Chapter 1. The Case
BPOV
"Ugh, shut up, shut up, shut up, you fucking piece of crap!" I grunted and threw a pillow at my phone, as it continued to ring. I looked at my alarm clock and saw the glowing numbers 4:19, mocking me with their neon red light. The phone continued to ring. I swear, someone must have a fucking death wish to be calling me at this hour. I turned the other way throwing the covers over my head, allowing the screeching noise to carry on. I knew sooner or later this annoying person would give up, and as predicted within a minute it stopped. My relief was short lived. Just as I got comfortable again, the fucking thing started up. There are two main reasons why someone would call at four in the morning. One, they are drunk to the point of oblivion, which lets hope to God for their sake is not the case, or two there is some sort of an emergency. Even in my barely conscious state I weighed the options and figured it was far more likely the second. Lets be honest, no one would be calling me over and over if they knew what was good for them. Unless of course it was my idiotic sister Nessie needing a ride home due to overconsumption of alcohol. I threw a miniature tantrum before I flung myself at the damn phone.
"What? This better be fucking good, and if this is Vanessa...fuck you, call a cab!"
"Bella, it's Angela, I am sorry to wake you up, but...we have a situation. Senator Newton was found dead an hour ago at the steps of the Museum of Modern Art."
Option two it was, I remained silent
"Ben, Brady and I are headed to the scene now, the chief insists that you get there at once; detective Price will be there as well, she left a little bit ago."
Oh joy, nothing better than a dose of Victoria Price first thing in the morning.
"I'll be there in thirty." I hung up and stretched one more time, enjoying my bed for a few minutes. Even though calls like that are basically second nature to me at this point, I always question my career choice when they happen at four in the morning. I do love my job, I am 27 years old, investigator and forensics specialist for the FBI. Basically it is a fancy way of saying, people getting killed is what pays the bills around here. I looked at my alarm clock again and decided to finally get my ass up before the chief and Price have an aneurysm, no matter how appealing that idea was.
"Well, well, well Swan, we were beginning to worry that whoever did a number on the Senator got to your ass as well." Victoria said as I approached her, she didn't even turn to look at me, kept her head buried in that damn notepad of hers. How the hell did she even know it was me? I swear the bitch has some supernatural sensing abilities, fucking creepy is what it was.
"Keep dreaming, Price," I said curtly and turned my attention to Angela "What do we have here?" I asked as I pulled the apple I had grabbed on my way out, earning a few looks from Ben and Brady.
"What are you two starring at? I'm hungry. I process information better when I have eaten, proceed, Ang." Fucking hell people, chill out.
"The victim is Sen. Michael Newton, Republican-"
"This is starting to make sense now." I mumbled as I took a bite out of my apple.
Angela cleared her throat "are you done now ,Bella?" I waved my hand urging her to continue.
"Republican Senator Michael Newton," she repeated glaring at me "38 years old, husband of Josephine Newton father of Miley and Joshua. The last time he was seen alive, he was leaving the Four Seasons he was staying at. Apparently that took place at around 11:30 pm according to the concierge. This give us a time of death bracket roughly between midnight and 3 am, we'll know for sure after the post mortem."
"Who discovered the body?" I asked as I walked towards the scene.
"A homeless boy, Riley, had nowhere to go and wanted to take shelter at a near by Salvation Army, he called the police at 3:30 am."
"Has anyone spoken to him?"
"He is not saying much, Ben tried to speak to him but he is non-responsive"
"Brady, do me a favour, keep trying to get something out of him. I realize its probably a lost cause but might as well give it a go. Get him some food or something, make him comfortable, and figure out what to do with him after. Make sure he's taken care of."
I continued towards the crime scene and saw Victoria who had her face so far in her notepad that I was wondering how she can see so close up.
"Price, would you care to join us in solving this crime before some letter jumps out of that notepad and hits you in the face?" I said as I passed her, hearing her slam the notepad shut.
"You've got some nerve Swan! Might I remind you that we've been waiting on you!" she snapped.
"Well now that I am here, we can get started, no point in wasting valuable time now is there?"
As I got closer and closer to the scene I noticed how peculiar it was. The body was laying on the steps, one of the arms was crossed over, holding a dagger bellow the sliced throat. The other arm was down by the side, hand was in a fist. Two brooches were dug into the man's eyes and the head was turned slightly to the left.
"Oh my God!" I heard Victoria gasp next to me. I take it she hadn't seen the body until just now.
"Ben do you have the camera?" he nodded "photograph the scene and have Brady bring John around to sketch the scene.
When all of the photographs were taken and the scene was sketched I turned on the voice recorder and approached the body. "This is Inspector Isabella Swan of the FBI currently at the steps of the Museum of Modern Art, it is 05:30 on Friday September 19th 2009. The victim is Republican Senator of California, Michael Newton. He is fully clothed, laid on the steps of the Museum of Modern art. He is holding a dagger under his throat, the angle of the cut indicates that it was not self inflicted and done post mortem, so suicide can be ruled of. The dagger has been photographed and sketched and is ready to be taken into evidence for further examination. The victim's eyes were gouged out with two gold brooches, signs of coagulation suggests that this was performed while the victim was still alive" I leaned over to him and inhaled close to his mouth "There is a distinct scent of alcohol on his lips. There are no traces of blood anywhere but on the body, concluding that this is not the location of the murder. The gold brooches will be removed and recorded as evidence. There are no traces of blood under the victim's finger nails" I looked at the other hand by his side and saw that he was holding a tiny piece of paper "What the...?" I slowly brought his hand up and pried his fingers open "The victim's right hand is in a fist, he is holding something. There are already signs of rigor mortise,narrowing the time of death at around 2 am" I took the object out of his hand "the victim is holding a piece of paper" I opened it and read the text "The note reads 'what is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed, and two-footed, and three footed?' The paper is taken into evidence for further examination. There are no finger prints anywhere on or near the body." I looked over to the road and saw tire marks, I went closer to investigate further "Tire marks on the road could be from the killer's vehicle. The break marks indicate the vehicle was coming from the west. There are signs of a sharp U turn, perhaps the location of possible murder locations. Nothing further at the moment. End of recording." I turned the recorder off and exhaled slowly.
"Great...we've got ourselves a riddler" I said handing the recorder and evidence over to Angela. Ben and Victoria looked over her shoulder.
"What does this mean?" Ben asked gesturing towards the paper.
"What does the riddle mean, or what does the killer mean by it?" I asked as I started walking towards my car and before anyone was able to open their mouth Victoria chimed in.
"Swan, we don't have time for your bullshit, if you know something you need to start talkingl!"
I gave her a pointed look but decided to leave this one alone.
"The answer to the riddle is a person, you know 'what has one voice but has four, two and three feet'. The answer is a human during the different stages of life, it is the Riddle of the Sphinx from Oedipus the King. What the killer is trying to convey with this, beats me. I do intend to find out though and I know just the person I'm going to enlist for help." I said and a smirk began to form on my face.
Angela narrowed her eyes.
"Who do you have in mind Bella?" she said as she continued to scrutinize me.
My grin grew bigger "Oh, you know, just an old friend. He's far more into this sort of thing than I am. I knew what I was looking at because he had me read all these things for his thesis and Oedipus was on the reading list" Angela's eyes widened and I could tell that what I was telling her was beginning to click.
"You wouldn't!"
"Yup" I said "I would"
"But...but...bu..." I left Angela to her objections and continued on my way to the car, I knew I had a Twinkie bar in there or something...fucking starving
"Oh, Ben" I said quickly over my shoulder "I am going to need the photographs developed and on my desk by 9 all right?"
"You got it B"
By 8 am the scene was covered with cops and of course journalists who were trying to get first coverage of the big news. For all intents and purposes my job at the sight was done, and I was in dire need of a shower and a hot coffee. Ben and Brady went back to the station to have the photos developed and figure out how to handle Riley. I looked around noticing Victoria briefing the chief about our finds and speculations. I turned towards the parking area and saw Angela sitting on the hood of her car looking though some paperwork.
"Angela, go home and get some rest, we'll meet at the lab at around 2, how does that sound?"
"Sounds good to me" she said without lifting her head. Figures, she is not very happy with me.
"Is there anything you would like to say to me Angela?" I said a bit more cross then I would've liked to. I knew exactly what, or shall I say, who was on her mind, so it was really hard to contain that damn smile which crept right back on my face.
She noted my smirk and frowned slightly "It's just that I can't believe you are seriously considering going to him after everything."
Oh yes this is about Edward. "I have no idea what you are talking about."
With a drop-the-act look Angela continued "You cannot seriously think you can just waltz right up to Edward and ask him for his help."
"Oh is that what you are talking about?" I replied feigning surprise "Here I was thinking you were sulking because you had to deal with Price all morning,"
"Bella" she said with a warning tone.
"Yes, Angela, I do intend to do that. I think it'll be a good idea to just drop by Columbia University and pick his brain a bit. He is a genius with cryptic shit, you know that." I said matter of factly.
Angela murmured something under her breath that sounded a lot like 'obviously not, couldn't figure your cryptic ass out'.
"Pardon?"
"What?I didn't say anything" Angela looked at me smiling
"Oh what-the-fuck-ever, you know exactly what you said!" I laughed and punched her shoulder lightly.
"You know, if I didn't know any better I would say you are making excuses to see him again, Bella"
"Yeah but you do know better, so I am sure you understand that this is strictly business between two people"
"Two people who dated for five years and the last time they spoke was on the evening when the guy proposed. A proposal the girl not only rejected, but also ended things right then and there, leaving him behind without so much as an explanation. Yes, Bella, I can see how that is strictly a business arrangement between two random people."
"I never said random" was the rebuttal I could muster at that point. I can't say that her reiterating the events of that night did not sting a bit causing my stomach to flip uncomfortably.
"I know you are making excuses to see him, there are many overly qualified people at the station who can come up with plenty of explanations for a known Greek myth."
"Well then Weber if you think that this is just a piece of cake why don't you tell me what the hell it means?" I spat at her getting a bit irritated with her interference in my plans.
"I have been working on a few theories, actually." she said "You see due to a wonderful invention called the Internet, you can now use Google, and on that little browser, you can find and read books, plays and all sorts of things on-line. And you know me and how I love to do some light reading," She added nonchalantly "so for the past half hour, with the help of Google I was able to discover that the killer re-enacted the self mutilation Oedipus carried out when Menoetes revealed to him who he really was and how he had sinned. You know by killing his dad to become Kind, marrying his mother and fathering children who are also his siblings...gross I know, but besides the point. Anyway when Oedipus hears of his sins he gouges his own eyes out and then he goes into exile. Some stories say he killed himself others say he died of natural causes, our killer was obviously more fond of the Oedipus killing himself version. Who would have thought that all of that information can come straight out of my iPhone?" she said with a smile as she waved her phone at me.
I couldn't remember when Angela became so damn annoying. I knew I was being unreasonable, she was only doing her job, and I should actually be proud of her for taking the initiative and doing extra work, even when I said I would take care of it. I knew I should have been happy but the only thing that was going though my head was fuck Google. My lack of immediate response did not go unnoticed so she began to ramble again.
"I know that it doesn't exactly tell us why the killer wanted to shine light on this particular myth, but what I am trying to get at is that it took me half an hour to figure a part of it out, and this is not even my speciality. We really have great staff at the Bureau, you know that." She stopped and looked at me for a moment. "It's really okay if you want to see him again Bella. Your relationship with Edward has always been sort of an enigma to me. That's besides the point though, I don't really care, it worked for you two. I know he is the only man you have ever loved, so don't stand there denying that you still feel something for him. I am not against you wanting to rekindle your romance with him, its just I don't really think that this..." I held my hand up to stop her annoying spiel.
"I really do appreciate your concern Angela but my mind is made, I am going to go see Edward and that is final. It is not because I secretly want for him and I to pick up things where we left off, but because I think he can give us very good insight as to what the fuck we are dealing with here. I am aware that we have a great staff, but I think some things call for professionals. Edward happens to be very qualified in this field."
"Bella, what makes you so sure that he would even want to see you, let alone help you?" I must admit, I had not considered that. I have always been the, cross that bridge when I get there kind of girl.
"C'mon Weber, don't be silly! It's been over a year, I am sure he's over it by now. Probably moved on to some new girl who is just dying to be Mrs. Cullen" that idea stung quite a bit, but I was not about to go there now...or ever.
"Whatever Isabella, you don't even believe what you are saying. I give up! Do what you want. But I am warning you, if I stumble upon Edward Cullen, sitting in front of our place of work, drunk off his ass with a handle of Jack as his companion. Begging me to let him speak to you so he can express his undying love for you! I reserve the right to say 'I told you so'. Especially when this little plan of yours ends up breaking more hearts than it mends."
"Wow...how very poetic of you Weber. I think you might have chosen the wrong career. Would you like me to ask Edward if there are any positions in the literary department at Columbia?"
"Make fun of me all you want, but don't come crying to me when I end up right."
"Me? Cry? Angela, are you sure you are okay, maybe you should really go home, the lack of sleep is making you delusional."
"Ya, ya, Swan, whatever, there is no winning with you. Go home and put your face on before you go to see Cullen. You are going to need all the help you can get to have that man speaking to you again."
I waved her off dismissively and walked to my car with two things on my mind, breakfast and hot coffee.
