{Ez PoV- A few minutes later}
"Your highness, I am sorry, but I will have to reject your offer." Connor replied with conviction, albeit while sweating visibly thinking about the consequence of rejecting me.
"Even if I were to tell you who the murderer is in all your case files?" Hearing the question both Connor and Alyssa who was standing up, froze for a moment.
"Your highness, I am aware of the fact that there are agents under you who can dig up all the necessary details they want about those case files and catch those criminals within hours with their skills.
However, isn't it considered a waste of resource and abuse of authority if you are to use them to solve cases just so you can get me on your team?
Besides don't you already have the perfect agents under you who can do a much better job than any detective in this office?" Connor asked sincerely.
"Tell me Connor do you know the difference between an agent and a detective such as yourself?" I asked back.
Connor raised his eyebrows at my question "I believe it is that agents are much more skilled/ talented officers than us, who works directly for the high nobles, commandments and the imperial family."
Smiling while crossing both my arms to form an 'X' I shouted, "Wrong answer!"
Furrowing his brows, he waited for me to correct him. "They are not officers who are more skilled or talented than you, but rather people who are either talented, skilled that are trained to be better and efficient than any officer could ever be."
"What is the difference?" Alyssa asked in confusion.
"Agents are people who are trained for combat, information gathering and scouting. They are trained to the point that they are required to gather all key details inside a scene within seconds of being there, prioritising efficiency, before anything is altered inside the scene.
While detectives such as yourself are trained to just walk into a crime scene and put the missing pieces together.
What detectives such as yourself have over the agents is time. You take time analysing every cm of a crime scene and making sense of a crime scene, while agents simply use the visible clues and their vast network of information to quickly make sense of a crime scene."
Having been told the difference both nodded.
"Now, for the task, I have in mind I need detectives who take their time and examine even a speck of dust, unlike the agents who only look for the visible clues."
Along with that is the fact that I want to bore any agents who will be observing them to death.
Agents are known for the quickness. Seeing people like detectives who work so slow through a crime scene will be akin to mental torture for them. That will be enough to put off those agents from calculating their true motive.
"Still it doesn't make it any better in using agents to solve my pile cases. As much as I like to pretend it does not exist, I know for a fact that you face opposition inside the imperial court. Won't you face some serious accusation if you were to waste resources like that?"
Ellis, Luke and I stared at Connor in silence for a while before we started chuckling.
"Who said anything about using agents to solve cases?" I asked.
"Then..." Connor started off.
"I will." I stated.
"..." Connor and Alyssa stared at me.
"Your highness, forgive my insolence and I am not doubting your intelligence, but have you had any previous experience in homicide?" Alyssa asked
"You could say so." Hearing my answer, I could see both had some confusions.
Picking up a case file that was on the floor. "For example, this case of the local clothes store owner found strangled by his own inner wears..." I started off while walking off towards the crime scene, while Ellis and Luke motioned them to follow me.
----------------------------
{Few hours later- 7pm}
"Now for the last one." I took the last case, that of an annoying serial killer in my hands.
At the same time, both Connor and Alyssa now had expecting look on their face seeing as how I had solved 6 cases of his, that had given him a headache, in the past few hours.
"This person here is a slippery one.
Even if we found who the killer really was, they are bound to go under our radars as soon as they realise we are onto them and commit few more killings before being captured or simply stay low for a while."
"Why? Can't we just sent a tracking team after the killer before he does any of that?" Connor asked in confusion.
Shaking my head while smiling, as I walked towards a certain alleyway "I am afraid not. Why do you think you have received fewer clues as the 'Embracer' claimed more trophies?"
"Isn't it simply the embracer's way of taunting me?" Connor asked.
"No. The killer embracer is a complete beginner at the serial killing business when he started a few months ago."
Before Connor could refute it I pointed out a fact. "In his first 2 killings, you have failed to mention in your report anything about the weapon in detail he used to gouge out the victim's womb, why is that?"
"I didn't pay attention to it." Connor replied in shame.
I nodded "Then what made you notice it and made you write that in the report after the 3rd killing. It was to the point that you started noticing that the killer used the same weapon to gouge out the victim's womb in the previous 2 victims as well."
"A friend of mine is a blacksmith. He told me that as long as I am able to give him the dimensions of the wounds inflicted by a weapon then he is able to tell me exactly what kind of weapon it is and provide me more insights on who crafts those kinds of weapons in the capital." Connor answered.
"Using these clues, you were able to narrow down your search radius. But this changed with his 4th victim right?" I said as we reached a door of a building inside the dark alley.
Connor nodded. "He/she started using a different tool to gouge out the womb after claiming every 3 life."
I remained silent for Connor to catch up. Connor stared at me in confusion for a few minutes before realisation hit him. "That absolute MotherF*cker!"
Connor started spewing a barrage of foul words and pounding at the wall beside him while Alyssa tried to calm him down in confusion.
"Connor, what happened?" Alyssa tried to ask raging Connor.
"Alyssa, does Detective Connor have a habit of shouting out or raging on his findings or feelings like he did today morning for every clue he finds?" I asked.
Alyssa nodded "It's one of his habit that he can't manage to retain. Due to this most civilians are not permitted around a certain hearing range of his office."
Again, I remained silent, before Alyssa to caught up as she gasped "But that's not possible. We all made sure to keep a certain area of his office always clear of civilians."
"I never said it was the civilians." I replied.
I could see anger rushing to Alyssa's eyes. "Your highness, are you suggesting that someone inside the HQ is a mole for a serial killer?"
"I am not suggesting it. I am stating it. Whether knowingly or unknowingly someone in your office somehow has been passing information that Detective Connor here has a habit of spewing to the embracer."
Before Alyssa could start a chorus to defend her co-worker, I explained. "Think about it. The killer is a complete greenhorn when he first began to the point where he left plenty of evidence for you to work with.
However, each time you find something striking out as a vital piece of clue or pattern, he changes that with his next killing.
This is to the point that even though the killer has only been active for a very short while, he has already perfected his 'art' of killing.
It was as if someone has been pointing out his fault after each kills for him to correct. Ergo someone is feeding him information only people in the HQ should know about."
Connor having calmed down stood silently next to Alyssa.
"I know it is hard for you to believe, hence I will show you something to make you believe that there indeed is a mole inside your office." I told Alyssa as I opened the door to the building.
Suddenly a wave of stench hit us with the hot air.
Luke was quick to cast a barrier shrouding me, as I motioned all 4 of them to follow me.
I could feel the trepidation in both of them as we neared the source of the stench.
Opening the door to a room, the strength of stench increased while at the same time all 4 of us saw the latest work of the 'Embracer' laid before us.
A woman tied to a chair was leaning forward on the table having to stare at her own womb, as flies and larva feasted on both rotting fleshes.
Alyssa covered her mouth to stop from screaming out loud while, Connor stood in front of her to block her sight, looking slightly pale.
"Luke please help Ms Alyssa calm down; Detective Connor please follow me." I ordered as I walked into the now crime scene as Ellis walked beside me, unusually calm.
'Hmm, Ellis is strangely very adaptive to situations like this. Interesting.' I mused as we walked forward.
"As you can see, this is the latest victim of 'Embracer'. Care to guess how I knew it was here?"
"You found a pattern that I didn't notice for the 'Embracer' to change." Connor replied in a very serious manner.
I nodded "There was one thing always interesting about where the killer had always disposed of his victims that you had never noticed."
Connor nodded for me to go ahead with my explanations.
"The victims were always disposed of in the same place where they had last been willingly with their lover.
The killer never bothered, to find a new spot to torture and kill his victims, as the victims themselves found the perfect sport for the killer.
I mean what better place to slowly carve out your womb while keeping you alive, than the very place that could hide the moans and screaming's of the sexual pleasure you had few moments before being captured by the killer.
Since you never noticed this, the killer never bothered to change their location as well.
Besides this way the killer achieved another objective of keeping the lover of the victim from speaking up." I explained as I started to put on gloves I had borrowed from the station along with Connor and Ellis.
"Obviously because they though we will suspect them since they were the last people to be with the victim before they were killed. But how did you find this area, your highness?" Connor asked.
Having put the gloves on I started examining the arms of the women.
"Your detailed report of the missing women, you suspected of being marked by the embracer. In that file, I had read her address.
People, especially horny people, that have a lot to lose when caught in the act are very careful subconsciously in choosing the right place to commit the wrong.
And from it, I thought 'If I were a women with kids and husbands, who was cheating on my family with another man, I wanted to be far away while doing the act while at the same time not so far as to quickly get back home if the need arises. But at the same time, I have to be at a place that has to have no one else nearby seeing me entering and leaving.'
Along with these and few other questions I thought of in the shoes of a cheating women, I narrowed it down to this alley; close yet not so close to the women's house, while at the same time fulfilling most of the other criteria's."
After finally examining all of the dead woman's body carefully and quickly, I turned towards Connor.
"Also here is the next piece of clue vital to catching the killer along with proving there was a mole in the office." I smiled as I pointed towards the bruise imprint of the killers' fingers on the victim's thighs.
Frowning slightly Connor examined the bruises. Seeing nothing peculiar about the bruises from the other previous bruises Connor shook his head.
Sighing I knelt down and pointed to the peculiar shape of the bruise on the right thigh. "Notice the indentation of a thin ring on the ring finger?" I asked to which Connor nodded.
"I had noticed that, in the 1st victim as well. Probably someone married." Connor told me his reasoning.
Shaking my head. "This was the only thing the killer never bothered to correct when he changed all the evidence pertaining to him when you found out. Care to guess why?"
"I am wrong about him being married/ engaged. So he was happy for me to go chasing in the wrong direction." Connor answered.
"You were wrong not 'I am wrong'." I corrected him.
Connor raised his head up with a visible frown. "Take a look." Saying so I took out the photos I had taken from the case file and passed it to Connor, who took it after removing his gloves.
Looking through the photos of the thighs of each victim with bruises, he did not spot it at first, but after a few minutes he noticed it.
"The rings are different. The ring he has been using so far except for the last victim and the current victim here is different. The ring indentations on the last 2 victims of the 'embracer' are thin while all the other victims have an indentation of a wide ring..." Pausing for a while Connor looked towards me.
"You said I 'was' wrong about him being married. How did you know that your highness?"
I removed my gloves and took out something from my pocket and held it in front of Connor. "Do you know what this is detective?"
"Isn't this a purity ring?" Connor asked.
I nodded "A peculiar thing about purity rings inside the capital is that they are much thicker and wider to make it more noticeable. While ..." I paused as I took another ring from my pocket.
"... an engagement ring is much thinner." Connor finished the sentence.
Clapping I asked, "So how many people inside the office do you know has attended a marriage, or know of someone who has got engaged in the past 1 or 2 weeks?"
Connor remained silent before something shone in his eyes "The receptionist..."
Suddenly the grin on my face widened just as the coroners and other crime scene officers arrived.