THE FIRST LEAD

(DAWSON)

The rain had stopped finally, and the clouds were clear; indicating that there won’t be any downpour for a while, but my mind was clouded with thoughts. I should be grieving my sister’s death, but here I was, still having the face of the blonde woman all over my mind. Oh God! What have I gotten myself into, I tilted my head to shake off the thought, forcing it out of my mind; my hands were getting sweaty on the wheel. It was only a matter of time and I’d be at the scene where my sister was shot. 

I knew it was a futile attempt because the downpour would have washed off all evidence traces, but I just had to follow my heart, because it kept telling me to come down to the scene of the incident. Detective Jane Johnson was just a fluke, with time; we’d get familiar and all this infatuation would disappear; apparently; once I solve my sister’s case, I’ll tell Donald I don't need her anymore. I’m sure he brought her in just to monitor my movements in this case. 

I stepped on the brakes and my old Mercedes stopped immediately, the brake sound was awful; but still I had refused to get a new car. The Mercedes was passed down to me by my father, who was a detective himself; it kind of makes me feel that safe.  I heaved a sigh, thinking about my dad would only make things worse; he’d be so pissed with me wherever he is. I was unable to protect my sister; that was the last thing I heard my dad say the day he died.

I fought back the tears that were gathering at the corner of my eyes and got out of the car, crying won't solve anything. It was damn cold outside, luckily; I was wearing a jacket that came with a hoodie. I flipped the hoodie over my head and shoved my hands inside the pocket as I walked to the spot where I had held my sister and watched the life crawl out of her. 

As I thought, it looked as if nothing happened there, the rain had washed everything; even my sister’s blood. Maybe the killer checked the forecast before making this kill, a small angry chuckle left my lips, it was then I caught sight of something a few meters away from the spot my sister fell on. I hurriedly went towards the item and picked it up, it was a card; a wet business card. Surprisingly, the first side was blank,  but the other side had just one sentence that read “If you stay on this case, you’ll be next!” I felt the slight ache in my heart, I didn’t know what it was; I wasn’t afraid. Killers do this all the time, prolly to scare detectives from finding them. 

It’s sad they don’t know who’s on the case. I reread the sentence in my mind again and scoffed; shoving the wet business card inside my pocket. The killer was well informed, the text was printed on the card, if it was written, I may have been able to get prints off it or find the owner of the handwriting. However, there was still one thing to do, the person who dropped the card might have prints on it, judging by the smartness of the killer; they might have placed the card using plastic gloves, but there’s no guessing in detective work. I had to run it for prints; now we had two leads, although they might both hit a dead end. 

I sighed, and glanced around; when I was here holding my dying sister few hours ago, I didn’t notice the card, well I wasn’t really looking at anything except at Samantha’s face; she kept saying she didn’t want to die yet, till she could no longer speak, and all I could do was watch her die, the fact that I couldn’t do anything to save her brought so much guilt and pain, I felt the squeeze on my chest, a very hard squeeze, wasn’t very sure if I’d ever get over Samantha’s death, even if I did catch the killer; but first I had to catch the mother fucker. I sniffed and shut my eyes for a few seconds to force back the tears that were trying to come down by all means and when I opened it, the headlights of another vehicle showed brightly on my face. I quickly used my hands to guard my eyes from the intense light, then the light went down. 

“Who the hell is that,” I whispered to myself, straining my eyes to see who was coming out of the car, the road was dark, I couldn’t make out the person’s face but, Oh my God! It was the least I expected. The way the human was walking told me what gender it was and who it certainly would be, that ache I felt before came back; for a moment there; she had vanished entirely from my thoughts, then boom she’s always everywhere I decide to go.

What the hell was she doing here? I shrugged. 

“It seems we are both good detectives, Mr. Dawson.” I heard her saying as she got closer to me, she was still wearing the same jeans and boots like she did at the hospital, which indicated that she never went home. 

“I thought I said to go home detective,” I stressed the words, uncovering my hoodie to feel some air, suddenly her presence was making me heat up. Donald was going to pay for this, I could have handled this case without anyone’s help, but the old man won’t shut up about protocols. The kind we break from time to time. 

“I was going to, that’s when I discovered that the scene of the incident and my route home were the same, so I just thought I should do a little checking, never crossed my mind that I’d find you here. But I’m glad I did, now we can split up and search,” she explained, staring straight at me, merely looking at her makes me feel a kind of thingy inside, why won’t I, she was a blonde, I get that thingy for mostly every blonde. I pray she never finds out my weakness. 

I shoved my hand through my hair and sighed, well she was just doing her job; but somehow she was annoying me and making me very uncomfortable at the same time. 

“There are no evidence to find here Jane, the rain washed it all off,” I stated, walking over to my car, one part of me didn’t want to tell her about the business card I found, but we were partners right, and besides; it was her job to run the tests, I was the boss here or rather the team lead.  

“Oh, Jeez! Didn’t even think of that,” she replied, placing her palm on her forehead. ‘Yeah, you’re dumb miss,’ I uttered in my mind, but my expression showed it. Thankfully, she wasn’t looking at my face at that time. It wasn't as if I was scared though.

“The Ballistic report came back, the gun; we’ve an address,” she continued, a small grin curling up her lips. She wasn’t that dumb after all, I thought as my heartbeat rose faster…..