Burn slow

Chapter 20| Two victims

Hiii! This chapter will be a little bit unusual because the narration will be led by Wednesday and Xavier in one chapter. Just follow who is telling the story at this very point of the chapter.

Love youuu,
Oryna :)

POV Wednesday

When the night unceremoniously pushed the day away, Xavier and I stood near the door of Bob Richardson' house on the outskirts of the city, having left the motorcycle at a parking nearby. Xavier knocked at the door and we waited for a minute expecting Bob to appear, then we knocked again. However, it didn't bring any result:
- Maybe he is not at home? - Xavier's eyes expressed bewilderment. He tried to look inside the window but opaque flamboyant curtains were tightly drawn.
- He should be, - it was not only the outcome of the short chain of logic, - There are lights turned on at the top floor, - but also my desperate need to get answers for my questions.
- Nothing ventured, nothing have, - Xavier told that to himself and his fingers carefully twisted a bronze door handle.
When Xavier peeked through the crack, he addressed to mister Richardson:
- Excuse us, sir, for such a late visit... it's Xavier, Xavier Thorpe and... - he got abrupted by something that astonished Xavier to the bone. He addressed to me: - Don't enter the house.
I strongly pushed the door and went over the doorstep.

Despite it was difficult to see in the dark, I could easily see Mr. Richardson's dead body in a pool of blood. The cause of death was explicit: a metal Parker pen sticking out of the left ear. Xavier turned on the flashlight and we both put on rubber gloves that I always had with me: slight livor mortis darkened on Bob's skin that meant that he had been murdered from 1 hour to 4 hours ago. Scared eyes of the victim were opened and it seemed the last moment of life had frozen in them. A soon as my fingers touched dead eyelids to close them, my mind immersed into the viscous pool of the past.

Mister Richardson was not that old man in his fifties, however his look dictated vice versa. Bob's greasy hair was grey and sparse, and his blue eyes had already become watery. The man wore a pink fluffy robe with black laces on the collar and sleeves (Enid would scream with delight if she saw it), and manly dark-blue velvet sleepers were obviously gifted Bob by someone. Mt. Richardson was cleaning his teeth on the top floor when he heard his doorbell ring. He spit the blood and foam from his sore gums and went down the stairs to check on who had come at this late time. Bob sincerely smiled to a person who just came, however, the smile immediately vanished as soon as the visitor took out a metal pen, holding it like a knife. The killer attacked; they pushed the poor man to the ground. The victim, having squinted, fell on the floor flipping his legs like a pathetic bug laying on its back. The killer swung the pen and inserted it into Bob's left ear. The pen got twisted, getting deeper into the head, smashing victim's brain; since the murder was moving, their navy sleeve pulled up and just for a second I saw a small tattoo on the arm - an eye, just like on a picture that I found in the room of Xavier's mother. The murder laughed with a weird squeaky laugh, and the vision ended.

I opened my eyes laying in the pool of cool viscous blood of the victim. My hair stuck to my cheek, and my turn-down snowy white blouse with laces got a new maroon pattern:

- What a f... failure, - I couldn't help myself looking at my hand covered with blood.
- Are you alright?! - Xavier took me under the arms and lifted me up, like I was just a feather.
- Yes, l hope I didn't leave my DNA here. I have to check that if I don't want to end my life in a jail, - I looked around and then added: - I have much more alluring plan to end my life.
Xavier smirked but his eyes were still scanning me.
- I'll help you with your check. We also have to wipe out the door handle.

Since everything was checked and cleaned, we decided to take a tour around the house to check if there was something else valuable for our research.
We entered the dark living room and the smell of dust and dampness hit my nose. English style furniture seemed to produced in the Victorian Era. On the fireplace could be found a crochet lace doily, and the same one was on the polished wooden light brown table near the window. The sofa in the opposite corner was disgustingly peach, and armchairs had an abominable pink flowery pattern. The carpet resembled a tapestry that some day hang on a wall of an English castle. Mould in the corners crawled up the wallpapers and the images of English letters in frames served as a weird decoration for walls:
- Bob has always been strange, - Xavier commented with a cotton mouth. - I mean, he was... And these letters give me heebie-jeebies.
- You just observed the area with a dead body, not batting an eye, - I turned around.
- It's just your influence, - Xavier lifted his chin up, foxy fire danced in his eyes. - I have a gold standard.
- You've chosen a wrong one, - I turned back, my eyes were wondering from one letter to another.
- I disagree, - Xavier hid his hands in pockets. Then he switched to another topic not letting me continue the discussion. - There's something wrong with them, but I can't understand what exactly, - Xavier stared at the letters like it could help to reveal their secret.
- There are only particular letters on the walls, - I got closer, looking at blue "O", red "U", and green "C".
- You can get the word "Oculus" from these letters. - Xavier found the key to this riddle. - Every time this "Oculus" keeps popping up. It can't be a coincidence, right?
- Only irrational individuals tend to believe in coincidences. It wasn't also a coincidence that in my vision I saw a murder's hand with a tattoo of an eye on their hand, - but then I stopped being cut by my own new train of thought. - Look at that letter "S".
- What's wrong with that? - Xavier frowned, having approached the image.
- It's the only letter which looks like a handwriting. It's curvy. Other letters are printed, - I took the image off the wall.
- Flip it over, - Xavier showed the twisting movement with his index finger. At other side of the picture there was a faded yellow photo of a cafe with a sign "Oculus". - I know this building.
- Can we go there now? - every muscle in my body was like a string of my cello. However, in a moment my heart jumped out of my chest.
Police car siren hit our ears. Our eyes got widened and we started searching for a back door. I got back to Bob's body for a second to make sure we didn't leave anything at the scene of crime. My eyes detected something much more suspicious and disturbing than I expected, it made me freeze; Xavier's hands grabbed me and pulled me of the house through the window.