User blog:Joeaikman/Wiki Chapter 10

Timothy held his police hat up to his chest as Max walked down the office, dressed up in his official uniform. In his hands he held another policeman’s hat. They had found Jamahl wearing it when his body was found alone at home, a bullet through his brain. He was forced to choke down a sob as Max placed the hat down on the desk that had been Jamahl’s. He hadn’t known Jamahl long, but he had helped him rise through the ranks, and had taught him all that he had needed to know if he wanted to be a top detective. He couldn’t believe that guilt had driven him over the edge like this. He had always seemed so calm, so together. He looked to his right and saw Alexa staring at him. She was holding her hat in the same way, but there was a questioning aspect to the look. “It is truly a sad day for everybody here. First, to lose Banfa in such a way, and then for Jamahl to feel so alone that he did this. I am truly beyond words.” Max was stood in front of the window to his office. He was calm and collected, as Timothy had come to expect. He found the man to be terrifyingly cold. It was almost as if he knew that Max would throw him under the bus if it meant surviving. “We have to get back to our jobs, however. The people of this town rely on us to keep them safe. It is important that we rally round and carry on. Each of you swore an oath to serve and protect this town. Now more than ever, that oath is important.” There were mumbles of approval around the office, although Timothy remained silent. He could feel the eyes of Alexa and Max both baring into him. “Officer Timothy Shallnot. I would like to speak with you in my office when you have the time. That would be now, I assume.” He nodded at the request, and hurriedly rushed forward, anxious to escape the glare of Alexa Day. Max’s office was as pristine as always, and the older officer took his place on the other side. Timothy took his seat too. “Officer Shallnot. You have not been with us a very long time, have you?” “Erm- No sir. Just a week and a half since you promoted me.” “Then can you tell me why a senior officer like Jamahl Grimes would shoot himself in the head?” Timothy gulped. Was Max being serious? What kind of a question was that, and why would he ask him? “I guess- Maybe he was depressed about something. He was struggling with this Drakan case, and then the added weight of the Master boy dying-” “You think he was overworked? I agree. I was just curious what you thought, as Jamahl told me the day before he died that he saw a glittering career for you, boy. He wanted you to replace him when he moved on. I would like to offer you the post.” He was being offered a promotion? But why? He had barely been in this job a week. Why had Jamahl chosen him? Why had Max taken him so seriously? “Me, sir? What about Officer Day? She is senior to me-” “And still in mourning for Officer Munk. When she has gotten over his tragic death then I will offer her his place. For now, I would like you to take Jamahl’s. Do we have a deal, boy?” He hesitated for a few seconds. “Sure.” It was on the way out that he heard his phone buzzing. He pulled it out and saw that Dan had sent him a message. He responded to it. I need your help. - Starla was tired. She had been up late last night with her dad. She had spent the first few hours shouting at him, him being the richest and most powerful man in town. She bet he hadn’t been shouted at much before, but he took it. The next few hours after that she had cried. Then he had hugged her, and she had cried into his shirt. She had always wanted to know who her father was, now she wasn’t sure she could believe it. She was carrying some of the paperwork that Norm had asked her to do the day before up to the mayor’s office. She had gone to Norm’s first, but found that he wasn’t there, and had gone up to see Barry. The forms he had asked her to fill out were all boring, and she was sure he had only given them to her because Barry was infatuated with her and ignored his affections. That guy needed to grow some balls. The door to the mayor’s office was closed. When she tried the handle she found that it was locked. That was unusual as it was, but she was willing to leave and come back later, but then she heard some raised voices from behind the locked door. “-this situation is going to fuck us over, Matthew. We need to know that nobody else knows. We need to make sure that nobody can out us.” “Look, if anybody had seen Drakan die then they would have come forward by now. That Master boy was the last one that could have exposed us. He isn’t a threat now, is he? I can assure that.” “The whole Raatz thing is an issue by itself.” That was Norm’s voice. “I know that, Norm, but there isn’t much we can do without getting Max involved, and none of us want to do that, do we? Trust me, we just need to leave it for now. Nobody knows what happened, which means we are safe and clear.” What were the three of them talking about? Who was this Matthew person that was having a secret meeting with the mayor and his assistant? Why were they talking about that Drakan person as if they killed him? She almost dropped the papers as he realised the truth. The three of them had murdered Drakan. - Carson was sat in the library of the High School, his laptop out in front of him. He was tired and his head was being held up by his hand, his elbow on the table. Otherwise, his face might have been at risk from hitting the keyboard. He had been up all night with his cousin Laura, who had been teaching him all about how to pick up girls. She had given him all kinds of usueful advice on how he could talk to Kylie. “Hey Carson.” All that stuff that he had been taught last night went straight out of his head. It was Kylie, and she was talking to him of her own accord. He hadn’t prepared for this. None of this had come up in their conversation yesterday. “H- Hi Kylie. How are you?” She put her hand on his shoulder. There was a sympathetic look in her eyes. “I’m fine, Carson. How are you, though? I haven’t had the chance to talk to you since Task- Well, obviously you know what happened. How are you dealing with that?” He hadn’t expected her to jump straight into this topic. He had hoped maybe they could have some- what did Laura call it? Foreplay? Yeah, that was what he needed. How could he change the topic from Task into something that was vaguely that he could use to seduce her. “Yeah. I’m alright.” That was probably a lie. He was upset about Task dying, obviously, but he was also upset that he didn’t know what Dan was up to. He kept getting thoughts that maybe Dan was somehow involved in Task’s death. Could that be what Laura had been trying to prevent him from finding out? How deep did all this go? “Well, I hope you know that I am here for you whenever you want.” He needed to say something now. She was going to leave if he didn’t say anything. What could he say? It needed to be something cool. What cool things did he know? “Hey Kylie. Did you know that- Erm- Did you know that sea otters hold hands when they sleep so that they don’t drift apart?” Sea otters? Really? Fucking sea otters? How was he ever going to get her to like him if all he could say was a fucking useless fact about sea otters? “Awwww. That is so cute. Do you have any more cute facts about sea otters?” Think, Carson. Think. “They sometimes sleep upside down in forests of kelp to give themselves anchorage in the swirling seas.” “Like Katniss Everdeen does in the Hunger Games!” He hesitated. “Yeah. Sure. Like that. Hey Kylie-” She smiled at him. Her eyes were so pretty. He almost forgot to say the next part of what he had been planning to say. “Yeah, Carson?” “Erm- Would you like to maybe go out to get something to eat after school?” She giggled at that. It was a cute giggle. It wasn’t like she was laughing in his face, which was the reaction that he had expected. “You mean like a date?” “I suppose. Yeah.” “And at the end of the date would you give me a kiss goodbye?” “If that was what you wanted, yeah.” She grabbed his hand under the table. “Then I don’t see any reason to wait.” - “I hear that Brendan Raatz has been killed. Who did you send after him? Why did you suddenly change your mind?” Billy walked into the office of Frank Claas with very little confidence. There was every possibility that Frank would have him killed for being so brazen, but he needed to be confronted. Eyes had let him in, which, Billy assumed, was a good sign. Eyes would never do anything that he knew that Frank wouldn’t approve of. “It was that Jorn boy that you are so fond of.” Frank was laid down on a trolley table, a towel around his waist, but nothing on over his sizable top half. Part of the problem with being a super successful mob boss was that you often had too much to eat, and not enough time to exercise all of that off. Dan Kore was massaging Franks’s back, as was part of his duties. He was in charge of looking after the welfare of his employer. He did a good job at it. He was good at what he did. “Why are you back here, Billy?” Billy walked further into the room, and took a seat so that Frank could see him from his table. “I thought maybe that, since you killed Raatz, you had considered letting the boy live and the other teacher walk free. Since that was our issue I thought I could return.” “That was our issue at first, Billy, but then you had the nerve to threaten my position here. What makes you think I would want to take you back?” Billy frowned at bit at his lower lip. “I thought we were friends-” “I thought so too. You made some valid points the other day. I have had things brought to my attention over the last few days that have caused me to rethink myself and my actions of late. I have become something that I never intended to be. I have started to become Gliscor, and I don’t want that.” Billy smirked. “You’re growing soft, sir.” “Call me Frank, and no I’m not. I will let your boy live and the teacher walk free, but don’t think I have forgotten what you told me, or why you wanted the teacher to walk. You owe him nothing, Billy.” Billy looked down, his smirk gone, replaced by sadness. “You’re wrong, Frank. I owe him a sister.” - Teddy opened the door. Alexa was stood on the other side. She was still dressed in her uniform. He was dressed in black cargo pants and a black hoodie. She looked tired. She had been working all that day. He hadn’t been expecting to see her this evening. It was a pleasant surprise. He had been expecting someone else when he heard the knock on the door. “Can I come in?” He nodded and she stepped in. They hadn’t spent any time together since that strange man had interrupted their dinner the other day. She had left soon after that. She had thought that she recognised him and had gone back to the station. Of course, the man had visited him later on and confessed to the murder of his sister. “I need to get changed though, babe. Could you just wait in the kitchen. I will be back out to you in like ten minutes.” She nodded at that, and he left her. She went through to the kitchen as he had said and waited. She fiddled around with his drawers, all the while thinking of how Jamahl had confessed to the murder of Banfa. The two of them had never really seen eye to eye, and Jamahl had a motive, but still. His motive wasn’t applicable if he always intended to kill himself afterwards. It didn’t work. Jamahl had said that he had killed Banfa to free up a promotion, but killing himself negated that. It puzzled her. The confession of her aunt that she had been sleeping with both Banfa and Drakan had also thrown her. She hadn’t known that there was a common connection between the two of them. There was a reason for Banfa to dislike Drakan, to have a grudge against him, even. Had she known Banfa that well? Had he been capable of murdering Drakan? Was that something that Banfa could have hidden? It had been ten minutes by the time that she had finished reasoning her way through the mire of the facts that she had at her disposal. She was no closer to knowing what was up with Jamahl and Drakan’s death. Teddy hadn’t come back, though. He had said that he was getting changed. How long did it take him? She headed through to his bedroom, and heard the sound of the shower from the en suite. Was he really having a wash when his potential girlfriend was round at his apartment for only the second time. It wasn’t like they were going to do anything now that she was here. The thought of that caused her to blush. She was surprised by the state of Teddy’s room. He came across as a clean, pristine guy, but there were pairs of socks strewn across the floor. It was as if they had been thrown out of his drawers in a rush. She went over to the en suite door and knocked on the door lightly. “You okay in there? You’ve been gone a while.” No response. “I’m gonna come in to see if you are alright, babe.” She stepped into the room slightly, and was taken aback by what she saw. The shower was on, but Teddy wasn’t in it. The window was locked from the inside, and Teddy was nowhere else in the room. Where could he be, and why had he left the shower on? She stepped back into the bedroom, and decided to start looking around. His bed was situated in between two walls, with a bedside cabinet on either side. The drawers for those were locked, and the key nowhere to be seen. She then went over to the chest of drawers, and opened the one on the top left. It was his sock drawer. She closed it almost straight away, but then something caught her eye. There was a brown paper envelope just buried under the socks. One of the corners was sticking out. She took it out, and found that the top was open. Inside were papers. A lot of them had pictures of various different people around town. A lot of them were of Drakan, Banfa, Jamahl, and that teacher that had been shot and killed. There was writing too. Lots of talk about plans and plots, and more about methods of murder, all of which matched the way that these people had been killed. She stuffed the papers back into the envelope and hurriedly buried it back underneath the socks from whence it had been found. No sooner had she closed the drawer than she heard the en suite door open. Teddy stepped out topless, ruffling his hair with a white towel. He was surprised to see her in here. “I thought I said to wait in the kitchen.” There wasn’t anything accusatory about the way he said it. If anything, he was more bemused at finding her in here than anything. “I- I was worried about how long you were. I thought I would come and check up on you. Just in case.” He smiled at that, and took her hand in his. “I’m fine, babe. Now, do you want to watch a film and get some takeout?” She was scared. She was holding his hand. What she had found- Could Teddy be the person that killed Drakan, Banfa and Jamahl? Had he set it up to look like he was innocent? Was she holding the hand of a murderer? - Tim was sat at his desk, almost sleeping. He had been up all last night after the police had announced that one of their own had killed himself. He had been writing an article about how this tied in with the other police officer dying. There was a link, although not enough details had been released to make anything official. It was entirely speculation at the moment. “Hey Tim. What’s up?” He looked up and found Alan O’Malley stood in the entrance to the room. He was wearing a black hoodie, and had a laptop underneath his arm. His brown hair was long and greasy and his facial hair short and sparse. Alan was a ‘freelance journalist’, and that meant that he spent most of his time living in his mum’s basement writing sketchy conspiracy theories that he passed off as news. “Hi Alan. I didn’t think you would be back so soon. Did the Drawer crop circles sort themselves out, or do you have the story to try and sell me?” “I have better. I came back to town the moment that I heard about the Drakan murder. I have been investigating, and think that I may be on the brink of finding out the truth. I have come here to offer you exclusivity on the story.” Tim frowned. The town’s police and half of the citizens had been investigating the crime. What did Alan think separated him from all of them? “That is very kind of you, Alan-” “Provided that you pay me more than all of the other people that I offered exclusivity to. This story is hot news, Tim. You aren’t the only person paying me attention any more.” “Well isn’t that good for you, man. Don’t let the fame get to your head.” Tim knew better than most that an increase in attention for journalists was not a safe thing. It hadn’t been safe for Brandon or Joe, and it may prove not to be safe for Alan. There was a serial killer on the loose, and two of the people investigating Drakan’s death were now dead. Would Alan be next? - “Have you tried remembering that night at all? Is it still all a blank?” Jude was sat on his sofa, looking at Gregory, who was stood up opposite him. He was flushed and sweaty, and there were bags underneath his eyes. He hadn’t been sleeping. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Drakan, or so he said. He was convinced that he had blacked out and had murdered his old enemy. “I’ve tried. I just can’t. It’s like- It’s like that night is just not there. Like, I can’t remember anything from it at all. Does that mean I am guilty?” “I know the new you, Gregory. I don’t think you are capable of what happened to Drakan. You wanted to make amends with him, not murder him.” “I- I did?” Jude shook his head in exasperation. “You don’t remember? I was arranging a meeting between the two of you. Both of you had expressed a desire to right the wrongs of your past to me, and I was hoping the two of you could put your troubles behind you and become friends. We were meant to meet him the night that he died, but he never showed up.” “You were with me that night?” Jude smiled kindly. “Absolutely. That is how I know that you didn’t do it, Gregory. I know you are innocent.” - Shop woke up tied to a chair. There was a blindfold over his eyes, and a gag over his mouth. He could barely breathe. He tried to grunt to let whoever had attacked him know that he was awake. He heard light footsteps, and then someone was stood behind him. Their fingers stroked down his cheek. Then they started working on the blindfold. At first he couldn’t see when it was removed, but then his vision started to focus. And he started back. Hanging right in front of him was a head. It was Jose. His head had been removed at the neck and hung from a beam. His eyes were empty and his skin pale. The hands that had taken the blindfold reached beyond him and batted the head, so it swung gently, as if it was hanging in a breeze. He could see that the hands were a woman’s. Her skin was as pale as Jose’s. “Who- Who are you? What do you want?” There was the sound of a woman’s laugh from behind him. It was a childish giggle, although it sounded more forced than anything. “Don’t you remember me? That makes me sad. I thought we were so close.” The voice, like the laugh, was childish and sickly sweet, although it sounded pretend, as if she was putting it on. Then she appeared in front of him. She was dressed in skimpy clothes, with blonde hair in pigtails, pale skin and deep, dark eyes. The mascara under her eyes was smudged, and she didn’t wear any lipstick. “I have been waiting for you, brother.” He gulped. His father had always told him that his sister had been imaginary. That she had been a fake, made-up friend that he had created to make himself less lonely. He had been talking to Jose about her just the other day. He hadn’t been able to remember her name then. He could now. “Sliver.” She laughed again, and pulled a knife from her waist. “That’s right, brother. I’m home, and it’s time we got to know each other again.” - A board has six pictures pinned up on it. The one on the farthest left is Barry, then Frank, then Dan, then Shop, then Teddy, and, lastly, Gregory. The camera zooms out to show a gloved hand holding a knife. It pulls back and throws it at the board. It lands squarely in Shop’s forehead.