Chapter 2 Gilgil

Working on the case, Dana found more puzzles than answers, she spent half of her night trying to piece the case together. With no hard evidence to work with, she settled with the close family of the deceased girl. The DNA results were not of help, the killer's DNA was rescinded as it was not enough to match with anyone with motives to kill the innocent child.

At least she had the family's name and finally, the girl's family was aware of their missing daughter's whereabouts. It was not the kind of news they were expecting. The call from the police department left Julie's mother in a devastating state, she was speechless and rigid for a while, still on the phone with one of the police. She broke down, a series of insults and curses left her mouth painfully.

She did agree to meet with Detective Dana so she could answer a couple of questions. Dana placed her main interest in the family tree and all involved closer to the family including friends. She was looking out for anyone with the motives to murder the teenager.

Narrowing down to Julie's cousin who according to the family was in love with Julie, unhealthy obsession would be the word to describe his love. As the interrogation went on, Julie's family held a burial ceremony for their daughter, after receiving her body. Dana had reason to suspect Michael Carter, her cousin, from his general behavior. He looked detached from his emotions, he didn't cry at the funeral. In the questioning room, he answered questions rigidly. His face was hard.

Michael however, agreed to provide his DNA sample so they could match with the killers. The results came back negative, Dana was frustrated, he was her only hope for cracking the case. Julie's mother, hopeful kept driving down the station in Tapas from Gilgil to ask for progress. Each time, she left disappointed than the last. It was now three weeks since the first shocking news of Julie's carnage. Dana was not about to give up, all the small details she had, she would piece them up on the board including the mysterious marked letter 'L' which she hoped meant something for the case.

News reporters were still breathing down her neck and concluding things about the case. She had security driving them off the two premises more than five times in the week. A local public owned news organization was following up with her and was the only station announcing the truth of the events. They also helped with announcing to the people asking anyone with information that would help the police in the case to come forward. Of course, multiple calls came through especially since the reward money was promising.

A frantic caller disrupted her thoughts, "Tapas Police Department. Detective Dana speaking, how may I assist you." She said into the speaker. The cold shrill that came as a response shook Dana, she stood up from her chair and called out through the mouthpiece.

"Ma'am I need you to calm down please, explain to me what happened?" She asked.

"Help!. . he's- uh, Lord! He is dead." The woman at the far end of the earpiece cried out.

"Who is dead ma'am? Where are you calling from?"

"My son . . . I'm in Gilgil, Street 40, House number 4." The woman whimpered. Dana could hear her cries intensify as she called out her son's name.

"Just hold on ma'am, a dispatch is being sent to your location now. Hold on. Help is on the way" Immediately a team of paramedics and police officers were dispatched to the next town. Dana was in that town, talking to Julie's mother about her daughters' case. It was one thing to have a murder case in your hands, but it was another to have another added before the other had been solved.

Dana and the team drove to the town as quickly as they could. They found the town's sheriff wandering about the scene. The child's mother was draped in a blanket, her eyes bloodshot. Her head shook vigorously as tears fell from her sullen eyes. Dana made her way to the body of the boy, covered in a black bag. She lifted the bag and examined him. He appeared to have his neck slit, he did not have a shirt on. She asked the policemen to completely uncover the body.

There was the mark, that bloody mark present on the other girl. Her gloved hands run over the mark, it seemed to be engraved in his skin through a burning metal. She sighed and covered it. The body was not disfigured as the other, that was a relief. The entire crime scene was free of any evidence, not a footprint in sight. A splattered blood in the shacks, no. Strings of hair, no? The victims' blood was all on the ground and some of it smeared on the mother's clothes.

She approached the distraught woman, "Hello, I'm Detective Dana. You called me earlier. Is it okay if I ask you a few questions?"

The woman barely nodded, Dana went on about her work. Asked her what time she discovered her son was missing, who he was with before his sudden departure. She asked if anyone she knew would have a vendetta against her. She questioned the woman's neighbors who would say nothing but good about the family. Miranda lived a quiet life, the kindest and caring mother, her devotion to the local church was astounding.

Her son had left home to visit one of his friends from school when he met his sudden demise. No one seemed to threaten their lives, the neighborhood seemed peaceful. Dana found it troublesome to understand how in three weeks, two bodies were found with the same marking and almost the same method of death. It disturbed her to want to conclude a serial killer was on the loose but with the form of brutality, it was not a hard pass.

She only hoped they would not strike before she got a hold of them, now handling two cases of the same manner. She decided to approach the case differently. By running information on every criminal within a mile radius that had been convicted of attempted murder or murder for the past years. It would take a lot of her time but she had to do it for the bereaved families and for the sake of maintaining the public's trust in the authorities.