Chapter 3

Seelan tries his best to digest whatever Ms Meena, the forensic officer, had just mentioned to him. In his 20 years of service, he had not experienced a grotesque form of evil.

There were heavily bruise marks on each side of the victim's head. From what Meena suggested; the psycho used a heavy weapon to cause blunt force trauma to his head. And repeatedly it seems because both sides of the head are completely bashed into the point bits and pieces of the brain could be seen. The victim’s face had appeared to be cut off rather than ripped off unlike what everyone had thought it would have been. Ms Meena mentioned the way it was cut off was as if the killer was cutting a piece of fabric. This is due to the fact each line was perfectly accurate and the killer went so deep that he cut through the epidermis, dermis and even the hypodermis to cleanly remove his face skin.

Seelan was bothered by this particular piece of information. Usually, it is easy to identify killers by the way they murder the victim. Some are hasty; those crimes of passion. Some are calculated; those were with a motive. But murders like this; murders where the killer unnecessarily tortured the victim, it is not understandable because they can be everything yet nothing. Hence, to bash someone brains in and patiently remove a person's skin seems way too torturous to even have a motive

Meena, who was unaware of the brooding thoughts that were happening in Seelan’s head, continued to list off the observations she managed to capture with the external evidence provided. Seelan snapped out of his thoughts and began to listen once he noticed Meena was not stopping. Aside from the cutting of the skin the victim took some stab wounds to his femur bones. There were multiple wounds on both sides of the upper thighs that when the blood dripped out, coated the entire leg. From what Ms Meena suggested, it seems that the victim was moved around because of the flow pattern of the blood. The flow patterns first were identified at the sides then to travelling down the leg. This clicked in Seelan's head what Ms Meena meant by the killer killed him first and then transferred him to another location. Seelan was concerned about the bloodied legs as the blood couldn't flow incessantly. Meena must have caught this thought cause she quickly explained it could be because the victim could be injected with a substance that prevents clogging but she could only guarantee it after the body was brought in for forensic testing. Seelan was taking in all of this and was absent-mindedly looking at the dead corpse when he noticed, people from Meena's team had already flipped the body to have his front-facing them for the first time. This is when Seelan eyes furrowed as his eyes narrowed on the mark made in the middle of the man's chest. Seelan walks up to the dead body with Meena flowing him behind. He slowly bends down to observe the mark on his chest. It appears that someone had cut a small line in the middle of the chest and stitched it back together to close the incision. The scariest thing was that the cut was done cleanly and neatly that it almost looks too perfect; like whoever did this, it was quite clear it wasn't their first rodeo. Meena followed his gaze and saw the stitch mark that Seelan was studying so intensely. "What about this Meena; what do you propose?" Seelan asked out of the blue , causing Meena to snap out of her thought process with a jerk. She threw her hand over her chest to feign frightness but regain her composure as she too studies the mark better. "From what I can tell that's a pretty clean job they did. Commonly someone with medical practice or someone who does fashion would do this so cleanly cause it does seem something only a professional and someone with a lot of experience can do. Stitching is not easy and even doctors have trouble doing it perfectly. But from the bruises, I can tell he just recently died which means it's likely this scar was born recently as well." Meena finished it. Seelan is driven into even more confusions as he racks his brain for the most likely incident that could have played out here.

The case seems to take a lot of twist turns and every turn just reveals another disgusting fact. Almost everyone who is working at the side feels some type of way towards such cases; due to the nature they found the body and the way it has been murdered.

Cases like this are what Shiras is always looking forward to.

Shiras joined the police force after his father died; though that was never the reason he told anyone. Whenever someone asks he chalks it up to his younger self of wanting to be a superhero but he settles for being a police officer. Despite being a jovial person Shiras had secrets as well. He is just smart enough to detach himself from personal and professional. He was going to give in to the sleep that had been begging him to come when the call Mr Tan made caused Seelan to get everyone together and go to the spot. Shiras blamed it on Seelan "saviour complex". In a lot of ways, Shiras and Seelan possess the same saviour complex but neither of them would admit to it. Then again Shiras just chalk it to everyone having a saviour complex since they are in the police force.

There's a lot of things Shiras chalk it to possible explanations.

When he arrived at the scene, what he was not expecting was to see a naked man who looked so pristine he almost appeared as a mannequin. Deciding that before he even attempted to go near the body he needed coffee, Shiras went ahead to slip by his supervisor's notice and announced he was buying coffee before going on his way. It was too early for him to even see anything.

He came back with a happy disposition much to his colleagues' gloomy faces. After he handed the coffee out to everyone, Seelan instructed everyone to get closer so that he can share the details received so far. Shiras down his cup so that he would be able to digest whatever Seelan was about to say.

On the other side of Singapore; a girl brushes out her wet and matted hair. She studies her reflection quietly in the mirror and slowly starts making herself look normal. She was humming a song that played constantly like a background music in her head. Once she was done she got into her outfit and did her hair and makeup. She finally studies her reflection one last time in the mirror before taking a bindi and placing it on the forehead. She smiles and her new appearance and quickly leaves the area.