Private Investigation

Isn't that how this works?

TW: Language, Shooting, Gore?

Agatha stood at the edge of the forest staring off into darkness. Behind her everyone was squabbling over who they would search with but their voices sounded distant to her. Somewhere out there her sister was in danger and not for the first time she wasn't able to protect her. She always seemed to loose her grip on Sophie, she would slip from her embrace into harms way. The longer she stared at the infinite black, she began to noticed shades of the deepest blue and green bleed into her vision. Her mind started to notice things shifting behind branches and under fallen trees but they were quickly swept aside as small creatures playing without a care.

 A gentle hand on her shoulder bought Agatha back to reality. "We'll find her Agatha. I promise." The problem was that Agatha knew Tedros too well. She knew that tone, she hadn't heard it for a while but it was familiar all the same. It was dripping with doubt and uncertainty but he was never one to give up, not on someone that meant so much to her. 

She looked to the others and the first thing she noticed was Beatrix eyeing up Dot. It wasn't necessarily threatening but it was definitely apprehensive and Agatha suspected it was because if something went wrong she wasn't sure Dot would be much use. Beside her stood Hort and Kei, who was glaring at Tedros. "What's wrong with him?" Agatha whispered so that only Tedros would hear. 

"He's got to go with Detective Brooke." Before Agatha could ask anymore questions Dot raised her voice. 

"Right then, everyone needs to stay alert. Japeth has a weapon and we don't know who else could be in these wood-" 

"Basically, don't be stupid and don't get killed." Hester interrupted, clearly eager to get going. "Woods, you're with me." Hester called before  walking into the forest. 

Agatha cast a final glance at Tedros who shrugged as if to say I tried, before following the  detective into the darkness.

***

It didn't take long to lose everyone else. Hester and Agatha had been walking for about thirty minutes and they were now deep within the forest. They had long since strayed from any form of path and were relying upon the dim light of their torch to guide them over the moss covered ground littered with twisting roots, tree trunks and fallen branches. 

"Shh" Hester raised her arm to stop Agatha as  her eyes scanned the darkness. She could have sworn she heard a noise. It was quiet, too quiet to be a branch snapping but it was still very distinctive. Hester had definitely heard it before, but not in a forest. Slowly Hester lifted her torch up and pointed to a clearing just visible through the trees. By some stroke of luck they made it without a sound and without being ambushed. 

The pair stood back to back, looking into the forest that surrounded them. They were too scared to talk, relying entirely on the hope that the other could predict their next steps. Then through the darkness came a small light, not a torch, but a flame. Hester could feel her heart sink and her head began to dart between fight or flight. It was the flame from a lighter. 

"Tell me Detective Caro, did you ever catch the true killer? It really is a tragedy what is about to happen to that poor girl. For the life of me, I can't recall her name." 

Hester felt her heart sink as the silver haired mobster emerged into the clearing. She couldn't move, she could hardly breathe and yet she still heard herself speaking. "Yara."

"That's the one." the words fell from his tongue like venom from the fangs of a snake. Hester hadn't said that name out loud for five years. While the normally fierce detective tried to regain her composure, Rafal was grinning. Not because he broke Hester. Oh no, that happened as soon as she found his tie pin at the scene of the crime, when it was too late. He was grinning because he had seen the other girl in the clearing, and the look of betrayal on her face.