Chapter 3: Sad News and Good Leads

GQ Postal Distribution Center
Laguna Place
West Vinewood
Later That Day

Detectives Harrison and Xander arrived at the GQ Postal Distribution Center in West Vinewood, where the late Jonah Zebedee worked, later that afternoon. They found shipping supervisor Ralph Melendez at the loading dock loading a multitude of cardboard-boxed packages onto a large black metal hand dolly to be brought out to a shipping truck. Melendez was a short, portly Hispanic man appearing to be in his mid to late fifties who wore a brown and gray checkered button-down shirt, brown slacks, dark steel-toed work boots, and a white hard hat atop his head that bared the official GQ Postal Logo on the front.

"Mister Melendez?" Harrison inquired.

Melendez turned around and noticed the two detectives standing there, at which point he took a moment to carefully eye the LSPD Detective badges that the two of them had clipped to their belts. "Yeah", he replied, "That's me, Ralph Melendez. Can I help you, Officers?"

"I'm Detective Troy Harrison with the Los Santos Police Department", Harrison said before motioning to his partner beside him, "This is my partner, Detective Adam Xander. Do you supervise an employee by the name of Jonah Zebedee?"

"Yes sir", Melendez replied, "Jonah's one of our drivers. Is he alright?"

Xander frowned with remorse. "I'm sorry to say he isn't alright, sir" he said, "Mister Zebedee was unfortunately found dead in his truck earlier today. He's apparently been the victim of a homicide."

With that, Melendez took off his hard hat and sat down hard beside his dolly full of packages. "Sweet Mary Mother of God", he said as he tried to catch his breath, "Are you absolutely sure it's him?"

Harrison took a moment to help the saddened man back to his feet. "I'm afraid we are, Mister Melendez" he replied in an equally regretful tone, "We found both his company ID and his wallet inside the truck."

"What about his wife, Elaine?" Melendez asked, "They have two sons, John and James. Have you told them yet?"

"Our lieutenant is notifying them as we speak", Xander replied, "so yes, that's being taken care of. The problem we have is that it appears Mister Zebedee's delivery manifest has been altered. We believe it's possible that the suspect tore their address off the list to cover their tracks. Would you have some sort of record of that last address on hand by chance?"

"Not on hand right this second", Melendez said, "No. But we keep a master list of every driver's delivery manifest on the mainframe hard drive. I can access it through the computer up in my office. But I think I need to take some time and notify all my other employees first. Can I pull up the record for you later and fax it to you?"

Though apprehensive, the two detectives nodded affirmatively. "Sure", Xander replied before handing his business card to Melendez, "Do what you feel you have to do and then fax us the list at the number on this card."

Harrison and Xander then shook hands with the now bereaved supervisor, thanked him for his help, and headed back to their car.

"So", Harrison said, "Now what?"

"Have you met Lieutenant Wong yet?" Xander inquired.

Homicide Unit Squad Room
LSPD South Central Station
Mission Row
20 Minutes Later

Through a set of double doors, Harrison and Xander entered the squad room of the Homicide Unit, which was one of five squad rooms located on the second floor of the LSPD's South Central Station, located in the city's small Mission Row neighborhood adjacent to Downtown Los Santos. Along with Vice, Narcotics, Robbery, and the Auto Theft Unit, the station's second floor was unofficially known by police personnel as "Detectives' Row".

Xander knocked on the side office door of the squad's commanding officer, Lieutenant Brian Wong, with Harrison standing right beside him. The new Senior Detective was very anxious to meet his new boss.

"Come in", a male voice said from inside the office.

With an inward push of the glass office door, Xander and Harrison entered the office and sat down in the two leather-upholstered chairs opposite the Lieutenant's desk.

Lieutenant Brian Wong was an Asian man of medium height with shortly-cropped black hair who appeared to be in his mid to late forties. With his white dress shirt, paisley tie, and thick black-rimmed glasses, he looked more like an accountant than a Los Santos police officer.

The lieutenant extended a courteous hand to Harrison without even standing up from his desk. "Detective Harrison", he said with a very hospitable tone, "Lieutenant Brian Wong. It's very nice to finally meet you, sir. Chief Sacco speaks very highly of you. Welcome to Los Santos Homicide."

Harrison reached across the desktop and reciprocated his new boss' polite gesture. "Thank you, Lieutenant" he replied, "The pleasure's all mine. I'm very happy to be here."

"I'm glad, son" Wong said, "Now, how's your progress on our GQ Postal driver case in Davis?"

Xander shot a look to Harrison, at which point the latter took his memo book out of his pocket and referred to it. "The victim is Mister Jonah Zebedee, a fifty-two-year-old white male", Harrison began explaining, "He was found face-down laying across the interior of his delivery truck. By all immediate appearances, per both the medical examiner and Mister Zebedee's upcoming autopsy, he appears to have died as a result of blunt force trauma by way of three severe blows to the back of the head which left three deep, crescent-shaped wounds. My educated assumption at the scene was that the murder weapon was some sort of hammer based on the shape of the wounds and the evidently savage force with which they were inflicted on him."

"We didn't find any blood drops or blood spatter inside the vehicle", Xander added, "Which told us that Mister Zebedee was most likely blitz-attacked from behind by the suspect, who was either standing on the truck's running board or just outside the truck when they attacked. It's possible that Mister Zebedee didn't even see it coming."

Lieutenant Wong leaned back in his wheeled leather office chair as he took in all the information. "As you know", he began, "I went to the victim's home in Hawick to notify his next of kin. He was married to a lady named Elaine Zebedee and the couple had two teenage sons named John and James. After the completely understandable shock and instant tears, Elaine told me that her husband had been a driver for GQ Postal for the past twelve years along the same route. He would start in the immediate area around West Vinewood, go all the way down to South LS, and then loop around, head out to Blaine County, and back again."

"That fits with the delivery manifest we found in the truck", Xander replied, "But it appears to have been altered, most likely by our perp. The last address on the list appeared to have been torn off by hand."

"Adam and I just got back from the GQ Postal Distribution Center in West Vinewood", Harrison added, "We spoke to the victim's supervisor, Mister Melendez. We told him about the missing address and he said that he'd fax us the master list of all the addresses that Mister Zebedee was assigned to deliver to today, but he wanted to break the bad news to the rest of his employees first. We're waiting on that fax."

Wong nodded. "In the meantime," he said, "Do either of you guys have any working theories as to who our killer might be?"

"There is one theory, sir" Harrison replied, "But it isn't either of ours. You know Anna Barakova from the Crime Lab, right?"

"I do", Wong said, "She's a very good criminalist. Very thorough."

"Agreed", Harrison replied, "Based on a shoeprint we found at the scene, she thinks that Mister Zebedee's homicide might be connected to certain acts of vandalism that have occurred around the city recently. Most notably, the explosion at City Hall that left a security guard temporarily blinded."

"I'm sorry", Wong cut in, "She made this connection based on a shoeprint?"

"More like what the shoeprint was made out of, boss" Xander clarified, "Troy noticed that the print wasn't made out of regular, everyday Los Santos street dirt. It was made from a powdery, dark substance that smelled metallic. It was then that Anna saw these mushed up whiteish granules embedded in the treads of the print and recognized that they looked very similar to granules she had found at the vandalism scenes. Her chemical analysis determined that those granules were, in fact, ammonium nitrate."

Wong sighed. "Jesus", he said, "Ammonium nitrate can be used to blow things up in certain cases. Do we know for certain that the granules found at the murder scene today are indeed ammonium nitrate?"

"Not yet, sir" Harrison said, "Nor do we know what that weird dark powdery substance is. Anna's working on it as we speak."

Wong sat forward in his chair. "Okay", he began, "This is what we do. Troy, you head over to the Crime Lab, check in with Anna, and see what progress she's made. Adam, I want you to get on your computer and check into the other vandalism incidents. See if they have any connecting details and let me know. If ammonium nitrate is in the mix of all this, we may have bigger problems ahead."

The two detectives nodded and left the office to carry out their respective assignments.