Behind The Flames: A Detective Chineke Series

Chapter 4

Luckily for me, I have the power to sense anything with a source of water. Without my power, I probably would be clueless right now.

"There you are." I whispered to myself as I saw the imprint of shoes on the ground.

By the weight and moisture of the imprints, the kids had to have come through here about two hours before their parents got home.

"What did you see friends?" I asked about the plants in the garden.

I softly grazed one with the fingertips of my left hand. Each plant grows a few inches just by me having a conversation with them.

"So, they ran off in that direction. Makes sense." I replied to the plants.

"You're talking to plants?" Tarah asked as she made her way outside behind me.

It was quite weird how she could just pop up randomly without making a sound.

"Yes, I am actually. It helps the plants grow faster and stronger." I told Tarah.

I turned to look at her and she seemed confused.

"Well, we got the information we need so we can go now." Tarah mentioned casually.

"Hold up. I found something." I replied pointing to the direction of the area where the kids ran off.

"We need to check over there. I may have idea of where they went."

"Alright, after you detective." Tarah replied sarcastically.

I knew she was feeling some type of way about me leaving her behind and not including her in the job. I stood up in front of her.

"Look, I didn't want you involved in this. It's not even something I want to do." I mentioned to Tarah.

"So, why are you doing this? Is it because of...?"

"No! I just have to do this." I responded quickly.

I knew what Tarah was getting at, but it had nothing to do with that. The past was meant to be left in the past.

"I told you before, we're partners." Tarah reminded me as she punched me in the shoulder.

Then, she reached into my coat pocket and grabbed the gun I was given.

"I'm sure you won't be needing this. Let's see where this trail leads us." Tarah insisted.

I couldn't do anything but shake my head and chuckle.

"The kids ran off this way. So, they could've been running from someone or something. I just don't see any traces of other footprints yet." I explained to Tarah.

We began walking on the trail. I closely investigated the shoe imprints in the ground.

"Well, if I was running from something or someone, I would hide somewhere close."

"Close to home?" I asked her.

She thought about it for a second. At first, it didn't make sense.

"I mean yeah. Eventually, I'd have to get food and sleep in a soft bed." Tarah explained.

I thought about it. Even if I wanted to be in a comfortable bed, there'd have to be a reason why I wouldn't come home. Food would be no issue with these woods around.

"If these kids are smart, which I'm sure they are... They'd be eating berries or something to survive. But we can't take that chance. I can't." I responded casually.

"Right, because some edible things in the woods can be poisonous." Tarah added.

Even though she was right, I wasn't thinking that. Eventually, it had been around half an hour that we've been following the trail of the kids.

"Woah, you see that Chineke?" She asked excitedly.

Her excitement to the thrill of this job was surprising. Not too many people get happy about solving cases.

"Yeah, I wonder how that got there." I responded as we jogged up to get a closer look.

Ahead, we came across a bright, red truck. Nobody was inside, but there was dried blood on the driver's seat and on the ground. The car had crashed into a huge tree.

"Some crash!" Tarah announced softly as she checked around the area.

I took a step back to get a clearer view of what happened.

"seems like the driver lost control of the care and drove off the road. By the amount of blood loss, he ran off somewhere close." I explained to Tarah clearly.

She gave me this confused look that she did before.

"What?" I asked curiously.

"How can you tell it's a man? Women get in more car accidents than men do." Tarah mentioned honestly.

I laughed.

"Trust me, I know. I've seen the way you drive." I said jokingly.

"I've gotten better overtime."

"Well, men have thicker blood than women. The blood in this car is bulky." I explained to her.

"WOW! Didn't know you could get that from blood." Tarah admitted.

"Blood and he did leave his wallet on the floorboard by the gas pedal." I said pointing my finger in the car.

Tarah looked further inside the car until she saw the wallet. I grabbed the wallet and opened it up. The I.D. was still inside.

"Jeff Lewis. That's our next lead." I told Tarah.

Tarah nodded.

"If it helps, I found out why he crashed." She said while squatting at the front of the car.

I squatted next to her to investigate with my own eyes.

"So, he had a tire blowout. Makes sense now." I mentioned.

A huge hole in the tire caused the blowout which led to the crash. Now, we just had to find this guy.

"Can you track his blood trail?" Tarah asked curiously.

I stood up and looked at the blood on the ground.

"Usually I could, but he must've covered up the wound to stop the bleeding. As far as I can see, he probably went in that direction. Come on, let's hurry before it gets dark." I replied to her.

"You're right." Tarah responded softly.

POW! POW!

"What the hell!" Tarah screamed.

"Gunshots! Come on, it might be our guy." I insisted on her quickly.

POW! The third gunshot went off. We rushed our way to the scene.