Chapter 5

Rukelle Savanna was on the verge of pulling out her hair. Nothing was making sense with this case. Originally she had been convinced that this spree of hooliganism exhibited by a killer starting from Evelyn's charred body found in Emilia's "neon" apartment to the gunshots fired at Emilia now to the fire at Emilia's workplace. Okay, now she realized she had been stupid and a little hard headed. This was clearly connected to the white haired doctor but how and why?

Her interview with Elena Duran and Ryan had only gone to show that they hadn't even investigated the original crime scene. Her boss was not happy with this news.

According to them when Evelyn had proved to be a no-show which wasn't unusual, Ryan had slept over at Elena's house and then she had taken Ryan home in the morning to find  laundry strewn all over the house, cigarette butts on the floor. Evelyn hated cigarettes and a panicked Elena had checked the entire house which had only yielded a smear of blood on the floor of Evelyn's room. Fearing the worst, Elena had grabbed Ryan and bolted out of the house. Elena had said that she had called Evelyn only a million times and she had not gotten an answer. She had added rather defensively that she had not called the police because she was an illegal immigrant and did want to risk being deported. Funny  revealing that now in a police station but that wasn't Rukelle's department and she had learnt a long time ago to mind her own business.

  Rukelle had asked, "Did Evelyn feel anything suspicious like anyone following her, suspicious messages?"

 "Yes, but she didn't think it was important. The bar was always filled with perverts. Stalkers weren't unusual for her job but there was the supermarket incident."

Rukelle rolled her eyes then waved her hand to encourage her to end her game of suspense and continue on with the story. Taking the hint Elena started,

"Well on Sunday we went to Walmart to shop for groceries. We weren't there long before I noticed this guy in a raincoat it wasn't unusual because it was raining. I informed Evelyn about it. He walked around the supermarket but didn't pick anything. It looked like he was either waiting for or following someone else. Every time we tried to see his face, he was always hunkered down in a typical hunchback pose hiding his face behind the lapels of his raincoat or an aisle. He did that till we left." She was breathless now.

"Do you remember the colour of the raincoat?"

"It was dark. I think." Something clicked in Elena's mind and her eyes widened in realization. "Something happened right. That's why you are asking me all these questions."

Rukelle had to break the news of Evelyn's death to a now very suspicious Elena. Elena had collapsed into herself crying silently while Ryan's mouth quivered clearly holding back tears. Rukelle's heart broke for the poor boy who couldn't fully comprehend the magnitude of this loss. His world would surely crumble.  From what she had learnt from investigating Evelyn online last night, she was his only parent. His birth certificate did not list a father. She pushed a box of tissues towards Elena who had humbly declined the offer and hurriedly  led Ryan out of the police station. It was not long before she heard a keening sound. Ryan she presumed but she couldn't lose focus on her task. Elena had her work cut out for her. She sent a silent prayer to God for the family and got back to work.

Rukelle sent crime scene techs to Evelyn's house which was probably too  contaminated to yield any admissible results in a trial. Any defense attorney worth his salt could wave their evidence off like a fly. Crime scene techs had swarmed the one bedroom apartment that was housed in a two storey stone building that looked like a historical artefact that belonged in a museum and found nothing of interest besides cigarette butts and the dried blood on the floor of Evelyn's room.  The cigarette butts would be taken for DNA testing and they would be expecting the results in about six months time given the backlog at the lab. Even though the mayor and her boss managed to rush the results, she and the entire force needed to move fast because their perp was escalating very fast.

The smear of blood on the floor got her thinking again. Evelyn had been burnt so why the blood.

A quick call to Amanda had revealed that she had unofficially concluded that Evelyn's cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head as evidenced by the heavily cracked skull consistent with a long rounded narrow instrument. Baseball bat, Rukelle thought but she was still confused. This crime scene was too easy. Everything had been left behind for them to find. Was the killer overly confident or did he not plan to stay long enough to be caught. The thought of that made Rukelle shudder.

Rukelle moved on to questioning  Evelyn's top floor neighbour who was also the owner of the medieval building. An old  wrinkly lady battling with arthritis. Rukelle instantly felt pity for this woman who could easily be blown away by a light breeze.  A white sun dress engulfed her petite frame. She led her to the top floor where she lived above Evelyn. Rukelle was led into a room filled with so much clutter she was bumping into everything. She recoiled at the stench of cat urine and cat food. She was about to wonder about the source of the foul smell when a black tabby sauntered in clearly owning the place. It's green eyes lazily looked at Rukelle and then chose the old lady as a better place to rest it's overweight body probably because Rukelle was scowling. The old woman completely oblivious to what was going on was folding her hands then  switched to petting the cat. The cat purred in humble appreciation.

Like an actor finally remembering her lines she introduced herself, her attention still on the cat.

"Ronda Morrison." she stretched out a hand for a handshake. The cat squirmed at the loss of contact.

"Detective Rukelle Savanna." she would have returned the old lady's  handshake but Rukelle was not a fur person and wasn't going to start being one now. She was heavily allergic. After relaying these facts to Ronda, she commenced the interview.

Ronda had revealed that she was deaf from a head injury she had sustained eight years ago and wore hearing aids. Rukelle was starting to believe that 2010 was indeed cursed. On the night in question, Ronda had been asleep and therefore had removed her hearing aids. What a bummer Rukelle thought. Rukelle was then forced into having some apple pie which she had wolfed down in three bites while half listening to Ronda's story about her husband's achievements in the army before his untimely death in a bomb blast  then headed out relaying her heartfelt apologies before Ronda launched into another monologue on the other members of her family.

Leaving the rookie on the team Benjamin Moore on guard over the scene,  she  personally drove down to the Walmart store warrant in hand thanks to her boss who had used his connections to rush things.

Benjamin called Rukelle as she parked in the cramped parking lot of Walmart to inform her that they had found something in the trash bin just a few metres from the home. A bloodied baseball bat with a few black hairs hanging on for dear life. Rukelle was right this time. The perp was totally leaving things for them to find.

The geeky store manager of Walmart   tried stalling claiming to be trying to get in touch with the Head Office but later relented after Rukelle had promised to make him impotent. She had even waved her gun like a magic wand to show him how the procedure would be carried out.

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Seated here at her computer, her eyes tearing from the high exposure to high intensity light four hours later,  she was wondering what she was missing. She had watched the video over ten times but all she had learned was that most men who went to the store had a terrible fashion sense when it came to raincoats. She had failed to spot a suspicious man from the many in raincoats.

Rukelle had a thought. Elena had said that he looked like he was stalking someone else. Since this was connected to Emilia, maybe Emilia was at the store. Invigorated by the the idea, she loaded up the video again, sipped her coffee nearly gagging from the taste and got to work. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. There in the dairy aisle deciding on whether to buy heavily salted or lightly salted butter stood Dr. Emilia Gardiner and slightly to the left pushing a shopping cart was a man hunkered in a hunchback pose with only one item in his shopping cart, a baseball bat.