Who is the killer of Mary White?

  It was already half past eight and Mary White just finished her daily shift at the local super market. She closed the doors, cleaned the floor, made the daily report and closed the cash desk. Missis White went to the back room to get dressed and then went out of the shop and locked the door. Mary lived three miles away in a pledged small house, located in a so called ghetto neighborhood, with her husband and their eight year old son. She took her usual way to the near bus station, where she took bus number N45. Five stops away, she got off the bus and greeted the driver. Mary headed through one dark block without even blink with her eye. She was so used to the way, because she worked already 4 years and a half in the market. Missis White heard a strange noise coming from a group of dumpsters, but did not give any attention to it and continue walking. Some meters away, she heard steps behind and this time she made a scared grimace. Mary did not like the neighborhood, because a lot of crimes happened there, but her family could not afford a better placed house. She speeded up the pace and the steps disappeared for a moment. When Mary heard them again she gave a look back, but she could not distinguish a clear image in the dark. The sound of the steps was still there. Her heartbeat accelerated and a dose of adrenaline pumped her body. The sound of the steps was overtaking her. She became more and more scared and almost started running when the steps disappeared once again. Mary was full of emotions. She was sacred and puzzled. The cashier continued walking with a bit of speed. She was still not hearing the harassing steps and this was soothing her. Forty meters away she noticed a strange black shadow on the parallel block. This time a double dose of adrenaline rushed through her veins. She was almost at the end of the next building and she took her look right, surprisingly the shadow disappeared. Missis White heard the steps again. Mary was very scared, so scared that she started running, but a scary shout make her halt. She heard "Don't run Mary". Just one sentence shouted by a man. A lot of questions rushed through her mind: "Who was this guy?", "How the hell he knows my name?" and "Which way should I take?”. Mary tried to keep calm and to get a proper decision. She looked around and then realized that she knew the place, so she started running through the labyrinth of the dark blocks thinking only for the way back to her home. While running Mary took her phone off her pocket and dialed 911. At this moment she saw an illuminated streetlight. She ran to the place and grabbed the pole of the lamp. A voice of salvation came through the phone:

- 911, how can I help you? - said the operator.

- A man was chasing me. A strange man. He shouted my name. Please help me - answered the scared cashier.

- Hold down Missis. Where are you?

- I'm at Lake Street, on the corner of Lake and Sixth. Just at the street lamp. - hurried to answer Mary.

- And what’s your name Missis? - followed the formal rules the operator.

- Mary, Mary White, please hurry up.

- OK Missis White, the nearest police car is already coming to you.

- Thanks. - said Mary and push the red button of her phone.

  She looked around a couple of times, but she could not see anything in the dark. Mary was thinking that she was there for centuries. Only one thought was bothering her mind, she was wondering if the guy disappeared. Suddenly Mary heard a strange noise coming from the yard of the nearest house. She dropped the pole, took her look back and noticed that the noise came from a dog. At the moment when she tried to grab the pole again she saw a man dressed in black, with a mask on his head, to run right to her. Mary started running, but the guy jumped on her. Both of them fell on the dark sidewalk. She turned her look and saw the freezing glance of her attacker. Freezing light blue eyes. She felt a lot of pain in her shoulder, but tried to stand up. At this moment she felt a severe pain in her stomach. She was trying to fight her way out of the attacker’s claw, when she felt another severe pain in her neck. Suddenly Mary felt a cold wave rushing through her skin and then she closed her eyes.

  Police officers Timothy King and his colleague Gary Lewis received a signal for attacked woman. Officer King started the car and turned on the police lamp. The policemen reached at the place five minutes after they have received the signal and they noticed a body of a woman lying on the sidewalk. They had to approach her in order to determine whether she was alive.

-Be careful Gary. Cover me, I'll check the body. - said officer King.

-OK Tim.

  Timothy King made three steps and squatted down to the body of the victim. He checked the pulse and found that they were at the scene of a murder:

-She's dead Gary.

-We need detectives, I'll signal at the station. Operator, there's a dead body at the corner of Lake and Sixth.

-We'll send detectives, officer Lewis. - sounded a voice from the radio.

  Both police officers have stretched the crime scene tape and secured the parameter. Half an hour later a car with two detectives came to the place.

- Hello officers, we are detective Clark and Adams. We'll take from here.

  Detective Linda Clark and detective Eric Adams were a team since a year, when Clark was moved to the local police station. The police director appointed them to the most criminal neighborhood of the city. Since then they have tackled a lot of hard and strange cases. In the past year they have made a lot of contacts in the neighborhood and earned a good reputation. Some of the local lads were already their informants and helped them in the process of investigation.

- Linda. As normal, I'll contact our guys and the pathologist once he's ready, then I'll check the victim and the video records.

- OK, Eric. I'll start the interrogations with the witnesses. When you are ready with the victim's record, just give me a call and I'll interrogate her family. When we're ready will meet at the coffee.

  Three days later detective Linda Clark was ordering a cappuccino and a short coffee, while detective Eric Adams was waiting with a lot of files on the table.

- Thanks, Linda - said Eric while he was getting his coffee - I'll summarize what we have. The victim is Mary White, a cashier at a local supermarket. This was her first day back at work after a vacation. The victim was stabbed 6 times. The reason for the death is a wound in the neck. From the video records of the place we can see a male, around 178 cm, who was dressed in black. From the video records of the supermarket we can suspect Raymond Mitchell a colleague and Carl Baker a client, who used the market in the same day, Henry Turner a supplier and Harold Edwards the owner. We can suspect also Samuel Morris the driver of the bus N45 and of course the husband Bruce White. There was no DNA material found, neither the weapon of the murder. After all there is a useful clue from the crime scene. There was a ten dollar note and a coin of one cent on the body, again no DNA. Obviously this is connected to the victim’s job, so we'll have to focus on it.

- Eric, I have an idea. I think we can follow the bill's number. I think that the banks recorded the bills used in ATM machines and some shops recorded the numbers of the bills at the end of the day. We can check that.

- Good point. Let me finish with the report. So, Mister and Missis White didn't have any problems, except their finances. How was he at the interrogation?

- If I should rely on my woman sense, he's definitely out of suspicion. He was so grieved. The sorrow was coming from his eyes.

- Ok, so the next one, Mister Mitchell. He tried to flirt with Missis White, but she didn't give him any attention. I know this from the owner - Mr. Edwards. Mary complaint officially about that and Mitchell received a big fine and final warning. As you can imagine, since then their relations were not that good. I've mentioned Mr. Edwards, so I'll continue with him. The husband told me that the owner was a little bit rude with Mary at the times when she wanted to review her salary. Also he fined her for unfair reasons almost once a month. So definitely he had reasons. There is nothing suspicious in the video when the client, Baker, was in the market, but he is the only man that used the market at that day. The only thing about him is a sentence for a theft in his case, when he was seventeen. Henry Turner was a supplier at the market. He had a problem with Mary at two cases, when she refused to accept the delivery of the milk goods. At these cases Turner had to pay a fine. I’ll finish with the driver of the bus N45 - Samuel Morris. The bus was used by Missis White at the fatal day, minutes before her death. He finished his shift and according to the video tapes of the bus, he went out of the bus five minutes after Mary left it. According to him the break was to use a toilet and to get a coffee. According to the records he was out of the bus for as long as twenty minutes. It’s enough for killing her some blocks away. So, that's up to now Linda.

- I'll add also a teacher from the school of her son, Brandon Reed. They've had some disputes about the grades of the boy and there were rumors that the teacher wanted a bribe.

Become serial: cashier killer