(A/N) HELLOOOOOO. Its been some time since I last uploaded. As mentioned before, I was editing published chapters to make sure that the story made more sense. If you wanna read the chapters I edited before reading this chapter, heres a list. If you don't wanna read all those chapters then just wait until the end to read a few things i changed (some things are just grammar changes btw). And thank you for being patient! :)
Chapters edited: 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29
Mister Murphy, Raymond's next door neighbor, watered his plants in the morning like he always did. He stood still like a statue, using the gardening hose to spray it at his vibrant colored flowers. Summer was always the perfect time to plant flowers, and Mister Murphy had a green thumb.
His peaceful thinking was taken away when he saw Raymond stepping out of his home and walking to the mailbox, barley able to even stand. He was drunk again.
Raymond opened his mailbox, seeing an envelope with the same red wax stamp with a rose imprinted on it, sealing it shut. He grabbed it and looked down at it, sighing.
"Lets see what you got now bastard." He eagerly ripped it open, pulling out the letter.
To Raymond Hunter, the loneliest man in the world,
The beach. Very intelligent thinking. Im almost proud of you. Not to mention your wife's killer was at the beach. I observed him very closely. I even spoke with him. He was watching you like a hawk. An angry man he truly is.
You didn't find my note though. But thats ok. It doesn't really matter. I mean it could have revealed the identity of the killer but its no longer important.
Anyways, I've put your next clues into another zip lock bag. No worries, theres no blood this time. But perhaps look at the pictures in a private setting. I mean you should be reading these in private anyways, but now I'm warning you.
Have a fantastic day.
School huh?
Yours truly, Jack
Raymond looked up to see Mister Murphy staring straight at him. Creeped out, he shut the mailbox and walked back into his house. He quickly rushed up to his room and shut the door, locking it as well so that he would be sure that no one would walk in. He grabbed the photos and took them out of the ziplock bag. It was a small stack of polaroid photos. The first one was just a simple picture of a young woman, aged anywhere between her early twenties to late twenties.
Innocent enough. Raymond examined it closely. Something seemed off about her. Her clothes and the way she stood suggested something else. She was a prostitute. It was obvious.
The next picture was her in a sexy position. She laid on a bed with beautiful white satin sheets covering it. Her clothes were still on though. But as he kept looking through the photos, more and more of her clothes started to disappear until they were completely gone.
Raymond was just like any other red–blooded man, but these pictures didn't arouse him in any way. He rolled his eyes and just kept looking through them. But he began to think, whats the point of this?
Finally, he reached the last picture. A picture of a young girl who looked very similar to the woman in the other pictures. Unlike the other pictures, this one was more innocent and less seductive. She had to be about ten years old and celebrating her birthday. There was no writing on the back of any of the photos. But there was a small note attached to the last picture.
Mi nombre es Luna. Puedo ver cuánto me quieres. así que ven a buscarme y podemos pasar una noche divertida bajo la luna.
Raymond scratched his head in confusion. Its true, he's Mexican and he could understand a bit of Spanish. However, he wasn't very good at speaking, reading, or writing the language. Even though his mother always spoke to him in Spanish when he was a little kid, he still had trouble picking up on it. So the only thing he understood was the first sentence of the note.
'My name is moon.' Everything else was confusing to him. He didn't want to ask his mother what it meant. What if its true meaning was something disturbing? Or inappropriate based on the pictures?
"Raymond!" Victoria called on the other side of the door, knocking on it. "Open up."
"Oh fuck," Raymond whispered, quickly gathering all the pictures together and shoving them inside the envelope and into the nightstand drawer. "Coming, just give me a second."
"One. Now come on out!"
Raymond stumbled off the bed and quickly opened the door, looking disorganized.
"I'm right here, geez!" Raymond combed his hair back with his fingers. Raymond leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed. He raised a brow. "What do you want?"
"Kora fell in the backyard. She hit her face pretty badly." Victoria jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Come on and help me."
Raymond nodded and walked with her to the backyard where he could see his daughter sitting on the floor with Mitchell gently poking her face. She sniffled her nose, but she wasn't crying like how a normal kid would when they get injured.
"No tears?" Raymond questioned, squatting down to look at his daughter.
"She did for only a few seconds but then she quickly got over it."
"So brave," Raymond said with a smile. He picked up his daughter and walked into the house with her, gently patting on her back.
-x-
Walter looked through the peep hole to see who was knocking.
Its Jordan!
Happily, he opened the door but hid his emotions.
"Hello, agent Borres," he said with a nod, trying to seem professional. He opened the door more wider for her, letting her walk inside. Jordan's shoes gently squeaked against the floor boards, making her mental cringe. "I've already informed my sister that you were coming. She might be uncooperative but you just need to be very patient with her.
Jordan smiled at Walter. "Trust me, I have lots of patience," Jordan said in a comforting tone which only made Walter more trusting of her that she won't be too harsh on Catherine since he really does care for her a lot.
He guided her into his apartment, gesturing to Catherine who was sitting on the couch with her feet up, enjoying a cup of tea.
"Hello, Miss Ottoson."
Catherine shivered at the way that Jordan called her. It brought back bad memories. "Cat," she whispered. "Please just call me Cat."
Jordan nodded and quietly repeated her name with a smile dancing on her lips. "Mind if I sit right here?" She asked, pointing at the empty spot on the couch that was next to Catherine. She slowly nodded and Jordan sat down. "Cat, do you know why I'm here?"
Catherine's crystal blue eyes wondered over to her brother who was sitting right across from them. She averted her stare back down to the cup of tea in her hands, shrugging. "Yea."
"So you know that some of these questions may be upsetting to answer. And I just want you to know that if at any time you feel uncomfortable, just tell me and I'll back off." Jordan tilted her head to the side, hoping that she understood.
"Yea. I–I know."
Jordan pulled out her little notepad and flipped back a couple pages. She took out the pen that stuffed into the spiral spine of the notepad, clicking it which made Catherine flinch at the sound of it.
"Where were you on Wednesday, June third at eight pm?"
Catherine looked over at her brother who nodded at her to tell Jordan. "I was in my apartment, cooking myself some dinner."
"And what happened after that?"
"I was in the middle of cooking the vegetables when I heard footsteps coming from the living room." Catherine tightened her grip on her cup of tea as she closed her eyes. The sound of his heavy footsteps echoed in her mind. "I saw him standing there, looking at one of the framed pictures I had of me and Walter."
Walter's eyes narrowed. He tried to imagine the midnight rose murderer looking at a picture of him with his cold, dead eyes just scanning it. It made him shiver in disgust but he quickly changed his expression to how it usually was. Emotionless.
"Next thing I remember is that I'm in a dark room, chained up."
Jordan's pen moved smoothly across the page, writing all the details she heard.
"What did he do to you?" Jordan asked.
Catherine opened her eyes and shook her head. "I don't... wanna talk about that."
"Ok. Thats alright." Jordan looked up at Walter who sighed and shrugged. His eyes were saying 'I told you'. Jordan looked back at Catherine and gently tapped her pen against the notepad. "So, when you escaped—"
"I don't remember escaping," Catherine quickly said.
"What was the last thing that you do remember before escaping?"
"I don't wanna talk about it!"
Walter clasped his hands together with a frown on his face. "Cat, please! Tell her something useful!" He pleaded.
"Walt—"
But before Jordan could even reach the second word of her sentence, Catherine stood up and screamed, throwing the cup of hot tea into Jordan's face before running off and locking herself into Walter's bedroom. Jordan could feel the intense heat of the tea singing her face and arm when she tried blocking it.
"Fuck, I'm so sorry!" Walter quickly said as he rushed to Jordan's aid.
"I'm fine!" Joran shouted back, trying to push through the pain. She wiped her eyes and took in a deep breath. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure." Jordan sighed. "I'm gonna go now. Perhaps this was a bad idea."
Walter frowned, upset of what Jordan might now think of him and his sister. "I'm sorry."
"For what? You did nothing wrong and neither did Catherine. I'm not mad." Jordan brushed a strand of loose hair behind her ear. "I can always look back at the report she gave to Jonathan." She rose from the couch, smiling to Walter. The same smile that always gave Walter the fluttering feeling in his chest. "I'll see myself out. Please keep be safe, both of you."
Walter nodded and waved goodbye at her. He wished that she could stay just a little longer. He wanted her to smile at him again. He wanted to get that feeling he always had when he just looked at her. He smiled sadly, realizing how much he truly loved her. Was it based on her looks? He doesn't know her that well. Maybe its because of her kind nature. He wasn't sure. But what he was sure about was that she made his world seem just a little more colorful.
-x-
Jonathan scratched his head as he pondered whether it was a good idea to interview Ervin Lance by himself, or if he should wait for his partner. He glanced at the time that was shown on the radio in the car. She was late. She said she would come to the hospital at four thirty. It was five minutes past.
He opened the car door and slammed it shut after he got out, walking inside the hospital. He hated stepping foot into a hospital. He always took it as a sign that death was coming to him. Regardless, he walked up to the front desk.
"Hi there. Um, I'm here to speak with Ervin Lance. This is FBI matter. Can you tell me where his room is?" Jonathan pulled out his FBI badge and flashed it to the man sitting at the front desk.
"Oh of course. Just give me a moment," the man said, typing on the computer as fast as he could. After a little while of the computer being slow, he finally found what he was looking for. "He's in room 220 on the second floor."
Jonathan thanked the man and walked past the front desk and decided to take the stairs. Upon reaching the second floor and the room that the man told him Ervin would be in, Jonathan took in a deep breath, trying to think like his Jordan would. She's peaceful, a pacifist, and patient. The three things that Jonathan was the exact opposite of. He opened the door and stepped in. But the only person that was inside was Ervin laying on the hospital bed. On the tray next to him was two cups of chocolate pudding and some orange juice.
"Ervin?" Jonathan called out. In confusion, Ervin turned his head to look at the unfamiliar voice.
"Who are you?" He asked, clutching onto the bed sheets. He began to look around the room in search for a weapon to use if it came down to it.
But to reassure him, Jonathan showed him his badge, which made Ervin relax.
"I'm FBI agent Jonathan Wallace. I'm just here to ask a couple of questions if thats alright with you."
Ervin nodded his head at him and Jonathan proceeded to ask questions, even pulling out a notepad that was similar to the one that Jordan and Walter always carried around with them.
"At what time did you arrive at her home?"
"Fifteen minutes past five. I told her I would be there by five but I was just a bit late because of how nervous I was to be on a date with her." He scoffed and wiped a tear away from his face.
"What happened when you entered her house?"
"Well, after ringing the doorbell several times and no answer, I found that the door had actually been unlocked. So I went inside and it was dead silent. I started to look around and I saw that woman on the floor, dead." Ervin looked down at his hands, cupping them together. "Thats when he attacked me. I–I don't remember anything after that."
"Ok. And could you describe what he looked like?"
Ervin shook his head. "He was right behind me so I didn't get to see him."
Jonathan sighed as he wrote down the details. He was hoping that since Ervin was a survivor of an attack by the MRM, he would have more information. But it was the opposite. He didn't have shit.
"I'm sorry I don't have anything useful to tell you."
Jonathan raised a brow and looked up at Ervin, waving a dismissive hand at him. "It's fine. Not your fault."
There was a light knock at the door before it slowly opened and Sarah walked in with a container and a plate covered in tinfoil. Ervin's brown eyes moved up to look at Sarah before he rolled them in annoyance.
"Get out," he said angrily.
"Um, mom made some homemade chicken soup and she even made some cake. She wanted me to bring it to you." Sarah shuffled over to Ervin before placing it down on the hospital table next to the cups of pudding. "I–its freshly made—"
"Get the fuck out!" Ervin shouted. Sarah jumped at his outburst and nodded before rushing out of the room. Ervin sighed and laid his head back on the pillow.
"Why are you so mean to your sister?" Jonathan asked.
Ervin groaned. "Cause she's a fucking dyke," he replied with exaggeration.
"Whats so wrong with being gay?"
"Its just disgusting!"
"And why?"
Ervin shrugged his shoulders before carefully crossing his arms, making sure not to disturb the needles that were pushed into his skin. "It just is. I mean God made a man and a woman for a reason! So that they could continue the human race."
Jonathan lightly chuckled. "I never understood you people. Screaming all these things about how God made a man and a woman and that its not natural. What does it matter to you what they do? Its not hurting other people."
"They are useless!"
"I'm not useless," Jonathan whispered. Ervin furrowed his eyebrows, staring at the man. "I'm trying to find someone who has killed many people. I'm trying to find the person who attacked you. I'm trying to find the person who kidnapped Penelope. I'm not useless."
"A–are you...?"
"Gay? Yes. I am in fact gay." Jonathan smiled innocently at Ervin who was confused and a bit in denial. "Go ahead, call me a faggot and a pervert. I've heard it all. Especially from my own father who is a pastor. But guess what? He finally accepted me. And he loves me for who I am." Jonathan placed a hand on Ervin's leg who at first flinched but then tried his best to relax and not shout out at him.
"B–but what about God? You can't be religious if you're... that."
"But I am religious. And I find it hard to believe that God made me this way only to hate me." Jonathan sighed, his eyes wondering down to the floor. "When I came out, I had a lot of people calling me names, shunning me, and even attacking me. I remember one person called me a dirty faggot. And another called me the n–word." He looked back at Ervin who was looking at him, not in disgust, but in curiosity and guilt. "In this world, I'm seen as lesser than what I really am. I'm a black gay man living in America, and I deserve the same rights as a white straight man." Jonathan gave him a genuine smile, a smile that he didn't usually show. "Theres nothing wrong with me."
Ervin felt a slight tug in his chest, sympathizing for once with a gay person. He never heard them speak about how they truly feel, and the struggles they had to go through. He was still on the fence about it, but it made me start to think more about what he was doing and the verbal harm he was inflicting on his sister.
"Anyways, I must be going now," Jonathan said as he walked to the door. He placed his hand on the handle of the door, but stopped and thought for a moment, smirking. He turned to look at Ervin. "And by the way, we found a diary in Penelope's room. In one of her entries she described that she's bisexual. So you know." He shrugged before walking out, leaving Ervin in complete shock.
(A/N) Heyy you made it to the end. Heres the list I promised. Some of these are simply just grammar changes, while some of these are drastically changed.
Also please note that I might still edit some chapters or change some of the stuff below and such so yeah.
1) The MRM is only a serial killer and nothing more. I wrote that he raped Catherine, Walters sister. But I decided to change this since he isn't motivated by sexual urges. Also his body count has been drastically reduced from 300 to I believe 80, but the number of victims will be talk about in later chapters
2) Jordan and Jonathan are both FBI agents instead of homicide detectives.
3) Theres two new characters, Brandon Sherman, the medical examiner who does autopsies for the MRM victims and who did Monica's autopsy. And theres Craig Wilkson, Jordan and Jonathan's boss.
4) Its not in the chapters but I jotted down the way the MRM kills and his motives and such. I'll show them to you guys soon but obviously I'll have to cross some stuff out because spoilers and stuff.
5) The connection that Walter makes that kinda ties his case with Jordan's isn't the number of roses found in victims homes. Instead its the footprint that was found in Monica's house and Ray's house, nothing matching.
I honestly can't remember what else I changed right now. I might add more information and shit later on but for now this will be it. My mind is very mushy right now cause I'm super tired. but I really wanted to get this chapter out already. But tomorrow I might edit this chapter or something i really don't know. i hope you enjoyed this chapter and please be sure to vote and comment it helps me out a lot. ok I'm sleeping i literally can't function anymore.