Winchester's Secrets

Twelve☄️

Soon, we had John Burrows sitting in the detention room, arms crossed and viciously guarded eyes darting around the brightly lit room before returning to me. I silently chuckled, he didn't seem to like me much.

"John, what do you know about Emily?" I asked, sitting forward.

"Do you have a warrant for my arrest, I'm calling a lawyer." He responded.

"Yes I have a warrant, and I don't think any lawyer would want to go against finding the Mayor's daughter. I'm sure you know how this town operates."

He sighed, as he looked down. Yeah, this town sucked. Although it was to my advantage this time, but there were times when the law couldn't come through for you because of fear for a political person.

"I don't know anything about Emily, all right. I'm just as confused as you are." He said, with a pleading look.

I wasn't convinced.

"This doesn't have to be a long interrogation. If you don't know where she is, you must have an idea. We found her phone, and your number was a frequently dialled one along with text messages so...", While his look transformed from mock grief to shock I brought the phone and placed it between us.

He tried to grab it, but fortunately his metal restraints got in the way. I simply cocked a brow, unsurprised and clicked open the messages raising them to his face as he scanned through them.

"Fine, we were together. We had been going out for some months before this happened. We got into a small fight one week ago, we hadn't talked after that. I don't know what happened, I swear." He admitted, and I shook my head as I brought out the receipt from the diner.

"Want to tell me about this? This is a day before her kidnap, and it's obviously the both of you. We've checked and confirmed it. It would be best for you to stop lying to me, I have other evidence and the police is searching your house so we'll find out either, way. Co-operate and it will be better for you." I said, standing up to tower over his seated form. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably, no doubt falling for the intimidating stance. Always worked like a charm.

After a long pause from him, no doubt from weighing his options, he admitted, "We had issues, true but we didn't stop talking. I invited her out that night to discuss about our issues, and we had a lengthy argument. After a while, she walked away leaving me and that night I tried calling her when I got home but there was no response. I called her everyday, even asked her friend but she had suddenly disappeared. I really don't know anymore, I didn't see her again after she left." He looked sideways as he rapidly blinked his eyes, was he fighting tears?

The gears were whirring in my head, "Your sister was a friend of Emily's, why didn't you ask her?"

His eyes immediately met mine, and the brown eyes had been become less brown and more glassy.

"My sister went missing the next morning, so I just felt they had gone off together. It wouldn't be the first time for either of them, so imagine my surprise and fear when she's found dead. That's when I knew something was wrong, I didn't even get to know if they were together before she died."

Just then, my phone rang. I sighed as I picked it up and waited for the incoming slaughter as I walked out and shut the door, watching John through the one way window.

"Where did you run off to Bella? I just woke up and you're not here, you start by 8." I only remotely heard Jake as all my senses were fixed on John. I could feel a tinge of dishonesty, something was missing.

"I'm sorry, I had to get out early to chase a lead. I'll explain when I got off during lunch break,
I promise. Meet me at the cafe by 12 alright? I love you." I said, hearing a slight grunt as I ended the call. I was going to have an earful when I saw him.

My phone rang again just before I could enter the room, this time it was Linda.

"Bella, we've got news. We searched the house and we found a piece of Emily's clothing here, in his room, and it matches the one Mrs. Brooke talked about. We also searched Claire's room and we found some interesting things, we're heading over to the station right now." She rushed out, all in one breath.

"Alright,this is good. Quickly come over." I replied, ending the call and going back to my new friend. With luck and wit, we were going to get somewhere today.

*****

Soon after, Linda and David arrived along with some of the other policemen they had gone with. I quickly went out to meet them, locking the detention room behind me while putting a watch over him.

"What have you got?" I said, walking over to them sorting through the items, all placed in evidence bags.

Helen, our forensics and prints expert, was also present swiping cotton buds over the evidence for finger prints. We acknowledged each other,and I watched silently until she was done.

"What is this?" I asked, picking a piece of paper containing an address and a time: 9pm.

"We found that in John's room, and that address, you won't believe this. It's the same house we got to through the tunnels, but while using proper roads. Apparently the house has a history for occultic usage in politics over the years." Linda said, picking up a book and flipping the pages randomly.

She continued, "We also found this book in his room. It's an occultic book, I read some part of it on the way here and it explained its use of blood sacrifice for power. This blood must come from a relation of the highest power at the time, and it occurs every 15 years." She visibly shuddered at that point, rubbing the back of her neck, "Bella, I believe Emily's real mother was killed because of this, and her daughter is about to be used for the same thing."

"Christ, this is absurd. Rituals for power, I've never heard anything like this. So the mayor agreed to all of this?" I asked, not expecting an answer.

"He most likely knew all this before he got in, although I doubt some participants know it's going to involve death. Until the late 1900s, it only meant a small cut to get a pint of blood." David said, as he turned the book to a certain page and showed us where he had seen it.

"What's his connection in all of this, then?" I questioned, glancing over to John who had his arms crossed and hands bent the whole time.

"Let's ask him then." David replied, striding over to the door before pausing to look at me, "I'll be the good cop, and you keep playing bad cop."

"How would you know that?" I muttered.

"We all know what you would play, Bella. While you both are at it, I'll be figuring out what these symbols mean." Linda piped up, before returning to some pieces of paper.

"What is this, John?" I asked, dropping the brown leather bound book as soon as I entered the room. It hit the table rather loudly, causing him to flinch and jerk his head up.

His eyes moved to the book and he whispered over and over again, "No, not this book. She'll find it...Oh Goodness."

"Who's this 'she'?" I asked, very intrigued.

All I got from John was a string of indecipherable words, and a mutter of "Not this, not this" over and over again.

*****

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