The yellow-black barricade police tapes covered the entire area in a criss-cross pattern to preserve the crime scene restricting the public entrance in the guarded area by the police. Police led their trained dogs to sniff around the scent of the missing girl from the trees back to the main lane. Sam stood outside the crossed area; watching cops in silence doing their work from sidelines who were taking pictures of the footprints and tyre prints of the car on the dusty ground and the road that was leading away from the thick trees at the backside of the cemetery. It had been two hours and thirty minutes, no two hours, thirty minutes and forty-five seconds as he corrected himself since she had gone missing and the night hour made it difficult for the police to have a surveillance of the crime scene.There's no other person who could lay his hand on the the girl except the one whom they both met before David's accident.
He had handed the police the sketch and pictures which Annie had had of the train guy, anything to get to that person and find Annie's whereabouts and police started working on that person's profile for his identity right away. One of the cops bent to pick up the trampled rose on the ground with his gloved hand and put it in the plastic bag for the finger prints for the identity of the abductor.
"We'll get the car's plate number through the tyre prints and if we're lucky enough to have finger prints on that rose we'll get that person's identity."
Captain explained to Sam who didn't pay much attention to what Captain was telling him. His mind was distant from present, concerned about the well being of Annie fretting the chance of her being dead because it had been almost three hours and there's no phone call from that person which made him more worried about that person's intentions towards David's family.The Captain left him to talk with the forensics on the scene and Sam walked away from the surveillance area. He had left her for only for twenty minutes at the funeral site to give her privacy of mourning in silence but he didn't know that when he would return she would be gone as if she had never been present there to begin with. He had found her cellphone broken on the ground at the graveyard. He started looking around for the girl in panic, calling out for her and entered the trees at the backside of cemetery where he found shoes print on the dust and long trails of fingers as if someone had tried to claw at the ground in a struggle. He noticed the trampled red rose on the ground, the colour of which belonged to David's funeral flower and his eyes zeroed in fear and he called the police at the scene reporting her missing knowing that something must have happened in his absence. David's death which Annie claimed with bold confidence a murder since he's working on a homicide profile put the entire police department in action upon the girl's disappearance.
Sam pulled out his cellphone to call Annie's mother about the current situation regarding the incident and told her that police was doing their best in finding Annie. He briefly talked to Samantha's fiance who had taken Annie's mother back at home to rest who went in panic attack after hearing the news of her daughter gone missing. Sam ended the call, massaging his face in exhaustion and pressed a call to Rohan with whom he couldn't get in contact since last day. The call got picked after few minutes and Sam didn't waste a second of his breath to speak to the person.
"Rohan? Where are you man? I've been calling you since morning and you aren't answering us. Do you have any idea that..."
Before he could complete his sentence the call got disconnected leaving Sam to stare at his phone's screen in disbelief. Rohan hung up on him?He's going to throw his phone in the fit of rage; his nerves were already on edge of snapping given the whole ordeal of two days of David's death and Annie's disappearance. He stopped himself from smashing his phone, reminding himself that it wasn't time to act irrational and decided to meet Rohan at his place. He left from there asking the Captain to inform him if they find anything about person's identity. He got inside his car driving straight towards the Rohan's house. It's strange that both Rohan and Melaine weren't in contact with them since morning and didn't reply to his voice messages either regarding David's death.
Sam stopped the car outside Rohan's house and walked towards the door after locking his car with remote. He rang the doorbell waiting for the other male to answer him and started knocking at the door when Rohan didn't open the door. He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration and called Rohan on his landline number tapping his foot in impatience for him to pick up the phone.
"What the hell are you doing Rohan?"
Sam muttered to himself furrowing his brows and his eyes widened suddenly upon remembering something before he jogged up to the street and went straight to the Melaine's house and rang the bell but met with no answer. Neither Rohan nor Melaine were answering the phones and none of them were at their houses which made Sam wonder what was going on. He felt his cellphone ring in the pocket of his black tuxedo coat which he's still wearing since the morning for funeral and he fished out his phone to answer the call from an unknown caller.
"Hello?"
"Am I speaking to Sam?"
"Yes. Who is it speaking?"
"I'm Jake from the police department." Sam scratched his temple with index finger trying to remember about the person Jake then recognized the young detective from the police department who had been David's friend and now promoted to his position.
"Yes, Jake. Did you get any information on Annie? He asked in hopefulness and took a deep inhale of air to calm his thudding heart in the anxiety of finding the girl.
"I'm afraid to tell you not yet but I haven't called you about Annie's profile."
"Then why did you call me?" He snapped at the young officer but immediately regretted his fiery behaviour which was uncalled for in a situation like that.
"I'm sorry. I'm caught up in this entire situation." Despite the fact, he apologized to the police officer he could still feel the slight agitation in his voice.
"It's okay. I can understand your position."
"So, what did you call me for?" Sam questioned.
"It's about David. I want to meet you in person."
"Wait, what about David? What's going on?" He couldn't hope to get more frustrated and confused than he actually had been after the officer's words.
"I can't speak to you on phone but I think it will explain something about today's incident. Can I see meet you at your place?"
"Okay, but give me time because I'm at my friend's house for some business." He could practically hear himself laughing at his own answer. He was at friends' place who even weren't at their homes much to his suspicion about their sudden disappearance and cutting their connection with them.
He knew something hadn't been right.
"Message me your address and I'll see you in an hour."
"OK."
The call ended and Sam typed address of his house to the number from which he got the call and saved in under Jake's name. He looked back at Melaine's house before giving up knowing it wouldn't be of use of his effort and settled inside his car to get to his home and wait for Jake at his place.
-
She fluttered her eyes open, slowly coming to her consciousness in a cold dark place. It was dark except for a dimmed sepian light glowing in the corner of the room that cast long eerie shadows on the walls made it enough for her to see and she squinted her eyes to adjust her vision in the darkness of the room. She felt something firm beneath her body; a moth bitten futon, she noticed, on which she's lying with her head resting on someone's cold leg. She groaned pressing her hand on her throbbing temple and raised her eyes up to see a silhouette of face hovering above hers. Her eyes widened in horror upon the remembrance of afternoon's events and she shot upright in sudden panic, shouting in unbearable pain as stinging pain radiated up to her shoulder and she bit back her tears clutching onto her broken arm.
"Slow down, Annie."
She stilled in her movements upon hearing her name and gasped upon the recognition of voice which she could tell anywhere in the world but she hadn't expected to meet that person in the same place as hers. A hand rubbed her shoulder, carefully cradling her broken elbow in his hands and she gathered her courage to look up at his face which was half-concealed in the shadows. The dimmed light of a torch thrown on the ground accentuated sharp lines of his angular face, hallowing his facial features for her to see his visage in the glimmering darkness of the room.
"Rohan?"
She gasped, her right hand flew to cover a startled choke from her mouth at the sight of him sitting before her on the same futon as hers. Her eyes looked around the room which had no door for exit and thick rustic water pipes ran along the walls. The litter of food cans and water bottles were scattered on the floor; cobwebs decorated the walls, a rat squeaked running to harrow itself in a empty can which made her to scoot back farther in the futon against the wall. She lifted her eyes up at the ceiling which was higher than she had expected of a room.
"W-What are you..why are you here?" She questioned, tearing her eyes away from the ceiling back to his tired face and took in the sad smile of her friend who tore up the sleeve of her black gown to the crook of her elbow and pressed onto the joint.
"You have a broken arm." He told her in a calm voice and she grabbed her hand stopping him in his movements of tending onto her arm and narrowed her eyes at him.
"Why are you here?" She glowered at him.
"The same reason you are here." His sounded much hoarse, raucous because of his sore throat and she looked around for the source of clean water to drink which he wasn't provided with given the crumpled plastic water bottles on the floor.
"What do you mean? Do you know why I'm here?" She turned her attention back to him and he shook his head gently placing her left arm on his thigh, patting back of her hand.
"I have no idea why we both are here."
"Why...then how are you here?" She asked in stuttering manner which made him groan knowing that she was suspicious of him.
"Someone broke into my house at two night ago and knocked me out. When I woke up, I found myself here." He tried to explain to the girl who somehow looked unconvinced.
"But why are you here?" He questioned the girl who shifted uncomfortably on the futon.
"David is murdered." The air shifted between them at the admittance of new reality which neither of them had expected to face with in their lives.
"What?"
"He was killed in a road accident or rather what his killer made it look like." She held back her tears that threatened to slip because of her emotional state. She closed her eyes, leaning back and rested back of her head against the wall. She felt something trickling wet against her head and remembered the mechanism of oxidized water pipes in the room that were leaking at their joints.
"But it doesn't explain why this person who had me here would go for you."
"It's the same person that I had been seeing these past days."
She heard Rohan take a sharp intake of breath at her blunt confession and she didn't dare to open her eyes and look at his scowling face. "It's...the same person who had been involved in the brutal assault of Georgette and Jessica too."
"What? How in the hell did you get in contact with this person?" He had a hard time hiding his distress towards the girl.
"I met him at the coffee house and followed him to the metro station."
"How long have you known about him?"
"Almost two weeks." She gulped knowing she would get scolded by him judging the edginess in his tone while asking her question.
"And you didn't bother to tell me?" Rohan finally snapped at her.He stared at her in complete disbelief. She had not been the one to be this stupid and enter the mouth of death knowing the grave consequences of the things.
"You already had too much on your plate." She shot back at him sparing him a look and turned her eyes away from his face.
"If by too much on my plate you mean Melaine then you should know that she is not important to me than you."
"Why are you lying to yourself and me? She has always been important to you than me and we both know it."
"Did you have any idea you could have get killed?"
"Yes, it's because of me that you are here too but I did it to protect you. He's the same person whom you saw at your house the other day. I knew it that he's a psychopath."She spat back slamming her good hand on the futon in half anger.
"Psychopaths don't play with their prey without any reason. He could have killed us both in our places without locking us here together in his hideout." He scoffed at her.
"Do you think he's planning something bigger for us?"
She opened her eyes to look straight in his eyes which were staring back intensively.
"Maybe, maybe not." He sighed and shifted his weight towards her.
"Let me fix your arm. It's already swelling." He motioned towards her swollen elbow with his hand. "Bite onto my shoulder if you want to because it's going to hurt like hell." She nodded scooting closer to him. He cradled her arm, gripping her forearm in his hand and closed his other hand on her wrist. He gave her a questioning gaze and she nodded in silence, slinging her right arm around his shoulder to hold onto him.
"On the count of 3, 2, 1..." She bit onto her shoulder muffling her scream, nearly drawing blood, as hot white light flooded in her vision when he snapped the bone back in its place. He rubbed her back in soothing manner and she rested her head on his collar bone panting heavily, seeing pitch blackness behind her closed eyes.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, give me few minutes."
"I thought you were going to tear my flesh off." He chuckled despite the peril condition in which they both were.
"Sorry." He hummed lying down on the futon and pulled her down on the top of him.
"This room doesn't have a door?" She questioned between her heavy breathing because of the dull ache in the crook of her arm but tried to bear with it.
"It's a water tank. We are fifteen feet underground." He answered staring up at the ceiling.
"How are we going to escape? There's nothing to climb up to the lid of this tank."
"It's not the question of how we get up there but the question is how are we going to open that lid which only opens from outside."
"What are we going to do?" She questioned lifting her head to look at him.
"I don't know but we are going to figure something die" He ran his fingers through her hair lost in his thoughts and a pregnant silence settled between them till he resolved to break it again.
"Annie?" He hesitated not knowing how to approach the
subject.
"Hmm?"
"I'm sorry." He whispered and it took her few seconds to realize to what he had been referring to. Tears pooled in her tired eyes as she tried to hold back a sob and he hugged the girl closer to her letting her cry in his chest instead.
"He's supposed to be alive and attend our graduation." She sobbed into his shirt as tears drenched his shirt.
"I know and I'm sorry."
-
Sam took shower changing into comfortable clothes and went downstairs into the lounge. He sat down on the couch, resting his legs on the table and waited for Jake looking at the wall clock for time. He flipped through the channels on TV stopping at the sports channel before he heard the doorbell and went to open the door knowing it must be the police officer.
"Jake?" He hadn't expected to see the young officer in his causal clothes; plain jeans, red checked shirt and a caramel jacket. The officer must have waited for his duty to end at the department.
"Can I come in?" Jake asked and Sam nodded stepping aside leading to the couch in the lounge.
"What do you want to drink? Coffee or Soda?"
"Maybe a glass of water would do." Jake spoke sitting on the couch and Sam went inside the kitchen to bring him a glass of water. He returned to the lounge and gave Jake the glass.
"Thanks." Sam nodded and sat next to Jake on the couch.
"What is it you want to talk?" Jake put the empty glass on the table and reached for the pocket of his jacket pulling back a USB and placed it on the table.
"What is in this USB?"
"David had been working on something beside Georgette case. He had been distressed for last few days and handed me this USB saying in case something happens to him, I am to give it Annie but she isn't here so I figured it's best to hand it over to you."
"What is in this USB?" Sam questioned picking up the USB from the table.
"I'm as clueless as you are. Why don't we check it your laptop, if you don't mind?"
"Good idea."
Sam went upstairs to get his laptop and checked his cellphone for any message or call from Captain Harrison despite the fact his ringer volume was maximum, but it didn't help him with the stress of having missed any notification from the police department. He returned back to the lounge where Jake was sitting and settled next to him opening his laptop. He logged into his laptop, switching his account and connected the USB into the port. He selected to view the files from the dialogue box and clicked on the folder that opened the document file showing a rough sketch picture on the right top corner of the page.
Name : Ethan Nelson
Sex: Male
Age: Unknown
Murder suspect: witnessed to be seen with Georgette who was mutilated in public park on January 1, 2017.
Bio data: There is no ID card, driving license or birth certificate of a person who goes by the name of Ethan Nelson.
Sam read aloud and scrolled down to see a picture of a familiar blonde. "Why was he working on Melanie's profile?"
"Beats me. He never mentioned it to me and David had always been secretive about his case profiles." Sam nodded in understanding and turned his attention back to his laptop screen.
Name: Melanie Danielson
Sex: Female
Age: 19- No Guardian.
Academic status: Roslyn High school's student/ Senior
year.
Current residence: Brooklyn, New York City, NY
Current appearance: Blonde and brown eyes
Sam scrolled down through the document and looked at the another picture of the girl with brown hair and blue eyes with side information,
Name: Melanie Nelson
Age: 17-18- No Guardian
Academic status: Junior year/ Windsor high school.
Residence: New Windsor, Orange County, NY.
Appearance: Blue eyes and long brown hair.
There was another picture of the girl.
Name: Melanie Nelson
Age: 17
Guardian: Late Mrs. Peter
Academic status: Sophomore year/ Harriet high school.
Residence: Bristol, Ontario County, NY
Appearance: Grey eyes and short black hair
Moved from Brookfield to Bristol for Mrs. Peter's health concerns.
Another picture of the Melaine in caramel brown hair and grey eyes,
Name: Melanie Danielson
Age: 15-16
Guardian: Mrs. Peter
Academic status: Freshman year/ Student High School.
Residence: Brookfield, Madison, NY
Appearance: Caramel hair and grey eyes.
"She had changed four high schools in four years."
"Schools aren't the only thing she changed."
Sam noticed the appearance of the girl over the course of four years which she had changed constantly.Sam closed the document and opened second file which had another picture of the girl in younger years with black chin length hair and wearing glasses on blue eyes.
Name: Melanie Danielson
Age: 13
Guardian: Mrs. Peter
Short sightedness.
"Melaine has short sightedness?" Sam spoke in disbelief. Perhaps, her unnatural brown eyes explained much for the lens she had been wearing all this time but it didn't explain the choice of unusual colour for a blonde to wear.
"Do you know her?" Jake questioned leaning over the laptop and pointed at the screen.
"She is one of our friend."
"Do you have any idea why David could have been working on her along with Ethan?"
"No, not a slightest clue in the world what that might be."
Natural eye colour: Blue
Completed secondary education at Brookfield standard school/ Brookfield, Madison, NY.
Information: Haphephobia/ never changed in the shower room with other girl- Ms. Nashile (classmate) remained in hospital for broken arm for disrespecting personal space of Melanie during changing clothes.
There were other pictures of Melaine of 9th and 10th grade of school group photos both with long black hair and blue eyes with glasses.
Sam clicked on another picture of Melaine of younger years where the baby fats in her cheeks gave her a boyish look. It's picture of Melaine specs on blue eyes and short black cropped hair
Name: Melanie Danielson
Age: 12
Guardian: Mrs. Peter
Took admission in 5th grade in Sunshine Elementary school/ Brookfield, Madison, NY
Sam clicked open the next picture which appeared to be death record of a person.
Name: Melanie Danielson
...