Murder Case.

Pg 22

At this point anyone could be an eligible suspect. It could be Jenny, who was wrapped up by Mark. It could be any of Brian's friends; Jason? Who was still very much angry with the police men and their stupid code of conducts, or Mark? Who hugged Jenny tightly and was looking out the white house with his thoughts miles away, or Red?, Who sat down on the floor hopelessly.

It could be that plumpy boy over there dozing off, or the thin one trembling with fear or those pair of dudes exchanging whispers between themselves or Rachael......

Lydia gaze fell on Rachael, who had her back on the wall, sitting on the floor with her hands holding her knees and squeezed tightly. Her eyes were open without a blink and if it weren't for the slow rise and fall of her breast, one would think she was lifeless.

Lydia studied her. Her waist was all tied up with bandages, the bleeding had stopped. She walked to where Rachael was, sat down beside her and held her closely - but not in a way that her waist would hurt, she was careful not to hold her too close. She wondered what happened to Rachael at wherever she was.

After some minutes, Lydia asked; "Rachael, what happened there?" Rachael features were unreadable, Lydia looked at her eyes, they were lifeless. Rachael remained in her stagnant position, Lydia's heart was broken. "I'm sorry we couldn't search for you. We care about you. I know I do, and we fought for you Rachael. Now, I really need to know what happened to you. Who did this to you? Did you see Brian?" Lydia added. There was no response but this time, there was a slight trickle of tears and soft sobs.

The police men approached and asked for Rachael audience and Lydia stood up hesitantly and left them. She knew she was getting there, it was only a matter of seconds and Rachael who'd have spoken, but the police men had to come at the wrong time and she knew better than to counter them.

Some minutes had passed and the police men kept on talking to a frozen Rachael. This was stupid and Lydia was getting impatient. She was almost getting Rachael to talk, those tears were good signs. She paced the room impatiently, waiting for the police men to be through with her.

After trying with effort to get Rachael to talk, the police men gave up and left and Lydia went back to start from where they stopped.

Still nothing.

Mark tried, nothing. Even Pearl and Lilly had tried, nothing.

Lydia bit her lower lips in frustration, impatience and nervousness. What on earth could make Rachael go limp?

Rachael still had the tears flowing down her eyes, but the soft sobs were gone. She was stagnant - not shaking, not moving. Was she in some kind of shock? Lydia had heard about this kind of things before happening to little children but not on adults and she hadn't seen any victim before. Lydia was highly loosing patience.

Why was Rachael in shock?

She summoned the last patience inside her and crouched down in front of Rachael. Breathing in and breathing out, she opened her mouth to speak; "Rachael....?" She had to be patient. "Talk to me....."

Rachael looked up slowly and her gaze fell outside; "Eric"