"Isaac!"
Baxter's whisper greeted me as soon as I entered the police station, eyes looking at the direction of the voice. So I walked towards the man in hurry when I spotted him; standing by a door to our meeting room as his head poking out.
Since my house had been locked up as a crime scene, I went to The Kim's place earlier to shower and also for a breakfast they forced me to have. I got my favourite dark brown leather jacket on that was available in my luggage, and a white oversized t-shirt for inner wear that belonged to my girlfriend.
I didn't even know how to explain my feelings at the moment. I was heartbroken. I was in pain. But I was angry at the same time. I was frustrated. I was curious. And I was so determined to know everything.
I wanted to know every single detail of what had happened to my Chae Richards.
I could see Nick arranging 3 different files on the table when I entered the room. Sighing, I stood right next to him while my eyes were focusing on what was typed on those papers.
"Your place-" He uttered, pushing one file against the table for me to look at.
My fingers grasped those papers immediately, starting to read official reports based on the investigation and assessment conducted by the MIT in my apartment unit.
"The door was locked from the inside before we broke in," Nick briefed while my eyes were looking at the images taken; the door grill, the knob. Everything was photographed accordingly. "No sign of force entry"
I didn't comment on anything yet, maintaining the focus on the other pictures.
"We found £200 in this drawer" He continued, pointing his finger on the exact picture I was staring at.
That was the amount I placed before I left. Chae didn't even get to buy dinner.
Was she hungry?
She was hungry when she-?
I brushed off my emotions that were trying to distract me from searching for clues, clearing my throat as if it could help me focused while tears building up in my eyes.
"I looked for any sign of robbery but couldn't find any"
It was Baxter's voice that dragged me back on track.
I closed the file when the rest of the pictures of my house didn't have any suspicion that I could catch, hand reaching for the next file but I was stopped by Nick.
"Lisa," He called and I brought my eyes to him. "These are pictures of Chae" He tried to warn me about what I'd see if I opened the file. "You don't have to-"
"I have to" I cut off his sentence, buying myself some time before I could actually look at those images.
I knew they were all graphic. That was how it had always been, and that was how my job had always been. But this one, it had no exception as well.
Opening the file, I began to assess every picture that was taken to document how Chae body was found.
"We still need to wait for post mortem results," Baxter stated. "But these are the physical examinations done by M.E at the crime scene"
Head trauma; wounded scalp, severe bleeding. Appeared to be caused by the fall.
My eyes were trailing letter by letter, reading the report intently since I wasn't actually looking at Chae's pictures.
I just couldn't.
Nick grabbed the last file, taking it closer to me as he placed it next to the file I was looking at.
"These are all statements from the witnesses who were walking by at that time" He stated.
And that file caught my attention.
My eyes widened when I read about 6 witnesses who actually saw the fall. They mentioned about hearing a loud scream and they looked up, witnessing someone falling. The fact that they were so frustrated when they tried to catch her but everything was just fast.
I closed my eyelids, holding my body weight with my palms on the table, head lowered down.
Baxter continued. "According to them, her head is the first in contact with the ground-"
"You know her, Nick" I interrupted, opening my eyes back to look at my colleague who I called a friend. "You know she wouldn't just jump from a 10 storey height floor"
"We looked at every corner, Lisa, every CCTV we can get" Baxter sounded so devastated, being one of the people who was so dear to Chae. "She was alone in your apartment, nobody was there with her"
"Did you manage to get CCTV footage from the corridor?"
"Yes I did. The tech team is processing it"
Nodding, I gathered all those papers again to give them thorough assessment one more time.
"What theories you guys have came out with so far?" I asked.
"Actually, just one"
"Suicide?"
I gave a guess since that was what this case had fallen into so far. They just didn't officially tell the media yet, waiting for any clue they might get from post mortem results. As for now, this case was a suspected homicide.
Baxter nodded and I didn't even surprise.
"We are lack of evidence to state otherwise, Lisa"
I huffed. "How many suicide cases we have covered that turned out to be homicide?"
"I got your point," He turned around, pressing his back at the edge of the table as his arms crossed. "But we are lost, Isaac. This case is very weak for homicide"
"I told you about about the holes, right?" I reminded Nick softly, not wanting to give him the idea that he didn't work hard enough. I knew he was doing all he could. "There are always holes around, Baxter. We just need to look for them"
"How did you do it?" Nick suddenly asked a question that grabbed my attention. "I mean, it's your girlfriend. You lost yourself at the mortuary earlier" We looked at each other. "But then you just show up here and start the investigation like nothing happened to you"
I smiled, reading those reports again.
"Trust me, Baxter. I am at the edge of losing myself every single minute" I responded. "I even considered about jumping in front of the tube when I was on my way here" I laughed a little. "But then I planned to find out the initial reports first. And now after reading these stuffs, I changed my mind"
"You better keep your change of mind, Isaac" He grasped my forearm all of the sudden and our eyes found each other again. "I already lost Chae..." He lowered his voice. "Don't make me lose another good friend"
"You won't, I promise you that" I smiled with firmness in my tone at the same time. "Because I already found a hole in one of these files," I told him and I saw a distress force that pushed his eyelids wider. "Chae didn't jump, Nick"
He spun his body back, hands grabbing the papers in panic.
"What did I miss?!" His eyes went wild to read the reports again.
"If she had planned to commit suicide, and she jumped from the balcony" I spoke. "Why did she scream?"
Baxter was muted when my theory hit his wise thoughts about this case. Never in a million years I ever encountered a suicide case by falling and the person who committed it, screamed.
Usually those people who took their own lives were mentally ready. They were so calm to do it.
If Chae was one of them, then it was very unusual.
So I continued.
"6 witnesses claimed they heard a scream coming from above, and then they saw her falling" I stated the witness account back. "My apartment is on the tenth floor, Baxter" I stood closer to him until our arms touched. "It must be a very loud one for them to hear it from ground level"
Nick sighed, pushing his head down. "Somebody pushed Chae"
"Exactly" I replied. "If there's any injury on her body that isn't caused by the fall, then that is definitely a sign of struggle"
I elaborated, thinking of the post mortem results and lab findings I might get for any foreign DNA that wasn't belong to Chae; fingerprints, hair, blood scratches etcetera. Also CCTV footage from the corridor. Those were all I needed to prove my theory right.
"But-"
"I know," I cut his speech because I already knew what he wanted to say. "The door is locked from the inside, no sign of force entry. There is no way someone broke into my house" I ran my hair to the back in between fingers. "But there are possibilities that Chae knew this person, opened the door for him and he locked the door after he pushed her" I continued talking. "Then he escaped through the balcony to the lower or the next unit's balcony since the attention was all on Chae's body at that time. Nobody looked up anymore"
"That's a-"
"Well executed murder, yes. This person knows what he's doing to blind the investigation"
Nick was about to talk again but both of us were disturbed by an uninvited voice.
"What do you think you are doing?"
I brought my eyes to the door, frowning in an instant when I saw who was standing by the door.
Ignoring, I pulled my attention back to the reports in my grip.
It was Nick who decided to respond. "What's the matter, Hopkins?"
"You asked me?" The other man walked into the room as he spoke to Nick. "What's the matter with you guys?"
"We are just discussing about a case"
Hopkins snatched those papers that I was holding, making me fight for them with my right hand.
"Let go, Isaac" He growled at me, eyes rounded big.
"This isn't a good time-"
"You have no rights to look at these reports!" John yelled at me but I remained calm no matter how bad I wanted to yell back. "These are private and confidential!"
"This is my case, Hopkins"
"Did you get the call out?" He tried to provoke me. "Were you on duty that day?"
I let go of the papers, not because I was defeated by the pressure he was giving me, nor the truth he talked about my rights in assessing a case that wasn't even mine to investigate. I wouldn't care if it wasn't my case.
I would make it mine, no matter what.
But I gave up the reports because I might rip them off in this stupid struggle I had with Hopkins. One of us just had to surrender, and it was me.
"Were you on call that night, Isaac? How can you say this is your case?" He continued to get in my nerve even though I was no longer fighting him.
My blood boiled immediately.
Baxter moved from his position, standing beside me facing the other man. "Hopkins, that's enough"
"Don't say this is your case. You weren't in London" John smirked with a little laugh, ignoring Nick's warning. "You weren't even there when your girlfriend jumped"
I gritted my teeth, jaw clenching when the last sentence that came from John's mouth crushed me like a huge brick, attacking with all the anger and frustration towards my own self that I had been ignoring ever since I got the call from Baxter last night.
Where was I at that time?
I curled my fingers tight.
Where was I when Chae needed me?
Hopkins closed his mouth for a while when he finally satisfied with the look on my face he was able to witness, and that was because I already wet it with new fresh tears in painful silence.
"That's right, Lisa. Shut up and back off from this case" He gave me a warning. "Or I'd report you to boss"
Nick stepped in this time, standing close to John.
"Did you just threaten a fellow detective, Hopkins?" There wasn't any patience in Nick's voice anymore. "Why do you always need to make things hard?"
"I'm not the one who makes things hard, bollocks!" He fought back. "I haven't slept for more than 24 hours now just because a crazy, depressed woman who happened to be England's famous detective's girlfriend killed herself!"
And I shut Hopkins' mouth with all the strength I put along my arm, giving him a full taste of my fist.