"Take her away!" commands the police officer, as two other officers handcuff the blonde woman. "Good work, Detective! I can see why you were named the number one detective. Keep up the great work!". You stand there trying to be mature about it, but deep down you are overwhelmed by the comment, which makes you very happy.
You then remember that after every crime you must write a detailed report and send it to your superiors, so you head back to your office. As you arrive at your building, you park in the designated parking spot, get out of your car and lock it. As you head to the building's front door, you look up to see that there are dark clouds approaching. "Seems like we're gonna have a storm tonight," you say as you enter through the front door.
You head to your office, sit down on your chair, and start writing a report of what happened. You reach into one of your drawers to get a stapler, when you notice a file you have not seen. You open the file to see that this file belonged to a murder case from years ago. You see that the victim's name was Ling O, and she was brutally murdered. They caught the murderer; her name is Bella B. She tortured Ling for several days before police found out. The murder case was solved by a detective named Randy White.
"That name sounds familiar," you think to yourself, and then it hits you: Randy is a detective in the same department as you. "He might have misplaced this file by accident; I will just place it back in the vault with the others," you think to yourself.
As you finish your report, you realise that it is almost time for you to head home. Since this was your first crime solved in Chicago, you decide to celebrate by going to the new bakery not too far from your house. You look out your office window to see that the dark clouds have taken over the earlier sunny day, but you don't think much of it.
You start driving to the new bakery shop, but all of a sudden you get violently cut off. You swerve out of control, but manage to stop safely and don't crash. You look up to see that the other car is also stopped right in front of you. Through the driver's window you see a man with shaggy brown hair, a small nose, and big ears. You give a big sigh. "Not again!"
You see the man get out of his car and walk towards you. You get out of your car as well. Just as you're about to ask if he is OK, the man starts yelling at you: "LEARN HOW TO DRI...." he pauses. "Hey, I know you! you're the one who put my sister in jail! She's innocent!"
The man slowly approaches you; you can tell that he is getting more and more angry. "You put the wrong person in jail! Do you know what you have done to my family? DO YOU?" yells the man. As he is about to get physical, two police officers get between the two of you and separate you. The man is arguing with one of the officers, and does not seem to be calming down.
"Good thing we were patrolling around the neighbourhood; it could have ended badly," says the officer next to you. As you are walking back to your car, the man calls out your name. "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME! I WILL GET REVENGE FOR MY SISTER, YOU HEAR ME?".
You take a deep breath and get back in your car. You finally arrive at the bakery and sit down at one of the tables. "Welcome to Niki's Bakery, how may I help you?" says the waitress as she approaches you. You take a look at the menu and choose a couple of snacks. "Ok, I'll be right back with your food," she says. You notice that she is wearing the bakery's uniform, has blonde hair, is very beautiful, and has a name tag that says "Heather".
As you wait, you look around the bakery. In one corner you see a TV, and the news is on. "BREAKING NEWS! An unknown person has left a note at the front door of the police station. Its contents seem to be addressed to the new head detective of Chicago. The letter says, and I quote, 'To the Chicago detective department: I have killed someone, and the body is located somewhere in RuffNear Park. I challenge the head detective to find me. For everyday that you do not find me, I will kill someone else. I wish you the best of luck, because you will never find me! I am invisible like objects in a December storm; you will not see me coming! My story will go down in history! Better watch out for the children, because they will remember this story forever!' End quote. The police are warning citizens to report any suspicious activities, and...."
The TV goes blank, and all you see is the word "Reconnecting...", and then you hear a loud noise: BOOM! You look outside the bakery's window to see that it is raining heavily outside, with thunder and lightning striking every so often. "It seems like the weather has affected the reception," you think to yourself.
"Here's your food," says the waitress. You ask her if you can take it to go instead. You call the police department, and one of the police officers picks up. "Good afternoon, don't worry about the message and the body; we have already dispatched a group of search teams to search for the body. We will contact you again when we find it." The officer ends the call.
You decide to head home to get some rest. The next morning, you receive a call: RING RING RING RING. You pick up the phone. "Good morning. I would like to let you know that we have found the body. Please come to RuffNear Park by the washroom ASAP." The call ends. You quickly drive over to the location given by the officer. When you arrive, the forensics team is already at work taking pictures and discussing the matter. You take a look at the body. There do not seem to be any kind of knife or gunshot wounds. You notice that the body is lying down as if asleep. The victim has blonde hair, blue eyes, and is skinny. He still had everything with him: his wallet, his cell phone, and his keys; nothing seems to be missing. Checking his wallet shows that the victim is around 5' 1" in height, and his name is Alex T.
You do not see any small yellow cones with numbering around, so you ask one of the officers.
"Nothing seemed to be left behind; the only clue we have is this cloth on top of the victim's face." The officer shows you a ziplock bag with the cloth inside. You take a closer look at the body and find a small puncture hole in the victim's right arm. "It rained pretty heavily last night, it might have washed away some clues and evidence. We are going to bring the body and the cloth back to the forensics lab to more analysis," one of the detectives says. With that, you make your way back to your office.
Soon after, you receive a call from the forensic scientist telling you to head over to the forensics lab for more details on the victim. When you arrive, he says, "Glad you could make it so soon. The victim did not have any foreign fingerprints on him, nor any foreign hair on his clothing. The small hole in his right arm seems to have come from something sharp, like a needle. The cause of death is a very toxic and deadly poison."
You stand there and ponder things for a minute. You call the police station asking if they have found any suspects yet, but none have came up. You know that time is running out before the day ends and the next victim is killed.
With no leads, you head back to RuffNear Park where the body was found. As you arrive, you try to search for any clues that might have been missed by the other police and detectives. You search for hours but find nothing.
You look at the time on your wrist watch; it says 8:32 p.m. It has been more 24 hours since the arrival of the note received by the police, and there have not been any reports of another dead body, so you decide to head home to get some rest. You arrive home, change out of your clothes, go to bed, and close your eyes.
You wake up to a loud sound: "RING RING RING RING RING!" You look at your alarm clock, which reads 6:15 a.m. You pick up the phone.
"Sorry to disturb you so early, but we just got a report of another body found." You ask for the location, and the officer directs you to it.
You arrive at the scene, and, like every other case, you see police and detectives everywhere and a yellow police line around the area, but no yellow cones. You walk up to the body, and, just as you feared, you notice no signs of physical injury on the body; no gunshots, no knife wound, nothing. You check the victim's right arm to find that there is a small puncture hole. "It must be him," you mutter to yourself. You check the victim's wallet, her name is Patricia G., 5' 2" in height. You stand there pondering, trying to find a relation between the first victim and the second victim, but you can't think of any.
The murder case goes on for another four days, and for each day another person is murdered. On the third day, it is a 34-year-old male, Peter L., 5' 2" in height. On the fourth day, a 12-year-old male named Leo E., 4' 9". On the fifth day, a 68-year-old female, Elsa D., 5' 2". The pattern seems to continue, until the sixth day. On the sixth day, another person has been murdered, but this time there is no wallet found on the victim's body, and the same for the seventh day. Forensic scientists confirm that all of the victims died from the same deadly poison in the right arm.
Just when you thought the case couldn't get any weirder, the murders stop after the seventh day. For the next 2 days, there are no reports of any dead bodies, no murders, no notes, nothing. On the tenth day, you receive a call. "We have found some suspects; come down to the police department pronto." The person on the other end of the phone hangs up.
You rush over to the police department. When you arrive you notice that they have a lineup of four suspects. "I hope we can get any new information soon; we are out of ideas," says one of the officers. You noticed that he looks to be a bit out of breath, his eyes looking here and there. You look at the ID badge pinned to the left side of his chest; it says "ID: 7777777 Officer: George Snoe". You ask him if everything is OK. "Yeah I'm OK; I'm just not in the best of shape like I used to be," he replies.
You don't think much of it after that, so you start interrogating each of the suspects. The first suspect is a 25-year-old female, beautiful, with a slim body, blonde hair, and blue eyes. "I didn't commit any murders. I was working every day from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. I teach health and phys. ed.," says Patricia F.
The second suspect is a 34-year-old male, tall, about 6' 9", with black hair and brown eyes. "I couldn't have murdered anyone. I work as a investment banker at the Chicago bank, and after work I have night school. I don't have time to murder anyone," he says. Before you can ask for his name, he receives a phone call. He says it is an emergency, and you let him take the call.
The third suspect is a 41-year-old male, 6' 7" in height, very groomed, with nicely-styled hair and brown eyes. "I am a doctor at the Chicago Hospital. I did surgery on two of the days all day, and on three of the days I was working my usual hours. On the weekend I was with my family, so it couldn't have been me." You ask for his name, and he replies, "My name is Dr. David N. Edle".
The fourth and last suspect is a 24-year-old male. He is wearing a bandana, jeans hanging low, and nice white shoes. Looking at some papers the officers gave you beforehand, you read that he was caught doing all sorts of drugs. He is an addict and also a drug dealer. You asked him where he was during the week. "Nowhere man, just been chillin' with my homies. I didn't do shit, man. You pigs always arresting my brothers and shit man. Been working at the local fast food chain Rocky Ranchy's Burger Joint, just trying to get by. Don't need you poppin' me for doing nothin' wrong man."
You pondered everything for several minutes, trying to put together all the clues and suspects and other information, trying to find the murderer. Then it hit you. "How could I have been so blind?"
Who is the murderer?
