100 Ways to Solve a Murder-Chapter 99: Act V Enlightenment V
South Hangar
Sam looked at Marco, "Now, don’t shoot me, Marco." She instructed lightly, raising the knife and pushing it down.
"Noooo!!!" Marco shouted while Levi watched his best friend move. And as he expected Marco didn’t pull the trigger like he warned. Exactly as he predicted, he was only bluffing.
Marco was never the violent type, most of all he wasn’t the type to kill, especially not one of his friends.
The blade in Sam’s hand makes contact with the pavement, 3 inches away from Czar’s face. His face held so much fear, he was frozen in such a state that he might just have wet his trousers. And Sam found it hilarious.
Cracking a devilish grin she punched him with all of her remaining strength, knocking him out completely on the cold floor.
Levi watched her throw the blade away pathetically, it didn’t get far, to be honest.
And she rolled off of Czar, exhausted, collapsing to the floor beside him. She had an urge to kick him away, but she was too tired to act on it.
Levi and Marco ran towards her, the two both grabbed each of her wrists, checking her state. Fast short breaths, erratic pulse, cold clammy skin, clear signs of loss of blood, Levi observed. It doesn’t take his genius to figure out she was going to shock.
Levi lets Marco do his job, "Levi, put pressure on her wound." The bearded man instructs, and he follows without complaint.
Sam cracked a smile up at the two, though her vision was hazy she could still see the panic in their faces. The two were tense, visibly stressed, like a bomb was about to explode.
Funny. She still had the fulminated mercury in her pocket.
Maybe it was the impending hypovolemic shock talking, that she finds the two’s facial expression hysterical.
Levi stares down at her face, her lip was cut and bleeding, with her cheek and eyebrow. Dried blood had stained her pale face. Her left eye swollen, and bruises were starting to form on her pale skin. He frowns at her smile, wondering if she had gone mad, and it was a possibility, she did have the mental history.
She was depressed, no, she is still depressed and she has every reason to. That’s why she was so believable.
And she’s grinning at them from ear to ear, an inappropriate reaction to the current situation in hand.
"Boy, I’m glad you didn’t shoot me, Marco." Sam joked, "It’s not funny Sam." Marco chastised, annoyed how she found humor in her state.
She shrugged and snorted lightly. "Kinda is. Your face just then was the best, thank god I have a photographic memory." Sam said chuckling and grimacing in pain after.
"Don’t laugh, damn it! you’re bleeding. Where the---hell is that ambulance?" Marco wondered out loud, as he checked her other injuries, like her bleeding head. Upon inspection, it was a laceration 3 inches long, and a few centimeters deep along her parietal lobe. It wasn’t bleeding as much as her stab wound though. He can’t tell if that was a good or a bad sign.
Quietly she wondered how they found her, it didn’t add up. But she wasn’t complaining, as her eyes remained on Levi. His slick blond hair was slightly in disarray, and sweat was dripping at the side of his face.
His face might just be the last thing she sees, making her smile. It was undeniably better than the view of the aged hangar above her. Cobwebs and dust-filled. His face seemed like a ray of sunshine in comparison.
"What time is it?" Sam asked all of the sudden. Levi frowned but checked his watch. "12:05" he answers, earning a frustrated groan from Marco.
"Don’t encourage her!" The bearded man chastised.
Sam smiled again, this time reaching her eyes, showing how pleased she was with the information. The two men concerned exchanged looks as Sam tries to get up, using both her elbows to support herself. She groaned in pain, "Lay back down! What the hell are you doing?!" Marco demanded, finding her actions absurd.
Sam looked at Levi who was kneeling beside her. She reached for his tie, and she trembled as she pulled him closer with one hand, the other supporting her feeble body.
Her face inches away from his, she closes the gap shortly, by pressing her lips, (as bloody as it may be) on his right cheek. And says grinning,
"Happy New Year, Levi."
She does the same to Marco, both finding her movements confusing and unnecessary given the situation on hand. Marco leans his cheek closer towards her so she didn’t have to get up too far.
"Happy New Year, Marco." She said. It may just be the last time she kisses them, she thought.
Marco sadly responded the same as Levi with a "Happy New Year."
Sam lied back down on the ground with their help. She was not herself. They took it as confusion, resulting from blood loss.
"I wish Anna was here." Sam expresses wishfully, though intrigued by her statement the two didn’t ask, as to not encourage her from talking. But Sam kept talking as if she missed it. She was mute for 3 months, after all. Boy, she does have a lot to say.
"She would have let me kiss her. New year’s a fantastic excuse for her to comply with social graces and tradition--"
Marco scowled down at her for being a bad patient.
"Do me a favor, stop talking will you?!" He barked, glaring down at her. Annoyed with her antics.
Oooh, mad Marco, is scary Marco, Sam thought, shutting up.
The ambulance finally arrived after 3 minutes, EMT takes her from their hands, oxygen mask, IV, all that shebang, and carries her on a gurney.
While she was being taken to the ambulance, half-conscious she said, "Wait.", calling Levi and Marco, mostly Levi. She gestures for him to come closer and Marco joins them. Her hand reached for the blond’s arm, grips on it as if desperate for him to stay, "I knew..." She struggled with each word.
"...I knew you’d come, Levi." She said, and her vise grip loosens around his arm as she loses consciousness.
.....
2 months after the debacle. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
Courtroom
Czar sat beside his lawyer, smiling as the Jury walked back in the courtroom after half an hour of deliberation. He turned subtly behind him, where Elle and Marco sat waiting eagerly as well. And he flashed them a wicked smile. Marco and Elle both glared back at him.
His defense was Insanity. And they waited for the verdict to be announced.
....
Meanwhile in Jackson Detectives
Levi sat in his office, wearing a crisp blue suit. They were close that day, and he was the only one at work, busy reading through the cases they had. He was seated on his reclining chair, feet on top of the table. His office door remained open.
He raised an annoyed brow when he heard the front door’s bell ding, signaling someone entering the office.
"We don’t take cases today!" He shouted from his seat, hoping they’d go away willingly.
But footsteps continued forward to his office, and a distressed looking man popped his head through the open door.
"Oh, but Mr. Jackson. I’m afraid it’s a very important case." The man said.
Levi scanned the man, he was a working-class man with a good set of brunette hair.
The slicked blond looked at the man from head to toe ’reading’ him, "Your wife is missing, and you tried calling the police but she hadn’t been gone for more than 24hours, so you came to me for help." Levi concluded.
Surprise flashed in the man’s face, and his mouth hangs agape in amazement.
"Yes! She’s gone! She’s not answering her phone and she’s not replying to my messages..." The man said.
Levi closed the file in his hand and gestured for the man to take a seat opposite him, and he did so.
And the man named "Bryan" started to explain where he last saw her, their marriage, her work, and his while Levi listened.
"...the children are worried," Bryan added minutes after, an anxious sigh passing his lips.
Levi narrowed his eyes, looking closely at the man’s face. Something was amiss, he sighed looking down at Bryan’s fingers. It had traces of ink and pencil on it.
"Child." Levi corrected, earning a raised brow from the brunette.
"Pardon?" Bryan asked, confused.
Levi narrowed his eyes at "Bryan"
"You have only one child," Levi states confidently.
The psychologist leaned forward, hazel eyes scanning the man thoroughly.
"Actually, giving you a second look. She’s not really missing. But she is gone like you initially claimed. But not missing. Probably on a holiday, Hong Kong?" He suggested, breaking into his signature smug smile.
Bryan remained quiet, listening.
"I applaud you on your perfectly chosen words, and the Act you presented to me almost fooled me. Almost. Now, Who. Are. You?" Levi asked eyes narrowed in suspicion, not liking the man before him. He felt danger oozing from the man.
Bryan cracked into a smile, not like the smile he initially had. This one was real, not the act he played moments before.
"I see. 15 minutes 32seconds. Not bad. What gave me away?" He asked, genuinely curious and his body language changed dramatically.
"Your eyelashes." The psychologist answered.
The man’s eyes widened in surprise,
"My eyelashes?" he repeats in confusion.
Levi rolled his eyes,
"Your brows had been tinted, admittedly well done, but your eyelashes failed to match the shade of your hair. That made me wonder, what does a married working-class man with two children waste his money dyeing his hair and brows black? When in fact, he’s blonde?" Levi started to explain, gesturing to the man’s hair and face. And the realization hit Levi, yes, he’d seen this man before.
"That made me do a second look, impressive disguise though. If you would have kept your blonde hair I would have missed everything." Levi complimented, leaning back to his chair comfortably.
His face cracked into his signature smile, and said, "Good to finally meet you, Mr. Fredricksen."
