Well, here's the third chapter. Finally getting somewhere, eh? Reviews are appreciated. I'll try to upload soon. Have fun people!
"Very well, Miss Talbot, we meet at last." That strange, distorted voice came from the speakers again. But Alex was too deep in shock to realize it was talking to her. Here she was, in direct, one on one contact with the most brilliant detective in the world. More still, he wanted to help her! She was almost too caught up in that fact to notice that she would have to basically turn in four months of investigation to this person. But she didn't really care. If it meant solving the case, she would do anything. Yet her body was still frozen and her face felt numb.
"Miss Talbot? Are you feeling well?" L could see her shocked expression through the camera built in to the monitor, and he had to admit, his faith in her diminished a little. Was he supposed to collaborate with this woman that looked as if she'd seen a ghost? He was a bit disappointed, but decided to try and snap her out of it.
"Alexandra Talbot! Would you mind paying attention to the matter at hand, please?" surprise, surprise, it did the trick.
Hearing her name brought Alex back to reality. "Pardon me, Mister L. It's just a bit shocking to think that the greatest detective in the entire world is willing to assist me in this case that I have literally gotten nowhere with since I was assigned to it three months ago."
L allowed himself a small smile, "Ah Miss Talbot. I beg to differ. You say you have gotten nowhere? You cannot honestly tell me that with your record of analytical skills and an apparent intelligence that is greater than most, you do not even have speculations to anything relying on the case?" He allowed her a few moments to think about it, although he was sure of the answer, which came soon after.
"Well…" she faltered. She had indeed some suspicions and some leads to the killer, but those were quite obvious so she had only bothered to mention them to her boss, to which he confirmed her fears by saying that she needed to dig deeper and figure out how the killer acted, how the victims were killed, and who was next. All questions that were fairly difficult for her to answer, even if they had a bit more information to support any thoughts. She took another sip of her coffee, which had gotten cold and managed to say what was on her mind.
"I know this might come on as obvious to someone as brilliant as you, but there are several things that I noticed while looking at the file, and especially the pictures. Mainly is the override of information and clues that the killer leaves behind. Another is that the amount of clues increase as the killer progresses with his crimes. Again, this might seem obvious, but I believe that if the killer continues to go uncontested, he could very well leave such a disaster of evidence that it will be more than impossible to stop, which is why we must act quickly to prevent any more murders. Also, while it is possible that some of that evidence is indeed the victim's, I believe that most of it was planted there for what appears to be no more reason than to throw the police force off."
L gave himself a small moment of personal thought and then spoke through the microphone in front of him. "Exactly the assumptions I had made, Miss Talbot. Often the most obvious observations are overlooked, causing one to delve too deeply into looking for some obscure meaning, which is exactly what I believe is happening here. Instead of looking through every shred of evidence that was left behind by this madman, we should concentrate on the main points of it. By this I mean that look through the different samples of blood, for we can see that there are many different sources of it at the crime scene; on the fingerprints because these are one of a kind and cannot be duplicated, no matter who this killer is; and finally on the amount of these that are found. If we can go through them and find something odd about them, certainly we will find a real clue to this mystery."
Taking another small sip of coffee, Alex sighed. She was in control of herself again. "I agree completely, Mister L. However, it would be negligent by the part of my team to avoid testing the DNA for the biological samples that were recovered with the bodies. And we have done so, only to discover that in the first murder, two of the three samples of blood belonged to unsolved cases over five years ago and the other belonged to the second murder victim. In the second, these same two samples appeared, one of the others was of yet another unsolved murder case and the fourth was of the third victim. It would be logical then, to assume that the third incident would have a clue as to who the next victim could be. However, the murder has been inactive for the past two months, and this time around, none of the blood samples belonged to any living person registered in the state of New York, which then made the case go cold for a while. I must admit that my team, as well as myself, were extremely excited when we found the link between the first and second murders, despite the loss of human life. And as bad as it may sound, we were hopeful to catch the killer when the third murder took place, but sadly we have nowhere to go from there. As for the fingerprints, it appeared as though they were all inverse copies of each victim's successor, and those have gone cold as well, since the third victim had his own fingerprints all over the place, and we haven't been able to find another set besides that."
Finishing off the small sucker that he had been consuming, L opened a small bag of gummy bears that was lying next to him. Fishing a green one out, examining it for a slight second and finally popping it into his mouth, he turned his attention back to the woman that stood in her office, sipping her coffee. He chewed the gummy bear's head off as he pondered what the FBI agent had just said, swallowed the treat and pulled another one out as he came to a conclusion.
"Miss Alex. Has it by any chance occurred to you that the evidence that was planted is too old to be of common use to the public? Also considering the fact that they were all unsolved murder cases from five years ago, is it not possible that the killer could be someone in the police force, or even go as high as being a member of the FBI? Of course, it's not safe to jump to conclusions, but given that the killer had access to those samples from both the past cases as well as the next target's, I can say that there is about a twenty percent chance that this killer works with the law enforcement. And, if I may say so without being impertinent…why in the world did your team not figure the connection between each victim sooner?"
Alex shifted slightly. The question made her uneasy, even if she had seen it coming. The truth was, she didn't really know herself. She supposed that it was because of the giant amount of data that was left at the crime scene, it took too much time to analyze it all to reach a concrete conclusion and predict who the next victim would be. That was the excuse she decided to use.
"Well, those tests take time, don't they? What with the sifting through all the evidence to see what could have traces on it, then booking an appointment with the super intelligent, better-than-everyone-else techies. And then, as I said, there's the matter of time. It's not like we can figure out whose DNA it is in the instant that we ask the forensics! They need their own time in turn to sort out the samples from each other, since they were all mixed, and organize their time so that they can fit them in with the rest of their busy schedule…"at that point, she ran out of excuses and was left holding her coffee with both hands close to her chest, her self confidence could obviously be seen that it had been reduced greatly.
L was finishing his last gummy bear as she was simultaneously putting the last part of the feeble attempt to convince him into play. Not surprisingly, he didn't buy it. "Miss Talbot…if I may say, take care of yourself. The culprit could easily be closer than you think, and it would not be good for anyone if you should fall prey to him."
This last comment struck Alex. Could the killer be part of her team? Or from the forensics department? She knew most of them and was sure that they wouldn't turn to taking other human lives. She was genuinely worried at that point. Her mind kept going over all the people she knew at work…sure, they were odd people, but you had to be different to be in the Bureau. You couldn't just be a regular Joe and expect to be a part of the FBI. She couldn't really pin one as a killer, but then again, they could all very well be one. Her expression must have been read easily, for L spoke:
"I am sorry if I have distraught you, Miss Talbot. I merely meant that the information we have all appears to point to the possibility that the killer is part of the FBI. I merely meant that you should watch your back and be on your toes at all times. We never know when the killer might strike, and we certainly don't want you to be a part of the death toll, Miss."
A short silence passed. Alex finished her coffee and set it down on her desk next to the laptop, and at the same time L was unwrapping a chocolate bar. He bit into it, enjoying the smooth cocoa flavor, thinking about the case. He shifted a bit in his sitting position to feel a bit more comfortable. It really was a shame he always had to walk around hunched, and even more annoying that he had to sit in that position. If it didn't increase his deductive prowess, he would gladly sit like a semi-normal person. He pondered the information that the FBI agent had given him, when she jumped up in surprise.
"What happened, Miss Alex? Is everything all right?"
"My phone. I just got a message…"
"Anything relevant?"
"Oh, I should think so…the killer just struck again."