The dead bodies
Chapter 2
His wide unblinking eyes watched the computer screen. Pictures of a crashed taxi both inside and out slid past. His eyes taking in every last detail, the dents on the outside, damage inside and the state of the body in the car. Watari placed a cup of coffee on the table.
"Thank you Watari." He slowly reached for the sugar cubes and picked up two between his thumb and forefinger and dropped them into the coffee. Picked up the cup and took a small sip, put the cup down and started to put more sugar in.
"Don't you think it's strange?"
"What do you mean?" Asked Watari sitting down in his chair.
"That someone has made this look like an accident, but seems to have not bothered covering the fact that the cab driver was not killed in the accident."
"You mean he was killed before the taxi crashed?"
"That's a possibility." Replied L. The sugar bowl was empty, L looked in his cup. The coffee looked like syrup. "In fact i am certain of it. But my question is; where is the passenger?"
"How do you know there was a passenger?" Asked Watari.
"Look at this." L manipulated the mouse and a picture of a house appeared on the screen. "Judging by the police presence, I'd say a murder has taken place."
"What makes you say that?"
"If this was a simple case that required a search you'd only need two officers. But here we have enough to set up boundaries and a forensic team. But the thing that interested me was this." L played the CCTV feed; it showed two men being shown in by a police officer. A few minutes the officer is seen leaving the house, walking past everyone then off the camera and a moment later a black cab passes the camera as one of the two men runs out of the house and sees the cab disappear around the corner.
"Interesting." Commented Watari.
"Why would a policeman need to hail a taxi cab?" Pondered L as he bit his thumb nail.
"You don't see the policeman get in the taxi cab," pointed out Watari. "Perhaps the taxi cab passing is a coincidence."
Ls' computer beeped, almost like it was an answer. L pressed the button, the image on the screen changed to show a different angle. It showed the taxi cab arrive and sit there for a few minutes before the policeman walked into shot and get in the cab.
"You still think its coincidence, Watari?"
Watari walked out of the room and came back a few minutes later with a whole food cart of different desserts. He cut a large slice of cheesecake, put it on a side plate and passed it to L. L just stared at the screen biting his thumb nail. L placed his bare feet on the ground, stood up and slowly paced around the room before returning to his chair and sitting with his legs pulled up close to himself.
"The policeman is an obvious fake, I don't see why you are hesitating so." Said Watari.
L started as if he was rudely awoken from a trance. "I wasn't thinking about him, I was thinking about the two men he showed in."
"Really?" Asked Watari.
"Were they accomplices or mere pawns?" Pondered L.
"Accomplices...?" Asked a confused Watari.
"Mmm. Yes a very bold move, I am seventy-five percent sure the policeman is the killer. Why has he come back to the scene of his crime, I'd guess that he had left some evidence behind and he'd returned to take care of it. But how to get past the police already at the scene? Why not dress as one of them, a thin disguise but also the easiest way of gaining access."
"But what about the two men?"Asked Watari.
"If they are accomplices, perhaps they were the ones to take care of the evidence. Otherwise they might just be people he had the misfortune to show in and just by sheer luck didn't bump into anyone that could have made things difficult. Did he manage to take care of the evidence? I'm eighty-eight percent sure he did, how else would you explain one of the men suddenly appearing at the doorway?" L paused for a moment. "Perhaps they were outside investigators... Watari, I need you to find out who and what those two men are?"