[Story] The figure in the long, black coat

Ahnaf Abdullah - The figure in the long, black coat - Graded 22/35 by Ahmede Hussain
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Approximately 22 minutes ago, a lonely girl was walking down an empty alleyway at 9:15 PM, in the desolate suburbs of New York City. An old, dusty, CCTV camera then witnessed how the girl was hit in the head by a baseball bat sent flying, courtesy of a middle-sized man wearing a miner's helmet. The girl died instantaneously after 4 deafening blows, and the sound of screeching tires left the scene, dead in the wake.

After the police had arrived, they determined the identity of the dead woman. Poor Katherine 'Kate' Iglesias was a 22-year-old Insurance Broker who left her home in Rockport Borough to buy some groceries but never came back. The murder weapon, a 3-feet 'Carlos' super baseball bat was found right in the vicinity, although no fingerprints existed.

After analysing the CCTV footage, detective Carl Jonson was informed of the only usable clue: The getaway vehicle used to flee the crime scene, a Subaru WRX STI Impreza.

It was finally time to start the search. All the Baseball accessories stores were thoroughly checked and video footage of customers were taken. Every garage, basement, and parking tickets were searched for the Subaru and the victim's family members and office-goers were interrogated.

Another wave of sadness swept the case. The victim, Kate was newly married. Her husband, Marco Iglesias, cried and bawled and recalled how they had received a scary note on the day of their wedding, exactly 7 days ago. But they had dismissed it as 'just a prank'.

After tearing Marco's place upside down, the note was discovered, and to the detective's luck, a foreign fingerprint was found on the note. The fingerprint matched with a 'Juno Richards', a bank robber with a hefty rap sheet.

But Carl's gut was wrenching. This case was becoming too easy. The killer had taken the time and effort to make himself unidentifiable on camera, prevented his fingerprints from appearing on the bat, and drove a phantom car that couldn't be found within a radius of 10 miles, but he forgot to remove the fingerprint on the threatening note itself?

After barraging into Juno's house, the police found nothing in sight except a laptop, in which a dark, disembodied figure wearing a long black coat started to talk.

'Good evening. I'm afraid Juno's not here. He died in an accident a long time ago. He left me his room to play in but I soon got bored. I'm playing a new game now, it's called 'Kill the newly-weds!'. Every month, a poor couple will meet an unfortunate end, by yours truly. You have about 15 days to catch me and prevent the demise of a poor couple's lives. That is... if you can!'

The laptop exploded immediately, leaving behind nothing but soot and metal. And that is how the newlywed serial killer's despicable journey began.