and watch Ted more carefully from now on. Even though I agreed with myself that I won’t finish solving this crime doesn’t mean I can’t try another crime later on, maybe when I’m less stressed.

The next morning when I walked into the office there was already a huge pile of papers on my desk, and every single folder read in big red letters either ‘URGENT’ or ‘FILE ASAP’ so I quickly sat down and got to work. As I began to file and archive and fill in all these documents with all the details about the investigation thus far, I couldn’t help looking through and seeing what they had found that had them here late last night. My mind started to race over what it could be. Could it be DNA evidence on one of the victims that we got a match on? Or would it be something more complicated. Maybe when they pulled the security tapes they saw something that points to a new suspect. I highly doubt they have indisputable evidence just yet or else they wouldn’t have left last night and all of them would still be running around asking questions, trying to solve this crime. Maybe they received an anonymous tip on who the killer is, but to know for sure I opened up the file to see for myself. But instead of being related to the triple killer case the first folder had a single piece of paper in it. It was a letter from the police chief himself, saying that our department recently has been working slowly and if we continue to work at this pace then we can expect to be replaced. It was a very harsh letter and I understand why everyone is working in over drive now. I opened the rest of the folders and they were also from other cases and small details from the triple killer case, so there wasn’t a big break, and that’s what they are trying to do now. Get a big break in this case. This was it. I couldn’t stand being here right now. I needed to get away. So I decided to finally use a few of my sick days that piled up before without being used and get away. I Couldn’t bare being at work anymore. My mind was somewhere else. I still don’t understand how I could have been in such a trans that I didn’t even notice my best friend get separated and already start dating again. He had to have mentioned it at least a million times. He tells me everything. So how could I miss this much. Yeah it is true that sometimes I tune out bill and just nod and agree with what he says but this isn’t just another little thing. This is his entire marriage, and life. I could only think about what else I could have missed. What other events passed by me without me realizing. I knew it would be best if I went as far away from work as I could for a few days. I decided that going to the airport and checking the flights would be the best idea. I could find the first flight to anywhere and leave within a few hours. The biggest plus of being single is that I can get up and do what I want and not worry about the consequences. I do not have to put any other persons ideas or feelings first. So I could leave for a few days and no one would notice. Which got me thinking about this case again. These people had friends and family that really cared for them, people who miss them now that they are gone and notice their absence. Which only reminds me of my loneliness. I am alone in this world. I never stopped to find anyone that cares about me. My life revolves around my work. I wake up, go to work, come home and relax and then go to bed and do it all over again. What is my purpose in life? Even the people like Bill I never let them get close enough to me to become attached. Bill can find someone else to rant to while they mindlessly work and pretend to listen. Maybe there is someone out there who actually enjoys listening to Bill. The girl last night, for example. She might find Bill interesting, or is just into older men or law enforcement, but in any case she cares for him and she cares for her. But if I went missing no one would notice. If I never came back to work people might start asking questions, but the Lieutenant has something else on his mind and it would slip past him, he would think I was still on vacation until I was gone and it was too late. If it was only so easy to go out and find someone and trust them. Before I worry about that I want to get out of the city. When I arrived at the airport and asked someone at Delta where there were cheap open seats left they redirected me on a flight to the Caribbean. Apparently it is not popular to travel to the Caribbean during the summer but I could not care less where I went. As long as I was not at home. That night I got on a plane and in the morning, six hours later I got off and entered the hot tropical sun. I was in Aruba. If it was only that easy. Get on the plane, sleep, get off. No luck once again. It was a long night of tossing and turning. I still could not get this case and my lack of attention for anything but work off my mind. And there it is again. All I talk about is work. I can not get away from work for five minutes. All I think about is work and how work effects my life. So this weekend getaway I am going to spend on the beach, not worried about police work or anything from back at home. I am going to act like any other single guy on vacation on the beach, Looking for a girl. Maybe I could find someone the way Bill did, some young cute blonde that thinks I am brave or rich for working as a detective. Especially if I am on vacation staying at a hotel by the beach. Girls love rich people right? All I need to get is a pair of sun glasses and sit and get a nice tan, reading Forbes magazine with a nice cold beer in my hand. And that is what I did. Maybe it wasn’t exactly like that but pretty close to it. I stayed in a small cheap hotel that was just a few minute walk from the beach and when I got there it really wasn’t what I expected. Mostly families with kids. I decided to walk along the beach until I find the most expensive looking hotel and that is where I would sit down and try and pick up girls. I ended up having to sit next to a family that had several young kids who insisted on throwing the sand as high into the air as they could, and the wind was perfectly in the direction so that every grain of sand that the kids threw landed on me or in my drink, which instead of being an ice cold beer turned into a nice cold sprite, the nice exclusive looking hotel I was sitting in front of turned out to be a family style hotel for the richest of the rich and they don’t allow alcohol on the beach. So my day wasn’t a complete success, but for just a few hours I did not think about life back home. I actually thought about the nice weather and the great place I got to experience. The next day would be my last but I looked for a different spot on the beach, maybe a one for adults. As I was walking down the beach I heard a loud feminine scream and looked in the direction of the scream, several other people had done the same and more of the girls close by shrieked while guys gave a disgusted look. I walked a bit closer to see a dead body lying face down washed up on shore. All I could say was “Oh Crap.” I was stuck there until the case was solved. When The police showed up they took the names of everyone on the beach and told us all that we could be arrested for trying to leave the island. I didn’t know what the judicial system in Aruba was, but I did not think it would favor me in any situation. I could not find any excuse to get back to the United States, even if I was in law enforcement. The government here would not care about that. They said they would be in contact with everyone to get an official statement and to see who knows what. I thought it would be a good idea to take the rest of the day off from the hot Aruba sun and go into the nice Air Conditioned computer room of the hotel I was on the beach in front of and check what is going on back at home and see if they might urgently need me, maybe an excuse that I could use to get out of here, because with the salary of a desk job law enforcement agent I would not have any money left if I stayed here too much longer. I checked my email and quickly scanned through the junk mail and advertisement that I had received over the past few days. Mostly just companies asking me to buy more of their product and inviting me to “exclusive” events, but one email was relevant and important, Bill sent me a message. The subject just said, “You want to hear this.” I clicked on it and all it was, was one short sentence, “We have a new lead, explain more when you come back.” Bill usually doesn’t get into the cases too much, he has always been pretty neutral about the entire job and not worried about if cases were solved. So what is different about this case. Why does everyone have such an involvement? Is it because the three victims resemble a family? People find this case hits closer to home? For me it is a completely different reason, but I still find the need to do anything I can to solve this case. So what I said I would take a break, not worry about this case, it is not my job, but after this email I could not help want to do anything I can to solve it. I just want to be back home working again. And again I am back to the problem that my life revolves around my job. Half of my work is with dead people. And the relationships built with dead people do not seem to last too long. They are in and out of the lab and sent back to the caring families. The pictures and documents come to me, I file, sort and make copies and give them to the lead detective, who eventually gives them back to me to be put in a manilla envelope in a box that will most likely never be revisited in the basement with the hundreds of other unsolved and closed cases. Sitting there in the computer room, my mind was racing over every detail to try and find out what the rest of the department already knew. I could not believe why I would leave. This was the first vacation day I had taken in years and the only important case ever. This is the first case that meant something to me. I decided to back track and just think through all the details of the case, if I can see whats missing I can figure out what was supposed to be there and find out something new, maybe even something that the department has not found. So I will start from the beginning. Wednesday, April 15, the bodies were discovered at ten thirty by the security guard making his first round around the building and park that he is responsible for watching. He first saw the outline of something off the ground and when he walked closer he noticed the three bodies and that is when he made the call to the security company, who notified us of the bodies. Our medical examiner found that all the victims died around the same time, but all also had a sedative in them, a different amount which would suggest that they were sedated at different times and it wore off in their systems slowly. So the killer had to have had some reason for killing all the victims at the same time. No one found any trace of any of the chemicals at the scene of the crime so he had to have killed them somewhere else. Also for the killer to bring all three bodies to where they were found they had to have a car and not just a small car. The bodies were found in great condition so the killer did not even put a nick on any of the bodies, or even a strand or fragment of anything that could be traced to a single person or thing. They had to have had a big car as well as know some detail into law enforcement. No one could pull this off without knowing a little something about how the justice system works. Everything is too clean to be a one time inexperienced killer, but this does not fit any serial killers style, and this is not Mafia style, they have a strict no kill policy when it comes to kids. So either the killer is in, or was in law enforcement, maybe the army, military, police, security guard. Plenty of possibilities but less than before. Could they have found out the same thing that I just did? Did they conclude that he is in law enforcement, because if it is not then I could be essential to the case. I think I am, and they need me to solve this crime for them, so I need to find a way off of this island without getting caught. If I just try getting on my flight and heading home I will probably be put in jail and be tried as the killer of the man who washed up on shore. Unless I could offer my services to help solve this crime. Before I got settled into my desk job I was an assistant lab technician down in forensics so I knew a bit about cause of death and the human body. I went down to the only large police office in Aruba and explained my situation first to the security guard at the door, then the secretary and finally the police chief, showing him my badge and asking if I could take a look at the body. We went back down to the first floor and he took me into the back room and let me see the body. It looked beaten up but the definite cause of death was already determined as drowning. The police department was so curious in this case because of the injuries, it looked as though the man was severely abused before being killed, including several broken bones and ripped tissue. I then realized that I remember seeing a cheap looking boat with natives on the beach trying to persuade people to take a trip and go parasailing. Their equipment looked rather old and in bad condition so I denied going on the trip but some people did go and try it out. However this morning, the old boat was not in the same spot, it was not even anywhere along the beach. I then realized that if someone was to fall, they could receive injuries like that, not lethal enough to kill, just paralyze him, and the water came in and finished him off. I told the police chief that exact story and by the end of the night the men responsible were put in jail, and I was on a plane back home with work in the morning. There was no way I could wait another day to hear what had been discovered. The department had a strict rule about sharing evidence over the phone or internet or out of the office so I had to show up for work in person to know what is going on. That night when I came home form the airport I was jumping with energy. Usually when I get off a plane all I want to do is go sleep, but it was the exact opposite. When I got to my apartment I turned on the television and turned on the news. At the beginning of the eleven o’clock news the anchor woman introduced all the breaking news and I could not believe my ears when I heard that someone had come out and confessed to killing those three people. He was a computer hacker from DC. He lives only a few miles from where the three bodies were found and no one ever sees or hears from him because he spends most of his day sitting at home hacking for Annops, one of the largest internet collection of hackers scattered across the world. He solely has claimed for hacking into several banks and online stores as well as hacking into the White House secure files just for “fun.” He walked into the police department with a smile and without a lawyer. The news then went on to talk about the breaking news on how school funding is bad so I shut off the television and just sat there. I could not believe that not only was the man who killed three people confessed with a smile, but they did not talk about this guy having any pervious law enforcement involvement. I refused to believe that this man would do it. Then next morning when I came to work, Bill could not wait to tell me the whole story. As he explained to me more and more detail I opened the case folder and read along myself. The man walked in on his own power, sat down, and confessed to killing all three people. When Ted started to doubt that he was the real killer the man, in depth, explained all the materials and process in which he killed the three victims, something that was not shared to the public. He is now in jail awaiting trial. I still could not believe it. I cannot see why out of no where this man decided to confess. I looked in the report and it said that he grew up in a rich family and skipped college to hack. No law enforcement background anywhere. I then looked up what vehicle he drove and it was a small two passenger convertible. I could not let this man try to take credit for these kills. Unless he borrowed a friends car, and his friend happened to be in the army then I do not see how this man could have done it. I had to do something about it. I could not see this case close without finding the real killer, because somewhere out there the real killer is walking among other potential victims. I had to do something. I decided to write up a formal report to the Lieutenant and report to him that this man is not our killer, but before I could do that I had to file and order all the work that had gotten backed up over the weekend. Stella walked by and said her usual hello. She is another coworker who also works a desk job in our department. She has her desk on the opposite side of the office but still is around this side a lot. I just noticed her shy smile as she waled by. This was the first time I saw this. I had been consumed in my work with my head in my papers that I never cared to notice her or anyone else. She like me. Or at least it looked like it. I never noticed before but her shy smile and nervous look was only around me. That is why she is always walking around to this side of the office, she just wants to get the chance to say hi to me. And for years I have denied her of even a compassionate answer rather than the usual “Hey Stella” response I usually give. As she continued to walk across the office I could only stare at her and wonder how many other opportunities like that one I missed in my life. How many times have I just let life pass by and not take full advantage of every second of it. Right in front of my eyes for years have been so many opportunities that I have just passed up and let slip away from me. Here standing in front of me was a great person who likes me and I never looked up from my work to see her or anyone else around me. For years I have been trapped in this bubble of me and now I am really seeing the world around me. I finished out the days work and packed my bag to head home. I was distracted and for the first time ever I could not think about work. For the first time ever I was not using work as a distraction from the world around me. For the first time work was what I did not want to do. I could barely do any work because I was distracted by the beautiful world around me that seemed to get lost, but now is found. I found my self not paying full attention to the work in front of me but rather to everyone else. I wanted to do something else for once besides work. At that moment I remembered that I could not forget about work just yet. I still needed to write up a report and show the lieutenant that we have the wrong man. I sat down at my computer and began to type;

//Lieutenant,//

I did not know where to start. How am I supposed to try and tell the entire department that they made a mistake, and how could I prove it too? Even if I make a solid argument he still confessed and knows more about this case than the general public, so he has to have been involved or heard about the case from the killer. But I am sure that this man did not do the crime. Such a killer as the one who killed these three people would not turn himself in after a week of not doing so already. There has to be some other reason behind this. Also the lieutenant has no reason to believe me, he thinks that I have absolutely no experience and that have no prior skill to solve such a crime, but I do. Well maybe I do not have experience but I do have skill, and talent, and also a different perspective on the case so the lieutenant should give me a chance. I know he will not unless I can get some cold hard evidence that will disprove the confession. Also I need to write a good report explaining everything. Tomorrow is when he is supposed to face a judge so I need to write up a report tonight and show the lieutenant in the morning. So let me start at it again; //Lieutenant, It has come to my attention that we have an alleged triple killer suspect who has come forward with a confession. However I feel it is my responsibility to point out that this man did not committed the crime.//

Wow, did that sound bad. The lieutenant is going to think I am crazy, I do not even have any real evidence to show my theory either, just circumstantial evidence. The lieutenant is going to shrug me off and go on with charging this man if I do not do anything about it, which means the real killer will be out there, he will still be loose to do as he pleases and maybe to kill again. I logged onto my computer and started a list on the suspect to try and see if I could come up with any idea of a way to prove that he did not kill those three people. Nothing. Or at least no hard evidence. He has no alibi and he got hold of facts that no one knew outside of our internal network. The network. The computer network that we use to keep all our files and share information through work. That has to be it. The man is a computer hacker so he probably broke through a few fire walls and got into our system and found out the crucial details in the case. Right here in the file it says that he broke into the white house data base so there is a good chance ours is like nothing for him. He could have done it in half an hour and memorized details about the case. That is still only a guess though. I do not know for sure that he hacked into our server, and even if our firewalls have been breached then it could have been someone else, hackers are really good at hiding their location and IP address. I got it. What if we asked him questions about the case that were not posted on the online file before he was taken into custody. This weekend while I was away I was not able to post copies of the files online about this case. So he does not know the latest details and that is how we have to catch him. We have to sit him down and ask him questions about the crime that were recently found out, or more importantly, recently posted online. So here it goes again; //Lieutenant, It has come to my attention that we have an alleged triple killer suspect who has come forward with a confession. However I feel it is my responsibility to point out that this man did not committed the crime. I have done a bit or research and our alleged killer is a computer hacker, and with our out of date computer system it is more than likely that a man with that type of skill could easily have infiltrated our system and found out facts about the case. He probably wants to take responsibility to become famous for more than just a cyber terrorist. To attempt to prove such a statement I would like to be able to sit down and ask him a few questions. He has not had connection to internet in a few days, and just yesterday I inputed more evidence into the computer that I did not while taking my short vacation. If I was to be allowed a few hours with the suspect I could ask him questions about information that was inputed during the past few days. If he knows the information then he is our man, if he does not than he is just a poser.//

I think that is a well written formal report. The lieutenant will have to give me a chance with this, the lieutenant of all people is for justice and not putting the wrong person in jail. He is a smart man and will see that I am right. And maybe he will see that I am a guy who should be on the front lines as a detective and not just a desk job. He will practically not have a choice because this will be such a huge discovery, well, maybe not that big because we still will have to find the real killer but if I could figure this out I could probably figure out the rest of this case because there does not seem to be much to it. All you have to do is look outside the box and figure out why. If I can figure out why then I might be able to figure out who. Also because I work a desk job I am very good at finding small over looked details that careless detectives miss. The lieutenant will have to promote me. “No.” “What do you mean no? I checked the server and someone has been accessing the database from multiple locations and if we were to find that he did it, or even catch him making a mistake on a detail then we know it’s not him.” I was furious that the lieutenant was not listening to me. It was as if he already made up his mind on who the killer was, and the fact that the lieutenant, the man I look up to, has a closed mind and will not even try to accept another persons point of view really upset me. “Stop trying to cause problems here, we found the guy-” I cut him off because I could not let him try and feed me this crap. “You mean he found us? Lieutenant you can not deny this evidence just because Ted was not the one who found it. If he found it you would have been all over it.” “May I continue? Thank you. First of all it does not matter who brought me what evidence because we have a suspect in there who confessed, and the people of this city are starting to get scared that the killer is still out there. They need some assurance that they are safe and this guy is it. If new evidence comes up leading us to a better suspect then the charges will be dropped.” He went back to his work as if I had left but I just stood there speechless. I could not believe that the lieutenant could do this, and do it for political reasons more than for just solving crimes. “You should not be the head of this department, all you are doing is playing politics and trying to be popular with the people. I can not believe you will not even give me a chance to solve this crime. Just give us another few days to see if we can find the real killer, because if we charge this man and then drop the charges he can sue us for malpractice and for the harassment of being in jail for not committing a crime.” At this point the lieutenant had had enough of me and I could tell I definitely angered him. “Look here, my job is not easy and I am doing the best I can with what I have. You of all people, with useless desk job has no right to tell me what I should do. I have had more years experience than the number of crimes you filed,” I was done with him. I could not believe my ears right now and could not believe that he would say such things to my face and would do his job so poorly. “I suggest you get out of my office and do YOUR job well so I have do not have the slightest reason to fire you and make sure you end up working as a security guard at an apartment building.” “Lieutenant, at some point I though that you were a great man who did what was best but now I see that something changed, you no longer care about catching the bad guy, but getting onto the next big case, or at least as long as you are the lieutenant you want more cases.” And with that I left making sure to slam the door behind me, not loud enough for everyone to notice but loud enough so the lieutenant would see my anger. I went and sat down at my desk. As I was sitting there I began to space out and to think about what the lieutenant had just said to me. Bill began talking to me, it felt like I was sinking back to the old me again as I sat there and completely ignored Bill. Back to the usual me. I just could not get it through my head that the lieutenant would do such a thing. Ever since I got to this department I always looked up to him as a role model of what I could be some day and now I look down and wonder what I can be if that is what the view from the top is like. If the best I can be is a politician rather than a great detective. Bill continued to talk and explain what he did this weekend but I could not pay attention to what he was telling me. My mind was focused on what I could do before the case to make sure that the wrong guy doesn’t end up in jail. I was ready to give up at this point. I was ready to go back to filing and not caring about the words on the page, it was not my responsibility and I did not know if I wanted to move up from this job if the lieutenant was that bad. I just wanted my old job back, even though I never switched jobs I just wanted it back before I was put on the front line, before I knew what it was like to be a detective so I could continue to pretend that my life was great and there was nothing better than what I had right there. Now I look around and all I see is boring paper work and the same old desk. No matter what the crime is the paper work and its process will still be the same. It will still all go through me and I will make a copy, file it, and hand it off to the next guy. As a detective no two crimes are the same, well unless it is a serial killer, but that is beside the point, no two crimes are alike and when you go to one you treat it differently than the one before it. I want change in my life. I do not want to live for the same paper work and that be the only thing I ever do in life. I made a big discovery in this case and the lieutenant shrugged me off and pretended like I was clueless. I think I could be a big part of this case and maybe figure out the rest but I will not get that chance if the man is brought to court. So I have no more options. I have to go to Ted. He has taken a leadership role in this case and if I can convince him then the lieutenant will have to listen to Ted, well he will not have to but he will most likely because the lieutenant and Ted are practically best friends. So I went to Ted and explained my story and showed him the report, which I added detail about the car and other small details that could help me put a hold on sending the computer hacker to jail for just a bit until we can find the real killer, or even have any chance at finding another piece of evidence that can relight the spark of this case and set it on fire. I went up to Ted and gave him a red folder with an even brighter red stamp saying “URGENT.” Ted looked at me with a peculiar look and asked who this was from. He told me how I am supposed to put papers on his desk. After he noticed that I was not going to walk away without him taking the envelope he took it and asked who it was from. I told him that it was a report I wrote explaining why the man we have in custody is not our killer. Before he even opened the folder he took it and ripped it into several pieces. I just stood there and did not, could not say anything. How could he turn down evidence just like the lieutenant did? Does he have more information than I do? Why would he not even give me a chance? I closed my eyes and for a second just stood there wondering if this was all a dream, maybe all of it was my crazy imagination acting up. I open my eyes and Ted is still standing there giving me the weirdest look as if I am absolutely out of my mind crazy. He tells me that it is not my job to be going behind his back trying to solve this case without him, especially because it is me and I should be doing the paper work. I just could not believe it. I could not just stand there and let someone else tell me to stop trying, to stop solving this crime when everyone else seems to be refusing to even try. It was all over the news. The case of the triple killer was re opened. The hacker took back his confession and we did not have enough evidence to do anything about it. We could not put him behind bars, and now he is going to try and sue the police department for treating him like a criminal without evidence. The lieutenant was in shock when it happened. The man got up on the stand and instead of confessing he told us nothing. The lieutenant looked at me as I was getting ready to leave with a death stare. I did not understand. Was I not correct in saying that we got the wrong guy and that we needed to keep looking for the real killer? I quickly looked down at my bag to try and avoid any more eye contact but it was too late. The lieutenant had started to walk over to me. At first I thought maybe he would promote me, put me on the case, maybe even put me in front of Ted, but after he gave me that stare I had no idea what could come. I would have thought that the lieutenant may have come over to apologize for yelling at me today but that was not it either. “Look here kid,” the lieutenant called me that just because he knew it would piss me off, I am not a kid, I am in my thirty’s, but he continued despite the look on my face after he said that, “Just because you got lucky one time,” Again he is talking down to me as if I am stupid, “Does not mean that it will happen again, or that I will give you a chance to do it again,” He really thinks that is was all pure luck and that I did not use logic or anything, “because you are to remain in this office working at your desk at all times besides breaks.” That is ridiculous. The lieutenant can not put a leash on me and expect me to sit at my desk and not take part in this case. Before I could open my mouth and protest he had already prepared for a response and said “I know you probably have some argument but stop right no-” I could not keep listening to him say this. “No lieutenant. Just wait one minute and let me speak,” and before he could even try to say no I continued talking, “I do not know what is going on in your life that is effecting you work so much but you can not take all your anger out on me. I got a lead on this case that no one else picked up on, and now you are telling me to sit down and not take part in this? I have something to offer and you should at least give me a shot at this. This is my first case, and I know I am learning but if you do not let me try then you will never know what I can really do.” The lieutenant just looked at me. He probably could not believe that someone would talk to him like that. He looked at me and I could only imagine the things going through his mind on what he could say right now but I could tell he would hold back. He said goodnight and left. The next morning I found a letter on my desk. It said that I was to take a leave of absence for a few weeks to “cool off” and to regain my old “calm and collected self” but I knew that this was just the lieutenant upset about what I said to him yesterday. As I collected a few of my things, all I was thinking was how could I stay in this case, how can I not be pushed away from all of this. I took my bag and walked over to the elevator. I stepped in and was about to push the button for the ground floor when I realized what if I showed the information to the police chief. He would see that I am right and that the lieutenant was wrong for pushing me away from the office and from the case. He will see that I can be a valuable asset to solving this and many more future murders, I hope there will not be any more but to be more realistic I know that there will be and I want to be a part of a team that finds the those bad people and serves them justice. I know that everyone in that office wants what is best for the people of this city and all they want is the same that I do, to serve justice to the bad people of this city. I pressed the button for the top floor. When I got out the secretary asked me for identification and if I had an appointment. On her screen it showed that I was on a leave of absence effective immediately. She said that I could not talk to the chief without a serious matter or an appointment because he is very busy, but at that moment the police chief stuck his head out the door and told the secretary to stop giving everyone a hard time and just let some people through. I got lucky that the police chief and my father worked side by side years back. She said that I could not talk to the chief without a serious matter or an appointment because he is very busy, but at that moment the police chief stuck his head out the door and told the secretary to stop giving everyone a hard time and just let some people through. I got lucky that the police chief and my father worked side by side years back. I was sure he would listen to me and hear out my story. I explained to him how I found out that our system was hacked and that I had many theories leading to the computer hacker not being our killer but no one listened to me and then how the lieutenant had turned me down and ignored me and yelled at me, and all the other awful things that had happened in the past few days. The police chief sat there and listened through the entire story, even read the full report I wrote up and quickly reviewed the rest of the case. He sat there thinking about it and finally when he spoke he told me there was nothing he could do. He said that I probably was right in all my work and that I should have been given a chance but he has no say in the matter. He is in charge of running all the departments and funding, but he does not control what goes on in each department. Again I was speechless. Again I was helpless. All I could do was go home. No one could help me and no one could do anything about it. Every way I turned someone else stood there to block me. I came home and went to lay down in bed. The stress and pressure of this past week had really gotten to me, but tonight would not be the first night of real sleep. Again I lay there and thought about the case. After what felt like hours laying there I got up and went to my dinning room table. There I saw all the papers I had ever since the start of the case. I added all the new information that I had taken from the office today and over the past few days. There I saw all the papers I had ever since the start of the case. I added all the new information that I had taken from the office today and over the past few days. I looked over the information about the hack into our server. They still were rebuilding the servers firewall but nothing was done to find out who really was the one to hack into the server. I decided that it was worth a try to get it checked out to see if we could figure out what they viewed. I called Bill and asked if he could do me a few favors. I decided that I would type up reports of what needs to be done and I could fax them to Bill who would distribute them to where ever they are supposed to go, and just say that he received the file on his desk. Besides recognizing my dinning room table with more information and sending the fax over to Bill with an explanation I went back to lay in bed. I lay there with my eyes open thinking about this case. Thinking about who did it and why. I decided to count back from 100 to try and fall asleep. I remember getting through all the number at least four times, maybe more but I finally got to sleep. The next morning I woke up when my alarm should have gone off. I had fallen into too much of a rhythm. I had breakfast and followed my regular routine. I then turned on the tv and watched the news, but I had more important things on my mind. So I got up and sat down at my dinning room table to stare at the table and see f I can figure out the next step. In a few hours I got a report back from Bill who received the report on who hacked into our server. So the way that our computer hacker got in was he hacked into someones computer who works in our office and the person in our office had hacked into the server and rearranged a few things so the hacker viewed through him. So now I had to figure out why someone in our office would do something like that. And I would need to personally have access to the online server to be able to find out for myself what got rearranged because our out of date system does not keep track of changes in the system, only when new stuff is added. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find a website that could help me hack into the server. After a few hours of basic learning and hard work I got into the system. All I had to do was confuse the server so it thought my computer had the IP address of a desktop at work and it let me in no problem. The next step was the hard one. I had to manually search through every folder looking for what was missing out of this case folder. It had to be in another folder tucked away somewhere. I checked every folder in side each folder but found nothing. What was nice was that I had recognized all these folders a few years back and could recognize a change, or at least I hoped I would recognize a change. I thought I looked through every folder until I found, tucked away in a very old file hidden under a different name file that a hair had been found on one of the bodies and the DNA was recorded here. This could be huge. I now could convince the lieutenant that if we take the DNA of everyone who has access to the server and find out who purposely hid this single file. They have to know something about this case, and that could lead us to finding the real killer. But would the lieutenant listen to me? I had to go to the police chief and make him do it. If it is dealing with internal affairs he should take an initiative and take care of it to make sure that nothing was tampered with. The police chief listened to me. The police chief called an organized meeting of everyone who had access to the server and explained the situation, that another department would run the test and that no one from this department is allowed to know the results of the test. Until it has gone through him, the police chief. After the meeting as I was walking out of the room I felt someone grab me shoulder. It was the lieutenant telling me to wait up a minute, that he had something to say. I knew what he wanted to tell me. He wanted to yell at me for going behind his back and getting the big break that this care needed. He was going to yell at me for not taking my time off and that I will have to suffer the consequences, but instead, he cried. He stood there in front of me and cried. He cried and he cried and I had no idea what was going on. Until finally he said “I’m ruined.” I replied, “What lieutenant?” “It is all your fault. Why would you snoop into all this? None of it was your business. You are only supposed to do the paperwork. Ted was the one who was supposed to be working on this case. He would not have been smart enough to see it was me.” At this point I felt shivers go down my back. I did not know if I heard correctly but I thought I heard him say that he was the killer. “Excuse me sir?” It is all your fault!” he was now yelling. “You do not know what was is going on in my life right now you do not know anything. You got lucky and payed attention to the detail that no one else would have seen.” I still just stood there and could not believe anything that he was saying. Why would he do such a thing? Could this be why he has not been paying attention to work at all lately? But I could not get the feeling of shivers down may back off. I was standing in front of the man I once looked up to and now am scared of. This man in front of me killed three people. I put my hand in my pockets and turned my phone on and dialed 911. Even if I was in a police station I thought it would be best if they had someone else listening and recording all of this conversation. “So you were to one who killed those three people? You are the triple killer?” I was looking for a definitive confession. “Yes, yes, I did it. I could barely make out the words through the tears. But it was not a good enough confession. “But why. Why those three people?” I was hoping he would just give me something to work with. “You do not understand. My wife. She was going to leave me. Take our son, she said she found someone better, that I was in love with my job and not her. We argued and fought all the time until one day I cam home and she was gone. I went to the high school where we first met and drugged the first kid I saw. Then I went to the place where we had our first kiss and took the first woman I saw, and finally I went to the park where I proposed to her. It was near where she lived when she was a baby and I took a final man. I put them in my car and killed all of them. I left their bodies out in a random parking lot hoping that someone would find them and I would work keep pushing facts away from me.” I could not believe it. I could not believe I looked up to this sick man. Through my teeth I asked “But why?” “She left me. And I was angry. I left my family out there that night. I made a family because mine fell apart. So I brought three people together.” I could not believe what he was saying, but I knew I had enough to have him arrested. Before I could say another word the lieutenant pulled out a gun and shot himself. He fell forward onto me and I caught him. He looked up at me with his final breathe and he tried to say something to me but he was already dead.