Forensic Criminology Bureau Series "Case 1 - Silent Witness"

Chapter 3

"Case 1 - Silent Witness"

Chapter 3

* Published in conjunction with the New Year.

Following the bar owner’s continuous refusal to hand over the tapes, Tyler had no choice but to wait for a warrant

The next day, the victim’s brother was remanded into custody and Tyler went back to the station to interview the victim’s brother. He was taken out of his lockup and brought into the interrogation room, where Tyler was waiting for him.

“Hello, and good morning, my name is Detective Tyler, from the FCB”, he introduced himself.

“Yeah, I know who you are, why I am here and why was I’d locked up!!?” he buzzed

“You barged in on a criminal investigation and almost assaulted two of my officers!” he retorted.

“The victim’s my sister, and I have every right to be with her, and you cannot charge me with obstruction of justice!”

Tyler questioned him further and found out that Merlyn was an FBI agent (that is why the feds wanted to step in and take charge, one of their own was murdered). He also found out that a few hours before she died, she was with her brother at a party before she went alone to Camelot’s bar for another round, while Jason, he went home.

Meanwhile, at the crime scene, Natalie and Evan was about to pack up, after processing the scene, when the two FBI agents came and without Tyler’s presence, fished for information.

Tyler had specifically told them, that details of the investigation cannot be released to anyone, including the FBI agents. Natalie and Evan, kept their mum while the agents, went back, furious at Tyler.

Anna, fully recovered, was back at work. Both Natalie and Evans were back at the office too.

Tyler after the interrogation, called for a meeting. Tyler always had this practice of calling his team up for a conference to share what they had investigated on the case and to discuss ideas that led up to the crime. This was known as a think-meet (Thinking-meeting).

Sitting down, Tyler found out that Merlyn was last seen with her brother before she went alone drinking at the bar. Natalie and Evan had sent the evidences to the lab. They found out that her finances were clean. Anna, while she was sick and resting at home, on Tyler’s instructions, she researched on Camelot’s Bar, which she found out that the bar, was a place of interest as it was under surveillance by the DEA for illegal activities for drug trafficking. Tyler thought to himself, no wonder the bar owner was reluctant to hand over the CCTV tapes for it may contain “transactions” between the clients at the bar. He also thought that if he wanted the tapes, the DEA must be brought in for advice. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place as on one hand, he didn’t want too many federal agencies to be brought in as it will be very messy, furthermore, he didn’t want to ruin the DEA’s operation of surveillance and on the other hand, he needed the tapes to help in the investigation.

He decided to send Frank and Natalie to the bar to retrieve the tapes, as undercover. Frank was the liaison between the RCPD and the FCB; he was a homicide detective under the rank of Sergeant. He sends Anna to the victim’s house for collection and processing.

At the bar, the bar owner, Dewey, glanced at them, and welcomed them as they were new to the bar. Frank and Natalie begin their operation which was to retrieve the tapes by using some “unscrupulous means”. Natalie also brought a warrant in case things go south. Natalie began hooking up with Dewey on the pretext on distracting him while Frank excused himself to go to the toilet, while in fact; he used the opportunity to search for the tapes in the storeroom. 10 minutes passed and Dewey was getting suspicious. He broke off the talk and walked to the toilet, luckily, Frank was just “walking” out from the toilet in the nick of them, thus, clearing off any suspicion. Natalie and Frank went back to the office