Winchester's Secrets

Eight☄️

After 2 hours of interrogation, we left the Burrows' house sanctioning them to not leave the town. Overall, I was satisfied because I had gotten some new leads... and a letter.

"Detectives, the people responsible are thirsty. Some thirsty for blood, some thirsty for revenge, others thirsty for love.
The family has secrets, deep ones. John is innocent, but he knows things. I trust by now, he's told you. His sister however is just in love.
I know you Detectives and you know me. In time, all will be revealed."

Linda breathed, as she finished the contents of the letter which had been sitting on my passenger seat after we confronted the Burrows'.

"What does this mean? We already asked the children about the mayor's daughter, and they told us what they knew." David asked aloud, to which Linda shrugged.

Driving, I responded, "Now we know John's relationship with Emily. We also know that he was last seen with Emily that night before she said she was going home, and she wasn't found." I finished, tapping my chin with my free hand.

"What does this person mean by Claire's just in love?" Linda queried.

"It's probably just a... Woah." David said, as I screeched the car to a halt, quickly making a U-turn.

No one said anything until I arrived back at the Burrows'. I flung my car door open, marched down to the front porch. Something wasn't right.

"Mrs. Burrows, I need to ask Claire something." I frowned, as I noticed her spreading some clothes.

"She just stepped out to see a friend. What's the problem, you already got your answers didn't you?" She retorted, setting her firm hands on her hips. Playing the protective mother.

I shook my head slightly, "Not quite, what's the friend's address?"

After a few seconds of a stare down contest, she wrote the address on a piece of paper and handed it to me. Without waiting for my reply, she walked up the steps and banged the door, possibly aiming to prove a point.

"What was all that about, Bella?" Linda asked as soon as I started the car engine.

"That letter is telling us about Claire." I replied, pointing to David who was holding the letter.

I continued as I drove along the snowy road, "Claire is just in love, it said. Whoever wrote that letter wouldn't tell us that fact if it wasn't important. We're heading to the address her mother gave us, I have to get some answers."

They both nodded and started discussing the tree he helped her with yesterday. I smiled, my work had been a success. But my smile was short lived when I saw a small crowd gathered at the entrance of the street leading to the address we had been given.

"What's going on here?" I asked, as we curiously walked over to the crowd.

"It's the Burrows' daughter, Detective." Mrs. Puff answered shakily, as she covered her mouth silently sobbing.

"What happened? Clear the way." I ordered, as I walked towards the source of the commotion.

"What?" I screamed before I could control it. I was standing righ next to the dead body of Claire Burrows.

Seeing what happened, Linda quickly called the paramedics, while David sealed off the area and dispersed the slowly growing crowd.

*****

"What's happening, Bella?" Officer Jack asked.

I had no answer for the sturdy, middle aged head of department. I was just as confused, we has seen her less than three hours earlier. When did she leave the house, and then die?

"Sir, we had interrogated her and her family less than three hours ago. We went back there few minutes later to ask the girl a question, but the mother informed us she wasn't around, while giving us the address to her whereabouts. When we were almost there, we saw her body lying there lifeless." I finished, shuddering a bit.

He arched a brow and blew out a breath, "Detective Bella, there's no doubt that this is connected to the kidnap case you're working on. Do everything you can to remove and close this case before the new year begins, or you can kiss your one month leave good bye. I don't want more people dead in this town because of this. You're dismissed." He finished, as I nodded and stepped out of his office to meet a visibly worried Linda.

"The autopsy report will be out tomorrow morning." Linda said, visibly paling as she said the last two words.

"Has her family been informed?" I calmly asked, I didn't need to show anyone how disturbed by this I was.

"Yes, they're on their way here." I nodded my head, reviewing everything John Burrows said in my head.

"Linda, we need to talk to the Mayor. John said he has something to do with his daughter's kidnap." I said, picking up the journal we retrieved from Susan Hendricks.

As David stepped in, I handed him the keys. "You're driving."

Getting into the back seat, I immediately started reading the journal. I hadn't had time, but I had to do it now. I sensed the story hadn't even unfolded in half yet.

I scanned through the first few pages which had her personal information, along with that of her friends. I saw the information for only Susan, Claire, and John; the things she wrote about them were things I already knew so I skipped it. It seemed she didn't have other friends.

After that, there were some drawings mostly drawings of her sister. The other pages were empty.

I sighed heavily, flinging the book down out of habit. I was about to complain when I saw a folded piece of paper which had dropped from the book. Thank you Lord for my habit.

Picking up the paper, I glanced at my assistants. They were too busy discussing other aspects of the case while occasionally drifting to talk about personal topics.

The little piece of paper contained a write up.

I can't believe my own father would do this to me. He knew my mom died, and he didn't tell me. The worse one is that he knows how my mom died, it wasn't a fire accident. They killed her!
If they know I know about this, I can't tell what will happen. I have to tell John about this, he would know what to do.
How could my own father kill my own mother with help from his mistress?

I struggled to calm my breath. The mayor had been lying to us all along. He killed his wife.

"Drive faster, David. We need to confront the mayor, he killed his first wife." I screamed, as David increased his speed to just a little below the speed limit.

I sighed, being part of the law was hard.

*****

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