Dawn of Death

A horror thriller mystery homicide detective fiction.

          

CHAPTER 1 : THE DAWN

The clock on the fading wall struck sharp twelve as Jacob’s phone rang , rudely jolting him from his blissful dream. Jacob Thompson had just woken up after receiving a call from the office notifying him about a crime scene at St. Cross. He scratched his head and headed towards the kitchen. Popping a tea bag into his coffee mug while reading the today’s news headlines. Jacob Thompson, was a fresh graduate from the LAPD class of  07’. The call from the office was referring Jacob to his first case as the helper of the department’s most acknowledged detective. Jacob had been aspiring to become an astonishing detective just like his great grandfather was in the old western days. Jacob’s passion to become a detective fired up in heart since the days he began watching all those detectives television series on those cheap cable channels.

 

Jacob got dressed as he usually would with a shirt and matching tie. He grabbed his briefcase and left his front door with a wide smile on his face knowing today was the day he would began his journey on the road to becoming a great detective. Jacob reached the St. Cross crime scene the earliest before the coroner’s examiners and his partner had arrived. The police officers who responded to the 911 call were the first on the scene to discover the victim. The 911 call was made by the victim’s husband who had just returned home after business trip to Hong Kong. The police officer on duty was taking down the husband alibi as Jacob was about to enter the victim’s residence. Just before he could put a footstep down into the house, a hand grabbed him on his shoulder from behind followed by a loud voice asking, “Who are you and what on earth are you doing at my crime scene, son? Jacob turned around to discover that the loud voice was owned by none other than the department’s most acknowledged detective and his new partner. He introduced himself to the detective and the both men shook hands. The both men entered the victim’s residence and headed upstairs to the scene of the crime where the victim laid in a pool of blood of her own.

 

 

The victim was discovered with a knife stabbed into her back and her head bashed badly. The victim’s face was destroyed far beyond face recognition which meant identity confirmation was a result of the owner of the residence. With one look, the detective said, “ This must have been one hell of a crime of passion.” The coroner’s examiners clocked the time of death to be around 2.a.m to 4.a.m by the examining the temperature of the body. The main cause of death was a blood forced trauma to the back of her head with a blunt object. The victim received the stabbing of the knife in her back post trauma. Jacob flipped open his small notebook which he kept in his front pocket and took notes of what he observed at the crime scene. His partner kept silent throughout his observation and took his notes down by pure sight observation. The coroner’s examiners finished their duty and packed up their gear and headed out the door. Gerard, the astonishing detective asked the head coroner examiner, “ Are we still on for the poker game tonight?” and the coroner examiner answered, “ Sure we are, make sure to bring a lot of money.”

 

Jacob and Gerard headed out the door and back to the office. Gerard introduced Jacob to his co-workers at the Department Of Homicides as the “ fresh meat” of the department. As usual the large rectangular white board was rolled into the office to be used as a notice board of all the information based on their case. On the board, Jacob pinned the picture of their victim and her husband’s alibi. Jacob and Gerard took turns creating theories on what they thought had taken place on the night of the crime while awaiting the results on the fingerprints found on the knob of the master bedroom’s door. Gerard has sent Jacob down to the 3^rd floor to get the result from their very own crime scene analyser. The crime scene analyser of the Department Of Homicide was none other than the beautiful and intelligent Aussie Gale. Aussie had long brown hair, a skinny body and an irresistible smile. When Jacob had reached the analyzing department, Aussie was already prepared with the full report on the analyzing she had completed. Aussie explained to Jacob that after analyzing the fingerprints through the Combined DNA Index System                     (CODIS), she discovered the fingerprints belonged to a man named Tommy Shulman. Tommy was previously apprehended for domestic violence, theft and the most recent crime he committed was assault against a bar owner. Jacob shared the news with Gerard and brought up to progress with the case as they headed out to find Tommy Shulman. Gerard got a tip from one of his best informants that Tommy usual hangout is a bar at the corner of 23^rd and St. Pines. They drove out the police carpark in Gerard’s steel black Camaro and headed to the bar. As they entered the bar, they found Tommy getting into a heated argument with the  bartender. As Jacob identified himself as a detective to Tommy, Tommy dashed out through the back door of the bar with Gerard right on his heels. Jacob chased after using the front entrance hoping to intercept Tommy and the back lane. Gerard was in a hot pursuit after Tommy, jumping over gates and through heavy traffic. Tommy took a wrong turn that caused him to a dead end, as he turned around to exit the dead end at the back lane he was confronted by none other than Jacob who hit Tommy with the cover of a trash bin. The hit was so hard that it left Tommy lying on his back in pain while holding his broken nose. Gerard arrived just in time to assist Jacob to place Tommy in the back seat of their car. Gerard patted Jacob on the shoulder and congratulated him on making his first arrested and what a first arrest it was with such a hot pursuit.

Tommy was taken to the interrogation room and left alone for period of time. Jacob and Gerard entered the interrogation room together and begin interrogating Tommy. Jacob accused Tommy of killing the victim but the motif of the murder still remained a mystery. Gerard pressured Tommy to confess by telling Tommy that he was seen arguing with the victim a week back before the murder. Tommy explained that argument was complete misunderstanding, Tommy and the victim were actually former high school classmates. Tommy was shocked to hear that Jane, the victim had been murdered brutally in her residence. After checking out, Tommy’s alibi, the detectives learnt that Tommy was about 5000 miles in the opposite direction having dinner with his lawyer while discussing his divorce case. Tommy’s alibi was checked out with his lawyer and restaurant waiter who testified to back up Tommy. After dismissing Tommy as a suspect, Jacob and Gerard were back to square one. The case still didn’t have a motif or a suspect to interrogate. The atmosphere in the Department Of Homicide was quiet and empty as all detectives were out on the streets trying to find clues on what really did happen at the victim’s residence.