Chapter 6 :

//THIRD PERSON'S P. O. V//

"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" — The Merchant of Venice (Act III, Scene I)

When Jase reached Lori's, the place was crowded with police men, as if it was on a lock down. Yellow tapes were all over the place, screaming that this place was a potential crime scene, and shouldn't be trespassed by anybody else.

Crossing the tapes, he entered the back side of the bar, which had bedrooms for their customers' pleasure. In brief words, Lori's had hired prostitutes who got paid by the people who came for a drink or two in the bar, for a hot night.

"There's this whore called Amanda Roger, who was murdered at around, 9:30 pm. Authorities say that they don't know who paid her for sex, but when she wouldn't open the door, they broke in to find her dead." Said Walsh, as he quickly came in to guide Klein to the alleged room.

On entering the room, Klein found the victim to be lying on a bed, draped with blood red stained sheets. She was tied to the bed post with two metal handcuffs, and a several stab wounds were present on her chest, and upper abdomen. Klein wore the rubber gloves, as he walked to the bed to find possible clues.

"Do we have a CCTV camera in the hallways and in the rooms?" Jase mused, feeling the depth of the physical wounds on the victim's body. The woman was mercilessly killed, and left stark naked. The scene was so grotesque, that it could make any nauseous.

"Not in the rooms, only in the hallways. But even those had been turned off at about 8:30." Walsh replied, looking at Klein who nodded seriously.

"Hmm. Killer came here with every trick to save his arse from getting caught. The guy is clever. Look for semen samples." Klein gestured at the victim's body, as Ray shook his head.

"There was no penetration, Klein. And, no finger prints, no clues. Nada. There was only a huge quantity of hot wax on her genitals, which have obviously solidified now." He held his hands up, landing them on his head and Jase looked as if in shock. How could a killer leave absolutely no clues?

Walsh went for investigating the closet in the room, while Klein was searching for evidences under the bed. He bent his head low, clawing at the floor underneath the bed, when his gloved hands felt something. He grabbed the thing with his fingers, feeling what it was. Metal.

Bringing the clue from under the bed, he saw that this thing was actually a breech. An arrow. The shape was that of an arrow. But, this thing struck to him as a familiar object. Where had he seen it? He turned his head to the side to look at Walsh who was still busy investigating.

He looked back at the breech in his hands, as he remembered where he'd seen it. Xavier Winter. He was wearing that breech on his suit lapel, the day Klein went to pick him up for the lie detector test. That son of a dog. Is he that brutal?

Instead of showing it to Walsh, he tucked the breech away in his shirt pocket, getting up. Walsh looked at him and asked if he'd found anything, to which he said he didn't. White lies. Even he didn't know why he hid it from Ray. Probably it was because he wanted to confront Xavier himself. Both of them told the authorities that they'd find the killer as soon as possible, and left the crime scene.

That night, he went to Xavier's penthouse again, at 2 hours past midnight. He knocked, knocked and knocked. He waited, waited and waited, but no one opened the door. He was here with his car, and was determined not to leave the place until Winter opened the door. He went back to his car and waited there. He wanted to make sure that Xavier wouldn't flee.

The sun came up on the sky, and it was 6 in the morning. He couldn't believe that he'd been waiting in his car for the whole damned night. He got out of his car and rang the doorbell for the fiftieth time, and within seconds, there was Xavier standing at the door.

Winter seemed to be headed to his office. He was dressed in a formal navy blue suit, and at the sight of the cop at his doorstep, he flipped his brown hair to the side and gave him a seductive grin. But at the smug look of his face, Jase got angry. Very angry.