"Well?" Victor asked as he lit a cigarette outside the chapel. One of the forensic team leaders met him outside to discuss the findings, the investigation of the chapel office took much longer than anticipated and Victor was growing increasingly impatient.
"Well..." began the woman taking off her powder-less gloves, "that room had a significant amount of bodily fluids on the floor and some on the door and door frame. It appears to be semen but we will have to get more tests on it. The surfaces have dried up however, our findings will be as accurate as physically possible, but there was definitely a lot of it."
Victor inhaled sharply, "Any blood?"
The woman nodded briefly, "yes but not enough to say that there was a murder that took place there. There's some evidence of blood but it could have been because of a small cuts, or even a nosebleed....it's too minor."
That was not what Victor was expecting to hear, instead he frowned as the woman continued.
"The scratches on the floor are definitely human, it's possible that someone must have fallen and maybe scraped themselves which might explain the minuscule amount of blood we found." she attempted to explain, but Victor noticed her face was rather confused.
Victor finished off her thinking, "But it doesn't explain the semen.."
"No. That room looks like...a filthy hotel room under the lights. I can't imagine what was going on in there." she managed to say. "I'll confirm with you our findings as soon as we have them ready."
"Thank you," Victor managed to say before dropping his cigarette butt to the floor.
"Detective, we have also collected a series of hair samples,"
"Excellent, I want them tested as soon as possible for matches to my missing persons, my list of suspects and ....my recent body in the morgue," Victor said as seriously as possible.
"Yes sir," she said and went back into the chapel to begin packing up and leaving for the lab.
Victor stroked his chin as he thought walking back to his car, Just what in the hell happened inside that room?
But if the hair samples match, he would know exactly which course to take. Already Victor had his eye on one suspect, and that was Father Beckford. Not only was Victor 100% certain that the previous priest would hold all the answers, but at this point Victor had made him his primary suspect.
As he stared at his wall of evidence and photos of the victims, he was able to trace Father Beckford back to all of them. He had confiscated some of Juliets personal belongs, and one of them was a diary she had been keeping. Some of her entries were posted to Victors walls, most of her entries spoke of a JB.
Clearly, her entries seemed rather obsessed with JB mostly towards the end of the diary. In the beginning it seems as though this person is a regular crush and much of the details she added of his appearance seemed to match a photo Victor managed to obtain from Father Beckford.
His sweet brown eyes were so close to mine.... I could smell the fresh shampoo of his blond hair as he walked by me in the chapel.....his long tall and slender body... all seemed to match his physical built. Victor had his own description of the priest next to his photo : Blond Hair, Brown Eyes, Height at 5'11, Weight 155lbs , Age 27.
Victor was still uncertain how Juliet, Elizabeth, Albert and James had to do with each other, what could they possibly share together that would bind them?
All Victor knew was that Juliet was infatuated with James, he remembered the conversation they had in the diner with Zach about Father Beckford being Juliet's crush but he never imagined it being this obsessive. And still, how and why did Juliet's love for the priest concern Elizabeth and Albert? That was unclear to him.
If Juliet was in love with James....why was she now laying in a morgue?
He tried to find any excerpts of Elizabeth in Juliet's diary but found none with her name; she did talk about Albert though, how she seemed jealous that he was always by James' side. For Victor he was certain that if he found James he would find Albert; Juliet had made it seem they were always together.
The wheels of Victors head kept turning as he read more of her entries, the older the dates get to the time of her death, the darker her words and her thoughts turn.
She begins to sound hateful, to sound lost and confused.
Something must have happened for her to lose the sweetness she first expressed in the beginning. Her writing became disturbing, Victor frowned as he read some passages; I can't eat, nothing tastes the same anymore.....when I close my eyes I see him, laughing at me, I can't sleep.
Then Victor reads something that stops him in his tracks.
I know I shouldn't but I can't help hating her...
He shuffles past some pages, how could he remember her but not remember me when we had been friends for years....it's unfair. I wish she'd disappear.
Victor immediately understood who she was talking about; Elizabeth.
I told my brother tonight, about him. Somehow I feel like a weight has been lifted.
The dates got closer to when Elizabeth disappeared.
Dear God...I never really meant any ill will to that girl. Seeing how much my brother is suffering is breaking me down. I pray that she is found from the bottom of my heart...
And finally, Victor read her last entry.
JB....I love you so much, but somehow when I look at you, I can't help but feel as though you are hurting. Why are you hurting? Please tell me.
There is one last search set up again in a few days, I am getting tired and worn out. We might possibly never find her and if we do, honestly at this point I think it'll be a body. But I need to see him once more before I come back and put this behind me.
"You were the last person to see her weren't you?" Victor said to James' photo as he put down the diary. "Just what did she say?What happened...inside that room?"
*************
Anne had not told anyone about her pregnancy, the only person who knew about it was Brianne and she knew she could trust her with such a secret. She knew perfectly well that eventually she would have to tell her parents and come up with a solution but for now she kept it hidden.
She sat alone on the bench of a park, debating whether or not to tell Zach. How angry would he be?What would he want her to do about it? How would this affect their friendship?
As she sighed heavily debating what to do, her phone lit up in her hands.
Speak of the devil, she thought. "Hey.."
"Anne..." his voice was breaking up. Immediately she shot up from the bench panicking.
Does he know?
"Zach..? What's wrong..?"
"I need you...I can't-"
"Where are you?"
He was crying, the sound was so soft almost like a static white noise. He was most likely not home but parked somewhere. Reluctantly he gave her his location and she rushed over to meet him. He was parked just a few blocks away from the chapel.
As she climbed into his Jeep she noticed his eyes were red and swollen from his cries, his knuckles were bruised and the skin was broken and bleeding.
"What happened...?" she asked, wanting to hold him but felt something pushing her back.
He expected her to hug him at least but when she didn't, when he saw the hesitation in her eyes instead he leaned over and wrapped his arms around her. His cries subsided into her shoulder, and all Anne could do was pat him gently. The secret that was growing inside her was forcing her to be distant.
"Juliet..." Zach tried. "Victor found...her."
Anne felt her throat clench and her breath stop she couldn't say anything or do much besides be there for him.
As soon as he told her, his cries grew louder. The sorrow in his voice, in his mourning was so overwhelming that it brought Anne to tears. She couldn't help but hold him and cry alongside him.
"Zach..I'm..."
He shook his head, he didn't want to hear it. Instead he pulled away form her, his anger replacing his sadness. He banged on the steering wheel in frustration, Anne understood why his knuckles were bruised.
"I want whoever did this dead! I want to kill them myself!" Zach's voice grew malicious and hurtful.
Anne could merely watch him as his face was turning red with rage.
"I just saw...Victor yesterday, he didn't mention anything." Anne said softly.
Zach turned to her, "Of course he wouldn't. He's useless...he said he would tell us everything. But instead it's like..." he gripped the steering wheel hard again, as though picturing it to be the criminals neck, his knuckles turned white. "It's like he's keeping everything a secret..."
"So, he doesn't know who could have done this? Like any clues or he just won't tell you?"
Zach released his grip and slumped back into the seat, "Both. I think."
Their silence drowned them in the car, and during that time Anne had decided not to tell Zach about the pregnancy, it would be too much for him to handle.
"Her funeral is in 2 days." Zach said with a cold voice, "Can you please come?"
Anne gently placed her hand on top of his that rested on his lap.
"Of course."
He dropped her off home and then drove off nearly screeching into the night.
Anne watched as his car disappeared down the empty dark street, suddenly her eyes watered again and she cupped her hand over her mouth crying hard yet silently into it. The sorrow she felt was so great that it brought her down to her knees.
She felt pain everywhere, pain in her heart and body and in her skull. She felt so lonely, so unsure of things, so lost and insecure, how could things possibly get any worse?
With wobbly legs she stood back and wiped away the moisture from her eyes, slapping her cheeks to pep herself up enough to go back inside her house where it was safe.
Falling on her bed she pulled out her phone and began a text to someone automatically.
Why didn't you tell me about Juliet?
She looked at the screen, the top of the message addressing to Victor. She waited for a response that seemed like it was taking forever, eventually she fell asleep watching her screen with no response from him but a few hours later she woke up to the sound of a received message.
I knew you would have found out from Zach sooner or later. Nothing has been released to the public yet, it was not my place to inform you immediately.
Anne understood what he meant, after all she wasn't Juliet's family and could hardly call herself a friend. But even still she had thought, mistakenly that she was someone important to both Victor and Zach. Right now she felt like no one, just another teenager that unfortunately got wrapped up in things beyond her control.
She typed up a response to him but immediately erased it, it was better to leave it the way it was.
But then she noticed Victor was typing back to her, and his words warmed her just a little; I'm sorry.
Anne held the phone close to her, crying softly as she replayed that simple text in her mind, in her ears picturing his voice saying it.
She regretted everything up until his point, getting involved from the beginning was a giant mistake. She wanted to go back to being a simple high schooler, focusing on volleyball, on her friends, on crushes and parties on the weekends.
But instead ...not only was she carrying her friend's boyfriend's child but she was wrapped up with all this guilt, all this knowledge of murder and missing persons and investigations. She wanted no part of it anymore.
Once Zach got home he received a text message form none other than Victor.
We need to talk. Tomorrow. Meet me at the Chapel at 9AM.
Zach was angry and texted back furiously, What's this about?
But Victor never responded.
Victor had just gotten off the phone with forensics, the hair samples they found had matched the body he had in the morgue.
"Where was the hair located ?" The detective had asked while on the phone.
"This piece of hair that matches Ms Alexander was located on the black bookshelf itself. It was a tiny piece and was stuck in between the crack of the middle shelf. We almost missed it but spotted it while photographing the room,"
"Meaning she was pressed up against the shelf?" Victor tried to piece together.
There was a small hesitation over the phone, "it's possible... for the follicle to be stuck in the crack. But we can't say it's exactly what happened since hair is easily dropped everywhere."
Victor nodded even though he knew she couldn't see him, but he was already creating a picture in his head.
"And the other hair samples ?"
"They're a match too, sir"