Burn the Evidence #ONC2023

20| i think she did it

WHEN I CAME to, I was sitting in the shade of a police car, a worried Mary sitting next to me.

"Hello, dear. How are you feeling?" Mary asked kindly, gesturing to my shoulder.

I couldn't feel it.

"I can't," I looked around wildly, "I can't feel it."

Mary patted my good arm and stood, her old fashioned blazer and pencil skirt creating an image of an old southern belle.

"That's good. The medicine is working. After Jim gets your statement about everything that's happened, you'll go to Granite Hospital to get everything checked out. I don't think anything is broken, but then again, I'm a receptionist," she giggled into her handkerchief and smiled down at me.

I couldn't help but smile back, but then I frowned.

"Where's Jamie? And Tate?" I lowered my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Have you seen Tyler? He's dead. Like dead-dead. Like super dead. And guess what? Tate killed him. I don't know how though. Maybe there's something in her trailer!"

I stood up, proud to have come up with such a good idea. Against Mary's wishes, I began waddling over to the trailer, the scene covered in yellow police tape and monitored by state troopers. 

Man, I must have been out for a while.

I stumbled into the trailer, ignoring the protests of the men behind me. Oddly enough, they didn't try to stop me.

Huh.

As I walked into the living room, I saw that someone had destroyed Cherry's fort. The cushion was back on the couch, but everything else was in a chaotic pile at the end of the sofa. Something about the sight of a child's former playhouse destroyed made me want to cry.

I scanned the rest of the room, dully noting the wrecked kitchen and hallway. The police had definitely been thorough when they had gone through here. Some part of me had thought there would be one more clue, one more hint to solve.

I felt strangely empty now that the mystery was over.

The only thing missing was... Oh my god, Luke!

He sat against the farthest door in the hallway, his left eye bruised and his hands tied behind his back. A used gag was slung around his neck, and an officer was asking him what had happened.

It didn't matter that my arm was in a sling and I probably looked half dead. After everything that happened, this seemed too good to be true. Too easy.

Why would Tate kill Tyler and not Luke? To blackmail me into not confessing what I knew? That would definitely make the most sense, but at that moment, I didn't care.

The only thing that mattered was that everything was finally right in the world.

Luke's eyes reached up and met mine, a brief smile flickering across his face before he turned his attention back to the officer. He nodded, reached around Luke to cut him free, and walked past me, sending a polite smile my way.

And... there he was.

"Luke?" I whispered, touching my fingertips to my lips. It seemed unreal that he was there, simply there, and I didn't even have to be almost killed to find him.

Well, I didn't have to have a gun pointed at me.

"Ava," he said, a smile growing on his face. He opened his arms wide, standing up.

I jumped into his arms without a second thought, all logic and reason gone out on their lunch break. All that mattered was that he came out of this okay. Mel and Max and Jamie were all going to be okay. We would have a funeral for Tyler. We could go back to living life.