The Lost Daughter

Chapter 19: Solved

Disclaimer: no spoilers on who the murderer is. You can try to guess on who it is. The person's pronouns will remain and be referred to as "they/them" until the end of the book and their name will be "this/that person" or the "killer" (yes weird, but I couldn't think of any other names)

May 1965, Oakville Orphanage:

They all gasped, and Charlotte was a little confused. "What? You want to ask my daughter that type of question?"

"Yes," Holly nodded. "I want to ask her about the night of her disappearance and sudden death. I may be a laid-back, collected girl, but I demand and ought to ask certain but simple questions in both our beliefs."

"You're kidding, right? Is there a way to actually talk to the dead?" Charlotte asked her. She was confused but paranoid about all of this.

"There is a way without visiting the grave or doing a ritual. Outside, I made some sort of shrine and used a special chanting spell to summon Mary. I learned this from my parents," she winked. "They were both a witch and wizard. I learned witchcraft and wizardry from them."

"Holly, this is ridiculous. Paranormal and supernatural beings don't exist. That was a long time ago. You may have been reading too much thriller and fantasy books," Bailey sighed. "I just hope you're kidding."

Holly sighed, smacked her head (facepalm!) and went in the library. She went out and grabbed a big book. She put it down on the floor and flipped through the pages until she found:

Chapter 26: Advanced Spells and Potions: A Guide About the Magical Abilities

"See?" she pointed to a spell that would call out spirits. "This is what I've been doing. It works and I guarantee you, I've summoned her. But unfortunately, she might've been tricked and is now possessed by those stupid demons. But if not, I've been working on summoning her, but it's not really going well during the past week."

Charlotte sighed and grabbed the "spell" book. "Okay, okay. This was from centuries ago. Now, it's getting late, so now it's time to sleep now."

After Holly was fully cooled down, Charlotte brought the other kids to their rooms and tucked them in to sleep. She gave them one last glance and closed the door.

She was getting suspicions about why Mr. Fano wanted her to sleep instead of attending some meeting with the rest of the adults. Why wouldn't they let her? Were they hiding a secret or something else? She did her normal, usual night routine and went to bed, trying to drift off to sleep.

"Now, we gathered all the evidence?" Mr. Fano asked.

"No, not really?" Daphne sighed.

Mr. Fano panicked a little bit. "What do you mean? We must have all the evidence!"

"Look, the town, especially the police and the whole law enforcement, must know the truth. We're close to figuring out something about the night of the murders," Mr. Fano explained. "I tried telling them, but they won't believe me until they see all the evidence."

"Why don't we gather the evidence we found and bring that to the police? That's gonna be easy!" Daphne exaggerated. "Besides, they deserve to know the truth. By the time we expose the person, we'll.."

Mr. Reinald cut her off and added, "But will that person get kicked out of town? I mean, we don't want any criminal activity and violence here in our country, don't we?"

Daphne rolled her eyes and glared at him with her beady, little eyes. "Do we expect a whole town, even America, to be perfect and violence-free? Besides, you're missing the actual point here!"

"Shush, hush or else everyone here will hear us," Bailey hushed. "And yeah, not everything is perfect...but getting away with it is not good. This person should stop."

"Ugh! Who am I kidding? No matter what, I feel like she cannot trust me, even if she blames my whole cult and me for the murder of her daughter..." Daphne ranted, then looked at them in shock. "Look, I never did that, I promise."

"Well, we know you never did that. It's just shocking that the killer is still out there, living like a free citizen and acting like they never did anything." Bailey sighed, looking really tired. "I feel like we could search the premises."

"You mean the forest and this place, Albert Einstein?" Daphne taunted, then whispered. "I don't know why I was chosen over here..."

"I heard that! You know, we don't know. I'm not sure if we could trust you as well. What if your alibi and your side of the story is all a lie and you're working with that person, covering their tracks and just trying to remain as innocent and normal as possible?" Bailey accused.

"Ladies, enough of this nonsense. I swear, it was only one person that was disposing of the evidence!" Mr. Fano added. "But not all the evidence..."

"They are trying to remain as a normal and innocent person...the police here are incompetent and just don't care about their job. What if they know they killed Mary, but are just trying to hide it?" Bailey theorized. "I just know that they have the last piece of evidence and have enough justifications, but are trying to hide it from the public..."

"Oh, pah-lease!" Daphne scoffed. "Law enforcement here are poor. Besides, why wouldn't they perform an arrest right away? If they had all the evidence, they wouldn't hide it. They would do some DNA and provide amped-tight alibis, all the justification and a final conclusion."

"Shoot. Good point..." Bailey said, then yawned. "Okay, it's getting late now. Time to head to bed. Now...let's start the plan tomorrow..."

They all left the room. Mr. Reinald and Daphne went out to their own homes in separate ways and Mr. Fano and Bailey went into their own rooms to sleep.

They were almost done getting all the evidence. This was Step One.

Now, time for Step Two...