My apologies for not posting more tonight but damn I am sleepy. It's been a busy week. Will see how tomorrow goes. Enjoy!
Steve felt the familiar tug on his heartstrings as he pulled the Galaxy in park next to their murder scene that had once again had returned to a regular two-lane road, lulling unsuspecting drivers and pedestrians into a false sense of peace and innocence.
He waited for traffic to clear before getting out of the unmarked police car, Mike already several feet ahead like a bloodhound who'd caught a scent. By the time he reached the seasoned Lieutenant; they were staring down a filthy alley connecting 11th with 10th Avenue to the east. Faced with an area littered with garbage and wet cardboard boxes that smelled of rotten food, and several of the tall brick buildings on either side that denied any daylight from ever reaching the ground, both detectives fell quiet for a few long moments.
"What are you thinking?", Steve asked cautiously and watched his partner put a thumb over his lips, obviously deep in thought.
Turning back around to look at the spot in the road where their body had been discovered, the Lieutenant's gears were grinding at maximum speed, as his experienced mind put the puzzle pieces together.
"I am just wondering…", he started, then walked toward the road again, "I am just wondering how somebody who was beaten so bad that it broke her…her leg…could have come from anywhere around here. How well could you run from your killer with a broken leg?"
Steve followed his glance up and down the apartment buildings lining the road on either side, then back to their crime scene.
"Well, fear-based adrenalin could be enough to dull the pain for a little while.", the young Inspector hypothesized, trying to ignore the breeze blowing his hair askew, as Mike used a break in traffic to walk into the street, where a faint discoloration in the asphalt signaled the enzyme cleaners used to remove their victim's blood.
"A little while is right…but let me ask you this…suppose she limped her way down this road, our killer catches up with her and runs her down, how long do you think all this would take even if she lived in say… the closest apartment to the murder scene. Let's pick that one over there."
Pointing at a dark red brick building with a deteriorating set of concrete steps leading up to the entrance door, Mike waited patiently, as he watched his partner contemplate.
"Well…I…I am not sure. I guess…if we suppose she lived on the lower level in one of those apartments…several minutes maybe? She'd have to hold on to that metal railing to make it down the steps and into the road."
"Mhm hm.", Mike grunted, his lips pursed to a thin line as he stepped back to make room for oncoming traffic, "And you said Bernie thinks she was hit on the right side, meaning she had to have been facing this apartment complex right there when she was hit…so let's assume she half crawled out of the apartment, then turned around to face it again, even though her attacker was coming at her from the opposite side of the road…it doesn't tie. None of our theories. Not one bit."
Quickly realizing that the murder scene didn't fit their victim or her injuries whatsoever, Steve took in his surroundings once again, his eyes scanning the alley and nearby buildings for any sort of explanation.
When none came to mind, he exhaled slowly and put his hands on his hips.
"You think somebody dropped her off here? And then ran her over?"
Nodding approvingly, Mike pointed at the low-rent apartment buildings around them, every single one of them a safe haven for seniors who had plenty of time to look out the window and become a witness.
And yet, none had come forward thus far.
"She could have jumped out of a moving car. Did you think about that one, Buddyboy?"
"Right!", Steve chimed in and nodded eagerly, "Any injuries sustained during that jump could have been hidden by the damage the car did to her body after the fact too. Explains the lack of witnesses. Also explains the murder happening in the middle of the road, in plain sight, in the middle of the day. It may have not been planned at all. It could have been done out of compulsion."
Smiling proudly, Mike crouched down over the crime scene, his black overcoat almost touching the road, as he pointed his fingers at the ground.
"Could have been that she jumped out of the moving vehicle. Our driver stopped, then backed up, hitting her at full speed, dragged her body underneath the trunk for a few feet and then took off. It could have been done and over with in just a few seconds."
"So we might be looking for a vehicle with rear end damage, not front end. If we're looking for a privately-owned one, that should narrow it down to just 574,000 cars to check. More, if a commercial one was used."
"Sounds like you've had too much time on your hands to do some reading on the side.", Mike teased and nudged his elbow, "How about we keep that theory in the back of our minds for now and focus on-"
The Lieutenant was interrupted when an older man approached them from the opposite side of the street, making a beeline for their location in noticeable urgency.
Dressed in worn-out shorts and a sweat-stained 49'ers t-shirt, the bald man in his mid-sixties slowed down a few feet away from the detectives, trying to catch his breath.
"You two…", he gasped and put his hands on his knees, "You two look like cops. Are you?"
"We are. I am Lieutenant Michael Stone. This is my partner, Inspector Stephen Keller.", Mike introduced them, but held off on reaching for his badge when the man smiled through his yellow teeth, before straightening back out again.
"I have some information that might help you guys out. You know…on that girl that was killed here yesterday."
