The Girl Who Doesn't Speak

Chapter 19

The police arrives within half an hour, taking our statement on what happened. Devon and Rhett does the talking as I just sat there on the couch, unresponsive. I don’t even know what they are saying as I stare at a random spot on the coffee table. All I can see in my mind is the day my parents and I had found out about Tiffany. My body is numb, and my head spinning, not wanting to know what will happen to Blue. This isn’t right. She tried to help my sister, and all because she witnessed her murder, she was going to get killed.
 
Everything made sense to me now to the way she has been acting. She probably didn’t speak because of trauma, or she was afraid the killer would be nearby and would recognise her voice. When I first found her on the beach, she probably was shock to actually run into me and recognise my face from television if she ever had been able to see the broadcast. How she always acted paranoid wasn’t just because she was a runaway, but she was afraid to come across the killer in case he recognise her or her voice.
 
There must be some way I can save Blue.
 
“Riley?” Rhett calls me.
 
I tear my eyes from the random spot on the table, and turn to Rhett who is sitting next to me. Devon stands next to the coffee table, watching me with concern.
 
“Are you okay?” Devon asks me. “Should we call your parents? Maybe we should contact Blue’s family?”
 
I shake my head. “No. I don’t want to inform my parents about the killer just yet. I will tell them another time. Right now this is about Blue. I don’t have any contacts for Blue’s family, so I can’t inform them about what’s happening.”
 
I run my hands through my hair. So many things were running through my head right now, and I can’t think. In my mind I can see the last memories I had with my sister, and then imagining what she could have felt like on a night that was supposed to open a new chapter of her life. I strain my head to remember if she had told me anything about the killer she had met that she thought she would end up dating, but I can’t remember a thing. All I remember after we graduated high school is that all I wanted to do with my free time in between my job was surf. If I wasn’t surfing, I was with Rhett playing video games like I was on the night she had died. The only thing I can recall is of her telling Mum and me one morning that she had met someone online. They had met through Facebook, and he had claimed to be a high schooler, but didn’t attend our high school. He attended another high school near Manly.
 
But now I see the guy was playing her. He wasn’t a high schooler, and he sure wasn’t eighteen. He looked older. Late-twenties maybe? He was a predator, luring Tiffany, pretending to be a person he wasn’t.
 
As I think this, hot tears fill my eyes. Tiffany was a smart person, and yet she was fooled into something like this. Her life was taken away because of some monster pretending to be someone he isn’t.
 
I get off the couch. My friends are speaking to me, but I can barely hear their voices as my mind blocks them out. I heard to my room where Blue had been sleeping in for the last few days. I stand in the doorway, looking in my room. The bed was made neatly, and Blue didn’t look like she had touched anything in my room. I wonder for a moment if she had even snooped around, like maybe trying to find a way to tell me what had happened to my sister.
 
My eyes are caught on the photograph of Tiffany and I at our graduation on my bedside table. I sit down on my bed, and reach for the photo. I stare at our smiling faces in our navy blue and white uniform, posing outside of the hall as Mum took the photo. How could in two months everything changed?
 
I put the photograph down, and pull out my phone. I pull up Facebook, logging into Tiffany’s profile. As mind readers, we were able to guess each other’s passwords easily even if we didn’t tell each other what they were. Her profile hadn’t been touch for the past two months, and I know I should delete her account and maybe when I’m ready I will. I don’t scroll her newsfeed, and go straight to her profile. There are over fifty notifications, but I don’t check them either. Mostly the notifications were of our high school friends and classmates, as well as family, tagging or writing on her wall about how much they miss her.
 
The only thing I do is go straight to her messenger. The last known message she had received was from me. When she hadn’t returned home and wasn’t returning calls and texts, so I messaged her on here instead in case she might respond that way. I had asked her if she was alright and where she was, and when was she coming home, how both Mum and Dad was worried. Being twins, I could sense something bad had happened, but I wasn’t sure until the police had informed us two days later that she had been murdered.
 
The message underneath mine was a group chat with her friends Amy, Lily and Tina about her date. I read it, almost feeling guilty for invading her privacy, but I had to in order how I’m going to save Blue. She tells her friends about a guy name Kasper who had asked her on a date. Her friends respond, asking questions about this guy and cheering her on.
 
Underneath their chat is the chats between Tiffany and Facebook User, which showed the previous user had deleted their account. I click on the message. I didn’t want to read all of the messages, only the recent ones leading up to my sister’s death. They had talked about meeting each other after chatting for the past few months online, building up a friendship.  
 
I grip the phone in my hand tightly. Of course Kasper is a not a real person. Whatever this guy’s real identity is, he is an online predator.
 
And now Blue was his next victim. All because she tried to save my sister!
 
I log out of my sister’s profile, putting the phone back in my pocket. When I look up, Rhett and Devon were standing at the door.
 
“Are you alright, Riley?” Rhett asks me. “Is there something we can do?”
 
I didn’t know what to do, my mind was blank. What could we do when we had no idea where the killer was taking Blue? He could be taking her far, far away where no one would find her. And even if there was something we could do, we had no weapons. The guy has a gun. How would we defend ourselves without one?
 
“Riley, you need to answer us,” Devon tells me. “We need to know you’re alright. You haven’t said a word since Blue was taken. We understand what could be going through your mind right now, but you need to tell us you’re alright.”
 
Instead of answering him, I get off the bed and walk over to the window that is overlooking into the apartment building next door. All I can think about is the night of my sister’s death, trying to picture Blue there too, as she tried to save my sister. Now it was Blue’s turn, and there wasn’t anyone there to help save her, like she was for Tiffany.
 
Which means I can be the only person to save her. If I couldn’t save my sister, I can try to save Blue.
 
For a moment I can feel Tiffany like she is standing right beside me.
 
“She needs you, Riley,” Tiffany tells me.
 
I wanted to argue with her, but I didn’t want to start talking to her out loud with my friends being in the room. All I could do was yell at her in my mind.
 
“Don’t tell me she needs me when I can’t save her!” I yell at my sister.
 
“You can save her, Riley.”
 
I clench my fist at my side. “How, Tiffany? I don’t know where he is taking her.”
 
“You do know where she is taking her. He is taking her somewhere no one will be able to find her for days like he did with me.”
 
I listen to my sister’s words in my mind. Where could he be taking her?
 
I loosen my fist as I widen my eyes, realising what my sister means.
 
I turn to my friends. “We need to go. He is taking Blue to the same place he murdered Tiffany.”
I hurry past my friends and hurried to the kitchen.
 
“Redwood National Park?” Rhett asks me. “How do you know that’s where he is taking Blue?”
 
I open a draw and pull out a knife that probably wouldn’t give me much protection when it comes against the murderer, but I might not never know I need it.
 
I close the door and turn to my friends. “Where else do you think he would take her? He would take her somewhere where no one will be able to find her body for days. Redwood National Park is also the closest from here, so I reckon that’s where he is going to take her. He is going to make her meet her own fate like my sister did.”
 
Devon and Rhett exchange looks between each other before turning back to me, like they weren’t sure if they wanted to believe me.
 
“What are you going to do, Riley?” Rhett asks me.
 
I look at the knife in my hand. Is it really worth it going after the killer and trying to save a girl I barely know, who was there on the night of my sister’s death?
 
I turn back at my friends. “I have to save her. I can’t let the same thing happen to her like it did with Tiffany. She tried to save my sister. The least I can do is the same for her.”
 
Devon shakes his head. “No, Riley. It’s far too dangerous. You will get yourself killed. Let the police find her.”
 
“Yeah, and what if it’s too late by the time they get to her?”
 
“I can call them and tell them where to go, that it’s urgent for them to look in that area.”
 
“Redwood National Park is a huge area. Are they going to search the area I want them to?”
 
“And what area do you think the killer is taking Blue?”
 
“He is going to kill her in the exact same spot as Tiffany. I just know he is.”
 
“How do you know he will, Riley? He could take her further into the bush and kill her there, far away from where he murdered Tiffany. He could take her to a different National Park.”
 
Devon is right. The killer could do that. But somehow, I can sense that’s where he is going to take Blue.
 
“Trust me, he is going to the exact spot he killed Tiffany.”
 
Rhett nods. “I’m coming with you, Riley. I’m not letting you do this on your own.”