Beyond the Screams ✔

Chapter Fourteen

While I didn't need to say it out loud, it was clear that any suspicions Bryce had about Tim, Peter and Ben being our elusive killer were gone. Instead relaced with guilt and sympathy. I had never met Tim's sister, but I had heard of her. One of the first things he had said to me was how striking the resemblance between the two of us was. But I refused to let my mind blame myself for her death, not again. We had excused ourself from the meeting room after another hour of talking and desperate attempts to make Timothy feel even the slightest bit better. We were back in my cubicle. Both Bryce and I sitting uneasily on our chairs, facing each other.

"It's safe to say we can cross them off our list," Bryce grunted.

"I had crossed their names off the list before we even entered the room," I admitted.

Bryce held back a bark, "Would it be weird if I said I sort of already knew that before we had started the meeting?"

I shook my head, "You've known me long enough," I waved off his statement, leaning back into the chair and taking a more comfortable looking position.

"Did you at least gather any new information? I mean, I would hope you did if that was the reason you even had the meeting..." His voice went soft.

I sighed, "Of sorts, we know that the most recent murder once again had ties with MacPherson music, though we did already suspect that. We also know that the killer has no problem with killing extremely young girls. Vivian was younger than Alice, only 14 or 15, she must have wondered off and got dragged into an alleyway. But we also knew that a week before his death, Mr MacPherson was unreasonably skittish. This might mean that he knew he was going to be killed or someone -either the murderer or a stranger- tipped him off,"

Bryce nodded, "As soon as they said that, that's was I immediately thought. Would you agree with me when I say that it was the most important and helpful piece of information they offered us?"

"I would," I agreed, "Though I do believe that they offered other smaller bits of information that will help us along the way."

I looked back down on my suspect list, the five, thick black lines prominent against the stark white paper. They seemed to burn against my skin as I ran my fingers over them, ignoring the led that now stained my fingertips. 

"Every time we hold an interview, a murder either follows it, or they were killed just before. It's weird, don't you think?" I asked quietly, looking back up at Bryce.

He seemed to understand what I was saying, giving me an inquisitive head throw, his eyes showing me that he understood.

"Do you think it's just a coincident? Or something the murderer is doing on purpose, to get into our heads or something." Bryce questioned.

"I genuinely have no idea. If the killer knows that we're trying to figure out their identity, then maybe its something they're doing on purpose. But if not, then I would guess it's  a coincident. I honestly think they're trying to kill as many people as possible before being caught. Make a bigger scene, the more people they kill the bigger their impact is." I explained, trying to convince myself of what I was saying instead of Bryce.

If they knew.....

If they knew what we were doing? We would be killed. No hesitations, they would gather the information and kill us in our sleep, and then that would be two more people on their list of victims. 

"I wouldn't worry about it Rose," Bryce said, "If we waste our time being scared that something will happen, then we'll run out of time to actually solve this murder."

"I wasn't worried about it," I muttered underneath my breath.

Bryce let out a throaty laugh, "Sure you weren't. Have you thought about what you want to do next?"