The drive to the Hoffman residence was long and pensive for Detective Lester. This was going to be yet another high profile case. He could already feel the overbearing scrutiny from the powers that be. The legendary Dr. Hoffman Phd, was a leading chemist, inventor, philanthropist, and entrepreneur extraordinaire. Perusing the condensed file he’d been given, he tried to glean as much as possible of the preliminary facts of the case as he could before arriving at the scene of the crime.
Dr. Hoffman lived in one of the most exclusive parts of the city, in a large state of the art house with one butler, two maids, one driver and a grounds man. He was divorced and had yet to remarry. He and his ex-wife had lost their only child Monica to a freak car accident whilst crossing a busy street down town. By all accounts, though protracted, their divorce had been amicable, caused mainly by the grief incurred after the loss of their precious child.
The revered chemist was well respected in his field. He had received numerous accolades for his ground breaking discoveries and treatments most notable of which are Tetron I and Tetron II. Through his companies he had secured profitable contracts with governments, teaching institutions, manufacturing companies and medical facilities. It was rumored that the doctor was an inch away from yet another life changing discovery. Its exact nature was a well guarded secret, not many were/are privy to. Closing the bulky file, Detective Lester braced himself; they had arrived at the Hoffman residence. He needed to be on his A-game for this one, his very career would depend on it.
Driving through the pebbled drive way, he could see that the crime scene unit and the coroner had already arrived. The grounds were littered with uniformed officers taking pictures and recording statements from people – assumedly the house staff. He was met at the foyer by an officer, Dean as his name tag indicated and was led through to the marble stairs and up to the doctor’s private room on the second floor.
The spacious master-ensuite room was exorbitantly yet scarcely furnished, with a large king size bed to one side and a simple desk by the large windows overlooking the back-yard on the other. A single laptop, a glass of what appeared to be water and a single picture of a pretty little girl with pigtails and a pink tutu sat upon the desk. The chair was pushed out as though someone had recently been sitting there and neglected to return it to its original place. In the bed lie a man and a woman, with the woman held tightly in the man’s embrace. The lady was almost lost behind the width of his chest and on closer examination it was apparent that she did not embrace him back, her arms and legs were straight while he all but clung to her. This was most peculiar.
The crime scene technicians were busy dusting the surfaces for fingerprints. Others were taking photographs of every inch of the room and the two persons on the bed. Two officers stood at the door. The coroner and his assistant were looking impatiently at him. They needed his approval before removing the bodies from the scene. Not wanting to be rushed he motioned to the Coroner, ‘Doctor, what do we know so far?’
‘We have confirmed their identities’ he begun almost eagerly. ‘The male decedent is Dr. Hoffman aged 43 and the female is Ms. Jenniffer Lawrence – the former Mrs. Hoffman aged 39.’ Detective Lester fought to contain his surprise; this case was becoming more baffling by each revelation. Taking out his notebook he proceeded to take notes and said to the coroner ‘What else do we know?’
The coroner prattled on in an almost monotone ‘the two bodies were discovered as they are now at 5 am this morning by one of the maids, they were not disturbed thereafter. Cause of death is currently unknown. Time of death approximately for both was 8 hours ago at about 9 pm. Lividity has just begun to set in. There are no obvious signs of asphyxiation, gunshot wounds or any form of blunt force trauma but I will need to further examine the bodies to be certain. That’s all for now, I’ll know more once I get them back to the morgue’.
The Detective wrote this information down and said. ‘They’re yours now.’ Having been dismissed, the Coroner turned to his assistant and together they hastily begun to prepare the decedents for transportation.
To one of the crime scene technicians, the Detective began making orders.
‘I want everything in this room that’s not nailed bagged and tagged as evidence. I also want statements from everyone who came into contact with the decedents. Leave no stone unturned or unchecked. Have this entire property cordoned off until I say otherwise’
Leaving to a chorus of yes sir’s, he left the room and the house, there was not more that he could do here.
Back at the office and armed with a cup of strong coffee, he contemplated the case before him. It would be hours before either the crime scene technicians or the coroners reported back to him, he needed to know everything about the good chemist and his ex wife.
Four hours in, he realized the story of Dr. Hoffman, preceded the man. To understand the man, one would have to understand the times that made him.
It was into this world that that Todd Hoffman was born in. A certified savant, he was by the intelligence of his birth, destined for academic greatness. He was awarded his Phd in applied molecular chemistry at the age of 23. Straight out of university and much to the chagrin of his professors, Todd abandoned academia and founded his first company Hoffman Incorporated.
Five years later, he turned his attention to a lucrative market – the prison and corrections service sector. Doctor Hoffman decided that his company would to tackle the problem of the lack of prison space, more specifically the acute lack of controlled prison environments.
This he did this by creating Tetron I™; a highly addictive substance which intended to self-contain the imprisoned individual. The genius behind the drug was that it created confinement inside the prisoner’s own mind. It had to be taken daily at the risk of incurring debilitating withdrawal symptoms would including low blood pressure followed by severe brain fog, seizures and in extreme cases, death. Failure to take the drug as administered caused an immediate and intense craving effect as it wore off meaning that it was nearly impossible for patients to miss their daily dose. Patients reported that within twenty four hour period of missing their dose, they suffered migraines, deep muscle pain, stomach cramps, nausea, uncontrollable tremors, short-term memory loss, heart palpitations, sweating, depression and anxiety.
Their dependence was the punishment for the crime they committed. The length of their addiction directly proportional to the sentence meted against them. At the conclusion of their prison sentence, they would then be given an antidote and slowly tapered off the drug. This miracle drug was perfect for the time, reducing government expenditure on the maintenance and staffing of prison centers while at the same time deterring would be offenders from engaging in a life of crime and current incarcerated persons from re-offending.
Looking up at the clock hanging on the precinct wall, Detective Lester saw that it was well past midnight. The crime scene techs had to have finished by now. He picked the phone on his desk and called Inspector Carmen down at the crime lab.
‘Hello crime lab, this is Inspector Carmen.’
‘Carmen, this is Lester from downtown, what do you have for me from the Hoffman residence?’
‘Well, hello to you too Lester, no time for courtesy as usual.’
‘Hello Carmen. How do you do?’
‘Much better Lester.
The scene was clean. No foreign fingerprints, fibers or DNA save for those of the staff members- as would be expected. All the house staff members have solid alibis for the time of death and the room was not entered to before 5 am as the key card data has shown.
There was CCTV data covering all the rooms in the house, except Dr. Hoffman’s room. We have footage of Dr. Hoffman and Ms. Lawrence entering the house at 3pm and none of either of them leaving thereafter.
There is evidence of drug use going on at some time in that room; we found trace amounts of cocaine and MDMA on the fingertips of the deceased persons. We are waiting for blood work results from the Coroner’s office to confirm this finding.
Also, we found three syringes in the trash bin and we have sent those for further analysis to discern their contents.
The sheets had traces of DNA from only the deceased persons, clear evidence that the two had been engaged in sex at some point during that night. There was also evidence of tears shed by the male on the female’s hair cheeks and neck. We do not know what this means yet.
We recovered the laptop at the scene – presumably belonging to Dr. Hoffman and two cell phones, but we are unable to crack their passwords and gain access.
That’s all for now, I’ll let you know what else we find as we find it.’
‘Thank you Carmen.’
‘You’re welcome Lord Lester’
‘Don’t push it Carmen’
Hanging up with a smile on his face, Detective Lester contemplated the information he now had on the case. It would seem that there were only two parties involved in the death of Dr. Hoffman and his ex wife and they were none other than Dr. Hoffman and his wife.
Now the question remained, who killed whom and why? Further, what was the drug use angle all about?
Like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, he had all the corner pieces lined up properly, but the center ones didn’t seem to fit. He needed more information. First thing in the morning, he would pay a visit to the offices of Hoffman Incorporated. Perhaps he could learn something new there.
The meeting with Dr. Andre Dupoint, Hoffman Inc’s managing director and a lifelong friend of the Hoffman family was exceedingly insightful. Speaking with the detective at the austere Hoffman building in the heart of the city, the doctor’s grief was almost palpable.
Dr. Dupoint told the detective of the company’s newest creation, Tetron II ™. With marked improvements to its predecessor, the new drug was touted as more humane alternative and in so doing balanced the need of society to exact retribution for the crime committed and the accused person’s right to protection from cruel and inhuman treatment.
Tetron II was administered intravenously and caused the patient to go into a pseudo-comatose state in which their perception of time was warped, to the point where minutes could roughly be perceived as years. Convicted criminals could now be placed in a clinical all white room, the dosage would then be adjusted to reflect the amount of time a prisoner would spend under sentence.
The entrance of Tetron II into commercial use was not without some unexpected hitches. Early after its release, rumors began to circulate in the academic circles about the large amount of compensation being paid to the people who had participated in the clinical trials, after they reported experiencing psychological trauma after prolonged use of the new drug. The academic researchers were concerned about the possible side effects of using the drug that had yet to be investigated and documented. Concerned with their findings, the company made the difficult decision to recall Tetron II from the market to restructure and refine it to ensure it was safe for consumption.
Months and years of hard work went into developing the new and improved Tetron II with Dr. Hoffman leading from the front, as he always did, pushing the company’s researchers to create the perfect drug. Their efforts were paying off and the date of relaunch of Tetron II inched closer and closer.
However, just as they were getting to the finish line, tragedy struck the Hoffman family. Dr. Hoffman lost his daughter Monica in a car accident and seemingly overnight, everything changed. The brilliant chemist began to fragment right before their eyes. Unable to cope with the grief of losing his only beloved daughter so suddenly, he lost focus, nothing else seem to matter.
Leaning into the glass windows of the office conference room, Dr. Dupoint stated sadly, almost as though he was speaking to himself, ‘One morning after Monica’s funeral, he came to the office and I knew something was wrong. He was maniacal, muttering incoherently about finding a cure for the pain of grief. He went into his office and stayed in there for days. He wouldn’t let anyone in and he wouldn’t come out. He didn’t eat, he didn’t shower. I was worried that the loss of Monica had driven him insane. When he finally emerged looking gaunt and haggard, he told us that he had finally done it. He had successfully formed a new drug Tetron III, which cured heartbreak.’
Intrigued, Detective Lester let the doctor continue telling his tale without interruption.
It appeared that new drug Tetron III could now alleviate the effects of heartbreak and give users immediate relief from the pain and torture it caused. The initial test results were promising with test subjects reporting minor side effects to the use of the drug. As word of this new wonder drug finally reached the public, it was met with positive reviews. The demand for this new drug was instantaneous and very high. It was revered as the highlight of the century. Tetron III went on to become an international success, relieving the majority of the human race from the heartbreak of broken relationships or the pain of bereavement.
Along with this success came a global philosophical debate on whether the company had crossed a moral line by interfering with people’s right to experience grief. This was not just a concern for scholars and the media that debated this matter, but also for Dr. Hoffman’s wife Jennifer. She was terribly conflicted and ultimately refused to take the medication, arguing that not grieving her daughter somehow dishonored her memory. Unable to understand her position, the couple argued frequently and eventually separated.
Further exacerbating the situation was the recent reports that users of the drug were starting to build a tolerance to the medication, eventually rendering it useless. This therefore meant that people were left to the mercy of their grief and found they now had to deal with it all alone.
Later that afternoon having returned to the precinct, Detective Lester met up with the coroner to discuss the findings of the post mortem conducted on the bodies of Dr. Hoffman and his wife. Both bodies contained high doses of MDMA, cocaine, Tetron I and Tetron II, though Dr. Hoffman had significantly higher amount of the latter drug in his system. Ms Lawrence had died first due to acute asphyxiation caused by a drug overdose while Dr. Hoffman died approximately two hours later from a drug and stress induced myocardial infarction. It was apparent that the drugs in the decedents’ systems were self administered.
Even with this information, Detective Lester was unwilling to draw to any conclusions and decided to check with the crime scene technicians to find out if they had been able to gain access to Dr. Hoffman’s laptop. They had not. On a whim, he called Carmen and instructed her to type in the word Monica as the password and miraculously it worked!
Carmen was silent for a minute or two and then with a somber voice told the detective, ‘Drop what you are doing Lester, you need to come and see this for yourself.’
Detective Lester wasted no time in driving down to the crime lab where he was met with Carmen holding a stack of papers bound and labeled ‘The Hoffman Case’. Not bothering with prolonged niceties, he spoke with Carmen briefly before taking the papers and heading to the nearest conference room.
The file contained printouts of Dr. Todd Hoffman’s journal which he had begun to keep after the death of his daughter Monica. The journal was like a window into the mind of Dr. Hoffman who had meticulously documented his activities, thoughts and emotions in the days leading to his and his ex-wife’s death. Of supreme importance, were the last entries he made.
Day 884
Tetron III isn’t working anymore. I can feel the sadness seeping into my bones. It’s unbearable.
My baby Monica, I miss you so much, why did you have to die?
Day 886
I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.
Of what use am I to humanity?
I miss your funny laugh baby girl. Do you remember the pink tutu you wore for your first dance recital? You were so perfect. You danced like an angel.
Daddy’s little angel
I need something to make this pain go away.
Day 892
I had an epiphany yesterday.
The ultimate release from pain:
Tetron II + 1 gm pure uncut cocaine.
I injected myself with enough Tertron II to cause one year’s perception shift and immediately inhaled the cocaine.
The result, ten precious minutes of the most intense and unadulterated joy I have felt since the loss of my angel Monica.
I must share this with the world!
I must tell Jenny.
Day 894
Jenny has finally agreed to come and see me.
She thinks I’m mad, but I don’t care.
My Monica would want me to look after her mom.
I must show her that she can have some joy, some peace.
I have an idea of using an injection infused with MDMA, Cocaine and of course Tetron II.
Perhaps the euphoria will last longer.
That was the last entry in the journal.
From his mind’s eye Detective Lester was finally able to piece together the events of that fateful day at the Hoffman residence.