Winchester's Secrets

Six☄️

"Why can't this person just be direct with what they're trying to say?" David, Linda's assistant mumbled.

"If they are, then where's the fun in that?" I joked sarcastically.

Detectives, congrats you're on the right track. Well, not exactly. I'll give you a little hint: Don't trust anybody, not even your love or your pets.
The pawns are being used in the bigger game of chess. Blood is important for life continuation.

"I hate riddles." Linda said as she glared at the paper.

I fumed. All tests had been run on this paper, and like the first one nothing was found. It wasn't a surprise. The only thing we knew was that the same person had obviously typed the letter.

"How did the person know about my pets? That line in the letter obviously refers to my babies." Linda said.

I didn't have an answer, so I said nothing. The case was moving too slowly for my liking, I didn't want to be burdened with anything in the new year, but I doubted that happening.

"So, apart from Claire Brooke, what else do we have?" I questioned Linda. We needed to do something concerning that case today.

She held a stack of files and read through them, "Nothing really. We already saw the Mayor, his wife and daughter as well as the Hendricks' girl."

She closed it as she sat down dejectedly and shook her head. "We've got nothing else, except that Burrows girl and she isn't coming until tomorrow or next.

"Mmm, what about the boyfriend? We didn't ask the Hendricks' girl if she had ever seen a picture of him."

"Shit, we forgot that. We will have to head to her house and hope she saw him, or she has new information."

Nodding, I replied, "Let's go. David, you're driving."

*****

"It's freezing." David said as soon as we got out of the car.

He was right, it was way too cold today. Laughing, I threw him a spare jacket as I handed one to Linda and wore one walking up the road to the huge mansion.

Like before, the road was impassable. Today, it was worse as the cars were submerged in ice.

Even walking through the road was difficult. I doubted any of them went out today.

As Linda rang the bell, I looked back at David who hadn't even gotten through the gate.

"When are you going to get over here?" I glared.

Grumbling, he responded, "It's way colder than I've ever experienced. I'm sorry."

I sighed and turned back to Linda. The only reason I let David's issue slide was because he was a rookie who had come from Africa, so I knew he wasn't used to this.

Again, we were answered by Susan Hendricks. She looked tired, and sad. I pitied her, from what I knew she and Emily had been friends for as long as the town could remember.

She smiled a little as we stepped in behind her, David included. She got a maid to offer us hot tea. We were getting a lot of that these days. From the corner of my eye, I watched as David smiled and thanked the maid especially.

I rolled my eyes. Such a man...

"I was going to come see you at the police station, before it started snowing heavily." Susan paused to wipe a teardrop.

"What happened, Susan?" I asked, a little impatient.

"Emily called me. She's in danger. She told me she was kidnapped by a guy she didn't know. She said she knows she's still in town. We're still talking when the line got disconnected. I tried calling back but the line was dead. I think he caught her." She finished as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"At what time did she call you?" Linda asked.

"Umm, I think it was around 10pm to 11:45pm. I'm not sure."

"Did she give any hint as to where she might be?" I asked calmly.

"No, she didn't. She only told me to go through the things she dropped off here. I saw a picture, I think it's her boyfriend." She said, handing me a picture.

Slightly irritated, I demanded, "Why didn't you tell us that she left some things with you?"

Sniffing, she replied, "I didn't know her things were here. She just told me where to look, and I found them. That's the truth."

"Can we see those things, and please don't withhold anything." She nodded and walked out of the living room.

Few minutes later, she came back with a bag which I collected and handed over to David.

"That's all I have of her belongings currently. Please do find her, I can feel she's in danger." She pleaded, as she cleaned her eyes.

Smiling, I nodded, "We'll do all we can to find Emily, Susan."

*****

"David, see if you can trace all calls made yesterday night between 10pm to 11:30pm to the Hendricks' mansion." I ordered.

"Linda, go through the bag and see if there's anything useful inside."

Sitting at my desk, I ran a scan through the picture we got. Silently, I hoped this would be a major breakthrough.

The guy in the picture was black-haired, with blue eyes and a mole in the right cheek. He looked almost like...

"Bella, I found a call made at 10:46pm to the mansion, the call lasted for three minutes. I've tried calling the number, but it's dead. The SIM has probably been broken." David blurted.

Sighing, I answered, "I expected that, a dead end. Linda, have you found anything yet?" I said, turning to Linda.

"Just a few clothes, toiletries and a notebook. I think it's a journal." She replied, handing it to me.

"I think she was planning on running away. Anyway, this journal could be useful." I finished, as the scanner beeped.

Sitting my chair here, I rejoiced. "It found a match in this town. The guy is..." I paused, staring at the screen.

"Who's it?" Linda asked, as she and David came over.

"What are the odds? He's John Burrows, Claire's brother. That's why he looked so familiar. They both have a mole on the right cheek."

*****

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