I took the time to buy me a cheese sandwich at Katie's. I wasn't hungry at all, but my empty stomach was complaining. Not that it would be easy to have dinner... I was still shocked by the sorry state of the girl's corpse. It is always a pity to find a young broad dead, but more so if you find her buried in the dirt, four bullets in the guts... I never liked this job.

A bunch of kids had been playing baseball in the lot, when suddenly their dogs started digging in the dirt. That's how Laura was found.

Laura Jenkins had been pretty. Very. Not anymore. Her face was badly damaged, the forensic doctor said she was beaten up real bad... before being shot four times in a row. She had no chance. Now, who would do that to a pretty lass? You do that out of jealousy, usually. Jealousy can drive a man crazy. So, the boyfriend is almost always the prime suspect. But the problem was you looked at this kid, and you listened to him, and you just knew that he was innocent. Anyway...

"What did you find at the... burial place?"
Mr. Jenkins was understandably shaken.
"The criminal was careful enough not to leave traces, but in spite of that, we found some hairs and skin in your daughter's nails. Yes, she fought before dying"
"My daughter didn't have enemies. She was a nice girl"- said Laura's mother, deep grief in her voice- "She was even a distinguished member of the student's board"
"Sometimes strangers approach young girls with... less than honorable purposes"- Lieutenant Sweeney was saying. Yeah, that might be it. Lunatics were rare in the good old days, but now you could get them for a penny a pound. It was my turn to talk:
"We found something else"
I showed them both a photograph in which her daughter appeared to be in a student's apartment, by the look of it. Laura was surrounded by young men and women, everybody smiling at the camera. Six people in total.
"Have you seen this picture before? Do you know anyone in it, apart from your daughter?"
"Those are her classmates" - said mrs. Jenkins - "I haven't seen that picture before"

The official investigation led to her college, of course, and we were there and we asked questions, but that proved useless. We didn't mention the photograph to her classmates. My boss thought it had nothing to do with the crime.

That night at my room, I kept looking at the picture closely. Laura fascinated me. She was beautiful. I said to her: 'If you could talk to me now, what would you say to me? Would you tell me who killed you and why?"