Hey guys and gals! I'm here with Day 2 of my journey in Scrutinized! So far I'm having a blast, but I am getting a bit annoyed at how there isn't really a good way to defend yourself against the enemies coming for ya. I hope you enjoy Day 2!
Day 2 started like the previous day. I went around the house, making sure that every window was shut and locked. After that, I was ready to begin the night. I sat down at the computer desk and got ready to begin the night, and prayed that I would survive.
The first report was about a man who was spotted burning clothing in an empty parking lot last night. However, the witness claimed that the smell coming from the fire wasn’t just the smell of burning clothes. They also said they witnessed the guy dumping a lot of gasoline on the fire. I was sure this was something, so I went to work. I put in the identifying information into D.M.V DB, but no one came up that matched that description. I took the case as a false report and sent it to the shredder, only to find out I was wrong. I’m not exactly sure what I was supposed to do in this case, considering that none of the suspects even closely resembled the description.
The next case was a bit different. A person thought their neighbor, by the name of Diane, was abusing her dog. The witness reported hearing the dog howling at night, for sometimes hours, like it was scared or in pain. Knowing that a dog was involved, I took this case more seriously. The first thing I searched up was to see if she had a police record, and she didn’t. I then went to see if Diane had any social media presence, and once again, nothing came up. She must live a pretty private life.
The next thing I went to look into was her cell phone, but before I did, I heard a knocking like sound. I quickly checked my security cameras, and sure enough, I caught Tanner on them. I scared him off by flashing the security lights on him, but by doing that, I flipped a breaker. So I went to the file room and flipped it back on. I now knew who I was dealing with tonight, and more and more I began to think that I wouldn’t survive.
Back at the computer, I continued where I left off. I opened Sim DB to get her IMEI number. I then used the RootKit to crack into her phone. I checked Diane’s search history, a few results popped out to me, and those were the ones that were asking questions like “Can dogs have bad dreams?”, “Can dogs have nightmares?”, and “My dog is making scared noises in his sleep, what can I do?”. I won’t lie. My first thought was that the dog was doing these things because she abused it.
I hopped on over to her pictures, and nothing was out of place, just pictures of her dog. So the text messages came next. There was only one conversation there, with someone named William. My detective skills might need some working on because the texts showed she wasn’t abusing the dog. There was something going on with the dog and she was looking to take the dog to a vet. I absolutely hate noisy neighbors. You would have thought that her neighbor would have asked her what was up or asked if her dog was alright, instead of making a report about it based on assumption. So off in the shredder this report went.
The next report was of a man named Howard Elmore. Howard makes sound effects for horror movies. It is believed that he re-creates the films in his house. Screams could be heard coming from his house, and Howard usually appears shortly after taking garbage to the side of the road. The rest of the neighbors tune it out because of Howard’s personality as a happy and nice guy. To be honest, I couldn’t make heads or tails of this report and couldn’t really comprehend it. But I started investigating it, anyway.
Before I begin, I gave my yard another look around with the secruity cameras. Nothing, Tanner wasn’t there. With that out of the way, I started looking into this case. I first pulled up his ID. With that done, I searched up his social media account. And something popped up as suspicious. He made a post saying that “ A lot of people think that all the sounds in movies are recorded on site.
I then went to grab the IMEI number from his cellphone. With that in hand, I went to crack the cell, but not before doing a sweep of the house. Other than a few lights that were switched off, everything seemed fine. No windows were opened and there were no creepy noises coming from either inside or outside the house.
Once cracked into his phone, I searched through his history. Nothing really popped up other than a search result that was asking what a morgue technician autopsy process was. So I moved on to the photos, and boy was there an eye popper in there. There was a picture of a heart suspended by a chain. But I knew this guy worked in the horror movie field and knew that this could just be a prop.
Next up was the texts. There were three conversations here. The first one with a person named Gideon just discussed Howard’s work on a previous movie. Nothing too sus. The one with a person named Randy was just talking about them meeting up, as they were friends who never saw each other for a while. But the third and last one with someone named Kam is where I hit the Jackpot.
Kam was wondering when Howard was going to make another video, and that his fans were hungry for more after the last show he put on. Howard told Kam that he had one in the works. Afterwards Kam told him that payment will be sent after confirmation, like always. So far, nothing stank too much here, but scrolling down, well, it smelled like a week old fish left out to rot in the sun.
Kam had asked Howard to do a favor, and the more he did, the more he would get paid. The favors included dismemberment and sealing the parts in packages and stored in his freezer for assumed consumption, jewelry made and worn from the body parts, and showering himself in his victims’ blood. And we had it, folks, the evidence we needed. So with the texts in hand, we faxed it over to the police!
Just as I went to work on the next one, the internet went out. I cautiously made my way to the router while checking all the windows and, once again, everything checked out. I sat back at the computer, ready for the next report.
A neighbor saw a man named Van Atwell keeping his fish in his pool. The man was concerned because of how all pools are supposed to have chlorine and admitted that it would be a cool part decoration but wouldn’t it be deadly for the fish? So with this report seeming to be on the up and up, I got started on my job.
I decided to search Van’s phone first. And right away I got a hit. In his search history, he was asking fish related questions, with the exception of one asking if he should go with salt water or chlorinated in his pool. The big thing that tipped me off that something was up was when he asked, “What type of food can large ocean fish eat.” It seemed to me that he switched the chlorine out for salt water and was keeping salt-water fish in his pool. But I knew this wasn’t enough, so I moved on to his text convos.
There was a conversation with someone named Mr. Tsui who seemed to have some sort of arrangement with Van to buy the fish he had. I came to the conclusion that Van was a fish smuggler of sorts. However, Mr.Tsui believed Van’s associate, someone named Mr.Morrison to be a spy and ordered Van to kill him. And Van agreed to deal with him.
But we needed one more piece of evidence. And I found that in another conversation with someone named Petricia. Petricia must have been either Van’s girlfriend or wife. She was wondering where he was and that he was already two hours late. Van told her that there was a problem at work he had to deal with, but it wasn’t a problem any longer. I knew the problem was Mr.Morrison. So off to the fax the report and evidence went!
There were only a few hours left for the night, and I just had to finish one more report. But luck wasn’t on my side, because Tanner had found his way into my home, snuck up behind, and grabbed me, ending my night. Maybe I should have prayed harder.
Scrutinized | My Journey | Day 1
Scrutinized | My Journey | Day 1 - Attempt 2
