Chasing Murder

Chapter 1

The fundamental nature of humanity is goodness, but when a person of kindness wields a butcher's knife, you don't even have the chance to kneel.

My name is Noah, still in college, yet I've been working at the police station for three years. In these three years, I've encountered countless heinous murderers and witnessed hypocrites using the guise of justice to slaughter the "guilty."

I've seen a girl as beautiful as a flower smother a newborn baby who hadn't even seen a day of light, her only motive being not to share her parents' love. I've also witnessed a fifteen-year-old boy, enduring a decade of abuse, gruesomely kill his abusive father with his own hands, and gulp down his organs while still alive.

Where there are people, there is darkness, but people often forget that after darkness, what awaits us is the dawn's light.

The case I'm about to recount is not only the most bizarre I've encountered in the past three years but also the most chilling. Because the incident occurred on July 13th, it's marked in the police department's archives as the "California 713 Case." However, in my personal records, I prefer to call it the "Hannibal" case.

At 3 a.m. on July 13, 2012, two sanitation workers found the body of a woman in the roadside greenbelt. Initially, they thought she was just drunk, but when they uncovered the woman's face from her jacket, they immediately panicked and dialed the emergency number.

I hadn't even gotten out of bed when I received a call from Chief Benjamin of the California Criminal Investigation Division. Honestly, though I was still half-asleep at the time, I immediately sobered up when he said there had been a homicide. I stuffed the phone into my pocket, quickly hailed a cab, and headed to the scene.

July in California was still scorching, even in the early hours of the morning, there was not a hint of breeze, but that didn't stop residents who had just finished their night shifts or were preparing for early shifts from gathering outside the police cordon.

"Hello, I'm Noah."

"Where did this little kid come from? Go home and sleep, don't hang around here."

"That's my guy, let him in." The policeman was about to chase me away again when Benjamin, waving a flashlight, intervened.

The policeman didn't ask further questions, just nodded and, despite his curiosity, pulled open the cordon to let me in.

"Thank you." I said with a smile, then walked towards Benjamin without looking back.

However, before I reached the body, a putrid smell immediately assaulted my senses. Following Benjamin's flashlight, I saw forensic expert Harper squatting beside the body, conducting a preliminary examination.

"Thirty minutes ago, sanitation workers were about to come clean up when they found her, a female body, approximately between twenty-eight and thirty years old, her tongue cut off by someone. I've reviewed all the surrounding surveillance footage, but found nothing useful," Benjamin said, shaking his head in frustration as he took out gloves from his pocket and handed them to me.

　　I instinctively took the gloves and crouched down to carefully examine the female corpse. The deceased had a delicate face, but it was covered in obvious injuries, especially prominent were the abrasions on both cheekbones. Her eyeballs were filled with a web of blood vessels, appearing exceptionally horrifying. The woman's mouth was slightly ajar, and shining my flashlight inside, I discovered it was filled with blood.

In fact, the lower half of the woman's face was unrecognizable, with evident tearing at the corners of her mouth. I touched my nose tip, subconsciously glanced at the policemen beside me who couldn't bear the stench, and whispered, "It does smell quite strong, Harper, has it been three days already?"