Charmaine walked into the crime scene and immediately saw the dead girl.  Although it was night and the only source of light was from the over hanging street lamps she was still able to make out that the girl was younger than the other two.  Upon closer look she guessed the girl to be no more than fifteen or sixteen.  With an aching heart at having to see someone so young meet such fate, Charmaine robotically bent over the corpse.

Bosco followed closely behind and did the same.  “She’s only a kid,” he breathed out sadly but there was a trace of anger in his tone.

Natalie who was the first to arrive squatted down beside them.  “I checked her bags already.  According to her school Id she’s only fourteen.”

“Dammit,” Bosco cursed as he punched a fist into his palm.

Ron had finished with his initial inspection of the body and stood up to address them.  “No bruises or cuts of any kind on her body but I found tearing in her lower region.  I suspect that she had been ually assaulted but I won’t be able to confirm that until I do my autopsy.”

“What’s the cause of death?” Charmaine asked quietly, her eyes unable to break away from the girl’s lifeless body.

Ron took a sharp breath then said dully, “I believe its drug overdose but I have to do my autopsy first to confirm my theories.  You know the process.”

Charmaine turned to Ron and said, “Could you…”

Ron cut her off before she got a chance to finish her sentence.  Giving her a reassuring smile he said, “I know.  I know.  I’ll get on it.  My assistants are going to bring the body back to the morgue now so if you’ll excuse me I’ll go with them.  Check in with me in about two hours.  I should have something for you by then.”

“Thanks so much Ron,” Charmaine said with gratitude.

Ron saw the strain on Charmaine’s face and knew that this girl’s death bothered her a lot because of the young age.  Usually he would throw in some humor to lighten the atmosphere but this time he didn’t.  Instead he said seriously, “Hey, it’s my job.  I’ll see you later,” then turned and left.

“Did you find anything suspicious in her bag?” Charmaine asked Natalie.

Natalie passed a wallet over to Charmaine, “All that was in her bag was her wallet and a cellphone.”

Charmaine snapped on latex gloves which she carried at all times in her pockets and opened the wallet.  A picture of the deceased girl was framed in the window of the wallet.  She was on a swing and the smile on her face was fresh and alive, unlike the face of death she has on now.  Looking away from the photo she scanned the other items in it.  There was the school Id that Natalie had mentioned along with two store credit cards.  She took out a bunch of business cards from one of the folds of the wallet and began leafing through them.  She stopped at the fourth card and held it up for better viewing.  It was Smashbox’s business card and on the bottom right hand corner in bold print was the name Raymond Lam.

Bosco saw her stall and quickly went to her side with his eyes riveting to the business card.  “Smashbox again!  All these deaths are somehow linked to that Bar.  It can’t be coincidences.”

Charmaine knew he was right.  She didn’t believe in that many coincidences herself.  Dropping everything into a clear plastic bag she handed it over to Matthew.  “Take everything back to the station and have the forensic team run analysis on everything that was picked up here.”  She then turned to Bosco and Natalie, “You two come with me.  We’re going to Smashbox for questioning.”

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“Where’s Kenneth,” Raymond asked Fred the bartender.

Fred put away the glasses that he had just finished wiping and shrugged, “I saw him earlier but don’t know where he is now.  I haven’t seen him for some time.”

Raymond tapped his finger on the counter, “Give me a beer.”  Fred quickly retrieved one from underneath the counter and handed it to his boss.  Grabbing the neck of the bottle Raymond turned, “When you see him, tell him to come see me.  I’m in the back room.”

“Will do,” Fred responded cheerfully as a waiter walked over to him to hand him orders.

Raymond took a glance around the bar then with the beer in his hand walked towards the back room.  He had only sat down for five minutes when there was a knock on the door followed by Kenneth walking in.

“Fred told me you were looking for me,” Kenneth said as he took a seat across from Raymond.

Raymond nodded.  He bent and picked up a ledger from the table and tossed it over to Kenneth.  “These figures don’t add up.”

Kenneth scanned the columns then did the same page after page until he was done.  “Did you speak to Leila about it?”

“I did and she admitted that she hasn’t been paying attention to her work because of the problems she’s been having with her boyfriend.”

Kenneth closed the book and laid it back on the table.  He looked questioningly at Raymond, “Since you already know what went wrong why did you asked me to review it?”

Raymond gave Kenneth a scathing look and said, “Because you were suppose to be on top of everything that goes on around here.  How did you miss this?  When we went into business together you swore you would keep an eye out on everything.”

“Sorry but I’ve been busy myself lately,” Kenneth responded defensively.

Raymond gave him a skeptical look, “With what?  All you do is come in, drink and try to bed every female that comes into the bars.”

Kenneth looked guiltily at Raymond and said, “Look I’m sorry.  I’ll pay more attention to the books.”

With eyes boring into Kenneth, Raymond said, “You mean to everything.”

“Yeah, yeah.  That’s what I meant,” Kenneth said with a sheepish grin.  He looked at Raymond’s arm and asked, “How’s your arm?”

Raymond flexed his arm and said, “It aches a little but I’m relieved that the cast is finally off.  It was itching like hell.”

A knock sounded on the door and Fred the bartender popped his head in.  “Ray, there are some cops out here looking for you.”  Raymond and Kenneth exchanged surprised looks then simultaneously got up and followed Fred to where the cops were waiting.