CHAPTER 1
In a surprisingly special one night, the weather was cool though it was a mid-summer. The young lady was rush walking through the streets. The two sides of the street full of tall buildings liked normal large cities. She passed the bus stop with a few people were standing.
The young lady wore a clean white brimmed hat, silver knee-length shirt, tight black pants, and black high-heeled leather shoes. Her reddish-brown hair fluttered in the back followed the wind blow.
On the road, there were not many electric cars driving past because it was quite late. The sound from the engine was so light that someone could sleep tightly even in a room next to the road. Most of the cars had a three point star brand logo and there were only white.
The young lady was heading to a lighted sign with a prominent symbol of sky train. It was a blue background with a white circle and a large red letter S in the middle. She stopped standing on the gray moving floor that was taking her to the sky train Beckman station.
There were just a few people in the same way as her, a woman dressed in a working brown suit like in a factory with several oil stains attached to the leg pants. A working man wore hats and jackets with jeans and 4 teenagers followed her. They were still in school uniforms. White shirt navy pants for men and a white shirt with a white stripe at the end of navy skirt for girls and both wore black leather shoes. Looked like they were heading home.
The fresh red sky train slowly came to land at the platform. It's an old-style train, the head of the train was a bullet and still needed a driver. There were 5 compartments, each has a white pattern across the entire length.
Inside, there were long rows of seats made of cheap black leather that left a patch from repairing with small leather sheets. When the sky train door opened there were just a few passengers came out gradually. Because it's quite late and when all of the passengers walked out, the compartments were empty.
The woman with a white-brimmed hat went to the second compartment. She liked to come to the sky train late at night like this because she often would be the only one passenger in that compartment. It was a time for her to be alone and private, then she could let the idea float for a while.
And when arrived at the next station, there would be more people coming to the train, then she has to pay attention to the surrounding again. The others who walked to the station with her took the rest of the compartments. That was great, at least they felt like they were VIP customers for a while.
The young lady heard a warning signal telling that the door was going to close with beep highly sound made people to be alert and be careful not to be bumped by the door. At the same time it warned people who were running into the station that they have to wait for the next train.
The automatic doors slowly closed and the train slowly moved out of the platform and then speeded up.
The sound of the announcement on the train rose up.
“Another 1 minute will arrive at Longtime Station.” Repeat 2 times. Inside the passenger compartments, there were 2 rows of seats facing each other with rails and metal poles for passengers to hold it. The front and rear of the passenger compartment has a connecting door to the next cabin.
The young lady sat near the door that she had entered. She looked at the reflection of herself from the glass window on the opposite side, but when the lights from the road or from the high-rise building shone in, it sometimes caused her reflection to blur. If in the daytime, these glass window would show the scenery outside the train.
This sky train used a magnetic system to push the train forward. Could make a maximum speed of 300 kilometers per hour if running outside the city but in the city that needs to be parked at many stations, it only took 60 kilometers per hour. And it almost arrived at the station in the next minute.
The fresh red sky train that was run through the darkness of the night slowing down from speed 60 to 0 km per hour. Then it stopped for the people who stood in line to get on the train. This station was the center city station, it bigger than the last station, Beckman, and there were a lot of people too. When the train was parked and the door opened the passenger orderly got inside and sat on the empty seat.
There was a scream from the first compartment. The people still gathered in front of the compartment door, no one dared to get on. Many of them made a sound of excitement, and most women were only screaming in horror until the station security had to walk in to check.
He was a rather big guy, wore a navy blue uniform black boots with the logo of the sky train on the left chest. His face looked calm and quiet, he walked through the passengers that were on his way.
In his mind thought that there would be vomit on the floor as before. But when he entered the compartment, he was shocked almost on his knees because the picture he saw was a red hair woman sitting on a black leather seat near the entrance. Her face was pale, without feeling, with a long slashed on her throat.....
CHAPTER 2
The sky train at Longtime Station Platform 2 has stopped service from 23:34 until now. The police blocked the area and waited for evidence collecting staff and interrogated witnesses who saw the incident. And all passengers on the same train were brought together in a room in the station. They were scared, shocked and trembled.
Detective Jason Smith, the leader of the investigative team was called to do the case and finding the truth of this woman's death.
Her body was placed on a long seat in the first passenger compartment. She got a deep slash on her throat, but no even a drop of blood. A crimson-colored cloth with lots of dry bloodstains, her left ear was cut and sewn finely with another person's ear because the skin color was different. Jason used a pen to poke the cloth of the woman’s body and see the wound that has been sewn completely on the chest.
Although the things happened to her were strange but he had seen something like this before. It was sure that after the news of her body being released, the reporters would hungry to know the information about it.
The result of the interrogation made Jason know that the first compartment had only the dead woman in it, but no one saw her at Beckman station, maybe she was already in the compartment.
Other passengers from Beckman station were spread along the remaining compartments. The group of students was in the last compartment. The fourth was only one young woman employee from the factory and the third was the man wore a hat and jacket. The second compartment was a woman with a white brimmed hat.
No one saw the incident in the first compartment.
“Where were you at the time?” Jason Smith asked the sky train driver in a navy blue uniform and white gloves.
“I drove the train in the driver room next to the compartment that found the woman's body,” Mickey, a 22-year-old sky train driver answered with a shaky voice. If considered him thoroughly, the white gloves he has put on the table looked clean. There were no drops of blood on his clothes, too.
Inside the passenger compartment, there was no trace of broken glass or invasion. The murder incident had to happen from inside. But with the very lack of blood, there was a possibility this was a body dumped case.
“After someone found the body, then where were you?” Jason asked.
“I…I thought that the compartment would definitely have a problem because the people in the station gathered around and no one even get in. So I came out and saw her body,” Mickey answered.
“Can you walk into the first compartment via the connecting door at the end of the driver room?” Jason asked.
“Well ... yes, but usually it locked from the inside of the driver room for safety reasons and I didn't walk through that. The last station and this station take only 1.28 minute
s,”
One minute and twenty-eight seconds wouldn’t be enough to kill someone and then sew the other ear on her, and no blood from the dead body.
“I’ll see what the security cameras from the first compartment could capture,” Jason said, rubbed his unshaven face for a few days, thoughtfully. If the time from Beckman station to Longtime station took just one minute, it was easier to put the dead body there. Because of the interrogations, there was no one noticed her from the previous station even the woman in the second compartment
“Are you armed? knife or ... needle and thread,” he continued.
“Needle and thread ... well, ... No, I’m a sky train driver, maximum we only have an electric baton,” Mickey replied, pointed at the belt on his right hand. Electric baton was only for suppressing violent events that occur in the train or station.
“May I see it?” said Jason interesting.
Mickey freed the electric baton from the belt and placed it on the table. Jason picked it up carefully. The new electric baton was compact, gripped tight with a very nice hand-held handle, easy to use, just press the 2 buttons on the side together. The power of twenty thousand volts would be sent to the end of the baton shocked the villain to lose consciousness or lose strength by a second.
“Can it shoot sonic waves?” Jason asked.
“Yes, the waves will just knock down the criminals,” Mickey replied.
Jason turned the electric baton to the side and pressed the sonic wave release buttons. The sound of a bang happened so loud caused they were startled, and the filing cabinet that Jason had pointed by the baton was distorted and the documents inside literally flying out. Fortunately, there was the sky train station's office, not at his police station. Otherwise, he would have to clean and collect them.
“That...was quite strong may cause someone’s head off,” Jason said, looked at Mickey's face. “Have you ever used it?”
“Well ... No, sir. I never used it at all, I…I don’t know that it’s so strong like that. Actually, it can adjust the strength. I think…” Mickey said, trembled. Looked at the scraps of paper that was blowing.
“I’ll keep it as evidence,” Jason said. Place the electric baton on the floor next to him like being afraid to hit the sonic wave buttons by accidentally.
“Who’s that girl, you know?”
“No, no sir,”
“Have you seen her before? Which station would she normally go to?”
“I don't know, sir. I was only in the driver room. Many passengers come to use the train. I can't remember anyone. I just came to work for only six months,” Mickey replied.
“Did you put that dead body on the seat?” Jason asked, he thought the driver room might be enough space to hide the body.
“Uh... no, no, I'm... Why should I do that?” Mickey replied with a shaking voice.
Jason shrugged didn’t care. “I don't know, then how the body came? Hopefully, it's not about aliens,” he said, looked out of the window. Other polices were checking the area in lazy walked, yawned and stretched, but didn’t blame them, it was very late. Some of them might be awaked from the bed. Jason himself too.
“We may have to talk to you again, but not tonight,” Jason spoke up, tired.
Jason let the witnesses went home at 02:30. No one was suspicious or has a criminal record before. But for Jason, he still examined the scene where the young woman's body was found. The first compartment has no signs of damage from fighting or assault. He bent down and looked at the old leather seat thoroughly.
The smell of cheap leatherette gave him a bit burning nose. The dent of the bodyweight remained. On the floor, there were old gums have stuck on with strange marks, which wasn’t a trace from the shoes. He needed the forensic officer to collect it, too.
A dust were being blown into a thin circle and there was a slight skid that might be the officer who packed the corpse. The rest in the passenger compartment was nothing suspicious except the window glass near the body. There were many small cracks on the corners, was this because of it just an old train?
“Chief, the fingerprint from the woman make us know that she was Bella West a 25-year-old ballet dancer,” Ted Frinx said when he came in the first compartment.
“Ballet? Did you try to call her, yet, Ted?” Jason asked back.
“Todd told me he’ll call her in the morning. Now is a very late night and it’s almost morning in a few hours,” Ted replied.
Jason looked around through the glass window of the passenger compartment. The night sky wasn’t completely dark because of the light from a big city. It was impossible to see the stars clearly. The atmosphere was quiet, cool and refreshing. There were no cars on the road. It's like a quiet night photo that nothing moved, only a siren light from the police cars parked under the Longtime sky train station that made a blue and red lights waved.
Being awaken from sleep and ask ‘Are you still alive?’ It might be a frustrating thing.
“Well…you can go home to take some rest, Ted. Here, let the forensic science staff handle it. The police would close here until they have finished working,” Jason said.
“And did you copy all the files from security cameras, Ted?” he continued.
“Yes, chief. Do you think it’ll be the same as the case before? The mystery body and unbelievable duration,” Ted asked with excited and twinkling eyes full of curiosity.
“Let's go home, Ted,” Jason said and then walked out of the station. He still didn't want to give any comments until the evidence was really linked. It wasn’t the first time that they found the dead bodies appeared at many places in the city without the whys and wherefores.
The next morning, after Jason has rested for a few hours, he woke up to work as usual. Didn't forget to have breakfast the most important meal.
“Last night there was a strange case again, right?” Jimmy, a police officer from the reception desk asked.
Jason nodded. “This time only takes 1.28 minutes,” he replied.
The young officer stared at him with mouth opened surprisingly. “This was a new record. I think this stuff might be mysterious things or about aliens. Think about it. How could it be possible to kill someone by using that time and without a drop of blood and the piece finely sewed. It’s like they could stop the time to deal with....”
“Jimmy, there are not any mysterious things or aliens,” Jason said with him, frowning. Although he wasn’t sure about this, but didn't want anyone to keep talking about aliens.
“But it's interesting. This is the third case that we still don't know how it happened and really confused,” Jimmy, a young police officer said confidently.
Jimmy's words made Jason unpleasant, but yes, the police still confused about these strange cases. The first woman’s corpse that Jason found was on the rooftop of a high building in the city. The second corpse was in the toilet of the pub and the third corpse was on the sky train.
The bodies of three women have been attacked in the same way. The throat was slash deeply, but there was no drop of blood. The chest was cut, the heart was removed and sealed the wound. The left ear was cut and sewn with another person's ear.
The left ear of the second corpse was the ear of the first corpse. Each corpse was found at a time that was three to four days apart. And this time for the third corpse, Jason assumed that the left ear that was sewn would be the ear of the second corpse.
“Did you call Bella West, yet Todd?” Jason asked when he saw Todd was sitting at the desk in the office.
“I’ve called her this morning and she still alive. She’ll come to see us at ten o'clock, Chief,” Todd Robinson answered. Todd was a good-looking policeman who used to be a presenter for a police station to allow people to donate money to build a stadium. Girls donated a lot until they were able to build two stadiums. The remained money was used for buying sports equipment to donate to other stadiums later.
Jason shrugged. “Want to see the footage from security camera last night? I think there would be somethin
g fun,” he asked, and the young police nodded. They brought files from Ted to play on a large monitor in the office of the Crime Investigation Department.
The picture in the empty first passenger compartment was starting. The sky train was leaving the station. The rest of the cabin seemed to be nothing wrong.
The students were playing with each other at the end of the rear. Woman in a factory suite was using her smartphone, ignoring anything, and the man wore a hat sitting and looking at the connecting door between the third cabin and the second cabin. And the woman who wore a white brimmed hat was sitting in the second cabin, talking on the phone and looked out of the window. No sign of attended in the first cabin.
Until the sky train ran for 50 seconds, there was a bright light in the first passenger compartment. It was so bright that the security camera was unable to capture anything. It lit like that for a few seconds before returned to normal, then Bella West in a red tight dress was sitting on the seat on the left side of the passenger compartment.
“Where’s she from?” Jason said, crushed his eyes because of the light from the monitor made his eyes blurred for a while. “What’s that white light? Do you know?” Even watching from the monitor also made the eyes hurt, they needed to blink and adjust the eyesight for return to normal.
Ted and Todd looked at each other. “Well,... maybe a light from the road reflecting on the camera?” Ted replied, Ted was a normal looking man, but witty.
Jason wasn’t sure about this. It could be possible that the reflection from the light of the road that straight to the camera. But what about Bella West's body? No one could explain. The idea that it was a mystery or aliens staff could be possible.
“How could her body there?” Jason muttered to himself over and over again. Ted and Todd have no idea to find an answer. No one has the theory to explain what happened. Even brought the corpse from the driver room and put it there Mickey had to carry the corpse through the door while the sky train was running. Then the light from the road shone and then he went back to his room abruptly? Impossible.
The Traveling Killer and Jason Smith Page 1