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Love Bites
Susan let a sigh of relief escape her lips, seeing as she was the only one who knew what crime she had just committed. She went into the kitchen and washed the bright red blood off of her hands and put rubber gloves onto her hands. She grimaced as she dragged the body into a plastic bag and laid it inside one of the closets. After this excruciating task, she wielded the door closed in such a fashion that it looked like the door led to nowhere.
“Next time,” Susan laughed and pushed her auburn hair out of her eyes, “Don’t mess with my man.” After taking off the gloves and taking special care to wipe down all the surfaces that she had touched, Susan Leinard left the apartment of Aba Ophan with a new feeling of confidence. No one was going to stop her from getting the man of her dreams.
>*<
The phone on my desk suddenly rang, startling me and sending a mess of papers from my desk onto the floor. With shaking hands, I picked up the receiver, “Y-Yes, Mr. Luin Shinyu speaking.”
The woman on the other line laughed, “Luin, Luin, you always sound so formal when you answer the phone.”
I blushed furiously, “M-Muse!” An awkward silence filled the lines, “Um… what did you want?”
“We just got another missing person’s report today.” Muse told me, “Do you wanna help me, hun?”
I smiled as I picked the papers off the ground, “Do I have much of a choice in the matter?” The giggle from the speaker told me the answer. I sighed and got out a pad a paper and a pen, “So, what exactly happened?”
“Well, we have this girl, Aba Ophan, who is supposedly missing.” Muse said in a monotone voice, probably do to the fact that she was reading all the information off of a sheet of paper, “We got a call from her cousin, Kai Ophan, who says that she was suppose to baby-sit him and his younger sister this weekend, but never showed up. He tried to call her but she didn’t pick up. He said that it was unlike her to miss anything, so he figured that something must’ve happened to her.”
“So…” I mutter, scribbling the last bit of what she had said onto the paper, “The police go to her house and…?”
“They have to force down the door because no one answers.” She continues, “Once inside, they find some items on a nightstand and a phone number.”
“Whose?”
“Some guy named Ikari Stone. He didn’t know about Aba’s disappearance, although it seems like the two were dating before all this mess.”
“It’s a shame. Do you have anything other than a guy to go off of?”
“Thankfully, yes. We collected the stuff on the nightstand and I’m going to personally deliver them to you.”
“See you in a bit, then?”
“Yup. Bye, hun.” The line went dead and I sat back down in my chair and sighed, Why do I always get missing person’s cases? Oh, what I’d do for a missing puppy or such… I laid the papers onto my desk again and looked at my reflection on the computer monitor. My blue-gray eyes, usually bright and lively, seemed sober today as their luster was covered by the clouds of many sleepless nights.
My door opened up and Muse glided into the door, her gray three-piece suit squeezing her figure, as usual. Her hot pink hair and emerald green eyes caught my eyes, as it did everyone else, and I smiled with delight.
“I see you haven’t changed your wardrobe…” I laughed.
She smiled, “If you had to deal with theft, rape, and murder every day that you came to work, I wouldn’t make fun of you if your hair was neon blue.” She handed me the box that she was holding, “And that’s stuff.”
“Wow, it feels like Christmas.” I said, smirking, “Let’s see what we have…” I pulled a dried piece of orange and a yellow pear out of the box, “Someone likes to snack on fruit…”
“Hey!” Muse interjected, “At least it’s healthy.”
I stuck my hand in the box again and pulled a small pocket watch out, “I’m guessing she didn’t have an alarm clock…?” Muse shook her head in agreement. I then removed a queen of hearts and a white queen chess piece from the box, “And I guess putting these away would’ve been too easy to return these to their boxes?” I then pulled out three small containers of varying colors, one was a dark green, another red, and the last one was a red-orange, “And these…?”
“Lip gloss.” Muse muttered, pulling a similar container out of her own purse, “We girls use it so that we don’t get chapped lips.” She applied some so that I’d get the picture. I then handed her the three containers.
“See if you can get some halfway decent fingerprints.” I dug some more and pulled out a red rose, a necklace with what looked to be a tile with the letter “F” painted onto it and a small snow globe, “Presents from Ikari?” Muse shrugged as I took out the last two pieces, a compact mirror and a locket.
“Ooh!” Muse grabbed the locket and carefully opened it. Inside were the pictures of two older women, “Who in the world are they?”
I shrugged, “Relatives, perhaps?” I then opened the compact to find it to be filled with blood. Almost like a subconscious reaction, I dropped the compact onto the ground.
“What’s wrong, Luin?” Muse looked at me, confused. I looked at the compact.
“B-bl-…” I muttered, my skin turning paler as the seconds passed, “There’s blood in that compact!” Muse sighed as she took a Ziploc bag from her purse and flung the compact into it.
“Crybaby…” She muttered under her breath as she placed the sealed bag into her purse, “Always getting queasy with the first sight of blood…”
I frantically waved my hands, “Why do you think I became a detective instead of a doctor?” Muse sighed and patted me on the head.
“I guess I’m off to give the blood to the labs.” She opened the door and slid out of my office, leaving the other items behind. I looked into the box and found a single note card left behind. Ikari’s number.
>*<
I had to wait for the phone to ring twice before it was picked up, “Hello?” A male’s voice came from the speaker.
“Um, yes, this is Luin Shinyu, the detective who’s working on Aba Ophan’s case. I was just wondering if I could ask you some questions?”
A woman’s voice could be heard from the background. Ikari’s voice covered her voice up without any problem, “Um, do you mind if we do this at a later date?”
“Oh, sure.” I replied, “I’ll call you at work when I get another chance to talk to you.” With a click, the conversation ended as suddenly as it had begun. I looked at the phone, wondering who was the woman I heard in the background.
>*<
“Are you sure you heard a woman in the background?” Muse asked me as we walked on the busy sidewalks of the city’s business district.
I nodded, “Yup.” We approached the café that we told Ikari that we’d meet him at and found him with another woman. Muse smiled, and put her hand onto my chest.
“Please, allow me.” She slipped her blue jean jacket off to reveal a tight fitting tank top. She walked ahead of me and tapped Ikari on the shoulder, “Hey, hun.” She smiled.
“Um…” Ikari blushed, all words fleeing his vocal cords.
“Thanks for keeping me company last weekend.” She kissed his cheek and made him turn ten shades redder.
The girl who was with Ikari, however, wasn’t the least pleased, “Who do you think you are?” She tore Muse off of him and stabbed her in the chest with her acrylic nails, “Getting on my man like that?”
Muse flashed her badge, “Police. I’m involved in the case of your man’s girlfriend’s murder.” She gave the woman a quick full body glance, “But, since you’re alive, I’m guessing that you’re not his girl.” The woman turned red with fury and only managed a glare before my hand was on her shoulder.
“I wouldn’t hurt her if I were you.” I smiled, “Muse is one of the few girls I know who has her boyfriends sign a safety contract when they start dating, saying that she isn’t responsible for any damages that may happen to that man, period.”
The woman paled and smiled, “Well, Ikari, I have to go back to work and do that thing that I was talking about.” She got out of the stool, “Well, see ya’!” And with that, she hastily left the café, reddening with every step.
Muse sat in the now vacant stool, “So…” She paused, taking a deep breath, trying to relax herself, “Who was that woman?”
“That was Susan Leinard…my girlfriend…”
Muse glared at Ikari, “You were two timing?!”
“Well,” Ikari muttered, “I don’t think they knew about it…until now…” Muse and I looked at each other and, finally, Muse mustered up another question.
“Say, do you think Susan might’ve… you know, killed Aba because she found out…?”
Ikari paled, “No! I mean, sure, Susan is a bit over possessive… but no.” His voice quieted, “…She’d never…”
“I’m sure, sir.” Muse got up and pulled on my sleeve, “We have to go, sir, but we’ll keep in touch.” And with that, she walked out of the café, pulling me behind her.
>*<
I paced back and forth, Muse’s eyes following my every move. I cleared my throat and finally sat down at my desk, “So…” Papers were shuffled around until Susan’s profile was on the top of the mess, “You suspect that she assaulted and or killed Aba Ophan.”
“Yes.” Muse said in a clear voice, “I think that she found out about her relationship with Ikari and decided to kill her.” I gave Muse a confused look.
“Wait… Why didn’t she kill Ikari instead?”
“Maybe she didn’t have the courage to kill him and instead decided to kill the girl flirting with him.”
I sighed, “This theory is fine and all, but we don’t have any fact to go off of.” Muse smiled as she pulled a bag containing a glass from the café out of her purse.
“The owner said I could have this if I paid him a couple of dollars.” She smiled as she placed the glass onto the table, “He was wondering why I didn’t want him to wash it, though. I told him, the less he knew, the better.”
I smiled and picked up the bag, “Okay, I get it, we see which finger marks fit the ones found in the lip gloss best.”
“If we get a close enough match,” Muse interrupted, “Then that means that Susan was at Aba’s house and is a suspect for this murder.”
“Which means that we can convict her because we already have a motive and everything else.” I laughed, “Which means that this case is closed!”
Muse and I smiled as we submitted the glass to the labs for finger print testing.
>*<
Muse smiled as she read off the results of the testing, “Well, it looks like we have a winner!” She placed the papers down on the desk, “Shall we get the convict?”
“No,” I said, plotting, “I think we can do better than that.” I picked up the phone and started to dial in Ikari’s number, “Yes, hello, Mr. Stone.”
Silence came from the other line.
“I know you don’t want to hear this, but we found that Ms. Leinard’s finger prints match the ones found at Ms. Aba Ophan’s house.”
The feint sound of a gasp came from the other line.
“I want to prove it to you by you hearing it from the horse’s mouth.”
Ikari’s voice crackled into the piece, “How can you do that?”
“You’re going to get her to confess.”
“I…see. How?”
“Well, the thing is… it might be dangerous…”
“I’ll do anything.”
>*<
Ikari sat outside the café on a wooden bench, waiting patiently for Susan. He shivered as the brisk winter winds threatened to invade the warm haven of his jacket.
“Hey.”
He looked up to find Susan in front of him with a mug full of coffee in her hand, “Is this seat taken?” She smiled and sat down beside him, “So, what’s up, Ikari?”
“If you did something…” He muttered, “If you did something, you’d tell me, right?”
“Of course I would!” She smiled, “Why do you ask that?”
He shifted uneasily, “Did you know…” He looked her in the eyes, “Did you know about Aba and I?”
“Oh,” Susan looked down, “Yeah, I knew about that witch.” She looked at him, her eyes filled with hatred, “I can’t believe you allowed her to make moves on you!”
Ikari turned away and pulled his coat closer to him, “Did you do anything to her?”
“Wha’?” She said, sounding somewhat amused, “You seriously don’t think that I killed her, right?”
Ikari looked off into the distance, “Please, just answer the question.”
“Okay.” Susan muttered, starting to feel the effects of the cold, despite her coffee and jacket, “I did. What are you going to do about it.”
Ikari smiled, “I have to say that you’re under arrest for the murder of Aba Ophan.” He whipped out a pair of handcuffs and got them onto her hands. Muse and I ran over from the newsstand on the other side of the street.
“M’kay,” Muse said and started to tell Susan her rights. I patted Ikari on the back and smiled at him.
“Don’t worry, I think you’ve avenged her.”
He sat back down onto the bench, “For her sake, I hope so…”
>*<
The next day, after a more intensive search of Aba Ophan’s apartment, her body was found, along with pieces of Susan Leinard’s hair. With this evidence, she was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Ikari Stone and Kai Ophan spent a month planning and executing Aba’s funeral. The pair seems to be good friends, bound by the loss of a good friend and a relative.
With the negotiator’s fee from the missing person’s report, Muse was able to take a break from the force. She spent a month touring the United States and Europe.
And me? Muse offered to take me with her, but I had to politely decline. Ikari felt like he owed me more than what I made him pay, but I told him that he should use that money towards something that could get his mind off of Aba.
In the end, however, I decided to stay at my job, even though, business seems to be getting slower. I can finally sit down and enjoy the adventures that I’ve had a part of and write about them. I can just see it now…
“Susan let a sigh of relief escape her lips…”
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