Revenge is Sweet

Chapter Five Tamera

       Her face said it all. Shock, terror, confusion. She knew what I was talking about. I hadn't been wrong, now I just had to figure out what else she was hiding.

"I- um? What?!" Her face was pale, like sit-down-or-faint pale. I wondered if I should make her sit.

"You look like you're going to faint, sit down, and as soon as you're ready- talk. I want to hear everything." I said it in my most business tone. She didn't listen, she just straightened her spine and stared at me, anger and hurt filling her face.

"I... no I wasn't at the mansion. I host parties, but I almost never attend them. Why would I? So hundreds of my dead husband's friends can offer fake condolences about my dead daughter? What makes you think I'd want to be there? I show up for ten minutes, say hello to the important people from my past and I leave. I come here, where there are no memories or people I can't stand. How did you even know about this?" Her tone has gone from shock to disdain, hatred coats her words and her expression has iced over completely.

Shit. Why hadn't I thought this through? Of course, of fucking course she has money and a mansion. Her husband had been the biggest defense attorney this town had ever seen. And if she had mansion money, it made sense she'd honor her daughter with a symbol. Did any of that make her a murderer? I knew this girl, I knew in my heart she wasn't a murderer. She was my friend, my sweet, beautiful, sad and caring friend. I needed to stop jumping to conclusions. These murders were making me loopy. I needed to apologize.

"I'm sorry, I just... I thought maybe you were hiding something more. So I followed you to your apartment and then... I saw the car. The BMW, and I just got confused and jumped to a terrible conclusion. I thought maybe you were leading a secret second life where you murdered people and were rich or something stupid. I'm sorry Vanessa. I fucked up and I hurt you and I didn't mean to. Have a good night." With that I turned and got into my van. I felt crappy about bringing up painful memories, but at least some things were making sense now.

After that stupid encounter I was beating myself for accusing Vanessa of being capable of 6 murders. I needed to sleep, get my head on straight. I was almost to my house when my cell rang in the seat next to me, I snatched it up and answered it, jabbing the speakerphone button so I could focus on the road.

The tinny voice from the speaker floated into the car:

"Detective? We found another one, it's bad... this is what the 7th?" The voice belonged to my second in command so to speak, Detective Max Day was bad ass when it came to crime scenes, never threw up or anything. But she had a point, seven bodies, and this one less than a full day away since the last. The killer was becoming more efficient.

"Where Max?" I needed to go see it for myself, I needed an address.

"Toralee Hills place on 3rd street." Her reply was bland, like she hadn't just said the town's richest widow had just been murdered. Toralee?? I had seen her only hours before... at Vanessa's party. Shit. This was bad. I spun the van around in a flash, Hill's house was behind me. I needed to catch the bastard killing in my town before they killed an 8th. Or else this was going to be the end of my career. I knew that I wouldn't have a job if the death toll got much damn higher.

I entered the house, not even bothering to flash my badge at the officer at the door, he knew better than to stop me. I stepped into the foyer of the house and called out to Max unsure of where the murder had occurred.

She called me from the kitchen, my heels clicked against the linoleum floor as I entered the bright kitchen and took in the scene. Toralee's body was laying on the floor, her hands folded across her midriff in a sleeping position, this one hadn't been brutal like Jaspers, but it had been effective nonetheless.

"What have you learned?" I asked, kneeling next to her body, addressing Max, with a passing glance. She looked good, thinner, blonde hair shiny after a month away, her green eyes full of emotion. I remembered suddenly that Toralee had been her friend, back before her husband had passed. Toralee hadn't been the same after Zanders death. She'd become... greedy. That was when Max shifted just enough for me to see the message on the floor.

Greed is a killer

CRW

The message was... brutal. In a soft way, in a way that made you wonder about the meaning while the meaning slapped you in the face. This murder held significance, making you wonder whether the others had sent a message too. This wasn't a message to us, the cops, or even the town. It was a message for the dead, for the people that had been murdered in the last three weeks. I needed to look at all of the murders again. I needed to connect them.