Entry 4

Linh walked to the front door of MADO. The chief had notified her that the final pages of Mr. Evan’s autopsy had been finalized, and Linh had been studying what she had so far for days. So far, nothing was shocking except what Jose had told her the other day, but she had reached yet another dead end.

She pushed the door open and after sitting for a while, she found Annabeth. She was who Chief Clark told her to find when she arrived.

“Good Morning, Nurse Willis,” Linh said. She wanted to act professional. She was the officer in charge of the town’s most shocking case after all, and she didn’t want to come off as ametuer.

“Good Morning,” she said. There was a short pause. “Officer…”

“Officer Luong,” Linh said. She was a bit disappointed that she didn’t know her name, but she was pretty new to the town. “But please call me Linh.”

“Linh,” Annabeth repeated, nodding her head. “Well then call me Annabeth.”

“Alright Annabeth, I’m here on behalf of my precinct.” I started. “You see I’ve been assigned to the death of Mr. Evans. If I could I would like to look at the autopsy of Mr. Evans please.”

“Oh of course,” Annabeth said scrambling. It was clear that she wasn’t prepared, but Linh didn’t mind.“ If you could give me a second to review the details, I haven’t looked at it in a while.”

After a minute of Annabeth scanning the document and Linh observing the inside of the hospital room, Annabeth gasped.

“What is it?” Linh asked. She was excited that she could maybe and finally get some more answers about the case, but anxious for what was to come as well. Annabeth showed her. It was picture of Mr. Evans’ back. It was all torn up with scars, but they were not recent. Linh was trained enough as an officer to know that they had been healed years ago, and Annabeth confirmed her prediction.

“Scars on the back most likely occurred between 50 years and 60 years ago.”

Entry 3

Night had fallen and the city was quiet. Linh was on the couch watching TV. She had been at work all day, and her brain was fried from reviewing the case over and over again. This was her way of relaxation. She took a sip of her milk tea and wiped her face.

Linh suddenly snapped out of her daze quickly when she heard footsteps in the hall. They weren't particularly loud stomps, but it was late at night, so any noise was amplified. Then, there was a ruffle of clothing and a sliding of paper. She held her breath as the unknown figure walked away. When she could no longer hear them, she crept quietly to the door to see an envelope. She picked it up, hoped it wasn't anything dangerous, and broke the seal. Inside was a note:

I heard you're the police detective overlooking the Mr. Evans case. I have something to tell you. Please come to my room. It's room 2 on floor 2 in the West building. 

Jose

Linh new about Jose as she occasionally saw him walking to work at the bar as she was walking home from work, but besides that they had no interactions. She took a deep breath, and even though it sounded fishy, she had to take the risk for her career and for the truth. She looked in the mirror right beside the door before she left. Jose was the most attractive man in town.

Ugh, this is for work. Not a date, she thought to herself.

She rode the elevator and walked to his room. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door. He opened up instantly.

"Hurry inside," he loudly whispered. Flustered, she ran in. 

Jose slumped on the couch.

"Everything is driving me crazy," Jose said, "I am too scared to leave my house, but I have to because of work or I'm going to get kicked out of apartment."

Linh tried to focus on his distress instead of his looks. "Tell me what happened, Jose."

He looked around. "On the night of Mr. Evans' death, I was headed to work the 12 to 3 shift at my job, so I waited for the elevator to come. When the doors slid open, there was Mr. Evans and a suspicious figure in a mask." He was really shaken up. "I didn't get a good look at anything because before I knew it, the person hit me upside the head and knocked me out."

Linh was shocked. "What time was this around?"

"12:10ish" Jose said, "I was running a bit behind because I napped and overslept."

Linh gasped. If this was around midnight, this must've been the witnessing of Mr. Evans before his death.

"Why didn't you report this earlier?" Linh asked. She distinctly remembered Jose being called to the station.

"Because Lamar gives me bad vibes. The way he is so adamant about this case... I felt like if I spoke up, he'd go nuts or... like... accuse me."

Linh understood where Jose was coming from. Lamar was intimidating, but he was still being a bit suspicious. 

"Is there any proof of the event?" she asked. "Not that I don't believe you or anything."

Jose sighed, paused, and then pulled the hair that covered his forehead back. There was a giant, purple knot. He was telling the truth.

Entry 2

Name of Victim: Mr. Evans
Cause of Death: Stab wound to the stomach by sharp object
Estimated Time of Death: 12:14 am

Linh's eyes scanned the autopsy papers for two days. Chief Clark had finally assigned her to a case, the death of Mr. Evans, who lived in the Maitland for 40 years. She never knew the man, but she did know this was important. The city was different now and she noticed. The people were quieter and everything seemed more bland.

Linh felt stressed. If she could not solve her first case, then she couldn't prove her colleagues wrong. She drank more of her tea, but this time it was ginger, which was more pungent to keep her energized and focused.

Suddenly, there was a knock. Linh froze. She couldn't answer the door in her orange, polka dot pajama pants with bed head from this morning that she never fixed.

Linh sighed, got up, and answered the door, praying that it wouldn't be a sexy man on the other side seeing her look like a slob. It was just Suzy and Faith, but Suzy was wearing a geometric patterned romper, Faith had on a tight dress, and they both had full faces of makeup. What was going on?

"You have been in your house for two straight days!" Suzy said. She almost sounded bitter.
Linh yawned. "It's because of work."
"Well, forget work! Conrad is having a concert tonight, and you're coming!" Faith squealed.
"What?!"
"You never go out! You need a lifestyle change, honey!" Suzy added.
"Exactly! I never do, so I can't! I'm way to nervous!"
"You are coming!" Faith declared, "We're going to have a fun girls night. You can go and blame it on a simple twist of fate."

Linh knew she wasn't going to win this fight. She ran to the bedroom and quickly threw on the first outfit she could think of: a olive green top that showed a bit of cleavage and jeans with some dangle earrings. She applied a layer of foundation to cover the moles that were scattered all over her face that she was insecure about. She couldn't decide between a red lipstick or just a simple gloss, but decided on the gloss. Then she brushed her straight, thick, black hair. She hated it. It was at an awkward length where it laid just above her shoulders.

She stumbled back into the hall with her shoes barely on, and took a deep breath.
"Okay, I'm ready," Linh said, and for the first time in a while, she had a genuine smile.

Entry 1

The day started with Linh brewing a cup of hibiscus tea and opening a box of Lemon Crunchies from Sayori. It was her kind of coping mechanism for when she was sulking, which she had found herself doing frequently since she moved into town last month. 

The sun had just come up, and the morning was quiet. Despite the city being busy, there were hardly any cars on the roads and only a few people out. The light poured through the curtains and throughout the living room. She favored Sunday mornings like these. She didn't have to wake up while it was still dark and head to police station just to sit at her desk and get no cases. Instead, she could sit in the recliner and reflect.

She had finished off the whole row of biscuits, so she slid the plastic tin back into the cardboard box. Then, she got up and rinsed her cup off in the sink. 

What to do now? Linh thought. Her life was stale. Suzy wouldn't be able to meet up because she was playing tennis with Elizabeth, and Faith was working at the doctor's office. 

Linh rested her body over the countertop and pulled out her cell phone. In bold text was: No new notifications. 

Geez, thanks.

She unlocked the phone and opened up Snapgram. Sliding through the various selfies and memes, she stopped at a photo that was uploaded by her younger sister, Bao, two days ago. The photo was of her and her three year long boyfriend, Darren, as they stood hugging in front of a waterfall back in Vietnam. Her caption was: "I love waterfalls but I love him more!"

As disgustingly sappy as the post was, Linh contemplated. Bao was 27, three years younger than her, and she was living life to the fullest. She had Darren, who was great to her, and was an actress, making twice as much as Linh. And what did Linh have? No one but her two friends, and her job as a police detective where she was never assigned anything because they doubted her as a young, attractive, female, minority.

She immediately began to sulk again and sighed heavily as she exited the app, but suddenly, her phone vibrated. It was an incoming call from Clark, the police chief. Why would he be calling me on my day off? Why would he be calling me anyways? Linh, since she got hired, never even spoke to him.

"Luong, there's been a death," Clark said, "Report to the station."