1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 83: The Case Is Just a Case (Please Read On)
A dozen minutes later, Wenner arrived at the scene.

A school staff member was also present.

The staff looked even worse than Wenner.

After Bernie reported the situation to Wenner, the staff member's expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly left.

After handing over command of the site to Bernie, Wenner also left.

Theodore and Bernie looked at each other, wondering what had happened.

Bernie directed the detectives to establish a cordon around the stadium, while Theodore contacted the school security guards to arrange for an electrician.

The away team's locker room was completely dark, and an electrician was needed to provide lighting.

After waiting for another forty minutes, Gary arrived at the scene in a great hurry.

The electrician, however, was nowhere to be seen.

After a brief discussion, they decided not to wait any longer.

They gathered their flashlights together to use as a light source, and called two detectives to follow them. The five of them, wearing gloves and shoe covers, entered the scene.

The away team's locker room has two rooms: an outer locker room and an inner toilet.

The changing room has two rows of rusty iron lockers against the wall. Most of them are missing doors, and the few remaining doors are crooked and about to fall apart.

Two long benches were placed in the middle of the metal cabinet, and papers, tactical boards, water bottles and other miscellaneous trash were scattered on the ground.

The toilets are just past the changing room.

The toilet floor was covered with dried urine and scattered toilet paper.

The toilet had only four stalls, three of which had no doors. The door of the innermost stall had its hinges come off, and the door was hanging there halfway, creaking.

The deceased was in the innermost compartment.

The deceased was lying face down on the toilet in a kneeling position.

Gary conducted a brief examination of the deceased and found that the deceased had a fractured nasal bone, an abrasion on the left cheekbone, and a ligament groove horizontally encircling the neck below the thyroid cartilage.

The cable groove is about 2.3 inches wide, with no intersecting lifts, and forms a closed ring.

The groove is inlaid with parallel grooves and regular granular imprints.

The deceased had swelling of the left ankle joint, ligament tear with subcutaneous hematoma, abrasions on the right palm, and three longitudinal skin abrasions on the right forearm, each about 1.9-2.7 inches long.

The deceased had a wallet and half a bottle of amphetamines in his pocket.

The wallet contained several cards, some banknotes and coins, but no identification.

The deceased was wearing a coaching uniform from Woodson Memorial High School and was suspected to be a member of the Freedom Fighters coaching staff.

After a brief examination, the deceased was placed in a body bag and carried away by two detectives, with Gary following behind.

He had to transport the body back to the forensic lab and expedite the autopsy to provide Theodore and his team with an autopsy report.

Theodore and Bernie stayed behind to investigate the crime scene.

Theodore first checked the toilet floor.

Thank you to all the rugby players who have played at Oak Estate High School over the years!

Thank you for their 'good' habit of urinating and defecating anywhere.

The urine stains and toilet paper on the ground showed a fairly clear drag mark.

The drag marks stretched all the way to the doorway and then disappeared.

This indicates that the deceased was killed elsewhere and then moved here.

Theodore carefully examined the locker room and guessed that this should be the crime scene.

Although the away team's locker room is in a remote location, there are so many spectators at tonight's game, and dragging a corpse in from outside would be too risky.

Limited by the lighting, the two were unable to conduct further exploration.

After leaving the scene, Bernie instructed the detectives to keep the locker room sealed off, while he and Theodore returned to the precinct.

They assumed that since a murder had occurred, the homicide squad should have been recalled to solve the case overnight.

However, the reality was that only the two of them were staring blankly at the empty office.

The rest of the homicide detectives had already gone home. Theodore and Bernie exchanged a glance, both sensing something was amiss.

…………

The following day, it wasn't until noon that Wenner appeared at the door looking exhausted. He clapped his hands and announced the start of an investigation into the current case.

Theodore and Bernie noticed that many of the detectives looked blank, clearly unaware that a murder had occurred the previous night.

The two exchanged a glance, both feeling worried about the case.

The deceased was Emos Williams, head coach of the Freedom Fighters football team at Woodson Memorial High School.

Wenner announced the identity of the deceased and had Bernie give a briefing on the case.

There's not much to report. The autopsy report hasn't been released yet, the deceased's identity has only just been determined, and the on-site investigation has only been done roughly once. A detailed investigation will have to wait until the electrician reconnects the wires.

This briefing, like the others, was exceptionally brief.

After the briefing and task assignments were completed, Theodore and Bernie were called to Wenner's office.

Wenner mentioned that a sculpture had been stolen from a member of parliament's home, and the East Precinct hoped to send two people there to find the thief and recover the sculpture.

He gave the choice to Theodore and Bernie, letting them decide whether to go to the East Side or stay.

"Mr. Wenner, is it because the deceased was Black?"

Theodore asked bluntly.

Wenner did not deny it, but told them that after yesterday's game, the entire coaching staff and players of the Freedom Fighters would be regarded as heroes by the Black community.

Bernie's "Schrödinger's intelligence" was at its peak, and he immediately understood, saying, "But we still don't know anything. Maybe the murderer is a black man."

He realized what he had said as soon as he finished.

It would be even more troublesome if the investigation revealed that the killer was Black.

Theodore thought they were overthinking it and emphasized, "It's just a case."

Wenner glanced at him, then pushed the folder he had been holding toward them, letting the two of them make a choice.

After Bernie pushed the folder back, he didn't give any further instructions and waved for the two of them to leave.

After watching the two leave, he put the folder in the drawer and started stuffing chocolate balls into his mouth.

Soon, the entire drawer of chocolate balls was gone.

…………

After leaving the supervisor's office, the two were taken away by the assistant deputy superintendent.

Deputy Superintendent Burton was even more blunt than Wenner, directly ordering both men to withdraw from the investigation.

He even bluntly stated that this was a muddy water and they shouldn't have gotten involved.

After being rejected again, Deputy Superintendent Burton, looking utterly disappointed, chased the two away.

They went to the forensic room first.

Gary is leading his forensic students in their work in the autopsy room.

Theodore and Bernie waited for a while before Gary came out of the dissection room.

He told the two that the deceased had been strangled from behind.

The murder weapon was a 2.3-inch wide strap with parallel grooves and regular grain.

The coach uniform worn by the deceased had splattered bloodstains on the front and was stained with dust and urine on the back.

He even drew the pattern of the murder weapon, which Bernie immediately recognized as the pattern of a rugby ball guard belt.

Gary finally took out the cards from his wallet and handed them to them.

The cards had no words on them, only images of scantily clad women in revealing outfits and alluring poses.

Bernie recognized the card again; it came from Rose Street and was a tactic used by the women to attract repeat customers.

Theodore glanced at him and asked Gary for the autopsy report, which Gary told him he would have to wait until tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)