100 Ways to Solve a Murder-Chapter 69: Murder of the 15th XIV

16 hours left

Marco walked to the living room from the kitchen looking at the slicked blond lying on the sofa, arms crossed and with his eyes closed, thinking.

"Levi, it’s Davies, he says he now has those videos you asked for at CID," he says.

Levi snapped his eyes open, "About time," he commented, swinging his legs off the sofa and standing up. He grabbed his coat by the door and the two drove towards the police department immediately.

Marco turned to Levi on the driver’s seat.

"What do you think we’ll see?" He wondered out loud but Levi ignored him. He was still thinking, with the information Sam provided to Marco, only one thing comes to mind. This was not a random attack, it clearly wasn’t. It took too much effort. Too much time and a lot of planning had been put into it. A lot of people were involved. Someone planned it. But why?

.......

Criminal Investigation Department

Levi and Marco passed the bullpen with a few officers sitting in their cubicles as they walked in Davies’ office, the older man looked up from his seat. He was looking at the reports, so far nothing really stood up.

Davies stood from his seat, "Thought you’d show up soon." he greeted.

Levi checked his watch, "Don’t waste time Davies, I have 16 hours," he said.

Davies furrowed his brows, "16 what?" he asked but he was ignored. Marco pretended to be ignorant of when the older man looked at him for answers.

Davies shrugged then moved towards his computer and pulled up a video, he moved so the two could look at it.

"It wasn’t easy getting that video from Guys, their lawyers had been giving us shit about this case. Then the recordings from Dr. Gray’s house, we wouldn’t have gotten a copy of it if your sister didn’t pull some strings. She did tell me to inform you to be quick about it. " Davies said, he knew Anna. He had been acquainted with the ravishing woman. The Jackson gene pool he thought was a goldmine, he reckons their children, if they do decide to have one, would not fall far from the tree.

Levi looked at the screen, watching attentively,

"Understandable, their top Forensic pathologist is dead, and they think I got it wrong," he said.

Palmer stood by the door handing Davies a file, catching just enough of the conversation that he spat, "You did get it wrong." Because of Mr. Jackson’s wrong information, the doctor was dead.

Levi turned to look at the man, "I didn’t get anything wrong. I said she wasn’t on the list." He said, going back to the screen.

Palmer scoffed in disbelief, the blond wouldn’t even take responsibility for his mistake. A Mistake that caused someone’s life. What an asshole.

"And how come she’s dead?" Palmer spat.

Levi narrowed his eyes at the man, "Cause someone killed her. A completely different killer." He replied nonchalantly.

Davies whiplashed to Levi, surprised at the information. "Are you suggesting there’s another psycho out there?" He shouted.

Levi rolled his eyes, "There are hundreds of Psycho’s out there, Detective Davies," he commented casually. Studies have shown that psychopathic behavior in the general population is about 1 in 100. Funnily enough, 21% of CEOs are psychopaths. Reminding him of Sam’s brother Ivan. He really should hurry and solve the case, time was ticking.

"Levi." Marco chided, annoyed that he was being a smartass again. It wasn’t the time to unleash his smart-aleck persona.

Levi sighed, he waltzed out of the office and onto the bullpen outside where a whiteboard was with all the victim’s details on it. Everyone present in the bullpen turned to the slicked blond, while Davies, Marco, and Palmer followed behind curiously.

Levi pointed at all the victim’s crime scenes like he was presenting a case. One thing stood out from the lot, it was the blood on the last victim, Rona.

"Two different patterns of murders as all of you can clearly see. This was not the work of the Murder of the 15th-killer." He stated.

Leon, a brown-haired officer, crossed her arms, eyes narrowed at the blond. "People change. Killers can change. Evolve." She said, trying to make a point.

"Ugh! You interpret the evidence in a way so it matches your theory!" Levi shouted, frustrated at the amount of stupidity in the room.

Levi points at the photos of James, Anthony, Izaz, and Cleo.

"The first killer hides in the shadow of anonymity, someone who strikes on schedule, who has a hit list of victims, chosen carefully." He said.

Then he gestures to the photo of Rona sprawled on the floor bloodied. Her surroundings are in complete chaos.

"While this killer shows off his talent. The scene is staged, it’s set to send a message of terror." Levi said his tone sterner like he was talking to children. Then he turned to the crowd of officers in the bullpen, that was working on the case. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Did you find any mark on the latest bodies? The killer’s signature?" He asked them. Of course no.

The crowd was silent, nobody wanted to admit that he was right. That yes, Jones the pathologist didn’t find the same mark on Rona’s left inner arm as the previous victims had.

"NO! Because there isn’t. A mark that is always there even if every cause of death were different? The killer’s signature!" Levi exclaimed.

Then he turned to face Davies standing beside Marco.

"These are two completely different killers! Right now you are focusing on merging each murder, trying to catch one killer. You will not catch either one!" The Irishman roared, pissed that the taxpayer’s money was wasted on the lot. Sometimes they can be so stupid.

"What do you suppose we do?" Davies asked, taking the new information in. Maybe they really were looking at the case the wrong way like he said. He made perfect sense, after all, the two had an inkling that Dr. Gray’s, and Rona’s death were different. First off was that all the previous victims were found in someplace that was not their home. Second, was that the wreckage, the blood. It was all messy, gruesome. Compared to the previous murders, that was all tidy.

Leon turned to her superior Davies, "You can’t be seriously listening to him," she commented, annoyed that he was taking advice from the local sleuth. A sleuth who does it all for money, worse of all for fun.

Levi turns to Leon, and he shoots her his signature smile.

"Thanks for the input, Leon. Do shut up." He spat, tone sickly sweet.

Then he turned to Davies,

"One killer at a time, your brains can’t possibly handle processing both. This killer first." Levi said, pointing at Rona’s photo on the whiteboard.

........

Levi sat on Davies’s chair inside his office, eyes glued on two screens. One a desktop, besides it a laptop. On the left was Guy’s security recording the day of the incident and the right was Sam Gray’s security footage.

He pointed at the screen, where the two videos are playing. "Look at the cameras," he said. The left screen showed Sam Gray exiting Guy’s at 7:20 PM.

And the right screen was a video from Sam’s house.

"There’s nothing there. No records of the crime." Davies said showing a blank screen the moment Rona walked in with the dog at 7 sharp. He’d review the video beforehand trying to get ahead of Levi only to fail miserably. He saw nothing amiss in the video.

"Exactly. How was he able to shut down the security systems? The cameras?"

Palmer stood by the door, arms crossed. "He shut the power off, disabling it. Or he hacked through it. Anyone with elementary hacking skills could do it." He suggested.

Levi eyed him, "Good guess but wrong. These are not ordinary cameras Palmer. These are Fredricksen made, not yet in the market, extremely expensive. Electricity and solar-powered, can charge itself and store power as back up, capable of working for 7days without a source of energy. No power outage had occurred in this area for the past month. 4G, sending live feeds and recording them to Fredricksen database." He said, then turning to look at both Macro and Davies in the room.

"The windows are locked shut. The only way in is through the front door, but there are no signs of forced entry. So he had to have a copy of the key...and there are only 3 people other than Sam who has a copy of her house keys. The dog walker, the PA, and ..."

"You," Davies suggested, earning a smirk from the blond. "Yes, me. Moving on. So how did he get in? Ideas." he said, eyes bouncing to the three in the room.

Davies shrugged, thinking, "Maybe the dog walker let him in," he suggested.

"Good guess," Levi said. Davies smiled, he had never been complimented by Levi before. It was so rare, "Yeah?" he asked for confirmation.

"No." The Irishman deadpanned, sighed, and continued. "Why would she let in a stranger in her employer’s house?"

Davies scowled his bubble burst.

"Maybe she knew him?" Leon suggested.

"Maybe. But Mo was a factor. The dog, you’ve met the dog Davies, Marco. A trained guard dog and this is his territory, a clever dog would get in a fit if anyone walked in his territory without the permission of his Alpha, the Alpha means Sam." Levi explained.

"But neighbors didn’t hear anything. Meaning he was in the house already when the woman returned from walking the dog. The first problem is getting in the house--how did he get in if nobody let him in?" Levi thought out loud.

"He stole the key?" Marco asked, "Yes." Levi agreed, putting his hand in his pocket, pulling the copy of his key in hand. He knew well that it was not an ordinary key. It brought the wrong boys to the yard, and that still bothered him. Where were they? Why didn’t they come? Are they still alive?

"Both victims still had their keys in their possessions, and when I arrived, the door was locked from the inside. And the only way in was the key." Levi thought out loud.

He twisted the key in his fingers, analyzing it. "It wasn’t the dog-walkers key, the killer was there before her, so he didn’t get the key from her." He eliminated options.

"It wasn’t Sam’s either, she used it to get in. And it was definitely not me, I was in 7 Eastbourne Rd. and I had the key in my pocket the whole time. So, only one key left...." He trailed on.

"Elle’s, but she didn’t report it missing in the initial interview." He mused out loud. He fixed his tie, thinking deeply and the others watched. Waiting for his conclusion.

"Think. Think. Think." He told himself.

’He kissed me.’ Sam’s voice echoed in his head. Then he grinned like a mad man, staring at the video playing before him. The image of Elle walking out of Guys, holding her purse. The brunette assistant turned to her left, and she smiled greeting a familiar blond.

"I’m such an eejit, a stupid eejit! Oh, that’s awful good!" Levi says excitedly. He’d done it! He solved the puzzle!

"What is he on about?" Davies asked Marco, to which the GP responded with a shrug.

Levi then turned to Davies, grinning.

"Davies!"

"What?" the flabby man said surprised.

"Get me the Assistant. Get me, Elle Hart." The Irishman states, grinning like a madman.