100 Ways to Solve a Murder-Chapter 88: Christmas Eve II

Storage Facility

*smack*

The sound echoed in the dimly lit room. Sam’s body was cold but her face was burning with pain. Pain from the hand making contact with her left cheek. The force of the impact was harsh enough to cut her lip, and draw blood.

The man was enjoying it, she could tell. Whoever was striking her, was finding it amusing. She could hear him, chuckling like a hyena in front of her.

She was tied to a wooden chair, both arms fastened on its armrests with zip ties. Har hair was in a mess, sticking to her sweaty skin. She squealed when she felt him grab her hair harshly, threatening to tear it from its roots. Her eyes searched in a frenzy but she saw nothing. The man smiles down at her, amused at the confused and frightened look on her face.

More time passed, was it an hour? She couldn’t tell. But she had enough beating, her whole body felt sore. She reckons her eyes were swelling. It was pulsating, burning.

She heard movement around her, as her head hung low, she felt weak. She felt thirsty, hungry, and most of all, she felt pain. She attempted to identify the sound, but couldn’t. Her brain isn’t working like usual. Too much was in her system, all sorts of drugs.

She could smell a hint of smoke, a cigarette. She could smell it over the caking blood in her nostrils. She wonders if she broke it, that would be a bitch.

She felt him stand close to her, watching. And a wicked smile spread on his lips, inhaling his cigarette he blew smoke right at her face, and he laughed at her reaction. She turned away, eyes burning from the smoke. And she heard another masculine laugh echoing in a close distance.

So, there’s a few of them, she thought.

She felt him grab her right wrist, and she felt something burning her palm, she winces in pain as he used her exposed skin as an ashtray, and this went on for only god knows how long.

It was maybe 20 minutes later from her estimate that she felt someone untying her. She struggled under his touch, as he grabbed her arm and pulled her up. She grunts, lurching forward, falling to her knees. She’d been punched in the stomach.

And she collapsed on the floor face first, gasping for air. A groan passes her bloodied lips when she feels a foot hitting her side and she curls to a ball in pain. She was pulled facing up on the floor, and a man straddles her. His weight almost crushed hers while another man held her arms down.

She feels them start piercing the tips of her fingers, and she cries in pain. The wire dug deeper through her flesh. Tears fill her eyes, and she almost passes out due to the pain. They laugh, finding humor in her beaten state.

Sam struggles free, failing miserably, and she screams in pain. She tries to fight back, throwing a limp punch but to no avail, he strikes her on the face so hard, she’s left unconscious.

...

An hour later, Storage Facility

Levi and Marco took a short flight to Cardiff. The bearded man looked down, and he could see they were landing in a Storage Facility. Black cars were everywhere as if Anna had her own Criminal Investigation Department at her disposal, some were in protective Forensic Suits looking for prints, marking evidence, taking photos, and whatnot. A whole team under her command.

Valerie, Anna’s trusted secretary approached the two. And she beckoned them to follow, they fast-walked to a specific unit, it was big. Valerie signaled everyone around out, so Levi could work the scene in peace.

"This is where the tracker led us." Valerie informed briefly, "and where you lost her." Levi commented bemusedly as he examined the place.

A chair was at the center, he could see cigarette buds, bloodied pieces of wire, ashes, strands of red hair lying around, and a small pool of blood with a crushed wristwatch at its center. But what caught his attention most was, what was on the chair. A doll with crimson hair wearing a white lab coat. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what it represented.

Levi pointed at the blood and strands of hair on the floor, "The blood and hair on the floor?" Levi asked.

Valerie followed his hand, "Both hers. DNA matched." she confirmed, earning a nod from Levi. He started circling the place, retaking her steps.

He points at the fallen wooden chair, "She was strapped here...." Levi starts his observations across the scene. He frowns enough that Marco sees it on his face, "they used her as an ashtray, evident on the blood still on the cigarette buds." He points.

Marco grimaced, and his body tensed automatically.

Levi looked down at the marks on the floor, resembling a small hand, woman’s. Tips bloodied.

The wire on the floor, he took it with his gloved hand and inspected it.

"Two men physically assaulted her multiple times, tortured her with this wire," he said, twisting it between his fingers. "Fingers," he added.

He then scanned the rest of the floor, seeing faint trails "She was dragged to the floor, you can see from the pattern, he straddled her," Levi said, Marco gave him an alarmed look as if asking if she was...sexually assaulted.

Looking at it closely, he said "No," but the expression in his face told more had happened.

"Two men held her down, one straddles her and the other keeps her hand in place while they dug the wire to her fingertips, deeper and deeper," he said, and Marco imagined it in horror.

"It’s not meant to kill her but to torture her. She fights back, he strikes her. He removes the watch on her wrist, her lifeline. Thus the crushed watch." Levi states monotone, clenching his teeth pointing at the familiar watch on the floor.

It was her trusted watch, she never leaves without it.

"Oh god," Marco says, breathing hard as he imagined it.