The Murder Of 1998

Chapter Twenty-Four

Brandon Sherman, a medical examiner, walked inside the house which he was called into. CSU were in the process of taking pictures of the entire house for looking at later. Brandon shuffled his black work boots across the floor boards that were covered in blood. There was even a large footprint near the entrance that was faint and had an evidence marker. But he made sure to step over it.

He walked up the stairs ten halted and looked down at a large pool of blood with a hammer next to it. He looked closely at it, crouching down. The blood's still fresh.

Brandon stood back up and walked into a bedroom, seeing the body of a middle–aged woman laying on the floor. She was covered in blood and bruises. Rope was wrapped around her, indicating she was tied up. The decaying smell of the woman body was awful. But in his years of working as a medical examiner, Brandon learned to breathe through his mouth.

He noticed the way that the blood on her body was dry and her skin was a little green. She's been dead for days.

"Hey, was there another body here?" Brandon asked the man taking pictures who was next to him.

"Yea, still alive. They just took him to the hospital."

"How long ago?"

"Probably like five minutes ago."

Brandon nodded and put a hand on his hip. "Have they identified him?"

The man shook his head. He pointed at the dead woman. "Nah not yet, but they did for this one. Name's Monica Worth, forty–five years old. She's divorced and has an eighteen year old daughter named Penelope Worth. Thats all we know."

"Alright thank you." Brandon smiled at the man before he walked away from him. He looked at Monica's body, raising a brow. 

Another horror.

-x-

"Hey," Seth whispered to his daughter when she walked over to the fridge. Sarah lifted her eyes to look at him. "How you doing?"

Sarah shrugged and grabbed the carton of milk and a glass, pouring the milk inside of it. "I'm ok."

Evelyn came inside the kitchen, a dash of confusion and panic spread on her face. "Honey, have you seen Ervin?"

Seth shook his head. "No. I–I thought he was in his room."

"He never came home last night."

Seth sat back in his seat. He wasn't too alarmed by that. Sometimes, Ervin would just go over a friends house without saying much. He was a bit of a rebellious teen. He left home without notice, smoked weed at times, and even spray painted a car once. However, thanks to his detective dad he always manages to escape the law. But despite his rebellious side, he was still a smart and kind teen and Seth wanted to bring out that side of him more.

Evelyn crossed her arms and sighed. She looked visibly upset. "Eve, honey calm down. You know this ain't the first time. Plus he was on a date last night."

"Yea, I don't like the idea of Ervin having sex already with some girl he barley knows."

Seth shrugged his shoulders, unsure of what to tell his wife. He sat in silence as Sarah ate her bowl of cereal.

The house phone began to ring and Evelyn picked it up quickly, hoping it was Ervin. She held the phone close to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, may I speak with Ervin Lance's parents?"

Evelyn frowned at the way the woman spoke. She had a tone of sadness, which in return made Evelyn sad.

"Y–yes I'm his mother."

The nurse tensed up. It was always harder to tell the mothers of their children being on the brink of death. She cleared her throat. "You're son was found this morning with life threatening injuries."

She expected it. She knew it was coming. Yet, she still cried. Seth and Sarah could hear her crying, and both looked at each other with concern.

"Honey?" Seth softly said.

All Evelyn could mumble was her sons name.

Sarah gently put down her spoon, letting it lean against her bowl of cereal. She remembered earlier how she wished for something bad to happen to her brother for disrespecting something that was personal to her. She wanted him to realize the damage he was doing to her. And now that her wish came true, she felt sick.

-x-

Raymond threw up again into the toilet bowl with Victoria leaning against the wall next to him with a towel in her hand.

"Four years," Victoria whispered. She scrunched her face up in disgust at the sound of Raymond puking. "You were sober for four years."

"Shut up!" Raymond shouted. He felt nothing but pain in his body. He gagged and puked up one last time before being sure that it was over. He flushed the toilet that was filled with his vomit and took the towel from Victoria's hand, wiping his mouth with it.

"This is kinda pathetic," She commented. Raymond rolled his eyes and he flushed his mouth out with some water.

"When your husband dies, then come and talk to me."

Victoria furrowed her eyebrows. "I don't have a—"

"Exactly! So shut the fuck up!"

Raymond's behavior surprised Victoria. He was never like this. He never yelled or got angry. He always managed to keep his temper under control. But for him to just suddenly have a loud outburst was out of the blue.

"Fuck!" A little voice said. The two adult looked behind them to see little Mitchell smiling innocently. "Fuck!" He repeated.

-x-

Walter came rushing into the hospital room, taking deep breaths. "What the hell happened?"

Seth looked over at his partner, quickly getting out of his seat to talk with him in private so that Evelyn and Sarah wouldn't hear anything.

"He had a date last night. Then next thing you know, I'm getting a phone call saying that he was found nearly dead."

Walter's eyes got wide in shock. "W–what do you mean? What happened?"

"They said they found him this morning in that girls house. He was hit over the head with a hammer multiple times." Seth bit his bottom lip as his hands turned into fists. He felt the need to just hit something. Or maybe even strangle someone with his bare hands. "They found a dead body in a bedroom upstairs."

A dead body? What the fuck? Walter could tell something fishy was going on. He decided it was now time to pull out his trusty notepad and pen.

"Describe the crime scene," He said.

Seth furrowed his eyebrows at Walter. He always investigated people, secretly accusing them in his mind, but he didn't like the feeling of his partner now questioning him.

"Are you accusing me of something?"

"What the fuck would I accuse you of when I don't know jack–shit. Now just tell me everything you know. Did you go to the crime scene yet?"

Seth shook his head. "No. I did want to go and drive by there but I think its best if I stay here with Ervin."

Walter's eyes lowered to the floor, agreeing with him. "That is probably best. Don't worry, I'll look into it."

(A/N) I just wanna take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has been reading this story and has made it this far. It truly means so much to me and I never thought that it would get this far ahead. Thank you for over 400 reads, and for helping me reach #127 in mystery/thriller, thats amazing. Thank you <3

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