Partner

Stepping out his car, Ray made sure to lock it before he began to approach the other two men. The one who he believed to be his partner turned when he noticed his presence first.

"You must be detective Monroe, I take it?" being at the scene, he tried to hold back the excitement he felt at being called that as he reached his right hand out to shake the hand the other had extended to him.

"That's correct, and you are? I apologize, I wasn't given your name prior to coming here." Ray replied as the man shook his head slightly.

"It's nothing to apologize over, nothing is ever organized at the start of a new transfer and transition. I'm Detective Abel Gray and for the immediate future, we'll be working on together." He introduced before turning his attention back to the officer who had been briefing him on the situation.

"I take that you were at least told what had happened here before you happened on the scene?" He inquired looking up at the house as he spoke. The entrance had been sectioned off with 'caution' tape and two officers were posted near the entrance to stop anyone without permission from entering or getting too close to the scene of the crime.

"Yes, they said it looked to be a burglary gone. At least one victim - a woman in her thirties who appeared to have been killed during an altercation with the culprit while trying to defend herself." Ray replied, remembering what he had been told and read in the briefing on his phone.

"Yes, well that was at least what it had originally been chalked up to, but according to evidence and the neighbors, it may have actually been premediated?" Abel replied as he motioned his head towards the officer to indicate he should tell Ray what he had just been told.

"Yes sir, sorry." he replied as he looked down at the notepad he was holding.

"The woman's name is Victoria Ingles, 35. She has lived here on her own for the last six years or. According to the record she had no children and no is aware if she had a boyfriend or not." he began

"After talking to the neighbors, it seems that no one heard or saw anything suspicious in early morning hours. John Williams who lives on her left said he always gets up early for a walk in the morning and never saw anyone suspicious lurking around. This was about five this morning and Jane Tillman and her husband Ron get up early to take their dogs out for a walk as they always wake them up around this and neither remembering hearing any commotion coming from the victims house or noticed anyone entering and this was about or slightly after five fifteen." The officer recited.

"Isn't it possible for someone to have entered the house between that time?" Ray asked as he glanced up towards the front door.

"No Sir, because when they came back from walking their dogs, which was at almost six, the saw the victim standing outside her front door smoking, she waved at them before putting the cigarette out and going back inside. The commotion started fifteen minutes after this. While the back window is where the culprit escaped from the evidence points to the window being opened from the inside only and not forced. No sign of forced entry to the front door either."

"So they're thinking that it was someone who the victim knew that staged it took like a burglary gone wrong?" Ray surmised.

"Exactly. There were a few things stolen- her laptop, some jewelry, some brand name items and a few other things. Unless a witness in lying however, whoever the culprit was is someone the victim let into her house willingly and most likely last night." Abel confirmed as he began to walk towards the entrance of the house, Ray followed closely behind him.

"Do we have any solid leads as to who that person might've been?" Ray asked as they entered the house after confirming who they were with the two officers standing guard at the door.

"None yet, they are sweeping for finger prints right now, but so far it seems like whoever it was was cautious enough to not leave a trace of much of anything behind that could get them caught. Even the dishwasher was run last night so any classes or otherwise used are gone as well." Abel replied as he put on a pair of white latex gloves so that he could start having a look around himself. Ray had to admit that so far despite the fact that he did seem a bit uptight and very focused on the job, he wasn't as bad as he had expected him to be based upon what Harold said. Maybe it was just an overreaction.

Ray followed suit as he put on gloves and moved into the living room where the body had been found. The body had not yet been moved as they were still taking note of things. Getting used to seeing a dead body in front of him was something that it was going to take Ray a while to get used to, but being part of his job he couldn't ignore what was in front of him.

The woman had been stabbed in her chest at least twice, the second stab appeared to the fatal one based upon the angle. There were also self defense wounds on her hands, and arms, a sign that she had put her arms to defend herself and potential tried to grab the murder weapon from the culprit. They would have to wait for the autopsy and postmortem to be done before they would know what the weapon they were looking for was. By his guess though it was one of the knives that she kept in her kitchen, but he wasn't sure there was a way to take inventory of whether one was missing or not since the victim was the only one who lived in the house.

"Hm, pity that she had to die in such a way, especially if it was someone that she trusted." Abel commented as he came over to take a look at the body himself. His sharp eyes scanned over it as he looked for anything that might've been missed.

"Yeah.. I couldn't imagine dying the hands of someone that I thought I could trust." Ray replied as he turned his attention elsewhere, he couldn't stand looking at the body for any longer than he already had.

"You'd be surprised by how often it actually happens. In most cases such as this, the intension and anger run high in the culprit because the victim did something in their eyes that was wrong or betrayed them. It doesn't mean that the victim actually did, it's just how the suspect sees it. Thus, it can lead to higher rates of murder and violence because they feel wronged by someone they were close to or thought they could trust. In this case, I'm not sure what the culprit thought the victim did that wronged them, but I'm certain it didn't deserve death." Abel explained as he turned towards the steps that lead to the second floor.

By the explanation, Ray had feeling this wasn't the first time that Abel had been in charge of this type of case. Not knowing much about him, he supposed that it made sense the other might have been a detective for some time prior to relocation. He would have to ask him later, but for now he need to keep up with him if he wanted to see what was going on on the second floor where the window the culprit escaped from was located.