Beyond the Screams ✔

Chapter Twenty Five

Sometimes, I seriously considered burning the newspaper agency.

Another murder. Another dead. This time it was a young man named Wayne Smith, he was one of the agents. I had never met him, talked to him or had any involvement with him in any way. Yet it was another familiar face, another person that I would no longer see lingering around the building. My paper, however, was from a couple of days ago. The article described his death, the body being left the exact same as the others. Gunshot wounds to the chest, with the mutilated body left in an alleyway in the general area of the building. I knew a couple of musicians under his wing, to my knowledge, only two had come and asked Emily if she could be their agent. I had no idea what she had said to either of them.

Bryce wasn't in the room. Instead, he was down the street at the local newsagency, because apparently 'Just because you don't want the paper anymore, doesn't mean I don't'. So I was sitting alone in my desk, someone was strumming some sort of instrument, but other than that, it was completely silent. That was until I noticed Bryce, storming in through the doorway, a clenched and crumpled newspaper in his hand. He threw the paper angrily onto my desk,

"Read it, the first page." He fumed.

I curiously picked up, my stomach dropping at the title,

LONDON'S KILLER HAS BEEN FOUND: GEORGE MICHAELS IMPRISONED FOR LIFE!

No, No, No. This didn't make any sense, this was wrong, this was wrong, this was wrong. The words seemed to echo in my mind, taking away all rationality.

It's been months since Klaus Richardson was brutally murdered in his own home. Since then there have been at least four known victims. But finally, after many late nights and searching, Sargent Tom Kensington has located our elusive killer.

'It was hard,' He admitted, after being asked about the case, 'But in the end, it's just another day on the job. I will admit though, solving this case is a massive achievement for me.'

George Michaels works as an agent at MacPherson Music, the one place that all his victims have in common. It was also the place where popular musician Rosemary Hughes was threatened with death via a note. No word on how she has reacted to the news of Mr Michaels's imprisonment. George says that he isn't guilty of killing anyone. Saying that not once did he pull the gun to those people. However, to that statement, Sargent Kensington simply said,

'Look the evidence is there, and he admitted to involvement in the crime during questioning. All that's left is his sentence.'

The article went on and on, continuing to describe in-depth details of the case that I already knew.

"This is wrong," I whispered,

Bryce shook his head, "Rose, it's not, the guy has been caught." 

No, No, No, No, No.

I knew this was wrong. I knew it wasn't George Michaels. Mr Clarke had said so... No. I knew this. I couldn't afford to doubt my decisions. Not at this point.

"Bryce, trust me when I say this. He is innocent." I stated simply, "I'm going to run upstairs and quickly talk to Emily. Alice decided to purchase a train ticket and she gets into the station around midday. Since we'll be out, I'll need to ask Emily to look after her until I get back."  I sighed, "After I do that,  we'll head down to where George is being held, interrogate him and hopefully leave the building before we ourselves get arrested. We then use that information to find our true murderer, if, of course, it turned out to be someone other than Henry Murphy." I explained to him, already packing some loose items into my handbag and swinging it over my shoulder.