Deadly Romance with a Billionaire

Chapter Seven

The boulevard, though wide, is almost impassable and the consistent and relentless beeping noises of the cars add to my irritation. It takes me a lot more time than I want to arrive at the church where the victim’s corpse was found. Detective Hipolito, on the other hand, has started interviewing the eyewitness. I stand behind him as I listen to their exchange of words. Though the man’s face is wrinkled, it’s evident that he’s terrified as hell as he answers every question that’s being thrown at him.

“I was on my way here to clean the sanctuary when I saw a car parked at the front of the church,” he says. “Before I could set foot on the front yard, a tall man in cloak stepped out of the car, carrying a woman is his arms.”

“Did you see the man’s face?” asks Detective Hipolito.

“No. It was really dark and I was quite far from him. I also hid myself when I noticed that the woman was bleeding. And that’s when I ran away and reported the incident to the nearest police station.”

“How did you know that the suspect is a man if you hadn’t seen his face?”

“Even though the killer was wearing a black cloak, it’s apparent that he has a great built that’s why I’m assuming he’s a man.”

“Did you, by any chance, get the car’s plate number?”

“No, I didn’t”

“That’s alright. Can you provide us a video copy of all of your surveillance cameras?”

“Of course. I just need a request letter from you.”

Detective Hipolito gets to his feet and shakes the hand of the old man. “Expect the request within an hour. Thank you so much for your time.”

“Anything to help you with," the man answers.

As he goes back to his work, Detective Hipolito and I walk closer at the altar, the exact location where the corpse is found. Crouching down and avoiding the yellow tapes, we scan the area and take photos.

“Base on what the custodian said, there’s a high probability that Mrs. Ruiz wasn’t killed here. She’s killed somewhere else,” Detective Hipolito says as we move around the altar.

“Considering that a church is a public place, the killer wouldn’t dare to commit the crime in such a place,” I reply.

“But where could she possibly be killed?”

“I have a hunch.”

Detective Hipolito stops walking and looks at me, urging me to fill him with more information.

“I believe she’s killed in her bedroom which is at the second floor of her shop and I also believe that the killer is someone who has full access in every corner of her shop.”

Detective Hipolito narrows his eyes and crosses his arm over his chest. Since he doesn’t say a word, I proceed laying out my observations.

“The shop is located in an impoverished residential area and you need to enter a filthy and small alley just to find it. At first, I thought that the victim’s business isn’t doing well however, that changed when I enter the storage room.”

“What’s in it?”

“Piles of boxes of handkerchief, which only means that even though Mrs. Ruiz might not have many customers who buy from the shop, she has a lot of customers somewhere else.”

Detective Hipolito narrows his eyes even more. “Online.”

I snap my fingers the instant I hear the word. “Correct!”

“It’s better if we go back to the headquarter to discuss it further. You also need to see her autopsy report.”

“Good idea. Let’s go.”

As we hasten back to the headquarter, my tummy grumbles and my vision slightly blurs which make me uncomfortable driving the car I used to get in the church so I decide to leave it at the parking lot and take the passengerseat of Detective Hipolito’s car instead. While we are stuck on a congested road, I take this opportunity to study the victim’s autopsy report. It says that Mrs. Ruiz died between 2 AM and 2:30 AM which means that she’d been dead for more than an hour when the eyewitness saw her and the suspect in the church. If my theory serves me right that she really was murdered in her shop, why did the killer need to travel a 30 kilometer drive from the victim’s shop to the church which took him approximately 20 minutes? I let out a sigh before flipping the next page of the autopsy report where it says that the cause of death is asphyxiation. I then take out the photos from the envelope. The first photo shows the victim’s eyes with red and purple spots. The second photo shows the bruises around the nose, mouth and arms of the victim. The next picture is what I’ve already seen before, her right forearm with the word ‘jealousy’ written on it. The rest of the photos show that the victim’s other body parts were perfectly fine – no wounds, no bruises, just fine. Now, this is where it gets even more interesting, why did the killer have to put her in a bloody wedding dress? Is this crime a matter of a personal grudge? Or is the killer a p*ychopath?

I’m loss in my train of thought when the car pulls up. When I look around, I realize that we’re already at the parking lot of our headquarter.

The sky paints waves of pinkish and orangey hues and the sun is already setting at the time of our arrival. I clutch my stomach when it burbles once again. However, my determination to solve this case overshadows my hunger so I proceed to Detective Hipolito’s office still with an empty stomach. As I’m pinning the autopsy photos and the ones we’ve taken in the church on the cork board, Nico frantically pushes the door open.

“What’s happening to you?” I ask.

He catches his breath for a few more seconds while clenching his knees. “The chief inspector told me that Rhian Ruiz’s case has some similarities with a case from ten years ago. So I made my research about it and this is what I found.”

Nico lays an article written on April 4, 2011 on the desk for everyone to see. The headline says, ‘A Bloody Bride Found Dead’. I take the article and read it out loud.

“Mallory Santiago, a 17 year old student and an aspiring actress was found dead in Manila Cathedral on April 4, 11:07 in the evening, wearing a bloody wedding dress with a word ‘betrayal’ etched on her right forearm.”

After hearing the article, Detective Hipolito wastes no time asking Nico to tell the chief inspector that he wants to reopen the Mallory Santiago case. But there’s one problem, this isn’t a cold case but a close one. Her death is ruled as suicide.

Detective Hipolito hits the desk with his fists. “I don’t care! I’m certain that the deaths of Ms. Santiago and Mrs. Ruiz are related to one another. I’ll talk to the chief inspector myself.”

With that, he leaves us alone in his office. I chortle when Nico sticks his tongue out at our senior when he slams the door on our faces.

“By the way, I have to go home early today. An unexpected errands come up. Is there anything that you’d like me to do before I leave?” Nico asks.

“A lot.”

“Yikes!”

I take one of the pens from the pencil holder and tear a page from my booklet then write down all the tasks I have for him.

• A letter requesting for video copies of the surveillance cameras in Archdiocesan Shrine of Divine Mercy.

• Demand the Crime and Investigation Unit to consider Mrs. Rhian Ruiz’s shop as a possible crime scene.

• Get the list of Mrs. Ruiz’s online customers in the last three months.

• Verify the DNA of the blood in Mrs. Ruiz’s wedding dress.

• Find where and when the wedding dress was bought

“Wow!” he says when I hand him the piece of paper.

“Give them to me within this week, okay?”

“Anything else that you wanna add?” he asks with an obvious sarcasm in his tone.

I pinch my chin with my fingers and look at the cork board. “Oh yeah! Did you find anything about Buboy?”

He slumps his shoulders and so do his eyelids. “Not yet.”

“Add that on the list,” I say, slowly reaching for the door knob. “While I will do some more digging about this Mallory Santiago.”

Without glancing at Nico, I head to my workstation and while waiting for my laptop to turn on, I take my phone out of my pocket. I have the knack of checking my phone whenever I have a spare time that’s why I’m not surprised seeing seven missed calls and three text messages from Chaz. I try to call him back but now he’s the one who’s not answering so I send him a message instead.

[Mon, 5:08 PM - Can you pick me up at eight? Let’s have dinner outside…My treat♡.]

Since I’m expecting a call from Chaz, I put my cellphone near my desktop so I won’t miss it in the event my phone would ring. Then, I begin my research by typing Mallory Santiago’s name on the search bar. All the links contain the same information about her – her education and her profession. Though there’s a mention of her death, there’s no in depth explanation why was it ruled as suicide. When water accumulates in my eyes and my head spins a little, I take off my eyes from the screen by closing them and gently pressing my fingers on my eyelids for a moment. When I feel better, I continue with the research and this time, I type in ‘Was Mallory Santiago Murdered?’ My eyes gawk at the screen as my tongue moist my drying lips. I stretch and wiggle my trembling fingers as I hold the mouse and hesitantly click the link that has ‘Chaz Montenegro’ in it.

'Why does Chaz’s name appear in this thread?'