It’s been one year, three months and two days since that day, that day which changed everything for now or maybe forever. I guess I should start with my name, my name is Athena Blockston and I am the head detective on our biggest case we have ever taken on.
Last night the wind was blowing hard cluttered with thrashing rain and soundless lightening. I lay there in my spacious queen sized bed, tall off the ground and devouring my little apartment room, thinking about my new case. I read through the piles and piles of paper, manila folders and almost useless evidence.
“There has got to be some kind of…” my thoughts trailed off as the first thunder strolled in the window like it had been wide open for hours. To my surprise I found myself clutching the blanket over my face like I was suddenly drug back years into my childhood, searching for safe cover from a simple little storm.
“Get a hold or yourself! You are 36 years old!” I shouted at myself.
I released my blanket and shifted in my bed. I swung my feet over the side and glided to the floor. The carpet swayed under my feet from the sudden shift in its still state, as I swept across the floor I could feel the chill from the storm. The cold crept in through the microscopic holes in my pajamas and danced slowly up my legs and arms, I felt my legs beginning to shutter and the goose bumps starting to form. I flew across the remainder of floor in between me and my bathroom and landed on my icy, hard tile. The immediate chill ran through my spine and I leaped on the counter almost screaming. As I started to move again and I slid off the counter, rinsed my face and jolted back through my room.
“How did we get so… so lost?” I questioned myself and my team’s ability to solve this case while I drifted lazily to sleep.
I awoke to a loud buzzing noise coming from my nightstand. I rolled over and slammed my hand on my alarm clock and it stopped for now, about two second later it was buzzing again. I reached over and hit it again but this time it didn’t stop, that’s when I realized it was my phone and not my alarm clock. I quickly sat up and went for my phone, almost dropping it from my sudden and harsh head rush, trying to see who it was. The light on my phone was so bright I felt my pupils dilate almost instantly. “Jerome Hilltop” scrolled across the front screen. I immediately flip it open and press that little green phone.
“Hello?” I groggily mumbled into the speaker.
“Athena, There is another body,” Jerome, my top investigator on this case, said sounding almost like he hadn’t slept since we were assigned this case.
“WHAT?!” I almost screeched
“Yeah, on the corner of 12th and Wall,” he stated stonily.
“I’ll be there a soon as I can.” I hurriedly said and hung up the phone. I jumped out of bed and started toward the door when I realized I was in my pajamas. I came to quick stop, jolted around and ran for my closet. I threw on a dark blue and gray sweater, a pair of worn dark jeans and slipped on my gray flats and ambled towards the door, grabbing my coat on the way out. As I got the last floor on the elevator I hastened my pace to slight jog as I hurried to my little, black Jetta. I pushed the door open and sped off into the darkened, lifeless neighborhood. I drove for hours it seemed like until I turned onto twelfth and I felt a sudden discomfort wash over me, almost like the night had suddenly downgraded to something much worse. I felt my blood ice over as I drew closer to the scene. I pulled over to the curb and crawled out of my car, trudging to the freshest crime scene where I met Jerome. “Its him,” Jerome cursed.
“How do you know?” I questioned, knowing that he was right.
“How about you take a look..." he said so hushed I had to ask him to repeat himself. As I walked from the spot where I met Jerome I felt the discomfort strengthen, weighting deeply on my shoulders. I reached into my coat pocket and snatched up my extra pair of gloves, just for this kind of thing, and slid them on as I swept through the newly developed scene. There she was, victim number 10, exactly the same as the nine before her. Always the same death, always the same body position and always the same facial features. I looked at the same sweeping, yellow blonde hair I had seen so many times before, so yellow it shinned in the suddenly clear sky even with its knotted and filthy condition. I could almost smell the shampoo she used, Silly Star-berry, a mix of strawberry and coconut with only a very slight whiff of peach. The freshness and the sweetness of that thought nearly made this whole night a little better. As I came back to earth I turned my focus back to the girl laying on the soaking grass in the field of the newly built high school. I felt the wind take over so I held my coat a little closer and squatted closer to the girl. I squinted to get a closer look at her face, although I knew what she would look like. Her skin was a mountain of freshly fallen snow, soft and pale, I tried to keeping looking but I had to turn away... "She has got to be only nineteen years old..." the sickening thought swept through my body. I forced my head to turn back and examine the body and the scene properly. I quickly collected evidence and skimmed through the scene once more. The girls icy face flashed through my mind again and again, her almost baby-like, pale skin, pink rose lips, and her close set, bright green eyes frozen in terror, as I paced back to my car.
I walked back into my apartment deeply disturbed. Step by heavy step I felt my heart sink deeper into my chest. This case has impacted me in a way I thought it wouldn’t... emotionally. I went over the new evidence in my head multiple times, none of it seemed useful to me. I finally climbed back into my pajamas and drifted slowly back to sleep by the time my alarm clock sounded. It was time to get up and go to work. I trudged back to my closet to get some clothes. I walked into the closet and just threw the clothes from last night back on. I repeated all the steps of last night except now it was light out and the neighborhood had come to life, as it did everyday. I turn into the vast parking lot in front of my work building when a sudden brisk thought crosses my mind, "Why do we have such a large parking lot for a little over twenty people?" The mindless thought left almost as fast as it had come. I parked my car, turned off the engine and just sat there, staring out my windshield at the last little raindrops from our monstrous storm. About ten minutes later I erupted from my car and headed for the front doors where Jerome always stopped me. Today, though, he didn’t. I rushed inside and went to find him. Quickly, I spotted him in the conference room, watching as he stood when I approached. " What's up?" I ask suspiciously.
"We found another body... but I'm sure it's the last.." he said so sure of what he was saying.
"What do you mean the last?" I questioned him, stunned at his statement.
"When we found the 11th victim, we found our suspect about thirty yards from her... dead." he whispered.
"And?!" I pressed.
"Well we processed the scene and we confirmed he was the murderer. He was dumping the body when he died." he continued cautiously.
"WELL!? What happened Jerome!?" I asked again, starting to get irritated.
"He had a heart attack." he finished.
"Wow..." I gasped. I sat down and thought "All that and he just dies...?" I felt a sudden lift but also a disappointment that I couldn’t catch him. I guess I have to leave at that. "Well Jerome, I guess that's that. Get me the report by the end of the day and we will finally close this case." I said a little too professionally.
"Alright Athena, you’re the boss," he said as he walked out the conference room door. We closed the case that night but I never felt satisfied about how it happened. I went home that night disappointed that I couldn’t solve the case before all these young women died. That was one year, three months, and two days ago but yet it still haunts me.