John had already walked into the building cautiously absorbing every detail about the scene before the first squad car arrived. They immediately removed Doe and were questioning him as Frank Hayes came up and looked at Doe curiously.
The one interrogating officer quickly said, "We found him on the scene, we weren't sure if he was responsible or not."
"It's ok," Frank said guiding Doe away from the other officers taking him towards his car. "What are you doing down here?"
"Well, I was working on the crossword puzzles from today's papers and decided to go for a drive."
"Oh and you just happened to end up at a crime scene before the police?" Frank said slightly aggravated.
"Actually I--," Doe started to speak. But Frank looked towards Does car noticing a police scanner after hearing a sound of static from that direction. "You got a police scanner? Those things don't usually pick up much." Frank said cutting him off.
"Yeah, I modified mine," Doe said waiting a few seconds before adding "a little."
"Look Doe if we need your help we'll give you a call but we can handle the normal investigations." Frank said in lecturing tone.
"Well often times it's the officers that first arrive on the scene that accidentally disturb evidence in a crime scene." Doe added to defend his actions.
"Or civilians, and thanks for your confidence in us," Frank said quickly after Doe had spoken.
"Sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I just wanted to see every detail uninterrupted, before it was analyzed, maybe even solve the crime."
"Well who did it?" Frank said slightly curious if Doe had done just that.
"I don't know yet." John answered.
An officer came out of the building and called for the detective who came over and Doe followed behind him. She held in her hands one photograph contained in a bag so it could be further analyzed before it was touched, the one that had lost its place from the envelope that the man was holding.
They both let a collective 'hmmmm' looking at the photograph for a few seconds unsure what to make of it at first.
"It's a double exposed photograph," Doe said "both images appear disoriented." Then he thought a second. "Usually the first print is clear and the second image superimposed looks kind of like a ghost over it."
"Interesting," Hayes said responding to Doe.
"A double exposed photograph is caused by a photographer takes one picture then another photo without forwarding the film. Usually a mistake but some use this technique to enhance a photo. Although since both images are out of focus this is probably the result of a camera not operating properly." Doe added.
They all moved inwards toward the room where he was found. The man lay on the floor motionless and people examined him to see if any additional clues could be found. Hayes looked at the toppled sofa and mess on the floor for a second then moved on to the body.
The officer that had carried out the photo pointed to the desk next to the body.
"We found it under that desk," she said.
One of the men examining stood up reading from a paper then opening his wallet to read his drivers license, "Time of death approx 6 pm. the cause of death three gunshot wounds to the back, probably all from a .38 judging by the one shell casing found in the hall from a .38. His wallet identifies him as a Simon Fulton, this isn't his house his real house is about ten blocks away.
Hayes was focusing his attention on the lock that had been shattered as the person was talking.
"No that was caused by someone else, Fulton had a key, the killer probably did that with a good kick to the lock and he was in" The man added.
"Look at his hand," Doe spoke up after being quiet. "The way he his hand is when he died he was holding something, paper or photographs." Then he looked to the sofa pointing at it and the cushions. "The people that shot him had been watching him or knew where he'd be, not one shot missed him. But he was aware of this and tried to be cautious. After he was shot they then kicked their way in and were looking for something and they found it in his hands, only it wasn't all there the photo fell under the desk." Doe walks over to the sofa and continues. "Not knowing this they start to tear up the place thinking it may have been dropped or put away. Only when I arrived they must have stopped and made a quick exit."
"You said the people? More than one person did this?" One of the officers asks John.
"Yeah, notice the way things were disorganized the contents of this cabinet are on the top and underneath of this sofa, with his hand he tries to free some of the papers which are firmly stuck in place. That means that both things had to be done simultaneously." Doe said to back up his earlier statement.
"You think he knew they were after him?" Hayes asked.
"Well this guy comes into a home that isn't his and the first thing he does is double lock the door. So that means he wasn't just checking something and planning to leave. Then he didn't even take the time to kick off his shoes or take off his jacket. He just rushed over to the phone to call the police." Doe said sure of himself.
"How do you know he just got home he may have been getting ready to go somewhere." Hayes said unsure of Doe's theory.
"Well his car." Doe pointed down to the keys which showed a Dodge logo on the key chain and then out to the car in the front parking lot. "It's still warm. So that means something happened like he took a few photos and people to chased him he realizes this so he pulls in here to call the police. Then bang."
"That's good but at this point motive to kill over some pictures is still speculation," Hayes added.
"Wait I know this guy," an officer cut in. "I saw him on the FBI most wanted list. Terry Gulfore, he was responsible for murders in a few different states."
"You see Doe, this is why you should let us get here first you could have been injured." Frank said.
"The most wanted list itself was started in 1949 by a reporter who asked who asked the FBI for a list of 'toughest guys' the FBI would like to capture" Doe stated then he added "To date only one man was killed for revenge of turning in someone on the list, also the criminal that has been on the list the longest is Donald Webb, to this date he hasn't been caught."
Frank pulled out a paper that had a transcription of his last conversation. He read it to himself a bit before speaking.
"It says here that his last call was to the police station he mentioned a brother, which he thinks he had found who was first listed missing in 1998." Frank said.
"So on speculation if John's theory is right that means this guy was killed over a lousy photograph? Or other photos that were with it?" Frank said as he glanced over in the area of the body and the desk under which the photo was found.
"I think we need to figure out what that is a picture of" Hayes said wondering himself what it was.
John had made his way back to his home where he fixed a late night snack and cleaned up any mess he had made. Thoughts stirred in his head about the case he had just gotten involved in. In his mind he replayed his first view of the scene itself and every detail he had noticed. Nothing additional had stood out no any other clues were there yet. And if there were other clues they depended on information that would be gained by analyzing the clues they had. All the thoughts circled again and again until John finally managed to find his way into sleep.
It was early the next morning about 7:15 am when a phone ringing woke John up he wondered who it was calling. He sat up and made his way to the phone and picked it up.
"Good morning," Stella said as Doe walked in to the lab. Hayes was already there as was Avery.
"Sorry to wake you up but this was important" Lieutenant Avery said speaking to Doe.
The rest of the people in the room already had seen this and so far it was only Doe that didn't know yet what the image contained. They're eyes flipped back and forth between Doe and the computer screen.
"Well you know that we found the photograph," Stella said clicking on the keyboard an image of it appeared on screen. "Ok after scanning the image in I managed to clean it up and separate the images." Stella said.
"However, both were still highly distorted, but from this I was able to determine the source of one image by scanning a database." Stella said as she pulled an issue of Time magazine from 1984 and put in on the table.
"Using the one image I was able to almost totally remove this distortion," She said as she typed on the keyboard.
From the one image now appeared another single image appeared on the screen it was blurred and unrecognizable at first.
"Now when I enhance it," She explained as she was redoing the process.
The one image that is still on screen gradually goes from blurry to clear, within a few seconds. The clear image now raises more questions than it answers.
"What?" Doe says slightly shocked about what he sees.
On the computer screen the image is now crisp and clear as if it had never been a double exposure. Everyone in the room could recognize who the picture was of but explaining it was a different matter. The picture was of John himself walking down a street in what appeared to be around mid-day surrounded by other people walking beside him. This picture alone was enough to throw even more confusion onto the case especially for Doe.
"And then there's this." Avery says as she hands Doe a printed out version of the transcript.
The transcript is the completed text of what Fulton had said to the police officer, after being enhanced it was able to pick up everything he said.
"The very last thing he says is, 'You have to help me over' then he pauses a bit and says the letters J D" Avery said thinking he meant John Doe.
"What else do you have on this case so far?" Doe asked with a newfound interest in the case since now it might directly relate to his past.
Suddenly the thought that he may be the brother that the person was speaking of on the brief call to the police before being killed crossed his mind.
"Well the guys name is Simon Fulton, like it said in his wallet. Though he does look a lot like Mr. Gulfore who is wanted by the FBI his prints tell a different story. The building manager, who also showed up this morning, says that the apartment belonged to a friend of Fulton's who is currently away on business." Jamie said.
Frank opened up the folder with the missing persons data, "It says here that his brother was a Jake Fulton, there are no pictures of him though going through stuff in his house it also seems to be devoid of any photos of Jake too. So basically all we have is information in this report. Caucasian Male, Height: about 6', Weight: 175, Hair Color: Brown, Eyes: Blue Etc."
All of the people in the room were looking at John, hoping he could explain it somehow after seeing the one of the double exposed photos.
"The oddest part is in his apartment there are at least three different yearbooks from their high school, but the picture where Jake should be has been cut out not the entire picture just his silhouette and it looks like it was done with an razor blade." Frank said with an unchanging tone.
"Is there any indication to who cut out the photos? It's possible that Simon was the one doing the cutting or is someone else trying to cover up Jake?" Doe asked curiously.
"Well two were found in Simon's house, but the other two one of which was the same year as one of Simon's were in his mother's possession locked away in a closet." Frank added which complicated things even further.
"Are there any other clues we can go on?" Doe asked wondering if they brought him in because this was it for the clues and he might be able to find another clue.
"Actually there are, there was one print on the shell casing but it didn't match anyone in our database, and" Avery said grabbing something out of a bag. "This card." She said as she tossed it onto the table.
"It was found under the desk where the photo was." Jamie added.
John didn't speak a word he just sat comprehending the facts before him trying to deduce some logical explanation for it. In the back of John's mind he wondered if he could have been Simon's brother.
It was a business card for Jimmie's Mail World, a business in the area of where the body was found. It had basic info an address and a phone number. The place basically a place with lots of post office boxes and it accepted deliveries for people even when they are out of town, etc.