Comatose

My eyes traveled up to my doorknob as it turned slowly, my eyebrows rising expectantly. I dismissed the soft knock on my door without a word, and after the second knock, I let out a quiet grumble allowing permission for them to enter. It actually seemed like the person on the other side of the door was afraid, or so I assumed, as the person took their time, as a person would when they wanted to gather up the courage first.

The door creaked loudly as it was pushed open, and the first thing I saw of the person were her painted red fingernails loosely dropping to her sides. My assistant, Adrienne, walked into my office. I watched her through my black bangs as her red lips trembled. I could never help but take notice that she was never truly comfortable around me, on rare occasions I wondered why she hadn’t resigned yet. Carefully, she brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes to meet mine for a second, only to switch her gaze to a picture frame on the desk in front of me.

“Mister Kaulitz, mister Banks, the chief of police is on the line for you.” She said quietly. I glanced at her, then nodding, dismissing her from my office. Quickly she turned on her heels, her dark hair flying in different directions as she walked out and closed the door behind her.

I waited a good five seconds before picking up the phone receiver and placing it against my ear. I cleared my throat quickly, before greeting quickly.

“Detective Kaulitz? If it isn’t an inconvenience, would you mind joining us for an investigation? We might need your help for this one; do you think you can make it?” The deep voice of the chief of police boomed through my ears, but nonetheless, it brought a smirk to my lips.

“I would be honored to join you.” I replied, my smirk slowly changing into a small, satisfied smile.

“Thank you detective, thank you so much. We’re here at the Overhead Bridge. We received a call earlier; we’ll be waiting for you.”

Not bothering to reply, I hung up. I leaned back in my chair, placing my hands behind my head for a moment. I took a deep breath, and got up, reaching out for my car’s keys. I stuffed them in the right pocket of my dark jeans and left my office, turning around to lock my door. Since I was younger it was a habit of mine to always lock the door, especially now with the job that I had, I had become very paranoid.

I could feel Adrienne’s eyes on me as I walked passed her. I had been told I had a strange sense of humor, and sometimes small things cracked me up. Before I could stop myself, I whirled around quickly, just to catch a glimpse of her gaze abruptly switching to the laptop in front of her. I laughed to myself quietly and continued to walk out of the tall grey building. Turning the corner, my Audi Q7 came into view. I felt around for my keys in my pocket, eventually opening the car door that lead to the driver’s seat.

I drove through the streets of Monroeville, Indiana. Population 1,275, and as expected, traffic had never been an issue in a town like this; it was simply far too empty. The building my office was in wasn’t very far from where the chief said they were waiting for me, and I had lived in this town for most of my teenage life, I knew all the shortcuts to get to where I needed to be.

Within ten minutes I arrived at the corner of Wyburn and Sampson Road, where I saw a group of cars gathered together. My car slowed down as I pulled up close to the small crowd of people gathered together in front of the stone bridge, glancing up as they heard me coming.

The cold December air filled my lungs as I took a fresh breath and stepped out of the car, slamming the door behind me. The wind was blowing quite strongly now, sending my raven hair flying in all different directions, covering my eyes as I stood in front of my car. I reached up to my face, placing the stray pieces of hair behind my ears for the time being, then I walked to the people who were awaiting me, frankly, I had never been the type of person who put other’s before myself in these type of situations.

As I neared the officers, they all stepped aside to reveal the chief standing conveniently in the back, his back facing me as he faced the wall itself.

I walked slowly, my heavy black boots leaving their mark on the soft ground, stopping when I reached the chief’s side. Once glancing at the grey stone in front of us, I didn’t need to ask why it seemed like he hadn’t noticed that I arrived. The scene in front of us was gruesome to say the least; it was the kind of image that could send your mind on a trip, only imagining what could have happened.

When called upon, I always did my job decently at the very least, I had enough time to. There weren’t many crimes committed in Monroeville, excluding the recurring charges of drunk driving or speeding, but hardly anything serious such as murders or kidnappings, things I preferred. With the lack of business on my side, I managed to charge enough for my services to be able to make a living, but I’ve learned when a serious crime was committed here, it was anything but simple to solve.

My eyes traveled down to the knee high length grass that grew around the bridge, noticing the red droplets that made their way onto it. The wall had been splattered with the same red liquid, almost like a decoration, there was no need to second guess, only glancing at it once, and we all knew it was the blood of a victim.

“It was a young man who called us, Adam Flinn, he lives a few miles away from here, says he heard a woman screaming.” Chief Banks said, sighing out loud, “He volunteered to drive a few miles from here, to see if he can find anything. We sent one of our men with him, just in case, looking at the scene we have here, it might be dangerous.”

I nodded in agreement, “I gave him my number, whether he sees anything or not, he’ll give us a call.” He finished.

The rest of the men who stood behind us started to each go their own way, some walking down and up the street, others were simply checking around the bridge for anything else that seemed out of the ordinary. Chief Banks and I remained where we were, him collecting a sample of blood from the wall, while I bent down, moving the long grass aside. Almost blending in with the dark brown color of the wet ground, in between the grass I managed to pick up a few brown hairs.

I twirled them around my fingers as I arose, turning to the chief. His head turned in my direction as I held up the hairs for him to see, I watched a crease appear on his forehead. He reached inside his pocket to take out a small plastic bag similar to the one he had put the person’s blood in.

“You think-?”

I nodded once again, picking the hairs off of my fingers and threw it into the bag, “Whatever happened here, it couldn’t have been pretty. The girl shouldn’t have struggled like that.”

I stuck out a finger and put it against the stone for a second, touching the blood. I moved my finger a second later, looking at it, realizing that the blood had stuck to my fingers. Though the call was made a good few hours ago, the blood was still wet. I wiped my finger against my jacket, getting the blood off of me, and turned my back on the wall.

Not walking very far, I walked to the location close to where the cars were parked, where no officer had looked as far as I’ve seen. I realized that there couldn’t be evidence everywhere we looked, but we knew that we had to look as far as we possibly could.

I looked around for a good ten minutes, finding nothing but a few footprints. As this bridge was a tourist attraction, it was nothing out of the ordinary, and even if it was, there was no way we could track anyone just by following their footsteps these days, it was impossible. While we were still looking, from the other side of the bridge came a yell from one of the officers. I turned around just as everyone gathered around him; I watched their expressions as I passed them.

Some were worried, afraid that he might have gotten hurt, but most were just curious. I felt my way through the small crowd of officers gathered in a circle around the man. His head lifted as he saw me approach while I eyed the object in his hand. He backed away from me slightly, trying to hide a cringe as he handed it to me. I took it from him in a swift movement.

“It’s an ID book.” I mumbled, answering the silent questions of the men now surrounding me. I opened it, letting my fingers roam the small pages until I found the information I was looking for.

“DeAnna Milton.” I read out loud, nodding slightly.

“She’s pretty.” Chief Bank’s voice came from behind me as he stared at her picture from over my shoulder. I looked down at the dark haired girl’s picture, her green eyes staring right back. I smiled softly, if I could use one word to describe the image of the girl I was looking at, ‘pretty’ would never have done her justice.

I closed her ID book, also handing it to the chief to place with the rest of his evidence. He mumbled a quiet thank you to me, and then turned to address his men. I hadn’t been following what he said, though I had heard him ask whether anything else was found. I guess they didn’t, because I didn’t see anyone approach him. And I realized as everyone started to head towards their cars, the search was ended for today. I started to walk towards my car, but felt a hand pulling on my arm, keeping me from going.

“Mister Kaulitz,” The chief started, putting on his dark sunglasses, “I know you’re probably the most experienced out of everyone here, that’s why I wanted to ask you, what do you think her chances are?”

“Sir, we haven’t found a lot of evidence. It would have been easier if we found a lead, or a body. We can’t even be sure that the owner of the ID is the victim. Frankly, all we know is that a crime has been committed here, whether it’s kidnapping, murder or simply a theft, we’ll have to wait and see.”

He nodded in my direction, letting go of my arm. I glanced back at the wall once more, taking in the sight and walked to my Audi, getting in wordlessly.