Chapter II

Just as the hype amongst onlookers dissipated, so did the investigation team.

Dr Suria has long left the site, back in HQ churning out names of persons missing since 50 days or earlier considering the corpse has already undergone dry decay. 

"Time to wrap up and leave boys." A bead of sweat trickled down Rudi's sideburns.

Timmo turned his head with anticipation that resembles that of a child waiting past midnight for Santa to arrive. "Can you give your favourite assistant a ride back?"

"Yeah sure! Except I have no favourite assistant. Anyway I'm not heading to the lab, I have errands to run."

A press of a button and the Maserati at the road side clicks unlock. Rudi entered the dark metal box and revved up the engine and blast the AC, hiding under the illegally 20% VLT tinted windows. He blinked from the glare of his iPhone 6 before the retina display screen dimmed down accordingly to the brightness in the car. 'Tailor Fabrizio' was on his favourites, not that he had many friends to speak of.

" 'ello Doktor Rrudi!"

"Evening Fabrizio."

" 'ow can dis olde amico be of serrvice to you todey?!"

"Yeah...amico...I just had my pants torn this morning"

"Wiche one?"

"The Chevron one you ordered from Lombardia."

"Ah Lombarrdia~~~you cen gete de beste wine dere, frresh frrom de berrele!"

"Yeah anyway I'll need you to get it fixed, I'll get someone to send this-"

"Oh no worries Doktor Rrudi, yor wife told me everryting about it, viscous det poochy. I've alredy sente orrders bek to my casa dolce casa. By de wey yor wife, magnifico!"

Rudi was bemused. He hasn't even told his sleeping wife his departure this morning, much less a tear in his pants.

"Wait she did? When?"

"De bella donna just left our doors about 20 minutes ago. Wen I saw de torne fabric she presented to me I immediately recognised det it was one of my masterpiece, only u have suche a greate taste in Italian fabric my friend. She even double checke yor homme address to makke sure I'll send yor pants to de righte place. Odde name your wife has, 'Skull Hong'."

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She wasn’t always known as ‘Skull Hong’, before that she was just Zannennagara-chan, or in short, Zan. It was only one day when she witnessed a famous fire breather on her trip to Korea, that she was mesmerized by the beauty of the flame. The fire breather’s name was Hong Ki and he was in a mobile circus group called Fiery Throats of Jeju Island, also known as F.T. Island. They were an iconic sight for tourists especially and Hong Gi’s performance set Zannennagara-chan’s heart ablaze. Ever since then she had an obsession for fire, studied it, practiced it, experimented with it. She believed that only by showcasing her works of art did she then enlighten the masses to the grandeur of fire. Hence she went into arsonism and adopted the alias ‘Skull Hong’.

Her client approached her this morning passing her a piece of cloth and gave some information as to how she could locate the target’s living quarters. After years of arson it was inevitable that she worked for high-paying criminals. People with grudges, who needed a problem out of the way, who had to bury evidence, they were all patrons who funded her way of life. Her Xiaomi phone vibrates.

“So have you found his place?” It was a husky voice on the other side of the line.

“Hai, I am at his residens as we speakku. Haf to chasu away doggo sniffin aroun your dirty workku?”

“Just do what you’re paid to and burn.”

“Wakarimashta.”

Hong kills the line.

On the other side of the wall she was hiding behind was Mrs. Rudi Kurniawan. Her husband left home early this morning but it was a norm considering the nature of his job. Mrs. Emu was preparing dinner for his lovely husband while humming to a melodic tune. Meanwhile Hong mixes half a bucket of motor oil to half a bucket of gasoline. Gasoline is far more flammable than motor oil, but however it is easy for the victim to simply brush it off of them or off their clothing. Motor oil despite being stubborn to ignition had a much stickier property to it and would latch on to the victim. The mixture took the best of both worlds.

She stood up and threw the bucket across the open window at the rotating ceiling fan, splattering the liquid all over the kitchen including on Mrs. Emu. Quickly Hong then lit up a Zippo and threw it in as well while the misses was shocked from the situation.

“Hanabi…Utsukushi…”

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Mr. Rudi couldn't call her beloved wife, he knew she was in trouble once Mr. Fabrizio informed him about the infamous Skull Hong impersonating as his wife. The black Maserati came to a sharp break in front of a giant fireball that was his home. Rudi’s wife ran towards him with sunken, blood-shot eyes, dry of tears. He sighed in relief and hugged his beloved noticing that some parts of her skin suffered from low degree burns.

“What happened?!”

“I don’t know! I was preparing dinner when suddenly at the window a figure with a skull mask popped out and threw petrol at me and tried to burn me alive! Luckily most of the oil was on my apron and I snapped it off just in time before it started soaking in and onto me. Who did this Rudi?! Who would-“

Rudi’s iPhone rang and he could see it was Timmo on the line.

“Hey Timmy this ain’t really the best-“

“We’ve evidence that the victims’ were burnt doctor. But that still doesn’t explain how the murderer disposed of all the other evidence such as the flesh or remaining part of the skeleton. Use of any acid strong enough to dissolve bones would have to be authorized –“

“Brief me later in the lab Timmy. Things just got personal and I’m gonna make this cur pay for what he did to me.”