The Smiling Block Murderer

[You need to go back to reading from the Prologue: Smiling Block Murders if this is your first in this series]
 
Special Agent Ednit Joules, a grade A psychologist who specializes in paranormal deviations and in deriving patterns was summoned to work this case. He is believed to be a member of a covert and an unknown, unspoken of intelligence agency.

It was almost after three weeks of quiet that agent Ednit started working the case. After studying the case Ednit came up with the following list of commonalities that existed in the eight seemingly unrelated killings:

1. The weapon of choice was the same hunter’s knife, big and sharp enough to decapitate a grizzly bear in a single sweep
2. All stabbings took place in the street
3. All stabbings were on Wednesday, the third day of the week
4. All stabbings had no witness and no forensic evidence.
5. All personal belongs were taken away probably as trophies The only things left behind at each of the crime scenes was a body and a piece of paper 

Ednit stared hard at the wall and tried to drive the connection between the victim and the blocks on the paper. He detested the LAPD referring to it as smiling blocks. 

It was not a coincidence that all victims were stabbed on a Wednesday and that there were eight victims and eight columns in the block. He looked hard and noticed that the second victim, Toan and the seventh victim Rose each had 4 letters in their first name and they fit well in the second and seventh columns. He proceeded to fill the blocks with the first name of the victim in the sequence of the killing. They all fit well in. 

Ednit now looked across each of the seven rows. If each of the seven rows corresponded to a day of the week, then Wednesday would be the third row.

Harrison! Now that seems like a name. There was no other row, full or partial, that conveyed a name or anything that seemed of interest. Endit thought of pursuing Harrison as a lead.

Is Harrison the first name or the last name? There would be several thousand Harrison in Los Angeles alone.

Spending a whole day in a state of conundrum, Ednit repeatedly flipped through all the crime scene photographs, autopsy reports and other assembled documentation.

As he filled through the crime scene pictures he noticed another thing common. All victims were found lying in a close proximity to a sprayed wall. It was time for field trip. He thought to visit each crime scene and look at the graffiti and even ask around on who the street artistic was?

Each of the sprays were signed “RoryH”. A quick search through the criminal records pulled out three Rory Harrison. Two of these were convicted felons. One was serving time at the time of the eight killings and the other was convicted for man slaughter. He had apparently stabbed his neighbor in self-defense and had pleaded not guilty. The third Rory was arrested and fined on three occasions for destroying public property by spray painting walls. Record had it that he was fined for spray painting the sights where Phoebe, Bryan and Rose were found.

There was probable cause to pull him in for questioning but there was no hard forensic evidence to connect him with the murders. He walks a free man.

Would you like the story to end in a perfect crime or would you like it to have the traditional good triumphs over evils? If you want to Rory Harrison arrested and prosecuted for his heinous crimes come back tomorrow.

On the wall

[You need to go back to reading from the Prologue: Smiling Block Murders if this is your first in this series]
 
Two quite weeks have gone by and no more bodies have been found or reported with the smiling block of paper.

LAPD put on the wall of the investigation room this chart: 

 

Along with the crime scene photo they had the piece of paper from each site on the wall. 

 The LAPD is now left staring at the collage on the wall with an open mouth and no clue to the killer or the motive behind the killings.  

This is your window to put on your thinking cap to figure out how to nab the killer. See you in one week when the killer to these gruesome mindless killing is revealed.

The Arrest

[You need to go back to reading from the Prologue: Smiling Block Murders if this is your first in this series] 

For more than a month Ednit and LAPD in civils shadowed Rory Harrison. They were watching and waiting for him to the one mistake that would allow them to bring him in. Rory was very cautions and didn’t deviate from him mundane routing.

LAPD made unauthorized and undetectable break-in to houses belonging to him, his family and his friends hoping to find the smallest evidence that would tie him to the murders. All these breaks were to no avail and Ednit feared Rory had committed the perfect crime.

One day after almost two months of shadow games, LAPD found Rory making an unusual visit to a storage space in the farthest corner of the city. He was wearing a nervous look as he went in and went out. After almost three hours of driving across town in one direction he spent not more than three minutes in the unit. This could have been the mistake LAPD was patiently waiting for Rory to make.

With strong powers Ednit was able to obtain a warrant to search the storage unit. LAPD broke into the storage unit to find pictures, elaborate documentation recording each day of the eight victim’s lives and routing, a laptop and the murder weapon – the hunting knife that was wiped clean but had the traces of blood under the UV. Stashed away in one corner were all the victims’ belongings that he took with him after the murder. He had all their ids pinned to the wall. 

The mistakes Rory made were that, he had the storage registered under his real name and he made the trip to the storage unit too soon.

An Arab Male, Age, 32

[You need to go back to reading from the Prologue: Smiling Block Murders if this is your first in this series]

Wednesday March 21st 7.30pm 

Social Networking reconnected two long lost school mates and then war refugees, Haneefa Shaikh and Ismail Arif. They had fled their country during the Gulf war in 1990-91. After over two decades they stumbled up on each other on Facebook and reconnected. They planned their first meeting to be over coffee. They planned to reacquaint themselves at the Coffee Pot on North Rampart Boulevard. This was a coffee shop owned by another Arab refugee that Ismail Arif was friends with.

    Crime Scene Photo: Courtesy Google Street View

Ismail, a software engineer, was running late for his meeting with Hannefa that was scheduled at 6.00pm. His alibi was that his manager had asked him to turn his presentation at 6.30pm and he left work only after 6.50pm.

For reason, LAPD found later, Coffee Pot was closed that day and Haneefa had waited outside the coffee shop for Ismail.

It took Ismail only 20mins to zip through the traffic and reach the meeting point. The two had not exchanged mobile numbers number yet and he could inform Haneefa that he was going to be an hour late.

When Ismail arrived at 7.10pm he was perplexed why the place was unusually dark and closed at this time of the hour. As he looked around for Haneefa, he tripped over something twice as he walked around the door. The second time he flashed his cell phone to see what it was and discovered a person lying there with blood gushing out. He called 911. 

When 911 flooded the area, Ismail was able to clearly see the face of the person and he identified him to be Haneefa Shaikh.

Ismail thought Haneefa was murdered by his fellow countrymen as a punishment for fleeing the country instead of defending it. LAPD and Forensics search the body. No id, no wallet, no keys. Only the paper.  

 

LAPD wondered if there will ever be an end to this stabbing.

An African American, Female, Age 35

[You need to go back to reading from the Prologue: Smiling Block Murders if this is your first in this series]

Wednesday March 14th 6.00pm

Lassie, the famous fictional collie dog, brought us to our seventh victim.

A few irate drivers called animal control reporting a pit bull running amok on Huntington Drive North. The pit bull jumped in front of passing car bringing them to a screeching halt. At each car, he would bark intensely, climb up to the driver’s side window or on the hood of the car and startled the drivers. The dog would continue barking up until the driver built the courage to run through him. Several drives were disrupted until this couple walked by.

A dog adoring couple passing by, unsettled by the dogs behavior decide to attempt to calm him. It’s a pit bull and very few would take their chances. They managed to approach him without harm, pet it a little and within 10mins they were able to sit him down and calm him.

The dog took in their kind gesture and caught the woman by her shirt, tugging her long in the direction a parking lot along a park. The couple followed till they reached a car after which the pit bull let go and ran ahead a few yards and starred at the ground a few feet ahead. 

When the couple reached the dog, they found a lady lying in the street. The woman walked over to the lady on the ground and tried to check on her. She found a blood spill. The man called 911.

   Crime Scene Photo: Courtesy Google Street View

Victim number seven. No id no purse and only the Smiling blocks. 

 
The joke in the department corridor was that LPAD had finally found their first witness to the “smiling block murders”. They called him Lassie.

Forensic traced her fingerprint through DMV and identified her to be Rose Johnson, African American, unmarried, aged 35. Time of death around 5.00pm

A Japanese, Male, Age 40

[You need to go back to reading from the Prologue: Smiling Block Murders if this is your first in this series]

Friday 9th March 10.00am

LAPD was in a pursuit of a red Ford Mustang. A masked Caucasian male behind the wheel was on the run after an armed robbery at a 7 Eleven. The cashier was unhurt but the register was emptied. When making the run to the escape vehicle the masked assailant knocked off an old man on his way in. The old man lays in emergency while the police give chase. 

He gave a long and a hard chase. The chase ended when he lost control while driving through a narrow alley on 772 North Fuller Avenue. 

  Crime Scene Photo: Courtesy Google Street View

Having apprehended him, the LAPD scooped a few pieces of the Mustang that flew on impact to the wall. As they proceed, one officer noticed a man lying close to the wall. The officer thought he had been hit by the car and could have been the probable cause for the masked assailant to lose control.

Forensics identified him to be a Japanese male age 40. He was heavy tattooed with a couple face pierce and dressed in leather. There was significant dust on him, probably stirred by the car, and there was a strong smell of decay and rotting. 

Forensics placed his death 48 hours ago and the only evidence left on the body was the paper.

A guy dressed in leather biker jacket and pants must have a motorcycle. The police scanned the area looking for a motorcycle that was probably abandoned for the last 48 hours. The first motorcycle they found was parked not very far away. As circumstance may have it, it was parked in front of “House of Freak”, a piercing parlor.

The artist on the day could identify the biker boy as a regular customer but could not provide any more details. He did tell the police that he always got his pierce done by Andre. 

Andre named our sixth victim as Etsuko. No last name known at the time.

An African American, Male, Age 25

[You need to go back to reading from the Prologue: Smiling Block Murders if this is your first in this series]

Thursday 23rd February 8.30am

The call came in on Thursday at 8.30am. The manager of “All Roofing and Building Material Corporation” on his way the company warehouse on West 58 Street was parking his car and spotted a man with an afro lying face down in the street, in a dark puddle of blood. 

The body was of a male, African American. Cause of death was a single stab wound in the lower left abdomen. The body had no id but it wasn’t difficult for the LAPD to identify the victim. The victim was Bryan Johnson, a drug dealer convicted on multiple counts of possession, armed robbery and stalking.

  Crime Scene Photo: Courtesy Google Street View

The LAPD were too familiar with the scene to believe it to be a drug deal gone wrong or a rival gang attack.

Forensic reported that he was stabbed not less than 10 hours ago. Like all other victims, there was no id, and no money. In this case there were no drugs either. 

There was just this piece of paper clenched tightly in his right hand.

What was this paper? 

One officer comment, if you move the top left corner dark square to the second last row and second last column and shift it by one column, it looks like a smiling face. 

 
May be this is the stabbers way of mocking the police department. 

This was the fourth stab victim in the fourth consecutive weeks having the same panache. It was time to call in the specialists.

A Mexican, Male, Age 27

[You need to go back to reading from the Prologue: Smiling Block Murders if this is your first in this series]

Wednesday 29th February 5.00pm

Three of the neighborhood school kids in uniform having completed their detention for destructing school property were walking to the home bound bus stop at 5.00pm. As they walked to the bus stop, they saw a man sitting on side walk hugging the speed limit post sign on North Avenue 54. The man looked more and more familiar as they were approaching him and the bus stop. As it turns out, the man was wearing the school’s janitor uniform but his low hanging head made it difficult to recognize him.

The closer they reached and the harder they looked they recognized him to be Aciano Cortez, the school janitor. The three tried to look around to and figure why the good humored janitor was in such a dejected stoop. A stream of blood following from him and into the nearby drain caught their eyes.

The three kids panicked and ran back to the school just in time to catch up with the departing school principal to explain their finding.

   Crime Scene Photo: Courtesy Google Street View

LAPD on the scene and frustrated to find the paper with Smiling Blocks.

Forensics put his death an hour or two ago.

An Indian, Female, Age 21

[You need to go back to reading from the Prologue: Smiling Block Murders if this is your first in this series]

Wednesday 15th February 4.00pm

Mrs Shepherd, a mother to a four month infant, was out this evening strolling her girl in the neighborhood on Venice Boulevard. As she playfully pushed the stroller along the pedestrian walk she hit a block beyond which the stroller would not move. She stretched her neck to see the block and saw a person. 

She bit her tongue thinking she ran her stroller into a vagrant. But as she pulled her cart back and swung around to apologize. She noticed the stroller tires making track marks in blood. Confusion followed by a scream. 

 Crime Scene Photo: Courtesy Google Street View

It was ironical to find a dead under a wall that’s sprayed “Rest in Paradise”

LAPD rolled over the facedown victim. The victim was an Indian girl around 21. She wore the Pizza Hut lapel pin. LAPD quizzed the manager of the nearby franchise and he identified her to be Shruti Talwar, a student and a part time employee working the 9 to 2 shift. She had completed her shift and should have been on her way to her afternoon class. 

The body itself wore no id. The bag, the manager expected her to have was nowhere in sight. The one thing left behind was again this piece of paper.

Was the perpetrator collecting the victims belongs as trophies?

A Korean, Male, Age 30

[You need to go back to reading from the Prologue: Smiling Block Murders if this is your first in this series]

Wednesday 8th February 7.30pm 

Dave Jonas, on his way home stopped by his regular cleaners, on Melrose Avenue, to drop off his work uniform. He was at the cleaners for almost 30mins by himself waiting for the Vietnamese owner Toan Ngo [not being stereotypical here]. Dave thought to leave and walked out of the store. Just as he stepped out something flicked in his eyes and he unconsciously walked around the curb to the left. As soon as he turned, he discovered Toan lying on his side, staring at something across the street with what looked wide still eyes. His left arm was stretched while his right tried to hold in the now tricking river of blood.

 Crime Scene Photo: Courtesy Google Street View 

 

LAPD sirens in on the scene and questions Dave while waiting for the forensic unit to arrive.

LAPD is in the process to positively identify the body and break this unpleasant news to his family.

Forensic finds nothing on the body except the fact that he was stabbed only an hour ago. This was near about the time Dave walked into the store making him the prime suspect. 

In the other outstretched hand they find this piece of almost familiar looking paper.

A White, Female, Age 40

[You need to go back to reading from the Prologue: Smiling Block Murders if this is your first in this series]

Thursday 2nd February 12.00am

An eleven year old girl called 911 at 11.00pm reporting that her mother hadn’t got back home from work. She had last spoken with her mother at 7.00pm when she was swiping out from work. It usually only took her twenty minutes to get home but today she was unusually late, even if she had decided to take a detour for groceries or others.

By profession she was a hair design specialist at the “Spunk Hair Design” on West Pico Boulevard.  

[What happened to time where we referred to them as barbers?]

911 broadcasted the emergency and had a black and white unit drive around West Pico Boulevard to explore possibilities. The entire neighborhood was dark and inhabited. After driving in a few circles they fell upon a fluttering piece of cloth lying on the pedestrian walk on the Pico Boulevard, just a street away from Spunks. Being on the opposite side of the street, they made a U and drove closer flashing their spotlights. It turned out to be a body, a body of a woman. The stillness convinced them of no life.

Crime Scene Photo: Courtesy Google Street View 

The forensic unit was paged in.

Shots were taken and the body was rolled on its back. The street around the body was bare. There were no bags, no lady purses. There was no id on the body either. The only information available was that she was a white female in her forties, had a stab wound in the lower left abdomen and she was probably stabbed between 8pm to 9pm. 

The one thing found on the body was this piece of paper

A unit, with the picture of the victim, drove up to the little girl’s house that called 911 and reported her missing mother. She identified the victim as her mother Phoebe. Phoebe Warren.

The LAPD’s preliminary conclusion put this to be a robbery turned homicide.

They waited for the forensic to find more evidence and determine the next steps.

Prologue: Smiling Block Murders

In the last eight consecutive weeks, the Los Angeles Police Department received reports of stabbed bodies thrown into the streets, in different neighborhoods across the city. All murder victims were adults in the 21-50 age groups belonging to a diverse ethnicity. The randomness of these murders made the LAPD suspect them to be the works of a psychopath. The LAPD could not conjure any pattern in the killings and found nothing common between the victims. The bodies were wiped clean and the one evidence the perpetrator left behind at each of the kill site was this piece of paper. 

 

I invite you to read my first concise and hopefully an enthralling thriller as I publish it over the next 10 or 11 days.

Come back each day as the bodies are called in by residents each week and the LAPD scratches their heads to solve the “The Smiling Block Murders”

Reference to all people, places and incidents, except for the Google street views, are purely the works of my thought factory. Any resemblance to reality outside this factory will be an “Oh Shit” coincidence.