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CHAPTER 1 EXCERPT

CHAPTER 1

Icy winds are blowing all across the snow clad city. An uneasy silence is there as if something really traumatic has happened. The screams of police sirens and the flash of red and blue lights awaken the once calm night. A police radio crackles and a scratchy voice permeates from police walkie talkies. Officers carry on conversations pertinent to the investigation,while others less involved in the case try to control the crowd.The officers seal off the whole site and take control of the large crowd who has since rushed there, more so for curiosity than anything else.
 
A heart rendering scene is there as a lone body covered with a tarp from head to toe lies in the middle of the road. The face is blocked from the view of onlookers to hide the person’s identity. By now a sea of people, mainly in their pajamas and overcoats have lined on both sides of the road are pushing each other to get the best possible view of the accident site. It’s not clear as to what happened earlier in the evening. But the solemn fact remains, a girl lost her life.
 
For most of them it’s a great spectacle of flashing lights, news crews, road buzzing with activity but no one wants to imagine the pain which the girl might have suffered before her demise.Some people are carrying umbrellas to fend off the delicate pitter patter of a light snow drizzle. The police are trying hard to get as much reliable information about the girl’s death as possible, a death that seems to have occurred under rather mysterious circumstances.
 
Police detectives interview several potential witnesses, possible suspects, and take the sketchy statements from those who have any semblance of information about the case. But no one has the courage to come out openly and help the police in real sense. It’s a story that’s all too familiar. People are either too scared to come forward or too reluctant to get involved. Most of them are trying to avoid being involved in this matter altogether. Contrary to this, there are some people with the hope of seeing themselves on the Channel 7 News who are giving haphazard information to the news crew.
 
One instance is that of a short, plus-sized woman around her late 50s, who fabricates certain knowledge about knowing the girl. However, the police have not contacted the girl’s family or released any information on her whatsoever. So how could she possibly know anything about who she is? Unless she is either possibly connected to the crime or just trying to get a fleeting moment of face time. When asked by the reporter how she possibly knows so much about the crime, somewhat more than the investigators, the lady only smiles and shakes her head. She tries unsuccessfully to play off her knowledge of the goings on in a coy manner. The reporter thanks her for her time and moves onto the next person. The woman unaware that her statement will be nothing more than cutting room fodder for the video technicians at Channel 7 News.
 
It is unfortunate that people are trying to benefit from the death of the girl. But the general public makes false claims about knowing the girl, the other issue is that other news crew members are blindly noting this incorrect and damaging information in their notepads, seemingly as if they aren’t applying their brains. Naturally all media want to give the accounts first on their news stations seemingly even the most credible of reporters aren’t thinking of it being accurate or not.
 
By their claims it seems that they even know more than the investigators.After four hours of rigorous investigation the detectives conclude their preliminary canvassing of the crime scene and send the curious public back home. By now the girl’s body has been driven away in the back of the hearse to the morgue where hopefully her body will be identified by someone close to her. Still stragglers try to get final glimpses and catch sight of anything interesting should it occur. Police disperse those who have lingered around the scene. Detectives on the case hope of finding some solid clues in the search of every nook and adjoining corner of the crime scene one last time to see if they missed an overlooked piece of the puzzle. But nothing occurs other than police picking up markers and listening to other reports on their car radios. In no time the
crime scene, which only a few moments ago was buzzing with activity, has now been transformed into this enigmatic place of snow flurries and freezing cold. The cloudy night sky, barking dogs, screeching tires and ominous sound of ice breaking apart echoes as it strikes the earth makes the scene even more of an unsolvable mystery.

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