I woke up annoyed with my alarm ringing away. In movies, detectives rarely sleep, and in reality, that's totally true. We're too preoccupied with work that once we sleep, it's a case of rare treat.
It was four forty-five in the morning. I groaned inwardly, feeling pretty sure that I'd be busy yet again with tons of case to work. I checked my email, and there was not a single mail to be seen. I let myself relax, but not for long. My phone rang.
My heart raced. I braced myself for what's to come and answered timidly. Too nervous to apprehend what he was saying and too confused to answer, I could only gape and stare at the distance. But then I heard his deep voice speaking in an incredible speed.
"The cops called earlier, I have a case for you. Come to my office immediately. There's much to discuss."
"Wait, what?" But he had hung up the phone.
***
I entered his room and found him drinking a cup of hot cocoa while sitting on his comfy chair. He welcomed me with a heartwarming smile and offered me a seat. As soon as I sat on the sofa, he went straight to the topic.
"A certain gang has been causing a lot of trouble to the NYPD lately. The gang had killed a number of innocent people, varying age, and apparently random ones. The cops found the case to be rather confusing, the targets didn't have any significant similarity that could be used against them."
"Random targets? That's extremely rare to be seen nowadays. I'm sure we'll find one though, there's no such thing as being randomly targeted."
"The gang used arsenic poison to kill their victims. The weird thing is, the CCTV cameras around the crime scene didn't even catch a single footage of the gang doing their act. The syringe had a microscopic symbol carved into it, a bag of it was found in the dumpster three blocks away."
"Has the evidence been sent to the lab?" I asked.
"The syringe has been brought to the lab, tested and the results came early this morning. It contained lethal arsenic poison both inside and on the needle."
"May I have the complete file?"
He took a thin piece of folder and handed it over to me. My eyes widened when I saw the symbol the gang used.
"Hmm...this symbol, I've seen it somewhere. But I can't seem to remember..."I muttered to myself.
Perhaps I had seen it when I was young? Being a half-Martian brought tons of chaos in my life, which involved being hunted, wanted, kidnapped, and so on. The people hired to do so tend to have tattoos; dragons or snakes, several of them were gangsters, community garbage, and assassins.
"Is there anything wrong?"
"Huh? I mean, no Sir!" I hastily replied. My brain kept rattling each time I glanced over the symbol. I knew that they were telling me something but I wasn't able to figure it out. However, I was certain that I had scene the symbol. The image recorded in my mind was absolutely clean, it wasn't even the slightest blurry like all my other visions.
"You may leave, but I suggest you take one or our trainees with you. Do you mind bringing Carl?"
"Not a problem Sir."
I got out of the office and had my apprentice Carl go with me. After gathering some extra files needed, I went to the parking lot and decided to hit downtown. The scenery outside the office was dazzling. I couldn't help but notice the sparkling slushy snow surrounding the road tracks, and the beautiful icicles forming on old houses. Throwing aside the fact that it was freezing cold, I've actually grown to like winter since I started living on Earth.
***
We went to McDonald's to grab some breakfast and coffee. The long line suggested how awfully crowded the town was. I quickly lined up and took every single penny I had to pay the meal. Carl forgot to bring his wallet, so obviously it was my treat. I sighed in relief as I found a seat for us both despite the fact that the store was awfully packed. I nudged his shoulder and gestured him to head over to get the seat.
Carl was munching down on this huge hamburger when I received a call from the local police.
"The local news are about to barge in, you better come or you'll lose any clean evidence!"
I quickly grabbed my bag and briskly stood up, heading straight for the door. After a few steps, I became dizzy as random visions appeared in my head. The pictures were blurry, but they were hinting on the case. The guns, blades, and a dark shadow swirling around me. I stumbled to the table beside me, causing me to trip upon the table foot. I screamed as I was about to collapse against the ground, my heart raced as Carl caught me just before I was about to fall face-first to the floor.
"Detective, are you alright?"
"Not to worry, these things come quite often." I replied with a feeble smile.
"What comes often?" He asked as he rubbed his hair in curiosity.
"Nevermind." I groaned inwardly.
However, I suddenly realized Carl was actually standing nine feet away from me. How was it possible for him to catch me when I was falling? How was it possible to cover up such distance in a short amount of time?
-End of Chapter 1-