Sharon Dorothy was still feeling very happy. Her morning had turned out exactly like what she had hoped for or maybe even better. From what she had heard from her seniors who were here for their attachment in the previous years, students were usually assigned to reporting stuff such as school culture or school sports. This was because their supervisors were under the impression that the interns knew more about these things and were thus better equipped to report on this kind of thing. This would facilitate their respective supervisors to give the students an even better appraisal at the end of their attachment. This was however mundane stuff to Sharon. She was secretly hoping that she would not have to do that kind of reporting. In fact, she had spent the previous night preparing for herself a long speech that she meant to use to convince her supervisor if she were to suggest to her to do something of that sort.

      It was only minutes into her meeting with her supervisor, Miss Jenkings that an announcement rang over the office. Everyone was summoned to the meeting room for an urgent meeting. Ms Jenkings, being the nice lady that she was, invited Sharon to attend the meeting with her.

      :"Okay people, I’m sure u guys must have heard of what happened last night. My sources have told me that it’s the 3^rd in a fortnight and nobody still had any clue as to what’s going on. Listen here, I want an immediate research into this and I expect our crime team to come up with an exclusive on this. Let’s see. How many crime reporters do we have here? 1, 2, 3 Yes 3, the 3 of you, I expect a scoop on this and if I were to wake up one morning in the coming weeks and see that another company had got the inside scoop on this story, I’ll personally u guys get sent to Siberia to be our correspondent there. Do u understand?" the Chief Editor was telling everyone at the meeting and especially to Ms Jenkings and her 2 other colleagues. "I am mobilising the entire staff to get to the bottom of this so you can mobilise whomever you want, be it sports, politics or entertainment. The bottom line is to just me the story. Is that clear?"

      "Yes boss," groaned Ms Jenkings and her two other colleagues.

      "Hey you little girl, are you the student who are attached to us? It’s your first day here today right?" the chief editor spoke again as he spotted the young girl who was standing next to Ms Jenkings.

      "Errr… yes sir," came the meek reply from Sharon. She was trying to control her anxiety but it was quite evident to everyone that she was shaking from the attention that was focused on her, and her anxiety was not helped by the fearful impression she had of the chief editor throughout the meeting.

      "Haha why do u sound so scared, my dear girl. You must be brave, be sure of yourself and speak loudly with authority. Otherwise how are you going to get your stories next time," said the chief editor. "I can see that you are attached to Ms Jenkings. How about this? If you are able to come up with an exclusive report on this, not only will I give you a distinction grading or your end of attachment appraisal but I will also promise you a job here when you graduate. Sounds good?"

      "Errr… thank you sir," Sharon was still to frightened to say anything else.

      "Haha very well," laughed the chief editor. "Okay that’s it. If nobody have anything else to add, meeting dismissed."

to be continued... ...

          Inspector Jensen was sitting at his desks staring at the photographs taken from the crime scene. Among them were photographs from the previous two killings. It had been twelve hours since he left the scene and returned to his office yet he was still nowhere nearer to solving the case than he was twelve hours ago. He had been studying the photographs so much that he could described every detail pictures in detail without looking at them. Yet he could find no clues that might give him an inkling about the identity or even modus operandi of the assailant. This was the first time in his ten years of service that a case managed to baffle him so much. He was unable to relate this occurrence to anything that had happened before despite his vast experience.

          "It’s impossible that anyone can do such a clean job. There must be something somewhere," he mumbled to himself. The features of each killing looked so similar to each other and seemed like they were done by the same person. The appearance of the victim, the clues (or the lack of it) at the scene and the timing of the killing all suggested so but his sixth sense told him otherwise. There seemed to be something different about every one of them but he just did not know what was the difference.

          "Jobs should have finished his autopsy by now. Maybe he can tell me something more," he commented to himself as he pinned back the photographs back to his notice board. "I must make sure I get to the bottom this."

to be continued... ...

          Sharon wondered whether there would be any mention of the thing that happened yesterday. She could not believe how lucky she was yesterday to be able to be present at the scene. She did not have a habit of going home late but yesterday her tuition kid was having enormous difficulty with her work and as a result, she stayed behind to help her. She was walking along Bukit Timah when she noticed a commotion around the place. The sound of police sirens filled the air and they were all converging upon a particular street. As usual, she could not suppress her curiosity and instinctively followed the police cars to the scene. She could sense that it was something big even though she could not really see what was happening. The police had sealed off a large area and that was out of bound to members of the public. At the moment then, she felt disappointed that she was still not a journalist yet. If she was one, she would at least be able to see for herself what had happened and not be stuck there knowing something is happening, yet getting to see nothing. Her belief was further reinforced when she saw the grim look on the face of the police inspector at the scene of the crime. His face was grim as he spoke to the weird-looking guy beside him. She could tell that the guy was at most a couple of years older than her but his clothing tend to suggest otherwise. What’s more was that he had this Einstein-looking hairstyle, unkempt and full-blown. She made a slight chuckle to herself but soon dismissed it, as she was more interested in trying to overhear on their conversation. Sadly, it seemed like everyone was talking at the same time and she could not even catch a single word of what they were saying.

          "Ha. If it’s something big, I’m sure they will mention it later. I will tell them about it later if nobody mentions anything. Haha who knows, maybe they will thank me if I was to tell them about it and they may even reward me with an interview with the inspector or something like that," Sharon continued thinking to herself. "Haha they may even assign me the case and allow me to file my own report. Can you imagine this? An internship student writing her very own report and having it published in THE Straits Times. Wow imagine the respect I will command and the envious look of my friends. Oh this is so exciting."

          "Erm.. I’m sorry to interrupt you Miss but I’m afraid the alarm will ring soon if u are still going to stay inside there," an unfamiliar voice was heard as Sharon was awakened from her daydreaming. She was very angry because she hated to be interrupted when she was thinking about things. She was even more agitated when she realised that it was the lousily dressed boy who interrupted her. She was about to scream at the boy when she suddenly blushed. She realised what had happened. She was the only person left in the lift now as everyone had already exited and the boy was actually being nice by keeping the door open for her. Her anger turned into embarrassment as she dashed out of the elevator. She was so flustered that she did not even thanked the boy, leaving him both bemused and bewildered.

to be continued... ...

          "Oh my gosh, this place is really huge," Sharon Dorothy thought to herself as she entered the Straits Times building. "I’m so glad they accepted my application for internship. I have no doubt that this would definitely be an experience of a lifetime for me. Ah! I feel so happy today." She had no idea how funny she looked as she made her way around the building. She was smiling to herself as she walked and her eyes looked like she was immersed in some faraway place, a place of fantasy that she had been dreaming about all along. Nevertheless, it did not bother her one bit as to what the others were thinking. She was so happily indulging in her own fantasy that she was oblivious to all those around her.

          Sharon Dorothy was a young undergraduate in her final year of study. From young, she had aspired to be a journalist, or more precisely, a journalist specialising in crime reporting. When she was young, she had always been the curious and nosey kaypoh girl in everybody’s eyes. She was always interested to know what everyone was talking about. She had no reservations about asking any questions, even those that might cause undue embarrassment. She was also very determined in getting what she had wanted and as a result, she was always able to get the answer that she set out to get in the first place. She was also very stubborn in nature and as a result, she was always able to get the things that she wanted.

          Ding Dong! The lift door opened and in stepped Sharon with the numerous people behind her clad in office clothes. Surprisingly, she did not feel uncomfortable standing among the working class adults behind her. Instead, she felt excited and was overwhelmed by a sense of anticipation. It was obvious to her that she looked forward to the day when she officially stepped out to work in society as a reporter. She relished the challenges that would appear then and the exciting lifestyle that comes along with the package.

          "Hey, wait for me! Don’t close the door yet," shouted a voice. Sharon raised her head, wondering who it was. Rushing towards them was a young boy, about the same age as her and he was flapping his arm vigorously.

          "Thank… Thank you so much. Would have been late if you had not waited for me," said the boy as he entered the lift. He sure looked a funny sight, huffing and puffing as he tried to regain his breath. His funny appearance was compounded by the way he was dressed. He was clad in T-shirt and jeans, a stark contrast to the working class adults behind them. Even Sharon herself was dressed in formal office wear although she was only here for a job attachment.

          "What a funny-looking boy? Wondered what business does he have doing here dressed like that," Sharon thought to herself. "And there seemed to be a bit of funny smell coming from him." She was not really feeling very comfortable standing so close to this funny-looking guy. She was disgusted at the sight of him sweating through his T-shirt.

          "Hmmm… maybe I ‘m being oversensitive here. Seems like nobody’s moving away," she thought to herself again, feeling a bit ashamed of herself now that she allowed herself to be swayed by biased thoughts. "Ah! But it doesn’t matter. He’s not important." With that, she consoled herself and went back to her own thoughts.

          Sharon wondered whether there would be any mention of the thing that happened yesterday.

to be continued... ...