The Witch's Doll ⚢

Chapter 20

A flicker of fear flashed her face. Isla hissed. "Abigail, you are hurting me..."

Abigail's free arm reached for Isla's crown as her voice raised an octave higher. Isla managed to dodge the evading hand a little. She saw a stray strand of her hair between Abigail's fingers that was pulled in the commotion.

As more words came out of her mouth, Isla felt like Abigail was so close to tearing her skin. If not for the Detective Inspector pulling them apart, Isla couldn't get out of Abigail's vice-like grip.

"You should rest, kid." She said with a low growl.

Tears began to fall from her eyes. "Y-yeah, I should. I... feel tired all of a sudden." Abigail held onto the piece of DNA like a lifeline.

The Detective Inspector pulled Isla out of the room and into the white tiled floor and white painted wall hallway. Isla gasped in horror upon inspecting her arm. Abigail's fingernail had torn some of her skin. Now it looks like angry claw marks given by a cat.

"She seemed so shaken." DI Soleil observed.

"She was on the verge of death, I would be too." Isla ran a finger over her torn skin.

"She's a necessary witness. She's valuable. But, she's traumatized. I will have to send some more coppers to guard over her, also some psychiatrist to help her recover. It would be distasteful if the girl is harmed by the killer or by herself. I have to know though, Isla. Have you any idea why they were targeted?"

"They were close to me." Isla didn't miss a beat.

"Really?" the older woman's brow furrowed. "If I were them, I should have gone straight to you."

"Either to scare me or to play a game," Isla paused, reiterating to herself what she had just thought.

"Oh Isla," she chuckled. "I didn't know you were such a threat."

Isla saw dripping sarcasm from her words. "But why would she kill Henri and not Abigail? It wasn't difficult to connect the dots."

"Murder alone makes no sense, but perhaps an accidental killing. A clandestine dalliance went wrong, per se."

A flash of memory hit Isla like lightning. "You mean... Before Henri and I separated ways, he placed a tracking device on Evonnie's hood jacket. He was on a stakeout for my entire wellbeing."

"Evonnie?" DI Soleil asked. "You mean Evonnie Lu? The girl the late Kinsley's laid their injustice? You lost me by mentioning Henri De Ferrers spied on her."

Isla had dived into the deluded depths of her reasoning mind. She ignored the older woman as she fit the puzzles together. "Yes, after Evonnie and I were together, he followed Evonnie somewhere, and perhaps Abigail was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"I don't know what the fuck you were referring to but that sounds like too much of a coincidence." She crossed her arms together, reprimanding. "Even if your line of reasoning is plausible that Alessandra Adams is the killer we're searching for, there has to be a reason why Abigail Mackson is warranted by her wrath."

"I made Abigail poke around into her past."

DI Soleil gaped, blinking. "You... did... WHAT?"

"Along with Evonnie's actually; perhaps Abigail found something that she had to act quickly."

"Isla Cecil! That was unprecedented and stupid! You hired an informant without guaranteeing her safety, I expected much from you."