Today Maya is a bit late to her work. It is very uncommon for her, so she rushes to her cabin and logs into her agency’s cloud dashboard to see the status of all her ongoing cases. And, of course, the reliable partner office whiteboard is also there to remind her of her case duties. Four cases are in trial, and the other four are showing investigation-in-progress status. She manages a few hours of paperwork, phone calls, and applications in the bureau and organizes her To-Do list for the day.

Lily also sends the details of her responsibilities of the day along with the site coordinates and directions of the fresh case. It is amazing that she didn’t have to travel anywhere in the current phases of her cases, at least for now. So now is the time to move on to the fresh case of the day. She follows the coordinates to the crime scene. It is a two-and-a-half-hour drive to the location. 

When she finally arrives, the Bureau’s Forensic Investigations Division, Crime Scene Unit (CSU), is already at the scene. Maya is there to assist the investigation side by side with the investigating supervisor. 

Case Investigation: Day 1

Maya stands in the distance, staring at the crime scene from a few feet away. She has been a homicide detective for a few years now and has seen her fair share of murder scenes, but this one is different. There is something unnatural about it, something that was marking all the red flag boxes in her investigative instincts’ directory.

The victim is a young woman; her body is on the ground, her limbs twisted at odd angles in a pool of her own blood. Victim’s eyes… open. And dread is the only thing that could be seen in them. Her body looks like it froze in a permanent expression of terror.

Maya takes a deep breath and approaches the investigation scene. She shows her batch to the on-duty officer and steps under the yellow ribbon.

The scene is chaotic, with numerous officers investigating, taking notes, and some snapping pictures of the evidence and victim. Maya walks close to take a better look at the body. She observes that the woman had been brutally murdered, her throat slashed, and there were clear signs of physical abuse and blunt trauma. This is not something that just happens without a past footprint. From the way the body is there in the open, rather than a crime of passion, this looks like a murder of motive. She notices the possibility of it being similar to a contract killing or a human sacrifice. There are way too many non-lethal cuts and bone breaking, not sure if it was done before or after, but it is not something that a crime of passion should involve. But who knows?

Then Maya discusses her thoughts with Daniel, the on-site investigating supervisor, who shares some basic details with her. He mentions, “The murder setting looks like a serial killing. But no solid clues to conclude that. The victim is Martha Jones. She has been an attorney for many infamous serial killing cases, and one of them resembled a similar murder setting. But this one seems more aggressive and crude. We currently do not have any suspects or witnesses. This seems like a crime of revenge or cult kind of thing.”

Maya asks, “Did we send the fingerprints and other evidence to the forensics? When can they submit the report?”

Daniel said, “Just sending now. The crime unit has investigated the case on their part and securely collected all the accessible evidence. I talked to the staff in charge, and he said forensic DNA testing will be out after 72 hours, 24 at least, after receiving the package. The complete FSL report will be the later case. At least one week, and even that is the earliest.”

Maya nods and replies, “Got it. Let’s move further into the crime scene examination. There’s nothing wrong with being extra careful with the clues here. Something seems sketchy. Can’t quite put my finger on it.”

Daniel and Maya, with their team, start scanning the site for any probable signs that may lead them toward the motive, witness, or suspect in this case. 

The crime location of this case is not a secluded place, it is the compound or open areas between multiple buildings. It is strange how no one in those buildings saw or heard anything when this crime took place. It is not exactly a place where a crime could stay hidden, and yet somehow… that is exactly what happened in this case. And she didn’t fall from the terrace or roof as well. So, how did this happen?

The motive of the crime is unclear, and not much is found that could be regarded as evidence as well. Basically, the case is an exemplary cliffhanger of its kind. Maya connected with emergency personnel and got permission to ask a few questions in the society. 

They enquire: Who is the victim? Why was she here? Has anyone seen her here before? 

Then they search to find: Did any camera catch her here before? Did she live here? Did she visit any local shops? etc…

After a while of almost disappointing searches and crime scene analysis, she looks at her watch, saying, “Nothing positive here for now. Time to visit the bureau. We need to analyze the present evidence and findings. Maybe brainstorming might help with this one.”

Daniel nods and replies, “Let’s hope it does.”

She backtracks toward her car but turns midway as her instinct tells her to. She sees a man peeking from one of the building’s corners. It is around the corner from the closest building to her. Not too far, but not too close, either. The distance could be around 50 feet. It is a man, tall and lean. He is watching her, his expression… unreadable. Well, she would need extraordinarily sharp eyes to read the expressions of a man. But something about him made her uneasy—rang all the suspicion radars at once. It could also have been a simple coincidence or just a regular man who might have been too frightened to speak in the current circumstance. 

But for the most part, it felt like a relief to see hope that there might actually be a witness of this scene. She might find some clues that they have missed. So, in this hope, she walks towards the man. But as she takes a few steps in that direction, her head becomes heavy, her eyes go hazy for a moment, and soon her vision becomes dark. When her vision returns, in just a matter of a few seconds, the man is gone.

She shakes her head, trying to clear her thoughts. “Shouldn’t have binged the series last night. Late-night shows really do kill the eyes,” she mumbles to herself. But just to be thorough, she mentions the man in her case notes for future reference and asks officers to urgently get CCTV footage of that specific area. 

Maya drives back to the bureau. Her mind… filled with questions, thousands of them. Who is the killer? Why did they choose her? And several more questions followed the train of her thoughts afterward. But the most ambiguous thought in her mind is just emerging. Considering all the situations she had been in the past, a service vehicle was practically the safest spot for her. Despite that, somehow, her instincts are warning her.

‘Why does it feel like I’m being watched…? Who was the person…?’ Question was almost like an exaggerated thought in her brain. This is not the first time she has seen a brutal crime scene, but her brain is acting like an amateur in this one. She notes this down to investigate a bit more on this aspect of the case and adds a note to herself: ‘Maybe consider therapy once in a while? Or try counseling? Stress and overwork will eat you alive!’ 

But to be real, maybe she really just saw a suspect who would have been revisiting the crime scene to enjoy the mayhem that he had caused. Well, in her mind, and in that case, it is indeed a good sign.

As Maya drives away from the crime scene, she can’t shake the feeling that she is being followed. It is just an initiation, in this case, more like an aftereffect of her recent suspicion. She checks her rearview mirror but doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary. She takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself down, but her nerves are still on edge.

She closely monitors her surroundings throughout her journey till the investigation branch. And when she steps out of the vehicle, she turns around to observe the surroundings one more time. It was almost like she was being paranoid about something that wasn’t there at all. After a quick check, her feet promptly move towards the building. She rushes to the bureau, while also informing the guard about her suspicion.

She enters the bureau and inquires at Lily’s cabin, “So, what do we have in the evidence basket?” A few other officers are also there, constructing their reports, managing paperwork, and handling other parts of the case.

Runo, the investigation officer, answers as he walks into the cabin, “Not much. As usual, we collected probative evidence. (Documentation, video, sketches, and diagrams.) We did some presumptive tests (at the crime scene) to determine that no drugs or harmful materials were used in the crime process. And indeed, there were none. There is blood present at the crime scene, but every part of it belonged to the victim, none to the criminal or probable suspect. No fall injury, either. Found no apparent motive or lead to the criminal.”

Maya adds, “As I saw, we do have some biological evidence (e.g., blood, body fluids, hair, and other tissues), latent print evidence (e.g., fingerprints, palm prints, footprints), trace evidence (e.g., fibers, soil, vegetation, glass fragments), and digital evidence (e.g., cell phone records, Internet logs, email messages). Things will certainly take a turn. Fingers crossed!”

Daniel enters the cabin and adds, “So, we have some results from the lab, and some of them are pending. These are not very positive ones, so embrace yourself.”

As he gets everyone’s attention, he continues, “Photographs and documents of the scene are analyzed, and they aren’t that useful at this point. Further analysis will be done. There is no hope from the presently collected trace materials, and we did not find any probable points of entry, exit, or the suspect. There is no sign of another person at the crime scene, which is making this even worse.” 

After this, he looks at everyone, takes a deep breath, and quickly ends his conversation with the line, “Seems like the devil performed in this one. No human trace could be linked to the crime scene... yet.”

It seems like the procedure will take a lengthy turn. This is no quick task, especially after all the complicated parts of it came into view, one by one. 

Let’s hope some positive results shine a light on the dark and hidden areas of this crime… 

Let’s hope some signs are left unturned and will be discovered. 

Let’s hope… there’s hope.

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