The Forest

Chapter 5 The lead

Anya stepped outside of the police station and took a breath of fresh air, she took her phone out and looked at the time 10:45. Plenty of time, she took out the map from her purse and unfolded and read it. She started walking, following the direction of the map when a small droplet hit it making her look up to the sky, one after the other small droplets of rain fell down hitting everything around her. She picked up her pace while the rain fell down, the rain started to become heavier and she stopped to take shelter under a roof at the entrance of a store. She looked inside only to see that they sold umbrellas, perfect she thought and went inside. She walked up to the rack with umbrellas and looked at them, blue, green, pink, flowers, dots, strips and many other colors and prints. She picked up a soft green umbrella with dark green shadowy leaf's on, it was a purse umbrella and it would fit perfect in her bag. She looked it over and was happy with it and went up to the register to pay. She stepped outside and opened her umbrella up and stepped out in to the rain and continued on her way.

The heavy door closed behind her as she closed her umbrella and put it back in to its pouch and then in her purse, she took a deep breath. She loved the smell of books, she walked towards the librarian at the desk. The library was fairly quiet except from small voices whispering, the librarian looked up at her as she approached.

"Can I help you?" the lady asked in a low tone.

"Yes, do you have old newspapers and history books of Hills town?" Anya asked in a hushed tone.

"If you go to section 5b Hills town history books from 1756 and forward and we have the newspaper in the arcives its in the back and open for everyone, just put them back to where you found them we don't lend them out" she pointed towards the back.

"Thank you" Anya walked away from the desk and headed towards the back to look at the newspapers.

6h later

Anya looked up from the book to take some notes, she grabbed another book with new article and looked it over. She gave sight and put it down on the table, how many hours has it been. She reached over for her phone and saw the time 17:04, she stood up and stretched and started to pick up the books to put them back in to place. With the final book back, she grabbed her note book and put it in her bag and flung it over her shoulder, she gave her cheeks a slight tap to wake herself up. With that she headed out and gave the librarian a goodbye and opened the big door, she stepped out into the cold air. It had become dark and the rain had stopped, she pulled her hands to her mouth and blew on them trying to keep them warm. She walked down the stairs and headed for the hotel walking on the sidewalk as the light from stores and street lights lit the surroundings up. Further ahead she could see the hotel and then her car, she didn't notice the cop car that was close by and hurried up to her car and jumped in. She started the car and drove off, the map was folded out next to her in the passenger seat, she threw an eye on it to find her way out of town and on to road 24. She picked up her speed as soon as she was outside of town and drove for about 8 minutes when she spotted the yellow tape, she slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road and parking the car. The forest went completely black as the engine turned off, she reached for the lamp buttons and turned them on. Now that there was light inside of the car she reached for the glove compartment and opened it, in there was a flashlight and other crap that she put in it if she needed it. She grabbed the flashlight and her bag and opened the car door, before she jumped out, she turned the light off and got out.

The ground was still wet from the rain and the forest would be the same if not worse since the ground would be slippery with all the leaves and mud, she held her flashlight out and clicked the button. A white light came out of it and stretched in front of her, she started to walk forward to the tree line and moved the light back and forth. A few meters away she found a way down that didn't look to hard to traverse down, she walked over and looked at the trail. Yellow tape hung around the area with black text saying "police stay back do not cross", she lifted it up and went under it down the trail. She grabbed at trees to try to keep her balance, it was slippery and a few times she almost slipped but eventually she made it down to even ground. She flung the light around looking for any clue to where the attack happened, about 25 meter in front of her she saw another yellow tape. Walking carefully forward so she didn't step on anything she made her way to the tape, this time she didn't go past it she just shone her light around looking at the scene in front of her. The rain had washed most of the blood away and any tracks that could have been there, she was engrossed in her thoughts that when a hand touched her shoulder she screamed and jumped turning around throwing her arms around in a weak attempt to fight of whom ever it was.