"Naaah, he probably has a twin or something and someone swapped their identities to hide the murder. First potential clue."
After staring at Miles’ details for a while, Natalie shook her head, denying it had anything to do with something supernatural that didn’t exist. She was very practical in her view and also concluded Miles was a true suspect.
Slipping her hand into the crevices of the couch for a couple of moments as if searching for something, she pulled out a pen.
"I knew I left you here," she said to the pen with a little victorious smile and brought the tip to the paper, writing next to Miles’ name.
"I suspect this is a case of identity switch after a murder. The suspect’s temperament and history before and after this should be compared."
Muttering as she wrote, she leaned backward with satisfaction and read through the other suspects’ profiles, but none were as eye-catching as Miles.
Crisscrossing them with an ’X’, she pulled out the paper containing Miles’ profile and the missing bullies, placing it on the table.
Leaning back against the couch, she gulped down half of the beer with eyes glued to the paper and ate several slices of pizza.
But just as she was about to give up, her pupils darted between two crucial details.
"Suspect was challenged multiple times within this timeframe but defeated the bullies, quickly rising to fame."
She read it out loud and smiled.
"It’s just as I suspected. A weakling bullied all his life, then after the mysterious blood pool was able to challenge his bullies."
"Got you." Natalie clicked her tongue and grinned, moving her eyes to the second crucial detail, and paused, the smile vanishing from her face.
"...It was said on Monday morning, the group of missing kids seemed oddly happy and hugged random students they saw along the hallway instead of bullying them. But the moment they spotted Miles Sinclair, they acted strange and left without returning to school."
Staring at the text she had just read, Natalie felt something click within her. She muttered as if in a daze.
"Hmmm. Things aren’t as simple as they look. Watching someone you’ve bullied and tortured all his life suddenly turn back and go against you... But then again, he not only wins against you, but also intimidates you in public. Surely their egos were deeply hurt—a big stain on their reputation. As stupid teenagers, there’s a need to put the prey back in its place. They must have done something very stupid then.
And now imagine that your plan didn’t work or the person wasn’t hurt. The only reason to turn back home on a Monday morning like you’ve seen a ghost is that you expected the other person to be long dead.
I’d feel the same."
Natalie muttered continuously like she was in a trance, running several scenarios in her head.
"First, the group of high school students had the assurance that he was dead. Murder isn’t something you do and wake up smiling about the next day. The mental pressure alone should have made them avoid school for a few days. Meaning they didn’t commit the murder, but paid someone to do it?"
It didn’t click at first—her previous idea when she first read the file subheadings.
The next moment, Natalie snapped to her feet with a look of overwhelming shock.
"Those bastards... they were killed in a failed assassination attempt, and the only active area was at the birthday party. If I’m not wrong..."
Her voice drifted off and she didn’t even complete her sentence before making her move.
Walking toward the extension, she unplugged her phone and quickly dialed a number.
Over at someone’s house, in a dimly lit bedroom brimming with teasing giggles and smooching sounds, a middle-aged couple wrestled each other in bed, having a rare lovely moment. But the moment was soon short-lived as the phone on the nightstand lit up, making the two pause.
Staring at each other, the couple panted softly and chose not to answer the call, resuming their kissing and giggling. Both feeling the heat in their bodies stir their desire, the call ended, and they were about to get down to it when the phone rang again.
Unwilling to miss this opportunity with his wife, the man decisively paid no heed to it, but was stopped by his wife.
"Honey, pick up the phone. It must be something important," the woman said softly, the lust in her tone clear.
Reluctant, the man got off her and picked up the phone in anger without glancing at the caller ID, deciding to vent right away.
"Who the fuck calls this late? Don’t you have a family or something? Or were you sent to ruin someone’s night?" the man shouted angrily, heaving in fury.
"Lieutenant?"
A single, direct word pierced through the phone’s speaker straight into the man’s consciousness, causing him to freeze and stand still like it was the grim reaper’s voice.
The lieutenant forgot how to breathe upon recognizing the voice.
"Lieutenant?"
Natalie’s exceptionally cold voice pierced him again and he instinctively shuddered, stuttering as he tried to speak.
"Sor... sorry, Captain. I swear I didn’t know you were—"
"Shut the fuck up."
Triggered, Natalie snapped, going straight to the point.
"I don’t give a fuck what you’re doing. We have them. Go get me the dashcam footage from those boys’ vehicles and report to the station early tomorrow morning. And don’t fucking tell the missing persons department about this," Natalie barked, losing the enthusiasm to share more details about what she had discovered.
Cutting off the line, she glanced around the room and picked up the files. Turning off the lights in the room, she went to the window to peek at the opposite building.
The rest of what happened was history, because as early as 5:00 AM, Natalie was already on her way to the station, speeding all the way.
When she arrived at the station, the lieutenant was already there, and they quickly went to her office to play the dashcam video. Unable to contain his excitement after watching the dashcam footage, he urgently briefed her on what happened.
"I got two dashcams. One from a car belonging to the boy named Chris and the other Kelvin. I also tracked their recent GPS locations."
Listening to the lieutenant speak, Natalie inserted the SD card into her private computer and rapidly clicked a series of keys until a long grid list of videos appeared.
Tapping the date for last Friday night, around nighttime, she played the first video.
The video started in a parking lot filled with many cars. The front lights of a black truck shone brightly.
"Wait, listen."
Natalie was about to fast-forward the clip when the lieutenant hastily stopped her, and audio played alongside the scene.
"He’s heading out now. My GPS is on," a youthful voice said, sounding like he was on the phone, then replied, "Okay."
"Miles isn’t alone. Chloe, Billy’s sister, is with him," the voice said, then stepped on the accelerator to catch up to distant taillights, careful enough not to be noticed. The camera did no justice to show its make or plate number.
Watching this in tense silence, Natalie fast-forwarded the clip about ten minutes, to when the person in the car received another call and instantly stopped tailing the vehicle.
At this moment, Natalie’s face formed a chilling frown, thinking the video had ended. But the lieutenant stepped in, skipping 15 minutes forward to where the vehicle pulled to a curving stop, its headlights shining on two figures: Chris and Ben.
The office fell deathly silent for a moment. Trying to ease her breathing, Natalie closed her eyes, guessing what had happened.
Eventually, she broke the silence, exhaling softly.
"What a bunch of idiots," she cursed, thinking deeply about a much more serious matter.
The lieutenant didn’t hold back his thoughts. "Both the girl and the boy are still alive and okay."
"Now I understand why those three thought they had seen a ghost," Natalie mused, adding after a moment, "I believe things aren’t as simple as they seem. There’s no way a crime syndicate would take a job from a high school student, nor do these kids have the money to afford them. There must be an outside influence.
Lieutenant, let this stay between us. It’s likely that their next target is Miles. I’ll go size him up and be on the lookout. In the meantime, you be ready to activate the whole department for a raid, including SWAT and the gang unit.
Whoever this kid Miles is, he isn’t ordinary and has people secretly protecting him, so we can justify using him as bait."
Natalie quelled her emotions and made a quick judgment.
Meanwhile, later that morning, Miles went to school, oblivious that he had been involved in something very grand.
QN: We’ll be back to 3 chap daily update by tomorrow