SCHADENFREUDE.

CHAPTER ONE.

[Jacqueline Filiz POV]

I felt a stringing pain in the back of my head. A pain so piercing that it almost convinced me that something was drilling through my skull.
“hold still. ”, the nurse beside me had been cleaning up the wound on my head. I spent approximately two hours in the hospital after the car crash. Luckily no bones were broken, although my car definitely did.

I almost had him.

This thought kept bugging me ever since I gained consciousness. Although... another thought was passing by as well.

What caused the car accident? What collided? The unknown person was driving in front of my car, the road was clear, no essence of a living being was near. So.. what caused the accident?

“all done. ”, my thoughts were interrupted by the nurse's voice. “be careful not to let anything touch the wound before it heals. ”

On my way out of the hospital, I pulled my phone out of my pocket only to see that my fellow colleagues were informed about the car crash. Dozens of missed calls.
I called a cab before pocketing my phone back in. I had to get to the headquarters and let everyone know about the absurd incident.

Upon my arrival, the first person who ran towards me was my closest colleague and friend, Charlotte. Although I hissed in pain, she wasn't going to let go just like that.
“next time, take me with you! ”, she scolded me right there and then. “you had us all worried! ”
“sorry, guys. Stuff happened. ”, I said as I sat down. “but I have something really important to say as well. ”
And so the story began, how I tried to catch a criminal all by myself while backup was ready.

This person was no ordinary criminal. He was wanted throughout the entire country, especially here in Los Angeles, California. His killing method had many investigators like us puzzled. All that remained after his every attempt was the victim's body and no traces. However, after the postmortem of many victims, all we found was an unknown source of drug within the victim's body. The forensics team believed that the drug had Fentanyl, but that was not the only substance within it. An unknown source of drug was also found but the team was still tied up with research to work out the identity of the substance. Due to this reason, a clear report on this drug has not yet been made.

“i think we'll soon get an upper hand on this. ”, Charlotte said as we made our way out of the headquarters. “a research institute reached out to our headquarters yesterday and the owner is visiting us tomorrow to discuss this matter face-to-face. ”
I turned my head sharply at the news coming out of her mouth. “they're going to help us? ”
“pretty much so. ”, she added a nod.
It was good news. Very good. It had been over seven useless months of trying to track down this monster alone, we could definitely use some help.
“which institute is that? ”, my curiosity peaked.
“Yi Han Research Institute. ”, she said.
“the Chinese one? ”, I raised a brow.
“it was owned by a Chinese person, yes. Now the guy who owns it is not purely Chinese. He lived in Boston for years and grew up there apparently. ”, her explanation added up nicely. I nodded as we walked over to her car, getting inside.
“what's the owner's name? ”, I asked as I was putting on my seatbelt.
“Vernon Broderick. ”

Vernon Broderick.
Vernon Broderick.
Vernon Broderick.

Whoever this person was, he sure had my hopes high.

I laid down on the bed, my body sinking into the soft cloud-like mattress.
As soon as my head touched the pillow, a sharp pain kicked in, making me sit up straight. I had almost forgotten about my injury.

Great. How do I sleep now?

I placed a pillow behind my back, running out of ideas as I decided to sleep sitting up.
However, sleep was the least of my concerns at the moment. My mind boggled upon the incident earlier. The empty road, no presence of life, the sudden car crash. None of it made sense to me. There was no one there except for me and that man and he was right ahead of me. Something was missing. A gravely important clue that I had missed.

Was it the man who crashed my car? If so, how?

My mind was restless despite the fact that my body needed a lot of rest.
Hours passed but my mind still had its lights on. I was staring at the wavering curtains near the window, my mind reeling.
I snapped back into reality when my phone vibrated beside me. I took a glance, noticing that it was Charlotte.

- hey! Killian wants you to stop by his office tomorrow -

I blinked a few times, taking in the message.

Killian? Did he find something about the drug??

He was the lead in the forensics team after all. If it wasn't something important, he wouldn't call me to his office directly.
That was my cue. I had to visit him tomorrow before heading to the headquarters.