When I Met You

The Merrel Street Murderer

                                                                                 . . .

"Hey, Emma!" Leo yelled from across the street, "Wait up!"

I slow down just enough for him to catch up with Stephanie and me.

"What are you guys talking about?" he asks.

"The Merrel Street Murderer," Stephanie replies quietly as not to upset anyone walking by.

This was a difficult conversation in our town, Greenwich. We used to be the number one vacation spot in California. That was, before the first murder, done by the Merrel Street Murderer.

"Oh, yeah, I heard they found a weapon in the last house he was at.", he replied in a whisper.

"Negative. They found a wooden dagger that the victim had used for her Buffy the Vampire Slayer costume for Halloween that week. It had her blood on it only because of the way she must have fallen. Blood from her wounds must've splattered onto it. Plus, the tip did not match her wounds and did not have enough blood on it for it to have been the weapon used." I replied in my regular level, unaffected tone.

"Oh! That makes way more sense than what Jeffery Henderson told me." Leo replied, still whispering, to Stephanie and me about how Jeffery was known for TP-ing a different teacher's house every year.

The Merrel Street Murderer, as the town had so thoughtfully named him or her, had a body count of four. No common thread besides their mailing address, they all lived on Merrel Street. The busiest street in our less than busy town. All this was interesting, but even more interesting when your father is a head detective.

John Allen, my father, divorced my mother, Emily E. when I was ten years old. My mother left. She never even tried to take me with her. She didn't care what happened to me. Just as long as she got half a million dollars, no contact. What did I tell you? No such thing as love.

My father was devastated at first, I could tell. I was too, but instead of crying about something I didn't understand, I spent my time doing something I did. I read every law book I could find. I got straight A's, competed in, and won every academic decathlon. My dad did the same. He dove into his work and never hesitated, working through night shift after night shift. I taught myself how to cook so that I wouldn't just eat Mac n' Cheese from a box every night. My father and I would only see each other when we had dinner together on Tuesdays, and every Friday I would go to his office to help him with work.

It's Friday, so I head to the office with Stephanie and Leo. Stephanie and I have known each other since kindergarten. She dresses brightly to match her sunshine Barbie personality, but underneath the blinding rainbow of glitter, she is fierce and loyal to a tee. I met Leo last year when he was trying to hide from bullies in the A.V. room, helped him out of a pinch, and well now I'm stuck with him.

"Oof!" I bump into someone turning the corner and land with a thud on the pavement.