Just the Truth

Chapter 2

Warning/Disclaimer: This book is going to include a lot more violence and possibly more gruesome imagery than the previous books. I'm not yet sure if I will have to change the story to mature.

"I'm sorry that we don't have many details yet. Whoever did this, it's clear that it isn't their first time killing," Tiffany explained as I opened up the cream-colored files on the desk. Everyone seemed to hold their breaths as I looked through the crime scene pictures.

I saw my parents, partially wrapped in sheets soaked in their blood. Their faces were not looking at the camera, instead placed to the side. Whatever skin not covered in blood was pale and dotted by purple bruises, set in an area that looked grassy, but I couldn't say anything about the location. I could only tell that they were outside.

"Tell me what you do know," I implored as I set out all the pictures on the table. My friends looked at each other hesitantly until Tiffany, once again, had to speak up. I hated that they were treading around me cautiously as if I was going to shatter at any given second. I already had my cry last night, right now the people in the pictures are not my parents. They're victims, and I'm trying to find out what happened. I can't do that if they won't tell me the details.

"According to the pathologists, your parents were killed on Thursday, sometime around two in the afternoon. Your mother er- the female was killed first, and then it was the male," Tiffany corrected herself, not wanting to refer to them as my mom or dad. Something about saying it out loud made it final. It made it hurt more.

I nodded my head, keeping my demeanor calm and collected as I tried to analyze the details.

"How were they killed?" I asked.

"That's what is kind of undetermined at this moment," she told me with a pinched expression.

"How so?" I asked her, looking at the pictures. From what I could see, it was evident that they died of blood loss. They were utterly drained of blood and had both gashes and bruises up and down their bodies.

"The bodies were found by a dam. According to our source, they drowned first," Tiffany told me, and I stared at her, confused.

"It looks like some of the other injuries happened post-mortem," Jacob helped explain.

"So you're saying that it wasn't enough to drown them, they were also cut and almost dismembered even after they were dead?" I asked in a voice that was beginning to get less calm by the vowel.

"While that's a bit out of the ordinary, what concerns me the most is the fact that someone murdered your parents in broad daylight," Jacob pointed out.

"Yeah, they were professionals, Charlee. For someone to do this to both of them? Whoever did this must be pretty good. It's insane for them to have tried to take down two professional spies during the day," Blaire shook her head.

"I need more information than just those details. I need a specific location of the crime scene. Did the crime scene investigators find any fingerprints? Anything at all that was foreign? Hairs, anything?" I asked, getting up from my seat.

"Your parents were found by the Hudson River in New York. There was absolutely nothing was left behind," Tiffany shook her head, but I completely ignored the latter comment as my head snapped up when she mentioned the name of the river.

"The Hudson? They found them at Hudson?" I asked, feeling my heart stop.

"Yes, is there something significant about that?" Tiffany asked, grabbing a pen and paper to write anything important that I might have to add.

"I was born in New York. That was our first home," I smiled down at the desk, trying to preserve the more beautiful moments instead of thinking of the fact that this city was the last one they got to see.