Captured: Luke's Perspective (Book Three)

Chapter 7: Tick Tock

After the doors opened, I saw an old woman curling into a ball and leaning against the wall. The lights sprang back on, but it kept flickering, like a firefly.

I turned off my flashlight and examined the woman. She had long white hair with grey eyes and a sunken mouth. Her nose is the size of a button; she wore nothing, but a long hospital gown.

As soon as she looked at me, she frowned.

"Are you June?" I asked softly.

She rose up from her spot and stared at me.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"This is the hospital," I reminded her.

Or what was left of it, I thought.

The woman shook her head.

"No," she stated. "This is my house."

I gave her a puzzled look.

"Is your name June?" I asked in wonder.

The woman continued staring at me then hesitantly nodded.

"My name is Luke," I introduced.

"Your brother hired me to investigate what happened to his wife."

"But you look sixteen," she replied.

Her expression is a bit sad, but cheery.

"I'm actually seventeen," I corrected.

"Do you want to go outside so we can talk?"

"But this is my house," she protested.

I didn't want to make her upset so I took her by the hand, and promised her that if I was finished talking to her, she can go back to her "house".

June reluctantly takes my hand as I led her out of the building.

When sunlight reached her skin, June recoiled then hurried back into the hospital, but I gave her a reassured look.

June sat down on the sunbaked sidewalk and looked up at me.

"Can you tell me about where you were before the murder?" I asked.

"I was going to the grocery store to buy some champagne for Natalie and Alexander,"

June explained.

"But when I came home, I saw Natalie on the floor with a bullet on her back."

"Did you and Natalie get along well?" I asked.

June sucked her cheeks and let out her breath.

"I was very skeptical about Natalie and Alexander being together, especially my parents."

"I read in Alexander's diary that you were all Christians," I said.

"We are Christians," June argued, "but that doesn't mean that we always hold hands and sing Kumbaya."

"There were some...conflicts about how the Parkers react to other neighbors."

"Reactions?" I repeated.

"Just this one time," June began.

"I caught the neighbors putting graffiti on their windows. I tried stopping them, threatening them that I should call the police, but they just laughed at me."

"Did you call the police?" I asked.

June nodded.

"What did they say?"