Read The Sacrifice: Chronicles of Sunset Valley Page 7
Chapter 6: What Could have Happened?
Location: Trish’s Apartment – Sunset Valley Residential Area
Time: 2:43
After the crime scene was secured, the ambulance was called for the body to be moved. George had the crime scene sealed with yellow tapes that shouted ‘Police Line: Do not cross!’
Sam and George saw as the body was taken away in the ambulance. Now it was their time to look around and find as many clues as possible. George had told Maggie to inform Jonah Paxton that he was needed urgently at the hospital. Sunset Valley had one good doctor and Jonah was the one who could run an autopsy.
Sam stood next to George with a camera in her hands. She never knew her hobby of photography would come in handy to photograph a crime scene.
‘You ready for this, Sam?’ George asked.
Sam nodded.
They snapped the latex gloves on and moved into the apartment.
The first place was the lounge. A trail of blood went from the kitchen to the bathroom, from one end of the apartment to the other, left to right.
‘Looks like the body was dragged here,’ George said.
‘Looks like it,’ Sam agreed, ‘But the body was soaked in its own blood in the tub. Quite a lot of blood there. If the body was indeed decapitated in the kitchen, then there should more blood than this.’
George thought about it for a moment. Sam had a point. They moved to the kitchen. The window in the kitchen was splattered with crimson coloured liquid. There was some blood on the floor.
Sam noticed an axe covered in blood. She took a photograph of it. George saw the axe and moved closer to observe it. There was a mark on the floor, next to the sharp end.
‘Could be the murder weapon,’ Sam said.
‘No; we are dealing with a decapitated body. The size of this kitchen, there isn’t enough room to swing the axe.’
George stood straight, looking at the red coloured window.
‘Something happened here, all right. According to Tom, our victim stood here. He saw her standing from the window. She turns around, the blood splats on the window, blocking his view.’
George tried to visualise what could have happened. And then it hit him.
‘She didn’t die here. She made her stand here.’
Sam looked puzzled, but George went on to explain.
‘The axe was her weapon. Whoever killed her, confronted her at this spot. Because there isn’t a lot of space, she didn’t swing it horizontally but rather used it vertically.’
Sam noticed the mark on the floor. She realized what George was talking about. The blade on the axe landed there.
‘The axe must have been stuck here or something,’ George continued. ‘Or she thought the killer was dead. She looks outside the window to call for help. But…’
George stopped. His theory was based on assumptions and he knew for a fact that his theories were meaningless until they got the autopsy report.
‘If what you’re saying is true, then…,’ Sam said, ‘…this blood on the axe and on the floor belongs to the killer.’
Doubt crept in George’s mind. There was quite a lot of blood. The killer could have died of blood loss.
They moved on from the kitchen to the area where they found the body. The bathroom was a mess. Blood was everywhere. Sam managed to muster some courage to take photographs of the bathtub and blood painted on the walls.
George shook his head in disgust. This was the part where the victim was brutally assassinated. But how? There was no murder weapon in sight and the splashes of blood on the walls showed no pattern of weapon usage.
All this blood reminded him of something: an image engraved in his mind from his past. His heart sank as memories started flowing in.
‘George, what kind of a monster is capable of doing such a thing in this town?’
Sam’s words brought George back to his senses, back to the realm of sanity where he was in control.
‘The kind of monster we will catch and bring to justice.’
George’s words did not fill Sam with courage. It made her feel more horrible. The loss of someone close had filled her heart with grief. Even if there was an outside chance that the victim was not Trish, someone still had died in this once peaceful town.
‘Sam, take a break. We’ll talk about it tomorrow at the station.’
‘What about you?’
‘I’ll take some samples of the blood, bag the axe and take one final peek around. I’ll be fine.’
George knew he would not be all right. But he had to face his demons, sooner or later. Sam walked out; her footsteps faded away.
George took a deep breath as he looked around thinking where to start from. The whole place was a mess.
‘Feeling a bit vulnerable?’ a voice startled him but George regained his composure when the familiarity of the voice kicked in.
X was standing in the doorway of the bathroom. The grin on his face was disturbing, as if he knew what George was going through.
‘I suppose this is how people react when they are forced to face something that brings out their darkest secrets.’
‘Not now, X.’
George spun around, turning his back on X. It was his pathetic attempt, hoping that X would vanish or go wherever he came from.
But X stood there, observing the sheriff’s every move. He noticed how George took a sample of blood from the bathtub and the walls.
George took a sigh, a loud exhale of stress.
‘You know, you shouldn’t be stressing out that much,’ X said. ‘This ain’t the first time you are seeing blood. Considering what happened to your wife and your…’
‘DAMN IT X; I SAID NOT NOW!!!’
George’s shout echoed in the bathroom. He was tired and the last thing he wanted was X nagging him to death about the past he had been trying not to face.
X chuckled.
‘You might wanna ease down your tone there, sheriff. People might hear it and think you’ve gone crazy.’
George realised that he should not let his anger get the best of him. X was nothing more than a shadow, a creation from his own mind. He knew he could beat X.
George looked over his shoulder. X was gone. He rubbed his temple and continued his work. He had a long night ahead of him.