Another case of murder

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Chapter 20

Ashley's POV

After so much investigations, our suspect options had been narrowed down to Palmer Zachary, not that we had a lot of options to choose from since the Brown family was very closed off and absolutely loved their privacy.
Lena had been described as perfect by everyone that had come in, she never picked a quarrel nor fight against anyone, smiled a lot, and was very charismatic.
Her husband was not far behind, the flop he's had was the whole Palmer situation.
Palmer was a whole different matter, she had more than a hundred speeding ticket the period she had stayed in New York, which was two years ago, went to prison briefly for assaulting a man but got bailed by her sister, this was three months before she left and the Browns divorce followed suite. We were ransacking the system for everything we could find on her, she had used her ATM card last somewhere in the outskirts of New York, which was six months ago. The lady was something else.

"Hey" Harry said placing a hot cup of coffee beside me
"Hey" I said back as I continued to look through the files, my attention wasn't really with him, but I murmured a thanks for the coffee.
My eyebrows were creased as I read more about Palmer, something about her just had me.... Hooked?
"Just got the autopsy report"
"And? "
"Nothing was found, except precise stab wounds but from the angle seems the person was left handed and the murder weapon was a falcon 9" spring assisted needle point tactical style pocket knife, don't even know what that means"
"Tactical style you say? " I asked
"Yeah, why"
"I mess with knives"    
I exhaled tiredly,
"But that still leaves us no where, we just really need to find palmer" I added
"Oh yeah about that, we have released info about her to other states, so everyone is on the look out, if she really is the murderer we can't have her running around "
"Yeah, totally"
"Something has been bothering me though"
"Yeah? "
"The stab wounds, they said the same thing as the slits from Charlotte and your mum? "
I paused for a bit
"I don't get, what were the wounds saying"
"Revenge? Vendetta? But highly personal"
I shifted uncomfortably
"I need to finish this harry, can I just concentrate please? "

I knew the expression that was most probably sporting was a confused look.

"Uhm okay? " he murmured as he went back to his desk opposite me.

The rest of the day went by quietly, I kept running through records, CCTV cameras, anything that could give me a clue as to where palmer could be but it all seemed futile, like she just disappeared into the wind.
This case was fast plunging into a dead end, but for some reasons I couldn't relent, maybe it was because of how much this case reminded me of mine with James Cooper, or it was the puppy eyes of my new found best friend Jack Brown I just didn't know what it was but this was beginning to seem personal.
As I stretched my aching arms, I cracked my neck that was badly throbbing, my eyes caught the little clock by my desk, it was already 6:45 pm. I looked around the office, it was emptying already. I stood with a yawn stretch, harry was dozing off on his seat, I walked over and tapped him.

"Hey, its late already" I said
"Are you done?"
"I haven't found anything but I would keep looking, we need to go though"
"Okay" he said as he stood with a stretch

The ride home was quiet, something between us had shifted back at the office during our little talk about the stab wounds,
"Are you okay? " harry asked
"Yeah why won't I be? "
"I don't know, you seemed off when I mentioned the similarities between the two cases"
I didn't feel like talking, I was just really not in the mood
"Can we talk about this later? "
He exhaled " I don't like seeing you like this Lee"
"Like what exactly? "
"Like this, this mood, you need to talk to me"
"I don't want to"
"I thought we were past this"
"What are you even talking about? "
"I thought we were passed you shutting me out? "He asked with his eyes on me.
I held his gaze for a while before turning to the other side to face the glass, I  saw his grip on the steering  wheels tighten, he held it so tight that his knuckles were beginning to turn white, he was really upset, and it was all my fault

The car went quite, nobody was talking till we got home and he parked in front of the house, Schmidt was already running down the stairs, harry threw the keys at him while I started up into the house, he banged the door so loud that I  flinched from the impact. Why was I still staying here anyway, I was starting to feel suffocated in this, I just wanted to leave to go as far away from harry as possible.

"We are going to talk about this Ashley " he barked from behind me

Its been a while since he called me that and right now, I wasn't liking the fact he had dropped my nickname
"I don't want to talk harry" I shouted heading for the stairs that led to my room, he held my arm tightly and pulled me back, he action wasn't painful but it got me mad,  I shoved him hard on the chest, I could feel my blood boiling, my chin was beginning to throb, fuck, I needed harry to back off and just leave me the fuck alone cause I was scared of what I might do to him.
"Back the fuck up" I growled
He looked taken aback but he just laughed like someone insane
"So what, you are going to kill me? "
He was mad, I could tell from his eyes, I had driven him to that point where he couldn't take my madness anymore.
"Maybe" I shrugged, I was beginning to see red.
We stood starring at each other nobody moving just the sound of our heavy breathing filled the room, I didn't want to go to my room anymore, I wanted to make harry suffer, watch him bleed a little so next time he would know that no means no.  I stood waiting for him to move, raise a single finger and I would sure as hell cut it off, his eyes held mine in a stare down, he was fuming cause his eyes said it all. I watched as something switched within them, the blazing blue and green orbs that looked like they were about to burst out into flames turned into shiny liquid filled with an emotion that I couldn't decipher but for some reasons had a hint of what they were and then he wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly to his chest.
What. The. Fuck. Was. Going. On
I struggled for him to let me go but just held me and whispered "am sorry".

So sorry you guys for the late update, my bad, but I've been crazy busy lately and I had data issues. Hope you guys loved it. Don't forget to tap away on that tiny star and a comment would make my day.
Love u peeps ❤️