# The Nightmare: Chapters 1, 2



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

It was a double homicide.

In no time, everyone in the city heard about it. The story was all in the papers, and crowds rushed to the apartment to see if they could get any news. This is what could be the police were able to figure out so far:
Early that morning, neighbors called saying they heard a scream a little after sunrise in a nearby apartment, followed by a few softer yells. The police came to that apartment, and knocked on the door, but no one answered. They broke open the door, and there they found husband and wife on the ground. The husband had no blood on him, so it was presumed that he was choked. The woman however, had gash wounds all around her abdomen. Her condition was much more queer than the man: all she had on was a robe, and she was found right in the middle of the door well to the bedroom.
Some thought it was an issue of murder and suicide. Maybe the woman killed the man, and then she killed herself? However, there was no weapon to be found for which she would have stabbed herself so many times.
Such a mystery baffled the authorities. That's when they had the higher justice department and top investigator Ivan Alexandrov come to the scene.
Alexandrov walked through the crowd to go behind the blockade of police to get into the apartment. On the 5th floor, he found the room exactly as it was left. It was equally shocking for him.
He stepped around the bodies to look for clues. He approached the man, and observed his neck: indeed there was a bruise for some sort of device to strangle him. His body was stiff: it had been dead for many hours. He look around and found on a couch a twisted rag: the murder weapon. He took this among his pieces of evidence.
Alexandrov went to the woman. He looked at her arms and legs for any sign of struggle, but there was none. He noticed a little ring on here finger: it showed a skull on an ebony background. Alexandrov took this off her finger, in case it had any importance. He went into the bedroom, and saw a small bit of blood in the bed: she possibly was stabbed while she lay on it. But here, there was no sign of struggle, and the covers were kept it good condition. One thing was peculiar in the room, however: a glass of wine sitting on the drawing table next to the bed. He went up to it and carefully showed it up the the light: there were finger prints. This was another piece of evidence. Alexandrov thought to dump out the wine, but thought better of it, and instead poured it into another container for it which it could be stored. He took the glass and the other pieces of evidence back out of the apartment.
The crowds outside waited for an answer.
"This is what I can pick up," he began, eying the crowd. "The man was killed by someone while the woman was sleeping, and then stabbed her. It must not have killed her, because she had stood up and looked into the living room, where her husband was. Hence, perhaps the screams."
Everyone cheered. Obviously this was the only answer! The only matter was to find the criminal and bring him to justice.

It turned out to be much more complicated than expected.


CHAPTER 2

That day, the bodies were taken to other facilities where they would be examined by forensic scientists. Their fingerprints were recorded. The entire room was scanned for finger print evidence, either of their own, or of another person. It was unfortunate to discover none whatsoever of anyone else.
At his office, Alexandrov examined his evidence. He checked it all for fingerprints, and indeed the only evidence that was helpful was the wine glass. One thumb print on it did not match the fingerprints of the husband or wife. It may have been small, but he was proud of this discovery.
"So, it was murder after all?" he wondered. "But what did the glass of wine have to do with it?" He got an idea: he would request that all males in the city would get their thumb prints checked to see who would match it. So, he wrote up a request for the police office to do it.
He remembered his thermos that held the wine, and he got another idea. Alexandrov went to some other investigators in the building.
"I would like this wine to be tested for any chemicals. I know, it's a stretch, but I'm suspicious of it," he told a couple of workers.
"Well, how do you expect us to study it? Drink it?" one said.
"Not exactly, but use what methods you can to figure out what's in it."
"Not that we have many. But I can just imagine... technology, so they say, will be very advanced in the future. Imagine using... electron microscopes, fancy chemicals, and all that stuff to separate chemicals."
"Ha! Only once they really know how to master electricity! Come on! Get to work! This is an urgent case," and so Alexandrov left them.
Once the application for the fingerprint scan was sent, Alexandrov finally went home at midnight.


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