Detective Dave.
“Detective Dave, we have a situation.” Detective Johnson, My partner said, rushing into the police station.
“I’m listening.” I said nonchalantly.
After all, I’m still bothered about Sophie who’s refusing to speak.
Mr Jason Coleman is on my neck for this case and the higher ups are pressuring me to hurry up and prosecute her so I really couldn’t care about other situations now.
“This is not a listening situation, we’ve got to go to the scene.” Detective Johnson said.
“Okay, alright, Let’s go.” I said.
We both got into our official police car and off we went straight to the crime scene.
“What’s the situation?” I asked.
“A body in a drum.” Detective Johnson said.
“Say what now?” I asked.
“A body in a drum.” Detective Johnson repeated.
“How did that happen?” I asked.
“Apparently, a fisherman went fishing in some little lake around here by four am this morning.” Detective Johnson explained.
“Fishing?, Who goes fishing at four in the morning?” I said doubtfully and furrowed my brows.
“It’s an old man that made the call, you know what Dave, when we get there, you’ll get the full story.” Detective Johnson said.
“No, please do tell.” I pleaded.
“Alright, so his fishing net had caught something but..” Detective Johnson was still explaining when I interrupted him.
“He went with her like a boat?, What is this?, Some kind of eighties movie?” I laughed.
Detective Johnson frowned.
“Alright, alright, I won’t interrupt again.” I said with a mouth zip gesture.
“His fishing net had caught something but it was very heavy so he had to call a few of his friends to help him carry it out.” Detective Johnson explained.
“His friends were awake too?” I was tempted to say but another word from her and Johnson wouldn’t tell the story again.
“When they did, it was a big drum, one that could fit even a pregnant human.” Detective Johnson said.
“It was that big?” I asked with wide eyes.
“Yup.” Detective Johnson said.
“So he and his friend broke the drum since it was hard to open but it didn’t exactly break, it was just a little crack but the smell from it was so bad that they had to report to the police.” Detective Johnson concluded.
“So they knew how a dead body would smell after days?” Detective Dave asked.
“No, they reported it while saying ‘ some kids think it’s fun to dump a truckload of shit for my fish to stuff up on’.” Detective Johnson mimicked the old man’s tone.
I erupted in laughter.
“That’s hilarious.” I said.
“Yeah, it sure is.” Detective Johnson joined me in the laughter as he drove to the little town.
We soon arrived at the crime scene and from the description we were given, the lake was actually much bigger.
This is no longer a small lake.
“Do we have this kind of place in New York city?, Damn! I never knew.” was what I said the moment I got there.
“So how did they know it was a body?” I asked Johnson as soon as we got off and was walking to the old man’s little cabin.
“Oh, the officers who arrived at the scene opened the drum and found a body in it.” Detective Johnson said.
“Has the body been identified?” I asked.
“No, but the body is suspected to be Nineteen year old Dwayne fudger.” Detective Johnson said.
“Fudge?” I joked.
Detective Johnson chuckled.
“Fudger.” He mumbled.
“That name sounds familiar for some reason.” I said as I ran my hands through my hair trying to remember where I heard the name from.
“I assigned Martine and Dre from team two to go and speak with the said boy’s family to know if he ran away home but they claimed he didn’t although we already concluded that it was just a teenage drama but so far, we’ve got nothing.” Detective Johnson said, talking about their other colleagues.
“So you’re saying that this case is for Martine’s team and that Dwayne was reported missing a few weeks ago by his family?” I asked and detective Johnson nodded.
“Let’s go see the body.” I said.
We both walked to where paramedics were wrapping up the scene and getting ready to take the body to morgue.
I opened the white cloth used to cover it so i could see his face.
“Bloody hell.” I exclaimed.
“Run a test on the body and see if it matches this person.” I said to the forensic team and gave them a picture of what Dwayne looks like from the picture they got from the database.
“Yes sir.” The man nodded and they took the body away.
I went to the old man who filed the report to interrogate him.
But when I arrived there, the old man was in a verbal argument with his friend.
“You suggested we go fishing that early and now look at what we found, a dead body!” The friend of the old man said.
“Oh, shut your damn trap, you weasel, it was your boat and your net, I was a simple watchman, we even said if we caught any fish, we would divide it seven to three but now it’s my fault?, you better take that back or I’ll rip you to pieces and feed your intestines to the vultures.” The old man said angrily.
“What are you doing? Separate them already.” I said to detective Johnson who just stood and watched as he grinned from ear to ear.
“According to criminal law, article 307, A person who libels another person with unnecessary fact or a false fact can be sentenced up to two years in jail or fined five million dollars.” I said sternly to both of them.
“That ignoramus muscled pig is lying against me so I had to talk.” The old man said.
I gave him a stern look.
“Women in the police force are so scary.” The old man huffed and shut up his mouth.
I simply ignored them and rolled my eyes.
I was still trying to remember where I heard the name from anyways.
“You do know that what you just said doesn’t apply in this situation.” Detective Johnson whispered to me.
“But it got them to shut up.” I whispered back.
“So please sit, both of you.” I suggested.
The two old men looked at themselves, frowned and hissed before sitting down.
“Please tell me, what happened exactly.” I said and they both said their sides of the story.
“Did any of you see a suspicious person around here in the last two days?” I asked.
“No, we didn’t.” The old men answered, shaking their heads in response.
I nodded. I was about to ask another question when my phone rang.
I picked up and put the phone on speaker.
“Detective Dave speaking.” I said.
“Detective, we found a match to the body and you were right, it’s Dwayne fudger.” The caller said.
“Okay, thank you, I’ll call you back for more details.” I said and hung up.
“Thankyou both for your time and please don’t fight.” I said getting up and leaving with detective Johnson.
“Oh God.” Detective Johnson mumbled and sighed heavily.
“Let’s go.” I said.
Our hearts were heavy.
I felt very sad.
I felt that if the other team hadn’t concluded that he was just a runaway, they might have found him before this happened.
After all, the boy’s family reported the boy as missing but the police concluded it was a runaway case.
We drove to the station in silence and as soon as we arrived, we alighted from the car and walked into the station with each of us dashing to different places to ask different questions.
“Did you call his parents?” Detective Johnson asked Martine whom he had sent there.
“Yes, they are coming to the station.” Martine said.
“Why?, You and Dre should be visiting them.” Detective Johnson said.
“They insisted on coming.” Martine said.
“Alright.” Detective Johnson said.
Meanwhile, I had called the forensic guy back and he was telling me the details of the dead body.
“he has 7 broken ribs in front which showed that he had been assaulted, he appeared to have been raped too but it would be hard to tell who they were since he drowned.” The forensic man explained
“Who were they?” I asked, confused by the use of plurals.
“Yeah, it might have been a gang rape.” The forensic man said.
“Oh those bastards.” I mumbled.
“What’s that?” The forensic man asked.
“Nothing, I’ll come over them for the files later, thanks man.” I said and hung up.
I angrily banged my hands on the table.
“Just wait till I catch you.” I said.
I walked over to her team’s table only to see them moping around.
“We are going to fight these fools and put them in jail where they belong.” I said.
“His parents are here.” Dre who had been staring outside the whole time.
“Let’s go.” I said.
Dre and Martine brought the parents over to the table, offered them a drink and waited till they were ready to talk before detective Dave started to ask some questions.
But the moment detective Dave saw the parents of the said boy, she knew why the name sounded familiar.
Sophie fudger, the lady that tried to kill Mrs Coleman.
The first day, after she was arrested, she said something to detective Dave.
“I’ll tell you the truth if you help me find my brother.”
When she was investigated further, she refused to talk and claimed she didn’t say anything.
Perhaps, if she spoke up, her brother might have been found earlier?
Hmmm
Now’s not the time to assert blame on anyone.
If anything, it’s the police fault for neglecting the case.
“Good morning, Mr Fudger.” I said quietly.
“I’m detective dave and these are my subordinates, we promise to find the person who murdered your son.” I began to question them but that only made Mrs fudger cry even more.
“My daughter was arrested and now my son was murdered, the only two children I have!.” She cried.
“We’re so sorry.” I said bowing as a sign of respect.
After a minute of silence, I began to ask the questions.
“When was the last time you saw your son?” I asked.
“About a month ago.” The mother said.
“Two months ago.” The father said.
They both answered at the same time so it was hard to figure out who was lying and who wasn’t.
“Please please, you are both saying different things.” I said and then I paused, an idea came to me and I nodded to myself.
“Alright, Mrs. Fudger, go with detective Johnson while I talk to your husband.” I said.
“Why?” Mrs. Fudger asked.
I ignored her and signalled to detective Johnson to take her to another room for interrogation.
Something was not right somewhere.
“Now tell me, Mr Fudger, when did you last see your son Dwayne?” I asked again.
“Two months ago.” The man answered.
I couldn’t tell if he was telling the truth but at least his answer was consistent.
Now what Mr Coleman said was starting to make sense.
This case is getting more complicated now that a dead body is involved.
However, I’m not sure if I should inform Sophie about this new information about her brother.