The Rose Murders | Original Story

FOUR

You can say your little sister is annoying all you want, but until your little sister tells the detective in charge of your other sister's murder that you're the murderer you really have no place to be saying she's annoying. 

But annoyed is how I felt after leaving the sheriff's office for the second time in the same week. They had grilled me, hooked me up to a lie detector machine, and even threatened me some. But in the end they had no choice other than to release me, and throw out Esme's statement as it was false.

JJ's blue truck was waiting for me outside as I left the building. I had been with him when the detective had called so JJ was the one to take me. 

"So did they find anything on you?" He asked as I climbed into the truck, a knowing smile on his lips. 

"Are you kidding me? They threw out her statement and cleared me as a suspect." I slid the thumbtack out from the sole of my sneaker. 

JJ laughed. "I can't believe that worked."

I tossed the tack into the console. "Who says everything you see on TV is a lie." I joked. "It hurt though."

You see, by pressing my foot down onto the pointy end of the thumbtack it kept my heart rate even enough that you couldn't tell if I were lying or not. Which, of course, I did not kill Evangeline, but I did help cover up the actual murderer. 

I smiled before leaning over and kisses his cheek. "Come on, baby, lets go have fun."

+++

Twenty minutes later, we were sitting on the dock overlooking the lake. 

JJ was mindlessly playing with my hair as his legs swirled in the water. We had just been lying here on silence for a while. 

I shifted a little and yawned. "You're making me tired."

JJ grinned, taking the cigarette out from between his lips. "You're relaxed, Lena, when was the last time that happened?" He asked softly. 

"I don't even remember the last time I was completely relaxed." I answered honestly. "I'm always thinking about something."

He took a long drag. "Penny for your thoughts then?" 

Looking up at him, I smiled a little. He had the prettiest green eyes I had ever seen. Eyes that you could get lost in for hours. 

 "I want our problem gone because she isn't going to stop." I said after a moment.

"Problem?" He asked. "Which problem would that be?" 

"Esme." I sighed. "I know how she is and she's going to obsess over this until I get sent to jail. Even if they book Lucas with twenty-five years in prison, Esme wouldn't be happy. She wants me gone, J." 

"And what do you want to do about that?" He asked, excitement creeping into his voice. 

I thought about that for a minute. What did I want done with Esme? It had be traumatic and make a statement. Prove to her that she should have kept her mouth shut instead of spewing her theories to anyone who would listen. 

Next she would probably tell some reporter that I killed Evangeline, maybe even go as far as to say she saw me. No I would give her everything she wanted and more. 

I would make sure that she became just as famous as Evangeline was becoming. I knew just the way. 

"There was this movie when we were younger that terrified poor Esme to pieces." I began. "Some black-and-white murder mystery that Father loved."

"What about it, love?" 

"There's this scene where the killer comes into the house and he ties this lady up in an old wooden chair and before he'll butcher her like he had the rest, the killer makes her tell him all her sins. Afterwards he kills her and rolls her up in black plastic then leaves her in the woods for some poor unfortunate animal to find." I told. "Then when the police finally found her body it was so eaten up by animals that they had to just write it off as an act of nature." 

He looked up at the forest then back at me. "So that's what you want to do to Esme?" He inquired. 

"I want to do exactly that." I grinned coldly. "Besides she's at a friend's house so the blame would be put on them if something went wrong."