Present time, London...
"Cigarette?" Jacob asked gently showing her the packet.
He couldn't possibly be allowed to be smoking here... Ariana knew someone had to come in and not let that go through.
Ariana was so tempted though to take a cigarette.
She needed the relief so much after the nightmare she went through.
She narrowed her eyes at him.
Nobody came in, no guard.
He was trying to fool her, wasn't he?
"I know what you're trying to do..." She crossed her arms as she pressed her back against the chair.
"You're trying to get me comfortable and get me in that friend zone we shared... So I will talk, right?"
Jacob smiled pathetically, his packet still hanging in the air.
Maybe Ariana is the real deal detective, he was thinking.
Had he just failed in his mission?
He waited, constipated, for that door to open. But it didn't, yet.
They were all watching this from behind the other wall.
They were waiting to see what would happen.
"Even so, don't you still want a cigarette? You mustn't have had one in days."
He should've known she would be trouble.
"No thanks, Jacob." Ariana nodded. "Do you still want to know about my childhood?"
"It'd be my honor."
"If it's for a good cause, I'll tell you." Ariana looked down at her lap.
"I tend to think everything you'd do would be for a good cause... Even this investigation."
Jacob smiled. She was good, he reassured himself. She meant everything she said.
"Start taking notes. So as I told you I was rich. I had everything I wanted. I was a lively child who loved people, as far as I remember. Still I've had trouble in school with shyness and somehow I became an outcast which is strange I know, because rich people have it well socially."
"Wow, Ariana... An outcast?"
"Yes. Very tacky stuff... some classmates scorned me for my riches. I've never bragged or showed off but it was hard to hide the fact that I had everything... The best clothes, the best gadgets, a lot of money on me." Ariana grabbed Jacob's pen and started drumming with it on the table in a little annoying continuous manner.
"Have you ever been bullied?" Jacob leaned forward.
He remembered being bullied himself because he was poor.
He worked a lot to get the situation he has now.
"Yes," Ariana admitted. She knew she had to avoid mentioning Alexander Arseniev Jr., the third victim of the Big B. Murders, whose corpse they'd found in a lighthouse by the sea...
That guy had been the head bully she's had to deal with in middle school.
Mentioning him would only make her really look suspect because they'd take that for good motivation to commit murder.
And she knew, they'd buy everything to just call the Big B. Murders cases closed, finally, after two years.
*
Two years ago...
London, Kent
The team took the police van out to the seaside.
While Ariana had applied sunscreen priorly just to be sure, it turned out to be a grim, stormy day.
The sea was angry and swollen, the raining was incessant.
"How many rooms should I order? Does anyone want to share?" Archie, the current team leader asked them as they were walking through a motel's driveway.
"Carla will stay with me," Ariana told him as she smiled at the other blonde.
"Blondes go together," Carla giggled.
"I don't care whatsoever," Jacob said, his hands lost in his pockets.
"We guys can room together, I don't mind," Yamato commented.
"All's settled, then." Archie ordered the rooms.
The motel was a small, 3 stars one close to the beach, but the neighborhood looked overall bleak.
The sky was a deep storm blue, overcast, the wind, though violent, was morbid and static and the area wasn't exactly swarming with people although it was August.
The motel was located only a few miles away from the forsaken lighthouses which they were going to investigate tomorrow.
"I'm going for a walk. Don't mind me," Ariana told the team suddenly.
Archie seemed to be very alarmed as he watched her as though he was insulted.
His eyes glided all over her body and he moved closer, inching towards her.
"it'd be dangerous out there... For a girl like you." He smirked.
"Please don't insult me. I can take care of myself," Ariana told him.
"Somehow, I don't believe that." Archie shook his head with that smug smile still on, his eyes daring her.
"I can't be bothered with you Archie or whatever." She checked her leather bag in a rush and started leaving. "I'll be back in five. I'm seasick so I need to go watch it in the face."
"Fine. If you're not back in five minutes I'm coming after you." Archie warned.
"We're coming after you, you mean," Jacob intervened. "If you're seasick we have to keep an eye on you."
"I'll be fine." Ariana left in a rush before they could stop her.
If this is really the area where the body was hidden, the murderer was probably lounging around here.
Somewhere around this beach and forest...
She was putting herself in danger's way but she had to do this. As soon as possible.
The thing was, her mother's killer was never found and though she was killed meters away from her, she couldn't see his face... And she didn't remember much. She had only ghastly memories of that day, as though it had only been a nightmare.
So Ariana was obsessed with catching killers. She feared the idea of letting one ever get away again...
It was one of her motivations for picking this career.
One day she'd go after her mother's killer, too...
As soon as she got outside she pulled out her phone and called Joseph.
"Hii." She smiled.
"Hey baby... You alright? You rarely call me up like this, not that I'm complaining."
As she was talking on the phone she grabbed the first taxi in sight.
She had to get away before Archie would come get her...
"I'm creeped out, and I miss you. What are you up to?" she asked him while in the car.
"I'm at my parent's house. I've told them about you...Us; by the way but well, on that later. What do you mean you're creeped out? You're speaking in your stress voice, by the way."
"Jo. I'm in a taxi down by the seaside alone, trying to catch the killer. I'm not supposed to be doing this alone but I'm en route to the place where the third victim's body might be. I'm so creeped out. And-" She kind of cried into her phone.
She didn't know why she was so triggered. It wouldn't be the first time investigating on her own.
"Yeah? Go on baby."
"There's also this new team leader all covered in tattoos that seems to want to have sex with me."
"Ariana Artemis Johnson!-"
"Don't, Joseph, I just needed your reassurance-"
"Where are you? I'm coming right down to get you, I don't give a fuck that you're a detective investigating and this is not about that guy you mentioned- but I'll beat him up if he lays a hand on you.
You really shouldn't be out there alone at this hour with a killer on the run, in a suspicious area. Do you remember the white tow truck crash? Please turn back Ariana or I'm coming for you."
"I'd actually love it if you came for me." Ariana licked her lip. "I'm a really bad girl, you see... I'll just go do it."
Ariana watched the taxi driver's face in the rearview mirror.
He was very much confused.
"Ariana-"
"I have to go. I'm here." She hung up.
"Sorry... Here's the money. I'm a detective, by the way." Ariana gave him a lot more cash than the ride's worth and showed him her badge.
The man seemed very confused as he left her there in the middle of nowhere, giving her his phone number in case she'd need a ride back.
What Ariana was staring at now was: the scenery of the beach, grim, white sand blending in with the sea to her left hand side, and with a small forest to the right.
In front of her, leaving 50 meters between them, were the two tall lighthouses, in a line along the sea.
Dark and old as though they were pulled out from some urban legend. You'd have thought they'd have demolished them by now.
Near the forest there was a small outlet that looked forsaken and a car parked.
A car...a white tow track...
Just as Ariana noticed it, the car suddenly ignited, driving away from her through the sand like it was possessed.
"Oh my God..." Her mouth was parted.
Could it be?
She tried to read the registration number and managed to get it and type it in her quick notepad.
The mysterious driver hadn't probably expected her here.
While he was driving away, she wondered...
Could he have recognized her?
And if he did, why didn't he just come towards her, driving her over into the sea?
Her body would've just been washed away.
"Ariana!" She heard the voices of her teammates calling and turned around to see the four of them running towards here.
She smiled. Damn, she was late.
"Miss Johnson right?" Archie called out in a sweaty, breathy voice, as though he had been running. "You're giving me quite a hard time. Lying to me, too..."
"Ariana, why were you doing this on your own?" Jacob asked.
"Sorry for lying. I couldn't wait until the morning," she flew her hair.
This getaway had been fruitful, after all. She got that white tow truck's number. She was certain it was the same one that struck Joseph's car.
"Are you alright?" Carla asked as she came and took her hands into
hers.
I might have just seen the killer and let him get away, Ariana was thinking at that moment before Archie appeared in her sight. He gave a long sigh.
"I suppose we'll go in now, then," Archie stated, defeated, much to Ariana's gladness.
"We'll start with this one right in front of us," he said.
He pulled out a flashlight and got the lead in the front as they attacked the Lighthouse, and Ariana watched his toned butt at work.
It was dark and sketchy inside, as expected. The two Lighthouses had been forlorn for decades, probably.
Ariana walked right behind Archie smelling off his expensive perfume.
Would they actually find something here? She wondered.
She tried to remember the riddle.
"Down a lane, down the drain, in the North by the shore, I'll be up here till you find me, watching the sea"
I'll be up here...
The criminal had to be reffering to a height, after all.
"This place gives me the willies," Carla murmured, her voice trembling.
"Me too," Ariana admitted making Archie display a smirk for her.
"And you wanted to do it on your own huh?" Archie challenged her.
"I'd have managed."
The upper floor above them was cracked and, just before a big chunk could tumble down on them, Archie grabbed Ariana and pulled her aside shouting: "Watch out, everyone!"
As soon as she could, she drew away violently. She didn't care if he had just saved her life.
"This place seems to be more ancient than we thought..."
"If we'll actually find him here we might as well call ourselves good of something detectives." Jacob squinted his eyes into the dark.
"No. Actually I did some research after they handed me this case. I studied the other riddles too." Archie shrugged.
Did he just disconsider them?
"But anyway good work guys for pointing out the North and the sea stuff... I've heard you're a rookie team." Archie patronized them.
Ariana looked to her teammates who were all a bit scandalized. She thought later would be a better time to bicker with him, if at all.
They finally got to the last floor.
The glass windows of the hexagonal structure was gone, leaving behind the frame.
There was hay all over the place and dirt, but nothing else. No body.
Or so they initially thought, in the first thirty seconds.
The first one to see it seemed to be Yamato, though.
He was grossed out by what he was witnessing but he was too cynical to paint it on his face.
"Look up!" He told them. "On the ceiling..." So they did and all of their faces became contorted.
The body of a young, dark haired guy was chained up to the ceiling like a pinata, the torso being tied up with rope while the rope's ends were pinned to some hooks in the ceiling.
He was wearing fresh, Adidas brand clothes.
The guy slept peacefully, never to wake up again. Ariana blinked at him.
Alexander Arseniev Jr. Named after his father.
Last time she saw him he was a cheerful guy who smoke weed regularly, though he was only fourteen.
She hadn't even known he was studying medicine in university and that he had turned into a decent guy, meanwhile.
Well, look at him, now...