L was sitting in front of his computer, carefully sipping of his coffee. On his screen he saw the basic living room scene. A pink couch was situated in front of the laptop, that was probably standing on a salon table. Behind the couch was a book-case, where were very little books, but a lot of photographs, most of them filled with a depressed looking toddler and her smiling parents. On the right side of the couch sat Watari. On the left sat the girl L was interested in.
She was about eight years old, almost nine according to her police file and she had bright red, almost luminous hair that clashed with the couch. She was the first and only witness of a murder by the serial killer the Highway Murderer, as the newspapers called him. He would hijack random cars and would kill every passengers. This English serial killer was known because of his discreteness. He killed every witness. Also there was the question how the killer came into the car. The victims could have just locked their doors and he couldn't come in, only if he broke the window, but all the windows were intact. The only reason why L hadn't found the killer yet, was because his victims were all randomly. L couldn't find a red line in all the killings, because all the victims were completely different. Some poor, some rich. Some were black others were white. He killed men, women and children. The brand or color car didn't seem to matter to him either. L was frustrated by the case. He was sure he was missing a piece.
Watari was explaining the little girl that the laptop in front of her was in direct connection with the world famous detective L. She nodded. L studied her face curiously. She didn't look like she was in shock. She was pale, but it looked natural on her, so he supposed she was an indoors person. Her eyes were both a different color. One was green, a clear and clean color, while her other one was a lot darker, in a shade of night blue. L pressed the button of his microphone.
'Hello little girl, I'm L. Can you tell me your name?' Of course he already knew her name, but he had read how to interact with children. A kind approach worked best. However the girl didn't seem to care about what he had read, because she wrinkled her nose and said with a tone of distaste; 'Don't tell me the infamous detective L hasn't read my police report before he went to talk to me. You know my name.' L was surprised, shocked even by the confident attitude of the young child. It wasn't the behavior of someone who had just a few days ago, witnessed a murder. L frowned a little, sucking on his thumb. 'Okay, you're right. I do know your name, Pan Koper.' The childish face of the girl turned into a smirk. L studied her features curiously. 'Okay miss Koper, you seem like a smart girl. I want you to tell me what happened exactly.'
Pan Koper looked immensely bored. She sighed heavily and said in a drawling tone, in the manner of someone who told the same story many times; 'Mrs. Maggen, my teacher, brought me home from school, when the killer hijacked the car. He killed my teacher, but didn't notice me, because I was hiding behind the driver's seat. After a few miles he parked the car and left. I then called the police, with the cellphone that I found in Mrs. Maggen's purse.' L nodded thoughtfully. 'Can you describe the man to me?' She rolled her eyes, like he asked something incredibly silly and answered him in a monotone voice. 'He had a black mask, that hid his face, but I saw he had blond hair. It is highly possible that he works a lot outside in his daily job, because his skin looked tanned. He looked around 180 centimeter tall and was strongly build. He was right handed and used a knive with a blade that was sharp on both sides. Mrs. Maggen stood no chance to him.'
L looked stunned at the screen, where Pan was dully biting her nails. This girl was able to analyze a situation that good, even when there was a serial killer standing not more than a few feet away from her. That was better than the average grownup. L was 21% sure that she was a genius, or at the very least highly intelligent. 'Why was your teacher driving you home?' The corners of Pan's mouth pulled downwards. 'She tutored me.' L was again surprised. Was he wrong after all? Wasn't she a genius? She did seem unusually bright, but maybe she was just very good at rationalizing a scene. 'In what did she tutor you?' She stopped biting her nails and pulled her knees up to her chest. 'Good behavior.' She answered. She looked extremely displeased. L grinned involuntary and he saw Watari crack a smile also.
She brought it up to 27%. A lot of genius kids were bad at school, simply because they couldn't adjust to others. 'Were you scared?' The girl frowned. 'You are the first one to ask that.' She said, cocking her head. 'No, I wasn't scared.' L smiled. 'And why weren't you scared? He already killed over 30 people.' She seemed to be thinking. 'I don't think I can explain it to you. The man didn't really looked in the right mind. He looked sad, but in the inconsolable way. I just sat there and waited. Weighting my choices and seeing that I had none than sitting there or exposing myself.' She was up to 89%. He left the case for a moment.
'I read in your file that you come from the Netherlands. Amsterdam if I'm not mistaking.' The girl smiled happily. 'Yeah, it's a great town. A lot of history also.' L nodded, even though she couldn't see more of him than a gothic capital l. 'You like history?' he asked, sounding curious, but in fact testing her. 'Yes I do. I like to know how things become. Why things are like they are.' L was disappointed. It was a standard answer, that every college student would give you, when you asked them about their courses. 'Oh yeah?' he said distracted, looking down at the sugar bowl, not interested anymore. 'Yes, but most of all I like the stories. A story says a lot of how people think. You can understand whole cultures by their myths.' L's head snapped up again and he grinned. So she was a people-reader. An observer. She had gone up to 95%.
He rested his head on his knees and said, as a final test; 'What do you think about the Highway Murderer case?' She lifted her head a little, scratching her nose. 'Well I only know what I read in the newspapers of course, but it looked to me like it was all too random. It is possible that he is just crazy and likes to kill people, not caring about who they are, but he is too discrete for that. If he were an absolute psychopath he would leave a careless trace of symbolic blood, so I think there must be a specific glitch to it. They of course all lived in the same neighborhood in West London, but it doesn't look like there is another clue than "The killer might live in West London". However I did some research and found a garage in North-West London, where all 32 victims have brought their cars once. The garage has over a hundred clients a day, so it wouldn't look weird if thirty clients would be murdered, especially if he would wait a few weeks, months even, till he hijacked them.' L was completely stunned. How could he have overlooked something like that? 'Then there is still the question how he came in the cars without breaking a window.' L said, but he already knew the answer and he smiled widely. 'If he is one of the mechanics and he is the one in charge of repairing the car, he is also the one with the key. It isn't too hard to copy it, so if my theory isn't wrong, he could come in by using the key.' L grinned, but kept his voice composed. 'And your earlier conclusion? About the man working outside a lot, because of his tanned skin? Mechanics work inside.' The girl smirked, knowing that she was right. 'This is a little fact you can find on the website. They have a courtyard, so with good weather they work outside. For the past few weeks the sun has been shining all the time.'
L saw Watari watching the girl awestruck and L had to agree with him. This girl was most definitely a genius.
Don't worry about my other stories! I might be really inconsistent, but I'll definitely get new chapters up there!
