Duskwood Mysteries

Part 52

Warning: The upcoming chapters may be graphic and disturbing to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

Please note that I will try my best to put the warnings on every chapter where this might be the case but caution is advised for all upcoming chapters.

Johnson left. A knock sounded on the door. "Come in," I said. Richy walked in. He looked like he hadn't slept in ages. "Wow I thought I looked like shit. I can't believe you upstaged me," I said. He walked over to me and hugged me, "I am so sorry." "Richy?" "Yes?" "You are crushing me," I said. He pulled away, "Sorry about that." "Two apologies in one day. Must be my lucky day," I said. "Not funny. How do you feel?" he asked. "I feel like my worst nightmares just came true," I said honestly. He looked at me sadly, "Its my fault. I shouldn't have.." "Not your fault. Its Luke who did this," I said firmly. He shook his head, "Still." "Hannah?" I asked. "She is fine. She is at her home resting," he said. "Already? Wait how long was I unconscious?" I asked. "3 days," he mumbled. "God. Cleo and Luke?" I asked. "In custody. Johnson has been working with the DA helping them build the case. Did he mention that he is briefing us in the evening?" "Yes he did," I said. I stayed silent for a while dreading to ask the one question I wanted to ask first, "Where is ..?" "I don't know. But he is fine I think. Just gone. If I am right, then the bastard is probably watching us right now," he said in a whisper. "But he hasn't contacted you?" I asked. "I don't think it's a good idea for him even if he wanted to. He was going to tell you this but then he never got the time. Pretty sure he will get back to you as soon as he can," Richy said with a smile. "I kinda knew this would happen. Him leaving. I just wished I could have just spoken to him before he left." "I know. I know its not the right time but there are somethings you need to know before Johnson comes back," he said. He told me the plan that Jake had come up with. Honestly, I wasn't surprised that Jake had thought so far ahead. And while there were some loopholes and open ends, his plan covered most of the important aspects. "How much do you know about Luke and Cleo?" I asked. "Johnson didn't want to give us bits and pieces, so he has kept us in the dark and told us to be isolated. There are a lot of talks and rumors in the media, but we have to stick by the truth, so he doesn't want anything jeopardizing our statements." "The police took your statement?" I asked. "Not the police per say, an external investigation team under the FBI is handling this. They took all our statements," "What? Why the FBI?" I asked. "We don't know yet, but I think when the Chief's son is involved, it seems like the police department is dirty, plus a serial killer murdering women, crossing state borders is something right up their alley," he said. I sighed.

Another doctor walked in right at that moment. Richy looked at me, "I guess that's my cue. I'll come back in a while. Take some rest." He stopped, "You need anything?" "Anything?" I asked. "Yup anything. I can just run to the store and get it. Or maybe I will just ask Johnson to get it. I am sure you are starving, plus Dr Reign said you can eat whatever you want, right, Dr. Fawkes?" he said smirking at the doctor. The doctor nodded. "Salted caramel milkshake," I said sheepishly. "You got it." He said walking out. An hour later Richy came back, "It's a circus outside." "Don't tell me you went by yourself," I said. "Kind of," he said chuckling. He looked at me, "You seem to be better." "Of course, I was waiting for the milkshake. Have you seen the hospital food?" He chuckled handing me the cup, "Your drink ma'am." The next few hours we just made small talk. I understood that it was just to make me feel comfortable. Coincidentally, I was feeling better. As long as I was distracted, I didn't have to think about what happened. Eventually, Jessy, Lilly, Dan, Thomas, Hannah and Phil joined us. "Hi Marina or should we say Jade?" Dan said. "Jade is fine," I said. "It is finally good to actually meet you as the person you are," Jessy said. "Actually, I knew who she was," Lilly said. "I did too and its safe to say Richy did too," Phil added. I nodded, "I am glad to finally meet all of you guys, just the way its supposed to be." "We all wanted to thank you actually," Hannah said. "No thanks needed. It was a group effort," I said. We didn't have much time to talk as Johnson walked in, "Good everyone is here. Everyone meet SSA Calloway and SSA Grey. They are from the FBI and are the point on the case. I am sure each of you must have met them, but now they want a cohesive statement to build the case properly. I am here to make sure you guys cooperate. OK?" We all nod in agreement. "Also a few of my associates will be here to shadow us. Please ignore their existence." Johnson continued. "You were right, Richy. He is a hardass," Dan said. "I heard that and if you could read the room, maybe you wouldn't look like an ass," Johnson snapped back. "Now everyone sit down. Let us start with you Hannah. Tell us what happened 10 years ago."

Hannah took a deep breath, "Ten years ago on that day, I had met Phil at lover's lane, and we had an argument. We wanted different things from our relationship, and we separated. After he left, I stayed back. I was sad and I just wanted to forget what happened. So, I... I took something that I had got from Andy, it wasn't a good time for me. I had problems at home. My parents were fighting about an affair that my dad had years ago, and they were contemplating on getting a divorce, so I got into drugs. I had a pill and I just thought since the place was secluded, I wouldn't be disturbed. I was stretching in my car when I heard loud voices. I was zoned out but the voices were aggressive, so I just thought about checking it out. When I get there, I see a man and a woman arguing, I think. The girl's face was towards me and the man was facing the woman so I couldn't see him. But he was gripping her hand saying that she couldn't do this to him and if this couldn't prove what she means to him then he didn't know what could. The woman was distraught and was crying. She said that she was done with everything and that she thought she could do better. As she turned, I saw him push her. She started screaming but he put his hand on her mouth to suppress her scream. He then took a knife that was in his pocket and started stabbing her repeatedly. I could hear muffled screams and then they stopped. He collapsed to the side and removed the bracelet from her hand and instinctively he turned around. I panicked seeing him turn and ran away." "Why did you not come forward with it?" Agent Calloway asked. "I didn't think anyone would believe me. I was intoxicated and on drugs. My parents would have grounded me, and I wasn't sure what I saw was real. I thought it was a hallucination. In fact, I was convinced it was a hallucination when I saw the news saying that she died because of a hit and run." Hannah said sobbing continuously. "Then what happened?" Agent Calloway asked. "Eventually my parents got to know about my habit. They sent me to a rehab and since I suffered from hallucinations, I was also put in therapy under Dr. Ulric Barrett." She said. Agent Grey then said, "The man you saw that day was Luke Peterson. He and Jennifer Hanson were in somewhat of a romantic relationship. If you could call it, though I highly doubt it from Luke's side. He isn't capable of that. Jennifer leaving him triggered a deep-seated bloodlust in him. He was losing control and he could only establish it one way. I think Jennifer was afraid that Luke had such tendencies and that's why she wanted to break up with him. After killing Jennifer, Luke called the one person who he thought could help him, his father Alan. However, Alan's sense of responsibility towards the law was overshadowed by his fatherly love. So, assuming that this was a mistake on Luke's part he decided to cover it. They took Jennifer's body and placed it on the road coming into Duskwood. Alan also damaged the streetlights and what he expected, happened. Ted Madruga was in a rush, and the area was not lit at all and he ran over Jennifer's body. Alan then paid off the coroner to falsify the report, to state that the cause of death was the accident. Honestly, it didn't take a lot of convincing as Madruga came forward and confessed to running her over. It was an open and shut case. And just to be sure that there were no further complications, Alan called his high school friend to defend Madruga. There were specifically two reasons to do so. One, Wayne would quickly wrap the case and make sure that Madruga would have a lighter sentence. And two, if Wayne did come across any anomalies in the case, he would confide in Alan which ideally happened. The documents were there, the reports and confessions were there, except that Wayne did find something fishy but because he did not have access to Jennifer's body, he couldn't look more into it." We all sat in silence, processing what we had heard. I remembered dad's voice on the recording talking about discrepancies in the crime scene. Even though, I knew Hannah was in a tough spot ten years ago, I could only imagine how different things would have turned out if she had just picked a little bit of courage and reported what had happened, maybe we wouldn't have been here today.