At Romberdo's words, Tara rolled her eyes so hard it was a miracle they didn't fall from her sockets. How did this guy get to be the head of the department if he came up with ideas like this?
She tapped her foot, smiling slightly at how hard they were trying.
And then Aloysha asked her what she thought.
Tara restrained a grin, and kept her face blank. "If you really want my opinion," she said in a bored tone, "I think that the words they said, the lead, is just bullshit. The Ghost obviously knew that the man with the recording device had the recording device, wouldn't they make up a bunch of stuff to mislead the listeners?" She looked red-haired man straight in the eyes when she said this.
“Perfect!” Aloysha nodded his head and got up from the desk. He found a whiteboard standing against the furthest wall and wheeled it over, grabbing the pen in the tray before starting to scribble down key notes.
The identity of the Ghost? Unknown.
The targets? Random.
The only real clue they all had so far was that the Ghost was trying to throw them off course. Aloysha turned to Tara and Romberdo with a slight frown knitting his eyebrows together. “What do we know about the victims? It’s unlikely there is any link, but it’s worth writing down what we know.”
This guy-
Romberdo didn't seem phased that he had just been embarrassed by an intern. He pulled a stack of files from his desk drawer - Really, Tara thought, why would you put something so personal in a place like that? - and set them on his desk, pushing away a stack of papers in the process, nearly knocking them off the table before she caught them. He sent her a thankful smile, which she ignored.
"Here," the man said, "is all the information we have about the victims." Romberdo laughed. "As you can see, there's a lot of information, from the victim's relatives to favorite hobbies to their social security numbers. But so far, every time we think we've found a pattern, it stops." He motioned to the pages in defeat. "Although, we know that the Ghost only kills victims older than 13. That's the only thing we've found to be true so far."
“I see.” Aloysha sighed and rubbed his temples as if a migraine were forming. He didn’t like having so little evidence to go on—and who would?—but he needed to remain focused in order to eventually solve the murders. Hopefully.
“Right,” he spoke, taking a deep breath as he addressed the two, “I have no idea where to go from here, so if either of you have a suggestion it really would be most appreciated.”
"The Ghost just attacked a few nights ago," Romberdo told the man in front of him. "You could go to the crime scene and see if you can pick up anything that we missed." He shook his head. "It's always incredibly brutal, and there tends to be little evidence, but sometimes we get lucky." He turned to Tara. "Aitne, do you remember any of the clues we found?"
As if they could be called clues, she thought with a disdainful snort. She spoke, listing them off in a bored tone. "Murder of Thomas Kent, a lock and key stabbed into the skin of the victim's neck. Murder of Charity Barnes, a small keychain of a tank behind the trash can. Murder of Scott Douglas, a dart stabbed into his skin. Murder of Evelyn McNath, a small poem torn from Macbeth." Her voice was monotone as she continued, "They tend to be found at the site of the murder every three weeks or so, like clockwork."
"Correct." Her boss sent her an appreciative look, which she ignored. "This week was one that we should have gotten a clue for, but so far, nothing has been found."
“Would it be worth we search again?” Aloysha frowned as he made a note of the clues and stuck the notes to the board. “Tara, why don’t you come with me?” he asked, turning back to the woman as he capped the pen. “Youthful eyes are best for this sort of thing and I bet you have a keen sense of sight.”
(Agh, sorry, I thought I responded!)
When Aloysha asked that, Chantara had two thoughts at once.
First, annoyed, Is he seriously asking me that?
And second, This will be fun. The second thought was amused and excited, and she almost grinned at the thought, before clamping down on her reaction.
"I suppose," was all she said, though. "When do we leave?"
