The Murder Of 1998

Chapter Thirty-Four

Seth frowned angrily. He furrowed his eyebrows as he looked around the church, watching as the crime scene unit collected evidence. Slowly, he made his way down the isle of the church, staring straight ahead at the cross that stood tall and mighty with Jesus being crucified.

His distain for religion grew more each day he was on this case.

He finally stopped once he reached the very front of the church, seeing Father Thomas sitting on the bench. Instead of seeing him smiling as always, he saw him dead.

Seth stared at his body, no longer feeling anything.

"Detective Lance," Nancy said as she stood behind Seth. The detective sighed, crossing his arms. There was a banging in his head which made it harder for him to concentrate. He had no coffee and he was agitated.

"A gunshot to the chest," Seth whispered to himself. "The third gunshot murder victim just had to be Father Thomas." He scoffed and shook his head. "What are the odds?"

"The church doors are always unlocked during the day, so forced entry is out of the question. There doesn't appear to be a struggle also." Nancy walked in front of Seth, trying to see if he was paying attention. But of course he wasn't. Instead he just kept staring at Father Thomas' body.

"Alright, what do we got?" The voice of Walter said as he walked in with his hair slicked back with gel. Nancy turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Whats up with the hair?" She asked.

Walter shrugged. His hair was usually just swiftly swept back with no products in it, so to see it styled this way was a complete surprise to Nancy since Walter was very laid back and not fancy at all. He looked like a rich man.

"I wanted to try something new I guess. But thats not important. Just tell me what we got."

Nancy cleared her throat and nodded, turning over to the dead body that was sitting on the bench. "Thomas Bernard, age fifty–four. Cause of death seems to be a gunshot wound to the chest, dead center. I'm estimating time of death at about seven or eight in the morning from yesterday."

Walter walked over a bullet casing that was on the floor with an evidence marker next to it. He crouched down to get a closer look at it, scanning it carefully.

"What else?"

"Forced entry is out of the question since the church always keeps its doors open during the day. Theres no sign of a struggle as well. Theres... not a whole lot to go off of."

"Thats alright," Walter whispered. He got back up and looked over to his partner who was now staring up at the big cross. "Seth?" Walter gently placed a hand on his partners back, snapping him back into reality.

"Hm?"

"You ok?"

Seth looked at Walter and Nancy, taking one last glance at the cross before nodding his head and proceeding with walking through the crime scene.

-x-

Raymond looked down at the blood running down his wrist and onto the bathroom sink. It wasn't intentional this time. He accidentally cut himself with his razor while shaving his face. He'd have to explain to Victoria that he didn't mean to do it, it just happened.

He cleaned up his cut and all the blood on the sink. The blood triggered him though. But he tried so hard to not remember the crime scene.

"Ray, what's taking so long?" Victoria shouted on the other side of the door. "Taking a number two?"