The Heart Collector (Under Editing)

Chapter Eighteen: Pieces

Novus had escorted Milo upstairs to work with Hughes. Fare finished laying out the autopsy files on the floor when he returned.

"How's Milo?"

"Still jittery, but definitely more sober. I think that whatever he too is fading from his bloodstream."

"Do you think that what he says is true?" 

"I'm not sure, but like you I want to check. If something's there, Hughes will find it."

Novus sat down on the floor and Fare followed. She watched him silently scan the documents. She had always thought that Kila was the most determined person she had ever known, but she began to realize that Novus may have her beat. It was his day off and he was here with her going over not just one, but two cases.

Novus sat up and sighed, "Two people killed in two different manners. I'm sure there is a connection, but I can't see it."

Fare hummed in agreement.

"Even the locations are completely different. Why a library and a train?"

"I don't have an answer for Lynch, but I may have one for Kila. Milo told me that she asked him to meet her there the day she died. When I asked him why, he couldn't tell me for sure. My thoughts are that she wanted to give him something. She has sent him information before to keep safe, but this time she didn't get the chance to."

"Why Milo instead of you?"

"I've asked myself that question too. I think that Kila wanted to keep me out of whatever she was working on. If you thought that I was protective, Kila was worse. She hardly ever let Agatha and I into her work in case it turned dangerous. The phone call to me before she died was unusual because she rarely asked for my help and I'm constantly kicking myself for not looking into it sooner."

Novus laid a hand on her shoulder, "Fare, you couldn't have known. People act strange for several reasons."

She shrugged his hand off, "So you're telling me that her phone call could have been anything. That asking how to hide a file was normal conversation."

Novus sighed and bit his tongue. He knew that whatever he said next would just ignite Fare's fuse more, so his gaze returned to the files. Novus picked up a picture of August's wounds.

"The report stated that he was tortured before death. Do you think that he knew something?" Fare asked.

"I assume so. Why else would he be tortured? However, the question that I want answered a the moment is, was he tortured and killed on the train or was he dumped there?"

"You would think if someone was tortured then killed so publicly, someone would have heard something."

"My thoughts exactly, but everyone we interviewed claimed that they didn't hear anything and the rooms next to the one he was found in were unoccupied."

"When did you find that out?"

"I was reading the passenger manifest when I found you walking out of the crime scene. Speaking of which, did you notice anything?"

"Let me think."

Fare closed her eyes. She remembered entering and seeing newspapers scattered about. She remembered how she noticed the window and the shards just before she took cover under the seat.

"The window."

"What about it?"

"The window was broken."

"So? I must have broken during the struggle."

Fare punched his arm.

"Owe!" He rubbed his arm.