Whispers Of The Beginning

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"William, dead. Dave, dead. There could be a spy who knows who the killer is but we don't know who. I have no connections or leads, I only have some detective and Tucker. Tucker hasn't spoken to me since the warehouse, everything is more hopeless now." I ranted about how much everything was going downhill and kept going "I was sure it was Jean, then I was so sure it was John, then I think I know who the spy is and it's probably wrong, nothing is sticking. It doesn't make sense" Jean was listening from the doorway thinking. I wasn't cut out for this after all, I could let Stone take over "Maybe we should.." Jean looked at me now "Don't say quit. Or resign, Mike do you know if we hand it up to Stone it's over for us. I have a clue of what we can do..it won't be easy for me but it's a shot" I looked back at him and a moment passes between us "Come on Mike, let's go see my mom"

I parked my car outside of the old building I had been to before. I didn't investigate Willam's body that was found by Mildred, but the reports I did see had said he had taken a cleaver to the head,not to mention the smaller pumpkin on the kitchen table. I finally opened the car door and got out with Jean shortly following. "Now you can stay in the car if you want Jean..I don't know how she'd react" Jean stared at the door of the house "I don't know either..but i'm ready" With a short nod I knocked on the door and waited a moment. "Hello? Mrs Clide? I need to ask you something" The door slowly opened after another moment of silence. "Oh detective Mike it's you..I thought it was another one of those dreadful ones" I shook my head a bit "No ma'am, it's just me and Jean, mind if we come in?" Mildred looked at Jean who tried hard not to look uncomfortable being back here "Yes of course of course.." She opened the door all the way and I went in followed by Jean, the place looked a bit different than before, the coffee table had been moved in front of the basement door and the kitchen table had been moved sideways. I glanced over at Mildred who was trying to talk to Jean and hugged him. After a moment of looking around Jean and I sat on the couch across from Mildred's chair. "Now what brung you boys back here?" Just how much am I willing to tell her was the real question. "To start, I wanted to ask some things" Mildred looked a little troubled "Oh dear..I thought I told the others answers..does the department need more?" I looked at Jean and back to her "No, ma'm. I just need to know myself, do you know who killed Willam?" Mildred looked at the floor with a distant look "It was dark, we only have candle light at night. Our lights broke two days before the murder. He got out of bed to get something to drink and I woke up to his scream. It was wrecked.." I thought for a moment "You discovered the body when?" "Oh I knew when he screamed, so I called the police right away" I thought again. "Your lights broke?" "Yes sir.." "You have a power generator?" Mildred looked up at me with her glass like eyes "I had a candle with me. Our lights broke and we didn't have any generators." Jean spoke up "Do you still keep the lighters in the kitchen drawers?" Mildred nodded. Bad feeling. Real bad feeling. "..So unless you go to sleep with a candle lit, how did you find him with a candle light? You also use a landline, correct? If you don't have a generator, I think I see it now.." With a pause Mildred stared at me "You planned the outage didn't you? You woke up that night and knew what was going to happen, didn't you?" I stood up "Mildred tell me the truth right here and now, Did you break your own lights, made sure when he got up you'd attack, the lighters are in the kitchen, or maybe just the ones he knew about. Because you had one with you didn't you? Did you kill Willam Clide." Mildred smiled wickedly and started to laugh a bit "You don't get it at all Mike..He was going to give our son up, to you!" She stood up from the chair slowly "I couldn't let him give him away. I wanted my sons more than ever and he didn't listen!" Jean got up and stood back behind the couch. "Do you know how much I sacrificed to get them back? I killed them all! It wasn't all for him...It was those drunks and sluts and people no better than us who laughed at our family! I wanted them all to die!" I stared at her in some form of shock, I wasn't sure though. "How was an old woman like you able to kill Dave? How were you able to grow the pumpkins in the warehouse without someone noticing?" There was a pound on the basement door before she could answer. "What..is that?" Jean asked quietly behind the couch. "It's.." Mildred stared at the door and it pounded again. "It's what???" I asked and drew my gun, pointing at the door. Another pound and the table slid, the door was coming open "Mildred??" She was staring at the door "Mildred?! What's down there?!" Jean backed up and looked outside "The sun is setting! Mike, we gotta do something!" I quickly looked back at the basement door and loaded my gun. "Damnit Mildred, what is that thing!" I shouted at her, this time the door swung open "It's...John.."