The crime at the 13th Stone - Part I

Most of the time, I work as a detective for a corporation I can not mention here because it’s, obviously, secret. But even if I am not allowed to do so, I’ll explain here the details and the message of the crime at the 13th stone.

On the 13th of May, 2005, I was called by my boss to investigate  a crime  outside a town, at a rocky place. When I arrived no human was to be seen. That was very strange, because my boss never sent me alone, I was to meet one of his loyal men every time. I started to look for a body, the exact location where the crime took place, but all I could find was a large blood stain at the bottom of a small rock, and a finger, thrown away at like 2 m from the scene.

This was really curious. After my calculations, the murderer cut the finger when the other person was moving his or her hand, and in the hurry, the finger was left behind. Or, it was the finger of the murderer, and a fight took place. I took the finger as evidence, but until the medical examination, I couldn’t know which of my ideas was true.

I was shocked to see a Police car speeding towards me. I was standing examining the evidence I had collected (I also took, on a special medical stick, some blood from the blood stain) when they started to explain me that the body wasn’t found at the crime scene, so that was why they called for me. They were looking for some answers and they were sure  I’ll give them.

I requested a week for special examination, and 2 of the best men from their department to help me. The next morning I was already making speculations about the psychological profile of the murderer. After hearing the statements of some people from the town, I found out that the victim was a woman, at the age of 45, an important person that was only visiting the town. I remembered then that the finger was one of a man, a fat pinky finger with an enormous onyx stone ring on it. But why was the ring left behind, it worth a fortune. That was becoming harder than I thought at the first time..

The people I questioned told me that the woman was not alone in her visit there. She came with a thin, bold man and they have seen him like her right hand in some business she was talking about sometimes. But after 2 days, he disappeared and they were told by the woman that he had gone home after some papers she needed. They found him dead, with his head smashed, in the same rocky area, and they incriminated her. But the next morning, when the trial should have started and her sentence was to be pronounced, she also disappeared from the town’s jail house. No one saw other strange man in the town and they were all scared and wanted answers. I assured them I’ll find out what was happening.

We searched the room were she stayed, at The Inn (where I also had a room), and found another ring, exactly the same with the one on the finger, and some old papers of property of the town. The name wrote there was of a man. He was the head of a very old congregation of rich people, named “The Name of the Rose”, but the message and the reason of this congregation were unknown. He was not to find, nobody knew nothing about him, like he was a shadow.

In my mind, the wheels started to move quicker. If she had those papers, it meant that she was an important part of that congregation or she was sent to investigate about that “ghost” and she said she was visiting the town for no suspicions, but somebody wanted her dead. If she was into that thing, she had done something very bad. Maybe she had stolen the papers. But if she was there to make an investigation, if she had those papers it meant she knew too much and she had to die. The result was that this congregation, even if it was sacred, was lead by an insane man that would do anything to keep it under the shadows.

But a strange thing occurred. At like 5 o’clock, the 2 men that were my helpers, disappeared. When I returned to my room I found them dead on the bed. Maybe they knew too much.. Maybe I was next.

I was not scared of this, so I continued my investigation because now there was a serial killer on the loose.

In the morning, returning to the rocky place, my first thought was to count the stones there. 13. My lucky number. I knew I will discover the killer soon enough. On the 13th stone was the blood stain I found. So it was a special number for them. The 2 rings showed that the onyx was their special stone. In this case, it was something related to witchcraft. But what was the purpose of owning the town..

The message was clear now. Somebody was lying. Easy to make the link. This was their town, but I had no proof. So I started to search on the Internet about possible witch congregations, and I found their name, related to a town that was bought nowadays by a very rich unknown man. But I knew his name, or was it a pseudonym.. Well, the town would be this one, and their people spread all over it. Nice..

I pretended I didn’t know that and I continued my work in normal conditions. But the people started to stare at me and to avoid talking to me. I didn’t care so much. All I knew was that I had the key.

So it finally came, the last day I had requested for the analysis of the multiple crimes. I started my case presentation with some foolish ideas. Nothing related to a congregation or something like that. Just a simple psycho murderer who had nothing else to do than to kill people for pleasure. And I called inside the room a man, hand-cuffed, and told all that he was the murderer.

In that moment, rumours spread from each person to another and angry faces started to appear. The room was full now of standing people, ready to fight.

I then simply told them he wasn’t the murderer, just a friend of mine pretending. I started to shout about the number 13, the 13th stone supposed to be a grave stone, the symbolism of the onyx, “The Name of the Rose”, the old towns name, the person that betrayed them, the woman and her assistant, the message that they knew too much and that now it was me who knew everything about them and I wasn’t scared.

They all remained like stones..



To be continued..