Pink Lilac

Chapter Seven

"So who is the primary suspect?" Carson asked and handed the note back to him.

"That's where you come in Zaine. You need to give me a list of all the loners, even the ones who seem to have friends." He walked out and she watched his shoulders slump inwards.

Carson couldn't stop thinking about the note. Both Levi and Tara's had said something about their past and how they did something bad. So, what if Jamie's was saying that too? But, at the same time giving a clue about the Killer? She looked at how they all started with "too little, too late." Carson slammed her head into the table and screamed like she was getting killed.

Too little, too late. Too little, too late. Too little, too-

"Carson," Thomas said, pulling her out of her daydream. "Lila is waiting for you."

"Okay, you have some paint on your pants." She gestured to the red smear and the red paint bucket next to his fence.

"Shit, thanks!"

Carson walked into his house and saw Lila sitting in his shirt, her hair wet and soaking her shoulders. She looked beautiful. She couldn't help but picture her and Thomas together, him getting to wake up and see her naturally everyday. He would know how to treat her, Thomas would never cheat. Carson mentally punched herself.

"Hi," Lila said after Carson was staring at her for what felt like an hour. "I wanted to say that we are still together, I want to give you a second chance, however if you do this again then I will probably hurt you and make you regret everything. I'll ruin you."

Carson sobbed and ran over to Lila. She couldn't believe that she was forgiven, but she wasn't mad at it. She was so thankful.

"Why'd you shower at Thomas' house?" Carson asked, slightly suspicious.

"I was helping him paint and got paint all over me and my clothes." She laughed.

Carson nodded and wrapped her arms around Lila. She breathed a sigh of relief and didn't let go of her.

While Carson was watching movies with Thomas and Lila she got a call from Detective Lynn.

"Hey," She answered, walking away from the movie. "Everything okay?"

"No, you need to get down by Brayson's Creek." She heard rustling. "Now."

He hung up and Carson ran out to her truck.

"Wait," Lila ran after her, "Can we come too?"

The three of them got into her truck as she sped down to the creek. She didn't want to ask why they decided to join but she was happy she didn't have to see the scene in front of her alone for the first time since she joined the case.

Once they stepped out of the car and Carson told the officers who her friends were they looked at what used to be Atticus Muller.

Carson looked at the lilacs coming out of his mouth and the gap in his throat as if they were growing from his blood. She saw the rashes on his wrists from where the rope had rubbed his skin raw. She took in fewer stab wounds than Jamie Lynn's murder, however there was still more than necessary. Carson noticed the note and picked it up with her gloved hands.

Too little too late. My dirty little secret got aired and I paid the price for it. How does it feel to have everything and to lose it all for something that means nothing. Learn from me, stop while you ca-

"His dirty little secret?" Lila asked, "What's that?"

"Probably cheating on Ryen, but that just came out today." Carson said.

"Oh, I know a cheater." Thomas said, throwing a look at Carson, a look that the police made sure to capture and remember.

The walkie talkie on Detective Lynn's shoulder went off. Carson heard it mention a second murder at CandyLand.

"I can just meet you guys there." Carson said as her and her friends piled into her truck.

"It was probably just an overdose," Thomas said from the backseat. "The killer would be stupid to murder in a public space. Especially CandyLand, people are always there."

"That's true," Carson agreed. "But if it's connected to the Lilac Killer I might go crazy trying to figure out who it is."

Pulling into the CandyLand parking lot was surreal for Carson, for once the parking lot was completely empty and not a single person was there.

"The witnesses were taken to the station already." Lynn told Carson once she walked up to the entrance.

Carson, Thomas, and Lila walked into the club and saw Gunner laying on his back, nothing appeared to be wrong with him except a small bit of blood pooling at his head and the fact that he wasn't breathing.

Carson saw a note slipped into his pocket, grabbed a pair of gloves and pulled it out.

Too little too late. A false confession doesn't help anyone. I feel bad for that but I don't feel bad that I got what I deserve. One murder left, who will it be? Will it be C-

"C?" Lila asked. "As in Carson? You can't let that crazy person kill my girlfriend."

"I'm going to be fine Lila, I promise." But she wasn't so sure that she was.