Post by Zuyuri on Jun 27, 2016 23:25:53 GMT
((Since making a plot of this would be a long tedious wait, I decided to put this puppy to bed. The identity of the killer is coming!))
After a week of hell and brooding, the Others Offices were buzzing. People were picking up ringing phones and blabbing with answering questions. The mystery board was updating every few minutes, with officers a new piece to the La Llorona puzzle. The red tape web was getting wider, showing vague connections that were later proven true or false.
"All this from a muddy chest," Sunshine murmured in awe as she wrote down something in her notes. She had just gotten off the phone with a pawn broker, who identified the muddy chest Shadow and Yang discovered - only she knew the identity of Shadow's "anonymous support" as he put it to others who ask- in the bayou.
"What's the broker have to say?" Shadow asked.
"We've got a match. It was bought not too long ago. He said he couldn't see the woman's face as she kept it covered."
"Ooh, mysterious," Jim waggled his fingers. This was returned by a playful smack from Dimitri.
"He said there was also..."
"Okay, who took the last pot of coffee?!"
Korra's outraged cry interrupted Sunshine. The blonde cop and her red and black partner forced the urge to turn around. The dark skinned cop was marching in, her angry blue eyes bright. An angry Korra was not a good sign. She stomped past them, narrowing her eyes at the board. "Really? We're looking at a pawn shop now?"
Shadow shouldn't have said anything, but he did. "The chest in the bayou is the closest link we've had in a while. We're lucky it was a link period."
Korra glared at the black hedgehog, who was sipping his coffee. "So all my sleepiness nights were worth nothing?!"
"Korra, let's not turn this into childish fighting," Pitch mumured with a hand to his temples. "Our work has been on and off again. You put forth efforts, too."
There was an awkward silence throughout this office, except for ringing phones. Around the second ring, Dimitri picked up. "What have we got, Anna?" Forensics had taken the chest and were analyzing it for clues. Dimitri nodded while she was talking. After a minute of the other cops looking at him, he hung up with a huge grin. "She's got a match."
•
Anna greeted everyone with happy smiles as they patrolled to the forensics lab. Pearl was explaining something about birds to Pocahontas. Kirk had gone off to examine a body for another case, giving a nod to everyone.
"We're looking for Miriam Narjis," Anna declared, showing the computerized fingerprints. The blue lines were practically identical. "She's a child psychologist in the city. Her fingerprints were all over the hinges of the chest. Interesting that'd she pick this chest like this. This is something WAAAYY across the pond. Look at the detailing," she pointed to the geometric floral design, "why buy it just to put rocks in it?"
"Rocks that came from Riverfront," Pearl interrupted. She walked o Er with a huge slab of stone. Piping was sticking out, having corroded an orange brown. "Most likely stones from an old mill. The piping is relatively steel, used in a lot of infrastructures in the 1970's..."
"Point being?" Shadow interrupted, folding his arms.
"The point being she had access to a rubble site. But wait, there's more!"
The slamming of rock put everyone on edge. Had it been any harder, and the box would have fallen. But instead, something wiggled and shot from the bottom. It was an entirely new compartment. The inside, not counting mud, was pristine.
"Was there anything in that?" Riku asked.
"As a matter of fact," Pearl showed them a heavy plastic bag. It contained several items. A maroon blanket that was fraying, what looked like a college lined notebook with ink smudges, a black leather pouch filled with flecks of a green powder, and a metal rosary. Anna started typing at the computer, loading an image from the notebook. There was no denying what had been written.
"Addresses and names," Aqua murmured. "Miriam was taking notes on all the families she was targeting." Everything was read in silence. The families, on the surface, appeared to just be random. The deaths and kidnapping were the same as it had been two years ago. But the kidnap method came through in the notes. Miriam would use a powder, which Riku explained was used in voodoo to make walls thi enough to walk through, to sneak into the homes and take the children thirty minutes after their bedtime.
"And that powder," Anna grinned, "is what Pearl and I found on little Jimmy to get us back into the case."
"So all we need is motive," Aqua mused. "We have who, what and where. But we still have to investigate Miriam's reasoning."
"As ideal as that is," Pitch put in, "she is still out there. We need to stop her now."
•
The BPD cars were all silent. Miriam Narjis' home was in a suburb in
Riverfront, where they had been redirected to from her office. The rocks she had collected to fill the chest had come from a partially demolished building three blocks down. Riku had done his literal magic to confirm they were the same. The whole Others unit was there, complete with their own powers. Korra was pounding the door, yelling, "Bellerouge Police!"
The reply was nothing. Korra was about to go again, but Shadow stepped in front. "Save your energy," he advised. He took a quick breath, aimed his foot to the door, and kicked it once. Twice, the connection was met and the door cracked open. He rushed in, doing a literal quick sweep. Wherever he ran was just a blur with flares flying out. He checked every room, every cranny, anything that could house a thirty something woman. The only thing he paused to look at was a picture of a smiling baby, wrapped in a maroon blanket; the same blanket hidden in the chest.
"Clear!" Shadow called out. The cops flanked in, their guns and powers active. Aqua was unfurling her wings and fluttering around, tracking anything happening from the air. Sunshine joined him, nodding at the picture.
"If that's not a clue to motive, I don't know what is," she said with a wry smile. She was trying to make light of the situation. Shadow returned her grin with a small one of his own, before putting a hand on his gun and continued to patrol.
Jim and Dimitri were by the backdoor. The younger cop put a gloved hand on the knob...and blinked as the door opened. The back door unlocked could be anything. Dimitri was parting the curtains, muttering about a runoff. But then they heard a noise not unlike a shriek. More like a shriek and a horse whinny. Pitch appeared next to everyone, nodding and pointing to the back door "I found her."
Shadow fought the urge to roll his eyes. Pitch's legions were useful in investigations and chases, but terrible at letting escapees know the police had come. He walked out quickly with Sunshine on his tail.
The path to Miriam Narjis led over an unattended garden into a neighbor's empty backyard. That backyard led to a back brush that ran wild. Large oaks dwarfed the cops as they crept around and leaves rattled. The sounds of neighborhood antics became white noise...but then there was the sound of rushing water. The section of the Mississippi that flowed through Bellerouge. Standing at the banks with her curly brown hair tied back and her arms outstretched, was Miriam Narjis.
"Don't come any closer!" She called to the two cops, who froze where they stood.
"Miriam," Sunshine started the coaxing process. "It's all right. We aren't going to hurt you. We just want to talk."
The laugh Miriam gave was hollow. "Talk about what? I have nothing I want to talk about. All I have is this," she gestured to the river. It was rushing over thanks to the summer rains, the small peaks looking more like tsunamis. The brown water roared. Miriam hadn't turned around. "It's soothing, isn't it? Washes away every problem."
"Miriam, that water is too cold," Sunshine continued. "Why not take...a hot bath. That's water, right?"
Shadow was standing quiet. His com buzzed on his wrist, and he picked it up. "We've got you covered," Aqua reported. It was here that the black hedgehog got a hint of blue hidden in the trees. That meant Riku wasn't too far behind." Shadow whispered, "No one move unless a threat is made."
"...he did nothing wrong!" Miriam's hysterical cry snapped Shadow back to making sure nothing was going to happen to upset the investigation. "My baby brother was innocent! And now," she pointed at the river again. "My mother did nothing! She sent him adrift and went back into the house! I said behind, watching the water swallow him whole!" A lone tear streaked down her cheek. "Parents who neglect their children don't deserve them."
Everything came together right then and there. How Miriam Narjis, having watched her innocent baby brother drown in the river after being left there by a neglectful mother. Not wanting children to suffer neglect, she became a child psychologist. But her trauma of watching her brother die led her to watch the seemingly hurt children closely. To the point where the line had been drawn; if the parents wouldn't care, they deserved for the child to be lost. Lost at the hands of a "mother". It was how Miriam became the La Llorona Killer.
"I'm sorry for your loss, Miriam," Sunshine uttered. "Your brother never deserved that."
Miriam said nothing. Her sad eyes looked out again. "And that boy was going to be my last." No doubt she meant Nemo, "He was the most like my baby brother." She sniffed. "It is finished." She traced a toe in the water. She knelt down, rubbing her arms and face, now openly sobbing. Sunshine reached for the pair of cuffs, gently putting them on Miriam's wrists and clicking them into place.
As they marched to the car, the sky rumbled with incoming clouds. Sunshine shut Miriam in the car, sighing with exhaustion as she settled in the driver's seat. Shsdow was prepping to glide next to her. The only "good job" they got was a solemn nod from Pitch. The raindrops started tiny, growing in speed and radius. It was this rain that follow the patrol to Angola, where the La Llorona Killer was put away.
After a week of hell and brooding, the Others Offices were buzzing. People were picking up ringing phones and blabbing with answering questions. The mystery board was updating every few minutes, with officers a new piece to the La Llorona puzzle. The red tape web was getting wider, showing vague connections that were later proven true or false.
"All this from a muddy chest," Sunshine murmured in awe as she wrote down something in her notes. She had just gotten off the phone with a pawn broker, who identified the muddy chest Shadow and Yang discovered - only she knew the identity of Shadow's "anonymous support" as he put it to others who ask- in the bayou.
"What's the broker have to say?" Shadow asked.
"We've got a match. It was bought not too long ago. He said he couldn't see the woman's face as she kept it covered."
"Ooh, mysterious," Jim waggled his fingers. This was returned by a playful smack from Dimitri.
"He said there was also..."
"Okay, who took the last pot of coffee?!"
Korra's outraged cry interrupted Sunshine. The blonde cop and her red and black partner forced the urge to turn around. The dark skinned cop was marching in, her angry blue eyes bright. An angry Korra was not a good sign. She stomped past them, narrowing her eyes at the board. "Really? We're looking at a pawn shop now?"
Shadow shouldn't have said anything, but he did. "The chest in the bayou is the closest link we've had in a while. We're lucky it was a link period."
Korra glared at the black hedgehog, who was sipping his coffee. "So all my sleepiness nights were worth nothing?!"
"Korra, let's not turn this into childish fighting," Pitch mumured with a hand to his temples. "Our work has been on and off again. You put forth efforts, too."
There was an awkward silence throughout this office, except for ringing phones. Around the second ring, Dimitri picked up. "What have we got, Anna?" Forensics had taken the chest and were analyzing it for clues. Dimitri nodded while she was talking. After a minute of the other cops looking at him, he hung up with a huge grin. "She's got a match."
•
Anna greeted everyone with happy smiles as they patrolled to the forensics lab. Pearl was explaining something about birds to Pocahontas. Kirk had gone off to examine a body for another case, giving a nod to everyone.
"We're looking for Miriam Narjis," Anna declared, showing the computerized fingerprints. The blue lines were practically identical. "She's a child psychologist in the city. Her fingerprints were all over the hinges of the chest. Interesting that'd she pick this chest like this. This is something WAAAYY across the pond. Look at the detailing," she pointed to the geometric floral design, "why buy it just to put rocks in it?"
"Rocks that came from Riverfront," Pearl interrupted. She walked o Er with a huge slab of stone. Piping was sticking out, having corroded an orange brown. "Most likely stones from an old mill. The piping is relatively steel, used in a lot of infrastructures in the 1970's..."
"Point being?" Shadow interrupted, folding his arms.
"The point being she had access to a rubble site. But wait, there's more!"
The slamming of rock put everyone on edge. Had it been any harder, and the box would have fallen. But instead, something wiggled and shot from the bottom. It was an entirely new compartment. The inside, not counting mud, was pristine.
"Was there anything in that?" Riku asked.
"As a matter of fact," Pearl showed them a heavy plastic bag. It contained several items. A maroon blanket that was fraying, what looked like a college lined notebook with ink smudges, a black leather pouch filled with flecks of a green powder, and a metal rosary. Anna started typing at the computer, loading an image from the notebook. There was no denying what had been written.
"Addresses and names," Aqua murmured. "Miriam was taking notes on all the families she was targeting." Everything was read in silence. The families, on the surface, appeared to just be random. The deaths and kidnapping were the same as it had been two years ago. But the kidnap method came through in the notes. Miriam would use a powder, which Riku explained was used in voodoo to make walls thi enough to walk through, to sneak into the homes and take the children thirty minutes after their bedtime.
"And that powder," Anna grinned, "is what Pearl and I found on little Jimmy to get us back into the case."
"So all we need is motive," Aqua mused. "We have who, what and where. But we still have to investigate Miriam's reasoning."
"As ideal as that is," Pitch put in, "she is still out there. We need to stop her now."
•
The BPD cars were all silent. Miriam Narjis' home was in a suburb in
Riverfront, where they had been redirected to from her office. The rocks she had collected to fill the chest had come from a partially demolished building three blocks down. Riku had done his literal magic to confirm they were the same. The whole Others unit was there, complete with their own powers. Korra was pounding the door, yelling, "Bellerouge Police!"
The reply was nothing. Korra was about to go again, but Shadow stepped in front. "Save your energy," he advised. He took a quick breath, aimed his foot to the door, and kicked it once. Twice, the connection was met and the door cracked open. He rushed in, doing a literal quick sweep. Wherever he ran was just a blur with flares flying out. He checked every room, every cranny, anything that could house a thirty something woman. The only thing he paused to look at was a picture of a smiling baby, wrapped in a maroon blanket; the same blanket hidden in the chest.
"Clear!" Shadow called out. The cops flanked in, their guns and powers active. Aqua was unfurling her wings and fluttering around, tracking anything happening from the air. Sunshine joined him, nodding at the picture.
"If that's not a clue to motive, I don't know what is," she said with a wry smile. She was trying to make light of the situation. Shadow returned her grin with a small one of his own, before putting a hand on his gun and continued to patrol.
Jim and Dimitri were by the backdoor. The younger cop put a gloved hand on the knob...and blinked as the door opened. The back door unlocked could be anything. Dimitri was parting the curtains, muttering about a runoff. But then they heard a noise not unlike a shriek. More like a shriek and a horse whinny. Pitch appeared next to everyone, nodding and pointing to the back door "I found her."
Shadow fought the urge to roll his eyes. Pitch's legions were useful in investigations and chases, but terrible at letting escapees know the police had come. He walked out quickly with Sunshine on his tail.
The path to Miriam Narjis led over an unattended garden into a neighbor's empty backyard. That backyard led to a back brush that ran wild. Large oaks dwarfed the cops as they crept around and leaves rattled. The sounds of neighborhood antics became white noise...but then there was the sound of rushing water. The section of the Mississippi that flowed through Bellerouge. Standing at the banks with her curly brown hair tied back and her arms outstretched, was Miriam Narjis.
"Don't come any closer!" She called to the two cops, who froze where they stood.
"Miriam," Sunshine started the coaxing process. "It's all right. We aren't going to hurt you. We just want to talk."
The laugh Miriam gave was hollow. "Talk about what? I have nothing I want to talk about. All I have is this," she gestured to the river. It was rushing over thanks to the summer rains, the small peaks looking more like tsunamis. The brown water roared. Miriam hadn't turned around. "It's soothing, isn't it? Washes away every problem."
"Miriam, that water is too cold," Sunshine continued. "Why not take...a hot bath. That's water, right?"
Shadow was standing quiet. His com buzzed on his wrist, and he picked it up. "We've got you covered," Aqua reported. It was here that the black hedgehog got a hint of blue hidden in the trees. That meant Riku wasn't too far behind." Shadow whispered, "No one move unless a threat is made."
"...he did nothing wrong!" Miriam's hysterical cry snapped Shadow back to making sure nothing was going to happen to upset the investigation. "My baby brother was innocent! And now," she pointed at the river again. "My mother did nothing! She sent him adrift and went back into the house! I said behind, watching the water swallow him whole!" A lone tear streaked down her cheek. "Parents who neglect their children don't deserve them."
Everything came together right then and there. How Miriam Narjis, having watched her innocent baby brother drown in the river after being left there by a neglectful mother. Not wanting children to suffer neglect, she became a child psychologist. But her trauma of watching her brother die led her to watch the seemingly hurt children closely. To the point where the line had been drawn; if the parents wouldn't care, they deserved for the child to be lost. Lost at the hands of a "mother". It was how Miriam became the La Llorona Killer.
"I'm sorry for your loss, Miriam," Sunshine uttered. "Your brother never deserved that."
Miriam said nothing. Her sad eyes looked out again. "And that boy was going to be my last." No doubt she meant Nemo, "He was the most like my baby brother." She sniffed. "It is finished." She traced a toe in the water. She knelt down, rubbing her arms and face, now openly sobbing. Sunshine reached for the pair of cuffs, gently putting them on Miriam's wrists and clicking them into place.
As they marched to the car, the sky rumbled with incoming clouds. Sunshine shut Miriam in the car, sighing with exhaustion as she settled in the driver's seat. Shsdow was prepping to glide next to her. The only "good job" they got was a solemn nod from Pitch. The raindrops started tiny, growing in speed and radius. It was this rain that follow the patrol to Angola, where the La Llorona Killer was put away.