The Mysterious Cycle | #wattys2019

Chapter 3

Will stood on the pavement, gazing at the words and trying to make sense out of it. Sweat started trickling down his temples as his hand holding the paper started to shake. He didn't know whether it was a message indicating a threat to his own life or were there many more deaths of innocents to come. He heard the door knob click and the shuffling of feet and realized that his wife was up. She grazed her hands slowly from behind around his waist snapping him out of his trance. He stealthily slid the paper into his pocket and turned to her, smiling.

"Hey honey, how did you sleep?" he smiled down at her and kissed her forehead.

"Not good. Your secrecy is killing me Will..." she trailed off as she placed her head on his chest and hugged him.

"It will be out in the open soon. I just want you to be patient and not do something stupid." He said as he hugged her back. She needed it, he realized.
She pulled away and went to the kitchen, but stopped halfway there. "I heard some loud knocking. Who was it? So early in the morning?" she scoffed.

"uhh...oh that...that was...nothing. Maybe some kids were playing around." He hoped she bought it because it seldom happened so.

"Weird. Anyway, doesn't matter." She went and poured herself some milk. Suddenly, her eyes fell on the gun which was kept on the table accidentally by Will. He looked at the gun and back at her, dread written all over her face.

"Why did you take out a gun if it was just kids outside?" she gave him a confusing yet suspicious look. "Are you hiding something from me?" she narrowed her eyes.

"Uh no...I mean, you know how we're working on this case...it's better to have some protection, isn't it?"

She looked at him for a long moment before she nodded and went back to sipping her milk.
At the precinct, everything was still tense, given that there were 2 similar type of murders in 3 days. Not to mention the horrific way in which they were killed. Papers and files were being tossed here and there, people working on their computers, Rhodes yelling at someone over the phone, the sight did not look good.

"We gotta interrogate Trevor's brother; maybe he knows something about Megan's relationship with Trevor." Mike said as Will and Naomi entered the precinct.

"Hmm...he's right, it's gotta get us somewhere." Rhodes nodded and continued. "Seb, Eleanor and Mike, summon Trevor's brother here."

"Get Trevor's brother's name and number and his address, everything you can, right now." Seb commanded to other two and they got to work immediately.

After a while, Eleanor rushed to Seb's table with the information of Trevor's brother. "His name is Ethan. Age 25. Apparently he has been in rehabilitation center for meth addiction." Eleanor shrugged as she handed over the file to Seb. She turned to leave but a thought stopped her.
"What do you think? Are we getting anywhere with this?" she asked as she leaned over his desk.
He looked at her and locked his eyes for a moment, "I don't know, sometimes I feel we are getting close and sometimes it feels like we are far away from our mission." She nodded acknowledging the statement and went back to her seat.

Seb made a phone call to Ethan, asking him to come to the precinct.

An hour later, Ethan was there. He looked groggy and his eyes were reddish. He was all covered in sweat but was trying desperately to compose himself. He seemed to zone out time and again. He kept swiping his already wet hair from his face and kept rubbing his wrist. His hand looked as if thousands of needles had been pierced. Eleanor and Seb realized that he was not sober. Clearly he wasn't in a state to testify anything.

Seb went over to Will and whispered, "We cannot enquire him now." Seb said pointing towards Ethan. "We have to wait."

"We can." Will said as he made his way towards the interrogation room where Ethan was now seated.