Vicki was censuring herself, "I can't just go on like this. I just can't suspect Heather, because she lives near the crime scene, still I pulled off such a stunt. Am I jealous of her ?"
Vicki felt very angry when she heard the news that Heather invited only Timmy to her birthday party. It felt bad, she couldn't figure out why but it felt bad as if she has just gotten a blow in her abs.
"How can I be jealous of the Twerp and his nit-wit girlfriend,I'm not his fiancée or something. Still I got worked up,that's why I'm still not able to crack this case."Vicki was mentally cursing herself while she was preparing for the Senator's birthday party.
The senator Robin Jacobs was turning 55 today so he threw an outlandish party for the eminent townsfolk of Dimmsdale. Though it was heard that there would be a small party only for close friends and family of the senator tomorrow. But the most important thing of this party is that the invitees have to come in classical dresses. Men in suits and Women in frilly dresses. Vicki was almost wrestling with her green floral dress, the frills really made her uncomfortable. She always preferred Jeans and T-shirts, she never bothered about cute girly dresses. She was checking herself in the Mirror for the final touch. She didn't look bad but she almost laughed at her reflection, "Ricki would have pulled my legs bigtime for this."a chuckle escaped her lips,"Only if he was there." a sigh followed up.
Vicki was picked up from her residence by chief Hamada, who was also accompanying Assistant chief Lenoa Collins in his private car.
"Looking gorgeous, Vicki." the chief complimented her with a warm smile.
"You too sir." Vicki returned the gesture, "Hi, Madam. Collins." she greeted the female superior. Only these three from the detective department were invited in this high profile party,as they helped the senator in an investigation. Chief Hamada was in his black Tuxedo while Leona wore a brown dress. Vicki suited in herself in the car as they drove of to the party.
(In the pool)
"It was a great idea, Heather." Timmy was visibly happy while Heather splashed some water on his face. Earlier Heather proposed that they should hang out in the club the pool, "It's very cheap for one time visits,all we need is just swim-ware."
Now Timmy also wanted to get rid of the work stress and spend some quality time with Heather, so the idea was very much acceptable to him.
"Hey Timmy let's race, whoever wins gets a special prize of doing whatever with the loser." Heather was panting.
Timmy in general was a very competitive person, he could never say no to any sort of a competition, but the incentive doubled his urge.
Heather came out as the surprise package, her speed in free style was just inhuman. Generally Timmy was handed a total defeat. Now as the bet, Timmy took her out for a dinner date. The day seem to become a good one for him.
The arranged a candle lit dinner in a secluded corner of the restaurant, the magical candle light made the air quite romantic. Heather with her deep blue eyes, staring at Timmy looked other worldly. Heather took Timmy's hand in her palm and pressed it lightly, "I know that I'm still a suspect, but I'm not doing this for any favour or fear. I think I like you, to the extent of even loving you." Heather's face sported a dusting of pink.
"What, a confession? She thinks that she might be in love with me?" Timmy fist-pumped mentally. But that little lingering feeling kept him bugging, "I've already done things with Vicki. Though she was intoxicated and stuff, but I didn't stop her. I still can't move on from her, despite she had nothing to do with me. Am I leading on Heather?" this inner turmoil also manifested in Timmy's face, though how minuscule it was, Heather noticed this discomfort of her companion.
"I know, that I might have move too fast, You don't have to answer me right here right now." Heather seemed genuinely apologetic.
"No, no. It was just a random thought, nothing to be worried, though it's a big decision so I need say 48 hours to brainstorm a reply." Timmy stated with a chuckle.
(At the party)
People were enjoying drinks and food in the party. The continuous gossip and idiotic salutations were almost boring Vicki to the extent to cut loose and strangle someone to death. So she currently was aloof and sipping on her drink. A commotion broke her trance, a young girl has slipped due to improper handling of her high heeled shoes and was currently being led to the bathroom by another girl.
Foolish brats, they have only parentage and no brains." Vicki cursed under her breath.
The party was quite formal, the absence of intense music and hormonal teenagers took away the sheen. The body guards of various v.i.p's were guarding the whole area, the men and women in black suits and black shades spread an ominous aura, as if something is going to happen as if someone is going to perish.
Suddenly Leona Collin's voice was heard,"Hi, Ladies and Gentlemen. I'm deeply thankful to all of you to give me an opportunity to say something. So without any further adieu, I'll start my short speech. Suddenly the lights got dimmed and a powerful bulb was focused to the makeshift podium.
"Hmm, so Leona has already the mouth-piece in her hand and in dramatic style, she'll hit the stage, snobby ass-kisser. No wonder, she was in Ricky's suspect list." Vicki thought.
"Ahh..." Leona's voice was heard, as a stumbling Leona Collins entered the stage, Vicki knew something was off, "What the hell is sticking out of her back?"
Vicki dodged and dribbled the spell bound crowd to get to the podium, "Yup, just as I thought, a knife was sticking out of her back, these knives were kept for dressing the salad and stuff near the food stalls." Vicki tried to see whether the victim was alive or not.
Suddenly Leona latched on her hand, "Goddess...Divine punishment...Vero..." she collapsed and breathed her last.
The last word, unnerved Vicki, but she could do nothing as Leona already breathed her last. The huge commotion brought out ugly squabbles among the guests as everybody thought that everyone else was the culprit, hough Chief Hamada took control of the situation.
"Silence. The killer is still here, security close all the gates." the security officers obliged, while chief Hamada, strode towards Vicki.
"Chief, this is a open and shut case, the CCTV must have recorded the incident." Vicki suggested. "People, I need the CCTV footages." the chief detective barked.
"Ok, did anyone see something out of ordinary?" Vicki instructed the crowd, a young women came forward, "I saw Senator Jacobs and having a verbal spat with the victim. Though I didn't know the rest as I was busy in the wash-room along with Ms. Tina." the young woman who was the daughter of a famous CEO, informed.
"Are you going to take her seriously? We were just pulling her leg for believing in Japanese astrology." defended himself while Senator Jacobs the host nodded in agreement.
"Japanese astrology, shit I really don't wanna think about that link?" Vicki thought in her mind.
"Both of them are wearing flashy clothing which stands out, while under this sort of surveillance that would be pretty much idiotic for them." Vicki stated her inference, suddenly the young woman named Roxanne cried out loudly.
"What is that? Blood?" she fainted on the floor, Senator Jacobs dashed to tend her, while Vicki and Hamada rushed towards the direction. A V.I.P security worker was lying dead, it was a chest shot and the pistol was held in her left hand, her Black coat was thrown beside her.
"This is very uncommon, why this person shot herself ? More so why in her chest? Why not in the fore-head?Why she did take her coat off when she was attempting suicide?" Vicki blurted out her thoughts.
Chief Hamada stated with a content smile, "Vicki, I know you'll crack this case also, so I'm officially appointing you as the investigating officer .I'm calling in the forensics."
Vicki inspected the corpse, other than those initial ambiguities everything else seemed normal, the corpse wasn't dragged or anything that can suggest that it was moved. Vicki looked around the area but nothing out of ordinary was seen by her.
Roxanne was recovering, the unfortunate girl fainted as she saw a bloody body on that obscure hallway.
Next Vicki checked the CCTV footage, in one particular footage Vicki observed a female security guard came closer to Leona Collins and as if she stuck something on her back. Though the knife wasn't visible.
"So, that's how it is. The guard killed Leona and then committed suicide." chief Hamada inferred.
"But why did she stab her, when she had a loaded gun, if she was going to kill her self, then why bother with the knife?" Vicki asked Hamada.
"That's entirely your call to make, Vicki. But I'll say this, it's a very well organized crime." Hamada chuckled.
"She didn't have a motive, and her coat's positioning looked odd. As if somebody worn it and then left at her side." Vicki realized the whole thing, "So that explains the incident at the beginning of the party" and she strode haughtily towards and the CEO's daughter.
"Ms. Elena, you were in the wash-room, during the whole fiasco?" Vicki asked the CEO's daughter.
"Yup, Tina is my witness, she was standing outside of the door of the toilet all the time. But isn't that security guard the culprit? " Elena looked a bit angry.
Vicki ignored her, " was in the toilet during the fiasco. So she shouldn't be able to know that whether you were present in the wash-room at the same time. What if you weren't there?"
"That's plainly ridiculous." replied with a snarl.
"But, detective, she was there the whole time, infact she heard some commotion and informed me that something had happened and then we both rushed to the spot." Elena replied.
Vicki smiled sadistically, " by any chance did you practice running, while wearing high-heels. Cause you never tumbled, though you were faster in reaching the central hall. You were faster than who is quite athletic."
"So what? What does it mean?" now Tina was fuming.
Vicki chuckled again, "You didn't have the time to get it off, so it should be on you." Vicki crouched with lightning speed and with a sharp tug tore the lower part of Tina's dress. To everyone's astonishment, Tina was wearing a black trouser and black boots under her garments.
"You did this, you killed that security guard, took her coat and disguised yourself as her, then you killed Leona and returned to the wash-room, wore your dress and threw the coat beside the guard's body. Now your garments will test positive as there will be gunpowder residues on them." Vicki ended her deduction.
"You're absolutely right detective.I knew you would be hard to defeat."Tina chuckled and with cat like reflex, opened a bottle and swallowed a pill before Vicki could move a finger.
"Ha, ha. No detective, you can't catch an agent of the Goddess. Leona went astray so she was punished..." the lunatic girl dropped on her knees and choked on her own vomit, just like Veronica.
"So this was the whole game. Ricky was also killed by this Goddess. She is a contract killer, who kills her own customers so that Police never gets to her. What a brilliant criminal, it'll be fun to chase her down." Vicki chuckled inwardly
(More surprises)
The police already took care of the three corpses, apparently Tina was suffering from lung cancer. Recently she became a disciple of a Japanese astrologer. She killed Leona as her Goddess, that person ordered her to do so. Her mobile was filled with instructions from an unknown number, which couldn't be traced.
Vicki was cleaning her face to do away with the fatigue, suddenly she heard a series of knocks coming from a closed toilet. She dashed, the toilet was locked from outside, she unlocked it, only to find a woman gagged an tied beside the commode. She was kicking frantically to draw attention. Vicki untied her, but her face looked very familiar, "Who're you? Who did this to you?"
"I'm Roxanne Walsh. A mugger did this to me, she was a female of my height with black hair and two pig-tails. I couldn't remember her face though." the girl looked relieved.
Vicki dashed towards the central hall, some guests already did leave.
"Where's Roxanne Walsh, the woman who fainted?"Vicki almost screamed.
Senator Jacobs was still there, "She already left, as the case was solved we didn't stop her."
"Shit, somebody posed as Roxanne, was here all the time. Fuck." Vicki kicked a nearby food-stall in frustration, while the whole crowd was bewildered, the real Roxanne had stepped in the room.
(Timmy's thoughts)
"Why this feeling is still lingering in my mind? I had a great date with Heather." Timmy was still trying to find out the source of the thought that was making him uncomfortable.
"Oh yes, Heather had a lions tattoo on her back." then it struck Timmy like a train, "oh, fuck. Vicki might be right, Veronica grabbed the lion's logo in her dying moments."