Detective Haynes
"We can't wait to announce this to the public for much longer," said captain Ayanda. He stood in front of all seven detectives in our department's conference room. "We need to solve this before it causes a nationwide panic," he continued. I was standing in the far corner of the room, looking out the second-story window as he spoke. "Captain Modisi from Plesios," he started. Plesios is the nearest town to us in our country, it is a two-hour drive. "... has informed me that they have seen an increase in home invasions and murders as of late. The victims have all been brutally hacked or shot. No survivors have been found among any of the victims but a partial fingerprint was found at one of the crime scenes that did not belong to any of the victims and has been recorded in our database. Unfortunately, we have yet to find a match. Because of the brutal nature of these attacks as well as footprints found at the scene, we have determined that we are dealing with multiple killers. We have also determined that it is likely the same group killing in Plesios due to the similar nature of the killings." I knew all of this already. My cousin is a detective in Plesios and has been for a while. She is one of their finest according to her and I have to agree but will never tell her that as her head might get too big for that small body. I could see the worry plastered on Captain Ayanda's face and honestly, I was freaking out too.
The Captain is a tall and proud man, he and Captain Modisi are similar in size and build. They have a darker skin than most and you can see they spend most days in the gym. I've seen Ayanda's work, I would probably die in the first ten minutes. To say that it is intense is an understatement. The Captains met each other many years ago when they went to the same academy and later on, were up for the same position in Plesios. Captain Modisi was offered the position and about a week later Captian Ayanda was offered the position as Captain in Eudaimoniaville. He has been Captain now for about three years and is doing a good job if you ask me. Our previous Captain was an old army sergeant and wouldn't promote you to detective before you "proved" yourself. In his mind, you had to want the job more than you valued your life. Needless to say, there weren't many promotions going around. We were shocked and honestly a bit relieved when we heard of his retirement. I think fear of the unknown would be a factor I have to mention. The saying goes "Rather the devil you know than the devil you don't". We feared that our new Captain would be similar to or worse than the one we had. Ayanda was personally picked by our previous captain and I'm sure he wasn't feeling too salty about not getting the position he applied for with the enormous pay rise it took to get him here. If you were wondering why the pay rise and the handpicking, our Captain had been following Ayanda's career for many years and was keeping an eye on him as he moved up the ranks. Apparently, they met each other briefly while Ayanda was still in the Academy. As for who authorized the pay rise, the Commissioner is the son of our previous Captain. So you can imagine the previous captain got away with a lot and pretty much refused to retire unless it was Ayanda filling his position. When we first met the Captain, we were skeptical that he would be able to fill the position and that we would not have any respect for him as he was an outsider filling an internal position that many wanted. Now I don't think they could have made a better choice. He commands respect, he assists with cases even when he is up to his eyeballs in paperwork. He gives wanted advice but only when asked and is straight with you when he thinks you are slacking, all in all, an upgrade. I wonder what kind of man Modisi must be to have gotten the position. Should be one hell of a man, but put me in Ayanda's corner any day.
Right after Madison and his family were found, Ayanda contacted Modisi, and some of their Forensic unit was sent over to us. With the little room in the budget we had, we could procure the basic equipment but for more complicated tests, they would have to be transported to the lab in Plesios. The fingerprints found at Madison's house had turned out to be those of the family and all had been accounted for among the victims. He was one of the town heroes and a close personal friend. I would have been sent off this case had it not been for the number of deaths, our small number of detectives, and the desperation we had to solve these cases quickly. The Plesios forensic team had determined that the footprints found at their crime scenes all matched each other as well as the shoe makes and sizes. They also determined that the killers preferred the same weapons in each of the cases and that nothing had been stolen from any of the victims. Furthermore, they tested for any sexual assault and all of the tests came back negative. This made no sense to me, there was no motive. We searched high and low, none of the victims knew each other and even in Plesios, they couldn't make any connections. This felt like a killing of opportunity, that would be the only thing that made sense, but why break in? Surely a person on the street alone at night would have been an easier target. The Captain continued the recap and I couldn't help but wonder if there were more incidents in neighbouring towns.