Normalcy

Two months later.

Oct 2012, Jackson Detective

Levi sat in his office inside Jackson Detectives, looking over the news abroad online on his laptop. A name caught his eye in the corner. The headline says, 'FBI agent arrested for planting evidence in numerous cases'. Levi clicked the video attached to the article and saw Josh Wright being ushered inside the police car, his hands handcuffed behind his back. A smirk formed on Levi's lips, he grabbed his phone and dialed a number.

Sam sat leaning on the marbled counter inside her lab, in front of her were some printed photos laid one after the other creating a 2-dimensional crime scene. A luxury king-sized bed in the center of the bedroom, the blood appeared in contrast with the rich white sheets. On the bed was a caucasian man in his late 50's, Oskar Wallace. His neck had been cut open with something sharp, and his blood had soaked his matching royal blue silk pajamas. Blood pulling through the mattress. On his chest was a gaping hole, the bedside table, lamp, the Turkish rugs adorned with blood spatter. It was a truly gruesome sight.

Sam analyzed the different patterns, shapes, and placement of the blood droplets at the crime scene photos. And with a blue marker, she wrote notes on the printed photos.

What she was doing was professionally termed as (BPA) Blood Pattern Analysis.

She differentiated between blood spatter patterns, blood drip stains, and blood transfer patterns. Taking note of the shape and size of a group of droplets, she determined the positioning of the victim, the force used in the crime, and the type of weapon used.

Not only can BPA determine the type of weapon used, but it can also allow analysts to reconstruct the locations and actions of the people involved. Even confirm or deny testimonies.

Her mobile on the table started ringing, she raised her head away from the photos after hearing the too familiar custom ringtone. One for the money by Escape the Fate, three feet away filling her quiet lab.

Sam released the marker in her hand and vacated her seat. She grabbed the phone on the table, answering as she returned to her spot before, looking at the photos.

"I thought you preferred to text?" Sam says, putting him on speaker as she grabbed the marker again.

"I knew you were busy. " Levi says, he knew she was consulting on a new case from Criminal Investigation Department. In the case of Oskar Wallace, a member of the Parliament discovered dead in his bedroom. From the information he'd gathered, it was a gruesome sight. Blood everywhere, no murder weapon found in the scene of the crime.

"Right. What do you want?" Sam says, writing a few notes again on the photos.

Levi leaned back on his seat, tilting his reclining chair as he placed his feet on the table. "Wright. It was you wasn't it?" he simply says, earning no reply from Sam he added, "He's been arrested."

Sam could feel the satisfied smile on the blond's mouth on the other line.

"Too bad you weren't there to see it," He says, waiting for her to react to his statement.

Sam hummed on the other line, amused at the blond's attempt to get a reaction from her. She reckons his psychological profile on her was still incomplete. Something he had been working on since the day they met. Some kind of entertainment for the blond.

"Who said I hadn't?" she challenged, and she could hear Levi's mouth break into an even bigger smile.

The psychologist on another line recalled that last week she left for a seminar, at least that's what he could recall. His filter must've been On when she mentioned it, one of his fatal flaws. The only flaw, he would argue. He can only register important things involving the case he was working on. Annoyed the hell out of Marco before, it took a while for him to get used to that idiosyncrasy. Way back in college when the bearded man, well, he wasn't bearded then, his mom had died. And Levi was working on a case, a particularly tantalizing case as he recalled. Involving one of their fellow students in Uni, he was found dead in the bathtub of his apartment. It was a lock door mystery, no visible wounds. No poison or drugs in his system. Till now it still bothered Levi.

Long story short, Levi missed the funeral. All because he couldn't recall that Marco had mentioned his mom had died a few days prior. They had a major falling out then, Marco wouldn't talk to him for weeks, assumed that he was making an excuse and he was being his usual 'Dick' of a self. It took him a while to convince the GP that it wasn't intentional, but something he couldn't help. It was his programming, there was nothing he could do about it.

Solving the puzzle is the most important thing, nothing else matters. That's how he was made.

Nowadays, when Marco recognizes 'the look' in the consultant's hazel eyes. He would avoid discussing important (unrelated to the case) things with him, like business-related decisions, for the man would not recall any decision had been made.

Although until recently, Marco had realized, 'blank-out Levi' as what he calls him, was the best person to complain to when he was having a bad day at his day job or had a fight with his wife Lisa. The blond man would simply, nod and hum, stuck inside his own head thinking.

And like Levi's previous absent-mindedness to the world, last week he was engrossed with a consultancy case involving Jenny Brown, a client of theirs. Who's later found dead in her home after her house burnt down. Accidental death. It was not. He and Jackson Detectives made it again on the front page of tabloid after the revelation that it was Jenny Brown's wife that had covered up her death by burning their home.

So, his apologies if he missed your birthday, or had failed to notice you died. He was busy.

"Ah, last week when you flew out for a seminar. I initially assumed it was in Berlin." Levi comments. Sam rolled her eyes, "Berlin was 6months ago," Sam says.

"Anything else? Cos I'm busy, I've got two slugs that need analysis after I finish with this BPA." she says, hinting she will be ending the call soon.

Levi removed his legs from the table after hearing 'slugs'. "I'll be there in 15," he says, ending the call before she could reply. He wanted to work on his Comparative analysis skills. So he won't be coerced into signing her paperwork again. He can still recall the numbness of his fingers then, after forging a stack of her paperwork in exchange for her expertise. He couldn't throw a knife properly for two days after that.

Levi pushed Sam's lab open with a jolt, shrugging his black coat seconds later. Sam turned to the psychologist, "don't you have insurance frauds to investigate." she says.

"Nothing interesting at the moment, I hope some poor sod gets murdered for insurance money. It makes for an interesting case, and it pays so well. And the killer gets more and more creative every time." Levi replies, draping his suit jacket over a chair to avoid creasing it.

Sam shakes her head in disbelief, but then again, it was nothing new. Levi had been praying to the Leprechaun gods to lead him to a serial case instead of a pot of gold.

Levi approaches the redhead, who was marking photos laid out on the counter.

"What can I do?" he asks, hovering over her looking at her work.

"You came here for the slugs, right? Knock yourself out, I'll review your findings when I'm finished with this. " Sam says, gesturing to her right where the slugs were placed.

Levi did as she asked, and prepared.

Sam turned to the psychologist a few feet to her right.

"By the way, have you heard any news on the encrypted file on Pearce's case?" she inquired, knowing full well that he has connections with Anna and her 'first husband', as Levi preferred to address the man named Taylor. Head of the Secret Intelligence Service also known as MI6.

"They were able to retrieve it from Limbo," Levi says.

Sam nods, familiar with the codename of the hacker involved with Natan Watts. Some dutch accountant, his name she can't recall.

Levi turned to Sam, "How were you able to get the evidence to incriminate Wright?" Levi asked.

Sam smiled, "I told ya before. The dead talks."