Mission 18: He is dead [Archive]

meim

August 7th, 2009, 06:24 am

“Stop there!”

“So, I was wondering when you all will be paying me a visit.”

“This is a great chance. It is time I get my debts cleared up.”
***
Palme took a large bite of tasteless bread and swallowed it down before he could spit it out. He somehow found himself low on cash while travelling and failing to find any Hainiel Bank branches meant that he had to resort to eating discounted bread for dinner. He was in a town near Seyflin to source for better quality materials to make new puppets but it seem to be yet another wasted trip. The town was unnaturally quiet that night because there were reports of a serial murderer running loose that afternoon. Palme could not care less thinking that a serial murderer would not stupidly commit a murder when so many policemen actively searching him.

He was looking at the thin crescent moon, still munching his distasteful dinner, when he kicked something on the ground. It was an apple. Palme stuffed his bread into his pocket and picked it up. He guessed that it had fell from the limp left hand of a person who seemed to have fallen asleep reading a newspaper. Without thinking much, Palme walked over to the person whose upper body was blocked from view by the newspaper.

“Mister, is this your apple?”

There was no response. Palme jabbed the person’s knee lightly. The person did not stir. Then, Palme bravely pulled away the newspaper that was barely secured by the person’s right hand. It revealed a pale looking man in his thirties, eyes closed, with some blood at the side of his mouth.

“Are you okay?” Palme asked anxiously, a little louder this time. The person remained motionless. Gingerly, Palme placed his index finger on the man’s neck to check for a pulse. There was none. Palme dropped the apple in his hand. I’ve got to inform the police. Is the perpetrator still around? Am I safe? These thoughts ran through his mind before he heard four unexpected words.

“You are under arrest for murder!”

Palme turned around to find himself surrounded by a dozen policemen. “No, you’ve got it wrong. I mean...” He could see a sort of meanness in their eyes usually not shown towards children at all. Then, the man behind him started to stand up. He wiped his blood off.

“Oh, what is this commotion about. I was just having a rest on this bench. Playing a little joke, you know policemen. Come on boy, I will treat you to something for all this trouble.”

“Sure.”Palme forced a smile holding the corpse hand ready to leave. Some of the policemen seem slightly stunned and convinced of the act as they started to withdraw their weapons.

“Sure, go ahead. You can stop your little theatrics. You are the serial killer that we’ve been looking for.” Conrad mocked. Conrad was considered to be an under-performing cop and more often than not he would stay at the back for an operation. But, this time, he was confident.

“But the man is walking and he’s alive. That’s enough, Conrad.” His colleague chided him thinking that he was trying to just scare the child.
Palme blinked and made himself stay calm as Conrad walked towards him.

“Let’s bring you back to the cell where filth like you belong.” With that, Palme felt an electric shock as Conrad’s hand gripped his arm. Everything went black, and the light illuminating from the street lamps fade away. The corpse that Palme was controlling also fell to the ground, very much alike the dead state it was suppose to be.

Conrad beamed at his colleagues, especially his superior who he detested. “Well, I suppose we could wrap up for the day.” Dean, his fellow law enforcer, grimaced as he handcuffed Palme that he looked at Conrad smiling.
***
When Palme woke up, he found himself in an interrogation room. The interrogator was a kind-looking woman but he saw that the policeman that had electrocuted him was guarding menacing at the door.

“Hi, I am Dr Riley. I am a criminologist and a child psychologist. I work with children and try to understand them. Do you know why you are here right now?”
“I am innocent. I am innocent. I didn’t kill that man. I just wanted to give him back his apple, because it fell to the ground and then I found him dead. I can’t kill him, look, he is so much taller. I am telling you the truth.”

“Okay, calm down and tell me everything from the start.”
Palme told her and tried to look over every time the woman scribbled something on the clipboard she had brought with her. He managed to see some words like ‘delusional’ and ‘instability’ from the reflection on her spectacles.

” This isn’t good, is it. What about the autopsy? Surely, it will show how he died and that it was impossible that I kill him.”

“Do you read a lot of detective books? And sometimes imagine that you are part of it?”

“No. Not really.” Palme lied.

“Sometimes, some people can’t differentiate between reality and their imagination, because they are ill.”

“I don’t know what you are trying to imply. What about the autopsy?”Palme voice trembled as he replied knowing that this Dr Riley was insinuating that he had killed the man because he was mentally ill.

“Why the shit do you deserve to know?! You know what, let me tell you. So you will finally confess your bloody sin! You killed so many people and you act as if!” Conrad yelled.

“I don’t want you to say a thing.” Dr Riley said commandingly.
The other policemen looking at them from the other side of the one way mirror started discussing about the reaction of Conrad. “Look at that isn’t Conrad usually playing the good cop act?” “I’ve even seen him squirm at his seat while interrogating just some drug lord.”

“No! He has to know. You know what the autopsy result was? He died from poison. The poison was also found on the apple you were holding. And there were only two sets of fingerprints on the apple. Yours and Mr. Zilch. Yes, so stop your needless crap talk and ‘fess up about killing Mr. Zilch!” Conrad walked over from the door and slammed him hand on the table. He had deliberately left out other details of the report about Adam Zilch being possibly injected with the poison.

“I told you to shut up! Get out now!” Dr Riley demanded. As she signal for the police to bring in someone else. Conrad slammed the door as he left and was replaced by another policeman.

“I don’t want to talk anymore. I want to make a call.” Palme said even though he did not know who to call; he wanted less to talk to someone who was making absurd ‘scientific’ assumptions about him.
***
Meanwhile, the morning newspaper reported: Boy A copycat murderer of Apple Serial Killer. Apple Serial Killer has eluded the police for years. His modus operandi is to leave an apple in his victim’s hand and killing them with no visible wound. Apple Serial Killer last victim was in Seyflin, only 3 days before...
***
Palme sat alone in the room staring at the black phone. They had removed the handcuffs and it was extremely tempting to just melt the walls and walk out of where he was. Problem is, he did not know what floor he was on. Neither did he want to be a fugitive forever. Just then, one of the policemen told him that his representative had arrived. Dr Riley returned with a smiling stranger beside her.

“I am Adam Twist, I am a PI hired by my client here. I have to apologise for my client because he told a little lie.”
“But I...”

Adam turned to Palme, “Keep quiet for a bit and let me speak.” Palme felt an intense need to do as Adam told him to. It is his ability. What is he trying to do? Who is he? Is he here to help?

“You see, my client had called me last night when he knew he was going to be taken here by the police. What he meant by call just now was sort of a telepathic ability that he has. So I have done a bit of snooping around and already know who the real culprit is. I hate to be so efficient sometimes.”

I don’t have that type of powers!

“Well, we will listen to your theory,” Dr Riley said rubbing her temples considering the number of rising psychos in the region.

“First, my client had no motive to kill Mr. Zilch. They had no prior meeting. Next, my client lacked the funds and the access for the poison.” Adam paused.

“Yes. For the first point, some murderers do not need a motive; it happens that Mr. Zilch fitted his generic target to kill. For the poison, Palme Collodi had exhibited the power to possibly control people’s movements so it isn’t difficult to imagine how he could have acquired it.” Dr Riley said plainly.

At this point, Conrad re-entered the room, “What is more, he could have made Mr. Zilch consume the poison. After all, there were traces of the poison found on Mr. Zilch’s lips which was a possible way how he came to be poisoned.”

“That’s right! My client had the ability to create a perfect crime scene without even having to touch the victim. So why did he make such a careless slip up to be near the victim, holding the apple with his bare hand to left behind such conspicuous evidence and risk getting poisoned himself killing Mr. Zilch while eating at the same time!”

“Some of my patients lapse in and out of their illness. They only possess logic at times.” Dr Riley explained.

“Now, that all the players in this game are already in the room, I shall tell you what really happened. Phillip Zilch was an elf that provided illegal loans. The police were keeping a track on him until some files were burned in an accidental fire in the police station. But, I was resourceful enough to get the bank records showing money transfer out of Zilch’s account which match with the sudden influx of money that 3 people in this police station had. That is Mr. Conrad, Dr Riley and Dean Patterson.” Adam pulled out a stack of documents.

“What do you mean? Those must be fake documents.” Conrad seemed ready to attack Adam.

“Even if so. It doesn’t prove anything about the murders.” Dr Riley said calmly looking at Palme.

“Quiet. Let me finish my story.”Adam forced the room into silence. “Dr Riley here was also trained in medicine. She had the access to our poison, in this case, highly concentrated Elfbane. Taking advantage that Mr. Zilch had a drug addiction, injected him with Elfbane while somehow Mr. Zilch was knocked out by a small electric current that Mr. Conrad generated. Since, there were multiple injection scars on his arm and the obvious presence of poison on his lips, the coroner was more likely to deduce that the man was poisoned via consumption. Since there was a recent killing by Apple Serial Killer, they put the set up the crime scene to deceive the other policemen that it was another of his victim. Unknown to them, by fate, the apple fell from Mr. Zilch hand and Palme somehow discovered the body. Fearing that later investigations will reveal that Apple Serial Killer was indeed not involved at all, the trio wanted Palme to become the scapegoat. Who was the one to point out at the crime scene it was a murder even though the victim had not been certified dead? Who was the one who handcuffed the boy to make him look like the primary suspect? Who was the one that tried to lead the other policemen to think that Palme was the murderer without finding for more evidence? How will you all respond?”

“This is just your own assumptions.” Dr Riley suddenly spoke.

“I have written everything into a report and by the way, I added the record that the poison was found in your clinic some 30 metres away from here even though you are no longer practicing general medicine. All the recordings of important witnesses are also here, including a witness sighting that Mr. Zilch was last seen talking to Mr. Conrad. See, when people listen to you, things can be done and solve fairly fast. Now, I want to hear the real
perpetrators confess about what they have done.”

“I was involved.” Conrad said trying to cover his mouth.

“I killed the man. He was too demanding. ” Dr Riley finally said.

“So I am free? I can go?”

***
Palme was let out after giving his statement. Adam stood beside Palme all along and handed the police all the evidence he had unbelievable collected in a few hours. They walked out of the police station together, continuing the act that they had known each other.

“Why did you help me? Who are you really? How did you manage to do that?” Palme asked. Palme felt fearful of Adam actually, despite his inclination to feel grateful to him.

“Today, I am feeling normal so you don’t have to be so scared. These people, especially that Riley was nearly on to me. So I was already taking notes about them, then I figured their little plot which coincide with me losing a few million gp in the process. So I had to take them all down. Mr. Zilch was actually my true target at first. Keep it a secret for me, will you?” Adam took a candy from his pocket and handed it to Palme.

Palme accepted it. It was an apple-flavoured sweet. Palme watched as Adam walked away before he dumped the sweet into the nearest rubbish bin. He is definitely not eating it!

(Completed. Too many words but I need to solve the case. I planned to end it with Palme solving the case but it is too far fetched considering Palme isn't that smart to begin with.)