Chapter 2
'Oh my god, Mr. Monk. When they could kill this mean like this, they don't even have to have a plan to kill you. They can just do it. How did they do it? That must have been a kind of invisible sword', Natalie said. She was nervous. She and Mr. Monk were sitting in Captain Stottlemeyer's office. Stottlemeyer came in, followed by Randy. He threw a file on his desk and sat down. Randy leaned against one of the cupboard.
'What?', Natalie asked. 'The man's name was Marc Collins. And you were right, Natalie. He wasstabbed by an invisible sword. That was the code name of a failed operation three years ago. I did not find out who or what was the target those days but I know how Collins was murdered', Stottlemeyer said. 'How', Monk asked. 'About ten hours ago Collins got an injection that contained tiny nanocapsules filled with deadly cyanide. With terahertz radiation those shells got broken and released the cyanide. This led to death within a few minutes. In the interrogation room a tiny video camera was found. They saw the interview and at the right moment they killed Collins before he could tell you more.' 'Why did they let him tell Monk their names?', Nathalie asked while Monk was lost in thoughts again. 'Either they wanted to bring you on the right path or they started to release the cyanide too late', Randy said. 'Because we think that they don't make mistakes that early, we have to assume that they wanted us to know their names', Captain Stottlemeyer said. 'We don't have any files and couldn't find anything out about them', Randy added. 'We just have to wait and find out what they are going to do?', Stottlemeyer said.
There was a knock at the door. 'Come in', Stottlemeyer said. 'Here are the reports of this week', a girl went in and gave him a few documents. She turned around. 'Monk, Natalie, this is Valentina Riddle, she started here last week.' 'Hello', the girl said. Natalie and Monk greeted her. 'You are young, how old are you?', Monk asked. 'Just gotten nineteen', she said smilingly. 'Thank you for the files', Stottlemeyer said. 'I'm gonna do further researches concerning the twins', she said and left the office.
'She looks very young for nineteen', Natalie said. 'However, she graduated three years ago with only A on her school certificate. After formation she now started here. She is good.' Monk shortly thought about her. She was tall for a girl, pale skinned, had black hair and black eyes. She seemed to be the type of girl who was nice but also very ambitious. 'She has a British accent', Monk said. 'She went to school and graduated in Great Britain', Randy said.
It was late night. Natalie and Monk stepped out of the car. They had been both waken up by a phone call of Captain Stottlemeyer. They entered the house. It was not the best district of San Francisco. There were a lot of police officers, all of them looking tired. It was one o'clock in the morning. 'Great you came', Stottlemeyer said and led them to the living room of the house. 'Ah', Monk screamed as he saw the dead body. He held his arm in front of his eyes. The dead woman was naked and lied on the couch. Blood did not drown anymore. She was shot in the heart, the left part of her chest. 'Oh my god', Natalie said and got closer to have a better look. 'Mr. Monk, open your eyes. She is just dead', Natalie told Mr. Monk. 'And naked', Monk said. 'Hey get a plastic bag', Stottlemeyer told a police officer. He put an untransparent bag over the human body. 'You can have a look, now', he said and turned to Monk who already inspected the room with his typical Monk gestures. 'She was killed after…after', his word lost. 'After sex?', Randy helped out. 'Yes', Monk said and with his forcipes he took a latex cloth and held it up. 'What's this?', he asked and put it into the evidence plastic bag Valentina held up for him. 'A dental dam', she said. 'There may be DNA of the murderer on it', she said neutrally. 'A what?', Monk asked. Randy helped out: 'Lesbians use it for safer sex.' Stottlemeyer looked at him, puzzled. 'I paid attention to biology classes in school', Randy said and occupied with other evidences. 'So why should our murderer leave us DNA?', Stottlemeyer asked. 'At least we now know that she is female', Natalie said.
It was nine o'clock, exactly one day later. Stottlemeyer still worked as did most of the police officers. There was much to do and Monk and Natalie just waited in Stottlemeyer's office. Randy had written down everything they knew about the twins. It was not much.
Captain Stottlemeyer came in. 'We got a help call by a citizen. She screamed that someone tried to murder her.' They hurried out of the office.
When they arrived nobody was there anymore. They entered the house and directly in the kitchen they found the body. A young woman, like the one yesterday, too. Monk looked out of the window, he had seen something in the corner of his eye. 'There', he said and pointed to a shadow on the rooftop opposite to the house they were in. Stottlemeyer had a quick look, then hurried out toward the street. He ran around the other house and the shadow jumped down from the roof, six meters and did not even seem to have a scratch afterwards.
'Stay there', Stottlemeyer screamed and pointed his gun toward the person. The person did not move. Captain Stottlemeyer came closer. He recognized a girl. He estimated her to be young, around eighteen years old, maximum. She held a gun in her hand. 'Put the gun down', he said. She did as she was told. 'Good, put your hands behind your head.' She did so.
They were back at SFPD building. Stottlemeyer watched the young girl who was sitting in the interrogation room. Randy, Valentina, Natalie, Monk and the Captain stood in the room that was separated by a mirror, they could see the girl, and she could not see them. 'Do we know anything?', Stottlemeyer asked. 'Nothing', Valentina said. She looked down at the girl. Mr. Monk looked at the girl. Something was strange. He looked to Valentina. When he compared them, they had about the same height and the same figure. Well, they are both young girls, he said.
'I'm going in', Stottlemeyer said and headed to the door, without his usual file. They did not know anything about her. He wanted to change that.
The girl was tall, had blonde, long hair tied together in a pigtail. She was very thin, too thin and wore a black Jeans, black leather jacket and a black pullover. When they had searched her, they had found a knife and a gun. The knife matched to the murder yesterday and the gun to the murder today. That was too easy, Captain Stottlemeyer thought when he opened the door and entered interrogation room. He sat down to the chair opposite to the girl. He had no file to open.
'What is your name', he asked directly. Perhaps it worked. 'I see no reason to tell you', she girl answered. Her voice was not evil, not definitive, not controlling but neutral. 'Did you kill those two girls? Sara Doyle and Kelly Twain?' 'Didn't you find any DNA you can match now?' Captain Stottlemeyer pulled out a plastic bag. She took a hair from her head and gave it to him. He put it in the plastic bag he put on the table aside. 'Yes, I killed them both.' 'Why?' 'It was my contract.' 'You're not a contract killer', Stottlemeyer said. She was too young for that. Her face did not show any emotions by now. 'Why not?', she asked. 'How old are you?'
'Nineteen.' 'You look younger.' 'Maybe because I lied.' 'Why did you?' 'My fake identity card tells so', she said, not showing any emotion in her face. She did not seem to be cynical or disinterested either. 'So you are younger than nineteen?', he asked. 'I am not nineteen', she said. Interiorly, Stottlemeyer swore. She could still be older than nineteen, just looking very young. 'So you wanna tell me that you are a nineteen, I just take you along as nineteen now, year old girl who works as a contract killer?', he asked, not showing his disbelief. She said nothing. Somehow her black eyes scared him a bit. 'Who hired you?' 'I don't know. I get my targets from Rend. You know him.' That was rather a determination than a question. Of course, Stottlemeyer knew Rend Burnie, a criminal who lived in San Francisco. He also occupied a lot of criminals, drug or weapon dealers, small criminals and contract killers. Unfortunately, SFPD was not able to track him down by now. 'Yes', he said in a low voice. 'When did you move to San Francisco?', he asked. 'Why do you think I didn't grow here up?', she asked. 'Am I right?' 'Of course.' 'Tell me. Where were you born? Where did you move? What is about your childhood?' 'I never had a childhood', she said and remained silent for a while. 'Are you British?', the Captain asked. Her British accent was easy to notice. 'No, I am German and I was also born in Germany', she said. She was constantly looking at him, kept eye contact. It was no staring, he felt that she was kind of nice. 'I moved to America with two years, my parents raised me bilingual and set my sister and me out on the street when I was three', she said sighing. That was more information than he expected to get. 'What then?', he asked. The whole talk was recorded. He already knew that he was going to listen to it again and again in the next time.
'From an orphanage I moved to a certain school in Great Britain, more or less a boarding school for children without parents. When I turned fifteen I left and went to America. No, not since that time I worked as a killer', she said. Stottlemeyer looked puzzled. She was very open. That made it easier to find out who she was. 'Why did you leave school so early?', he asked. 'I graduated', she said. The captain was surprised. She seemed to be very brilliant. There was no doubt he had to be careful. 'Why didn't you study afterward?', he asked. She did not answer at once. 'Why should I?', she said. 'You evade my question.' 'I know.'
'What is your name', he asked again. She kept silence. She looked aside then back to him. 'Theresa', she said. 'That was easy', he said. She smiled. He knew she wanted to tell him her name. She was someone who could not be persuaded to tell something she did not want to.
'What school did you go to in Britain', he asked. 'Ask your probie', Theresa said suddenly. 'We went to the same school', she still smiled. Nicely. Stottlemeyer looked even more startled now.
Valentina looked at Theresa. Of course she knew her. Randy, Monk and Natalie were all staring to her. Valentina sighed and five minutes later they were all five in Stottlemeyer's office: Monk, Randy, Natalie, her and Leland himself. 'You know her?', Captain Stottlemeyer asked. 'Yes, we went together to school, as she just told you.' 'What is her full name?' 'She could have altered it by yet.' 'Good point. But with a last name I could easier find her.' 'Theresa Riddle.' After a second she added: 'It's a coincidence. We are no relatives. I'm pretty sure.' 'Okay, what can you tell us about her?', Randy asked. 'Not much. She told me the same about her past.' 'You went to school together for a lot of years. Tell us', Captain Stottlemeyer said. 'She is officially nineteen, her official name is Theresa Riddle, we were friends and she kills people.' 'When did you lose contact?', Monk asked. 'Never', Valentina said. 'I did not know that she was in San Francisco now and that she killed those two people before she told us.'
'What can you tell us about her killing style?', the Captain asked. 'I don't know a lot about what she does or who she works for. We were just friends back in school because we were the two youngest of our grade. I know as much as you do. And I have the bad concern that everything she has told me the past few years was a lie anyway. I'm sorry', she said. 'It's alright. Let's find out more.' They headed back to interrogation room.
Theresa just waited in the interrogation room. The door went open and Stottlemeyer and Valentina went in. Valentina closed the door behind her. She leaned against the wall while Captain Stottlemeyer sat down. 'Valentina, nice to see you again', Theresa said. She did not smile. Valentina did not reply. Theresa turned back to the Captain. 'In the room of your first to us known murder we matched the DNA of the Latex thing to your DNA.' 'It's called a Dental Dam', Theresa said calmly. 'We didn't match your DNA to any other file.' 'You won't. There is no file about me.' 'Did you have sex with Sara Doyle', he asked unbelieving. 'She was lesbian and drunk. I just needed the right moment to shoot her.' 'You first slept with her and then killed her?', he asked, still in disbelieve. 'Yes.'
'Are you lesbian, too?', he asked. 'No. I'm bisexual', she said openly. 'That's the nearly the same.' 'It is not', she answered, sharply but still calm. 'So I've got a confession and you'll get into prison for a very long time. Case solved.' He stood up. Theresa smiled and still looked at the point where he had sat. He walked out and Randy came in. He and Valentina brought Theresa to the 24-hours cell in SFPD where she had to wait at least until tomorrow.
'Good night', Stottlemeyer said and they all went home.
The next day, Captain Stottlemeyer was early. He went to the little cell corridor to look after Theresa. She was not there anymore and the lock was broken. He cursed.
