Rue

I was awakened by the ringing of my phone. Still sleepy, I grabbed it and answered the call in a hoarse voice, saying, “Who is this?”

“Good morning, Rue. Sorry to wake you up,” the voice from the other line said, which I recognized as Chief Montana. “However, another victim was found.”

When I heard that a new body was found, my consciousness got fully awakened. I asked, “Where are you? I’ll go there as soon as possible.”

“You don’t have to make haste, Rue. The crime scene is only three blocks away from your penthouse.”

I was stunned. Something didn’t feel right.

I stuttered, “R-really?”

“Really,” he replied. “After ending this call, I’ll send you the address.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

#

The new victim, just like the one before, was found in an alley. This time, it’s an alley three blocks away from my penthouse.

When I arrived at the scene, I was lucky to still be able to see the body. Seeing the clean, deep cut on the throat of the victim, who is a woman, made me realize that Chief Montana’s assumption was correct– that the cut looked like the work of a medical practitioner.

“Rue,” Chief Montana called before pulling me to a corner far from our colleagues. “I didn’t tell you about this on the phone, but I have something to show you.”

“What is it?”

He gave me a transparent evidence bag with some kind of letter inside it. When I read its content, I felt goosebumps all over my body.

You’re always looking at me, yet don’t truly see me.

That’s what it said.

“The killer left this?”

Chief Montana gave me a nod as an answer. Then, he asked, “What do you think of it?”

“Before I say what I think, can you tell me something about the victim?”

“The victim’s name is Maria Anna Naranja. She’s a nun working in a nearby orphanage.”

I started blinking rapidly. “A nun? Was she infamous in the orphanage or something?”

He looked puzzled. “No. Why did you ask that?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. In fact, when I told the other nuns working in the orphanage that Ms. Naranja was killed, they started bawling their eyes out, crying how kind she was.”

I sighed, showing my frustration.

“Is something wrong?” asked Chief Montana.

“The first victim was beating his wife. He was an abusive jerk. That’s why I thought the killer was trying to be some kind of vigilante. But he killed a nun...”

“Oh…” Chief Montana uttered when he realized what I’m trying to point out.

“He’s just killing randomly. He doesn’t really care who he kills. He just wants to be noticed.”

“But he already got everyone’s attention. His serial killing is already in the news. Why does he still sound desperate?”

“He’s not trying to be noticed by everyone…”

“What do you mean?”

“He doesn’t care about everyone else. He wants someone else’s attention.”

“Rue, speak clearly. You’re losing me here.”

“We don’t have a serial killer on the loose; we have a stalker.”

“A what?” he questioned. “How did you even get to that conclusion?”

I took a deep breath before explaining, “Most serial killers have respective patterns that they follow when they kill, don’t they? This one doesn’t follow a pattern. He kills randomly. And the message that he left sounded personal. It sounded like he’s only talking to one person. It’s like he’s fixated on a specific individual. And he’s only doing all these killings because he wants to be noticed by that certain someone.”

Chief Montana started shaking his head. “I’m not so sure about that, Rue. If you’re right, this killer is just a plain psychopath.”

“Don’t we have any new leads? I saw a CCTV camera earlier. Didn’t it get anything?”

He scratched his head. “I don’t know if the killer is really smart or just lucky, but the CCTV camera that you saw is the only one here in the area and it’s broken. It’s not working, Rue. We didn’t get anything that can help the case.”

“Damn it,” I cursed.

“You know what, Rue? I think you need to take a break from this case for the time being,” Chief Montana voiced with concern. “You’re starting to overthink things.”

“I can’t take a break–”

“Let us gather more evidence first. If we have something new, I’ll tell you. But, for now, you need to take a break.”

“Chief…” I uttered with frustration, trying my best not to talk back.

“There’ll be a party in the capital city. The government will hold it for the nation’s law enforcers. However, given the situation that we’re in right now, only some of us in the Bay Area Law Enforcement Agency can come. Most of us will need to stay behind to continue investigating this case. Since I want you to take a break, you can go there as one of the representatives of our agency.”

“Fine,” I replied, admitting my defeat.

He smiled. “Good. Take this time to unwind and collect your thoughts, child.”

I tried to smile back, still bummed out by his sudden decision to remove me from the case. “Thank you for your concern, Chief. I’ll take your advice. If there’s no more things to discuss, I’ll go now.”

He nodded. “You can go now.”

“Bye,” I bitterly said before turning my back from the crime scene and walking away from it.