Orion Winters walked by the footpath, listening to people's murmurs. News spreads fast if it is this astonishing. He heard the hush and fuss about the murder.
The morning was cold, even the sun was out now. The green plants were gleaming with soft golden reflection of the morning sun, washed clean by the night's rain. As he went further, the organized rows of house gradually turned into a messy conjusted area of houses. He frowned. He never liked this part of the town.
Tch, depressing. Why was Wren even walking around here? Oh, right. The nearby river...
Heavy steam machineries came to his view as he approached the construction site. The police were now crowded there along with some townspeople. He observed how the police had drawn the yellow tape of the construction site to surround the body and keep the people out.
He pushed through the crowd to the front and then crouched down to look at the body with ease. His eyes, however, searched for something more than just clues of the body. A small gleaming object, he saw it.
He heard the Chief Inspector barking orders in the background,
"Go bring me another pair of gloves. Ay Robert! Keep those people out. Ay Boy! Stop right now!"
Orion looked above at the fat chin of the man. "I'm not trying to sneak."
"Ah yea, than stand up and leave."
Somebody called him. But the man stood glaring Orion and left only when he stood up and turned back. Orion saw Robert standing some metre away, scribbling something on his pad. He walked towards him. Robert noticed Orion approaching and frowned at once.
"What are you doing here?"
"Investigating."
"Nobody called you."
"I work for nobody. I am a private detective."
"Or so he claims." Robert muttered snickering. Then he cleared his throat. "Private detectives aren't allowed here. Unlike me, a professional."
Robert, a police detective.
But still Robert allowed him to speak further, willing to discuss. "What do you think?"
"Murder."
"No accident?"
"Certainly."
"That worker, at night. He must have been called."
"No he wasn't."
Robert clicked his retractable pen, ready to hear his thoughts. Robert respected him, no matter how much he ignored his opinions in reality.
"He wasn't called? So you think he was passing by? Because I have thought about that possibility. The mud on his shoes. It is a variety. He had been walking long distances."
Orion shook his head.
"I mean he wasn't a worker. Just a worker's uniform. Did you see his hands. Comparatively soft-textured to a average worker."
"Maybe he was new at work and hasn't gone through the hardness–" Robert stopped at Orion's disappointing stare. "Yes, the mud says otherwise. He has no reason to walk around the town just to come here. At night. In the rain. Yes, you are right. He was no worker."
Orion chuckled proudly.
My stare enlightened him.
Robert glared at him seeing his smugy face. "Continue or leave."
Orion continued.
"Let's take two people-"
"There were three. Didn't you check the footprints?" Robert's question made Orion's eyebrows twitch.
"Not when all of you are forcing me to leave. Yes so let's take three people. Two murderer and one victim. The victim is uninjured other than some bruises. Has poison been found in his blood? Yes? Very well. One murderer poisons him, and the other, with blood on his body, throws him out of the gates. Since the victim isn't bleeding but still has blood stains, he probably got the blood smeared on his carrier."
"Carried? I don't think so. The murderer didn't carry but drag him out. Seen those marks on the damp ground?"
"Tch tch. Too small. Those are the carrier slipping because of the victims weight."
"Well the real thing is where did the murderer escape? Because there is only one type of footprint escaping to the streets. Where did the second murderer go? Did they separate paths to stay hidden?"
Orion looked at the ground. Robert was right. Two types of footprints leave the building but one goes out of gates and disappears in the street. The other, the carrier, keeps the body resting to a tree and disappears from the spot at once. Both of them looked at each other with the same thought.
They didn't climb the tree, did they?
They just looked around, both of them, confused. Robert began after sometime, "Whoever killed was a genius to break the system."
"System, hmph. What do you even know about it, Robert? Let me tell you. A lot. There's a lot you don't know. And you never will. They won't let you know."
Robert looked into his eyes searching for answer to his riddled response.
Orion smiled and closed his eyes. He opened it and looked to the sky. "There's a lot that we need to know. Obviously, I know just a little more than you on this topic but I won't explain it to you. I am not sure myself. I don't want to fill your brain with misinformation."
Robert stared at him, his mouth gaped open.
"The heck you blabbering about?"
Orion smiled and shook his head. "Nothing," He said and took his leave.
He had far more important places to go. He searched for a pin in his pockets. When crouching near the body, he had picked it up. A crimson pin.
Time to add you to my collection.
He never knew the pair of lens that watched him and his interest on that object intently.