Blood

The light refracted in a thousand directions when the lamp was directed at the broken glass. 

“Careful there, you don’t wanna get cut.” The Sheriff told me as he approached the scene. “So, what have we got here?”

“Seems like the subject entered through this window.” I said as I pointed the lock inside. 

“Seems convenient, but I don’t think so.” He took a deep breath. “Poor woman, living her retirement, a grandma of four.” He touched the window. “But she couldn’t afford a new glass.”

“Why?” I was about to give the Sheriff my guess when he took his lamp and put it over his lips telling me to shut up. I’ve never liked his attitude, he’s got some reputation for thinking he’s the only intelligent person in the room. 

“You need to learn to analyze the scene.” He pointed at the cracks on the window. “You see the lines, they’ve got dust, that means that this window has been broken for quite a time. Also I know that because I’ve been here before and I knew about it” He laughed “But anyways, this window has been broken for quite some time, even the edges are not as sharp as they should be if it had been broken recently.” He proceeded to introduce his arm through the broken part of the window. “Also, I can’t reach the lock, for the subject to have entered through here he must be freakin tall don’t you think?”

I nodded, I couldn’t help but admit that he was right. Mayb the rumours were true and he was a real genius. I struggle to believe that but I gotta admit that I’m still new in town. But who knows, maybe this is the case that I solve, I can’t wait for it to happen, the first case I solve, and the most interesting part is that it’s a murder. From what I ‘ve heard it’s the first murder in more than twenty years. Who knows, maybe it’s a signal.

Three days passed since the murder, apparently the killer had been vary careful, no prints found in the house, also no luck with the corpse, a clean cut on the throat and that was it, simple yet perfect. Everyone in town was worried, there was a killer living among the people, and no one knew who it was, it could be anyone’s neighbor, anyone’s son or daughter. 

But what really puzzled me was how he entered the house. Both doors were locked, windows were closed too, except for the broken window there was no way anyone could have entered. I looked again at the house plan. We had checked all the entrances and windows, even searched for a hidden passage in the basement, but we weren't lucky. 

There was no way that the subject would’ve been able to enter the house, but if he did, let’s suppose that he was an acquaintance with the victim and the grandma let them in. Maybe the subject asked for help or something and let them in. That covers how he entered, but once inside he couldn’t have gotten out. the keys were where they were supposed to be and all the doors were locked, so there was no way he could have left the place. 

Suddenly a thought occurred to me. What if the subject had been at the house all this time. That would explain why all the doors were locked and the windows closed. He killed the victim and waited for someone to find her. Then when a door was finally open he escaped. The police took a few minutes until they arrived at the scene, that was enough time to escape. 

I called the archive to see if I could get more details about the call.

“Archive, how may I help you.” The lady on the other line sounded almost robotic.

“Hello, I’d like to get some info on the murder case.”

There was a brief case “The murder case?” The lady sounded perplexed. “Can you give me your credentials?”

“Sure, it's 13 56 74. The name’s Ron Doughty.”

“All right, officer. What would you like to know?”

“Who made the call?”

Ater a moment the lady answered “Apparently there was no call, the Sheriff gound the body and started the investigation.”

“How come? Are you sure?”

“According to our register there were no calls to the office that night, so yeah, I’m sure.”

“All right then. Can you tell me if there were other officers when the Sheriff came to the scene.”

“I’m afraid that’s all the info I have, but you should ask the Sheriff. He’s always glad to help anyone.” 

“All right then, thanks.” I hung up and sat on my desk. 

When I first met the Sheriff at the scene he made it look as if that was the first time he had been there. His words and behaviour were as if he was trying to convince me that it was also his first time at the crime scene. Either he was trying to brag or he’s hiding something. 

I still don’t know what to thik, this new information has shocked me. I’ve never liked the Sheriff, there’s something that tells me that I shouldn’t trust him, but also everyone seems to trust him so much, he’s been here his entire life and I would look bad if I start raising doubts about him. Maybe I should just have a friendly chat with him and see if I can find something. 

The next day I had breakfast with him. It was his favorite place, a small cafeteria right downtown. 

He started the conversation as he started eating his biscuit “Tell me son, do you have any idea of who could be the murderer?”

“Not really, I guess it must be a he, young or at least athletic.” I took a sip of my coffee. “Probably an acquaintance of the woman.”

“An acquaintance?” The Sheriff took a sip of coffee to pass his biscuit.

“How else would we explain that there was no forced entry?”

“But then how would you explain that everything was locked when we arrived.”

“I’m still trying to figure that out. Probably he made a key or even had a spare key, if that’s the case then it must had been a good acquaintance.”

The Sheriff started eating his breakfast, eggs and bacon as he chewed lpoudly “I don’t think so, all her family lives far away, if there’s someone really close to her it’s her neighbour, an old lady that can barely stand up. And she’s alive and well y’know” He pointed at me with his fork. “No, this criminal has to be someone really clever to fool us like that.”

“Did you know her, our victim?”

“Mrs. Catharine,m of course I know her, she’s been here as long as I can remember. She gifted me my first cap, she used to knit one for every newborn in town.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know she was that close to you.”

“She wasn’t that close, just someone everyone knows.”

That seemed weird, from our conversation at the crime scene it seemed that he didn’t know the victim. “So that’s why everyone’s been concerned about her.” I tried to continue the talk.

“Yes, besides, it’s a small town, we all know each other.”

“And yet one of your neighbors is a killer.”

“Life sure delivers some surprises.” The Sheriff finished his coffee. “Anyway, this person has to be really good. No murder had occuredduring my watch, only natural deaths, and of course, as you could’ve notice the were because of age so… In my opinion everything was going pretty well till’ last month.”

“You know I come from quite a big city, several murders a year. I ‘d never thought that there would be a place that for so many years only had natural deaths.”

“It sure is a good place.” The sheriff looked up and clenched his hand.    

I wondered why he started acting so indifferent. 

We finished breakfast and went back to the office. The whole ride we remained in silence. I was afraid of mentioning anything that would play against me, but there was one thing for sure, the Sheriff was hiding something. 

Back at the office we continued analyzing the crime scene. 

I tried to get some more information. “I was told you were the one that found the body.”

“Yes, I was passing by and decided to see if Mrs. Catharine needed something. She didn’t answer the door which is quite unusual for her so I decided to give her a call. She didn’t answer.” He took a step towards the picture of the house. “That’s not like her so I called the office and told them I would get in.”

His story matched. But I was still unsure about him. 

Night came without notice. We hadn’t made even the slightest advance in the case. The clock almost struck eleven and the only one’s left were the Sheriff and myself. The heat increased after they turned off the A/C. We were both staring at the wall, filled with pictures of the crime scene. Some names had appeared along the investigation, Akiddo who liked to molest older people, a new man in town that no one knew. But nothing conclusive yet. 

It was almost midnight and the heat was killing us. I removed my blazer and stayed with just my shirt. The sheriff did as I did, but he remained in his undershirt. We were determined to find something tonight, even if it was the smallest clue. 

At some point it became pointless, in an effort to try to get some another insight I took a closer look to all the pictures. The broken window appeared again, right in front of me. There was something about that picture that I just couldn’t understand. As I came closer I realized that it looked as if someone has cleaned some blood. It was not dirt, it was dried blood. 

I turned away to look at the sheriff who was staring right at me. Then I looked at hs naked arm, a big cut extended through his forearm. I looked up and met his eyes. 

“I guess we won’t find anything again today” He told me without diverting his gaze. “It’s a shame, we wouldn’t want there to be another murder in this town, don’t you think.”

I nodded. 

The sheriff took his clothes and exited the office.