Echoes

72 Hours Left - Evening

I was approaching the homicide department when I saw Matt heading towards a large warehouse set behind the main building. I run to catch up with him and jump into his shoulder, jarring him and making him stumble. He whirls on me with an annoyed expression ready to say something but stops and rolls his eyes when he sees its me.

"What are you doing here?" He asks, walking up to the warehouse door. He looks over at me with a concerned expression. "You didn't do anything stupid did you?"

I laughed and shook my head. "Nah just came to say hello, see your new digs. Check everything out."

He narrows his eye in suspicion but opens the door and walks inside, holding it open for me as I scurry in behind him. After my eyes adjust to the new lighting I see shelves upon shelves of boxes, all meticulously labeled and organized. It only took me a second to realize where we are, the evidence warehouse. I almost laugh out loud, what luck to end up almost exactly where I needed to be without even trying. I follow him to what looks like a small desk, but I could barely see it under the mountains of paperwork balanced precariously on its surface.

I look at Matt as he takes a seat, immediately disappearing behind the papers. "Its your first day and you already pissed someone off?" I sigh.

"No, its some hazing ritual." I hear him grumble. "Apparently how they welcome the newbie to the department."

I laugh. "That sounds thrilling." I walk around the stacks to look at him. "Did you already take lunch? Wanna grab something together?" I ask him. As I waited for his answer, I was silently hoping that he still had a few hours to go before his break. That would give me ample time to wander around and look for the evidence belonging to the serial murders.

"I already took lunch, sorry." I heard the shuffle of papers and then he peeked his head to look at me. "Technically you aren't supposed to be back here, you really should get going."

My shoulders fell in disappointment, and I stared at him for a moment. "I can't hang out, for even just a second. To be honest I wanted to see what it's like being a detective. If it's as glamorous as the movies make it out to be." I give a coy smile, batting my eyelashes at him. I see a glimpse of a smile before his face falls blank and he gives me an incredulous stare.

"What do you want?" His voice was monotone, and I knew he didn't buy my pathetic excuse.

I hesitated for a second before deciding on a bit of honesty with a touch of dramatics. I rush around the stacks of paper until I'm standing right next to him. I grab his shoulder and put my chin on my hand, bringing my face close to his whispering dramatically. "Okay, to be honest I wanna see what evidence you guys have on that serial killer going around town lately." I grin. "I want to see if I could flex my investigation skills and find something you haven't yet." He swallows hard and looks away, uncomfortable at my proximity, hesitating to answer. I almost smirked, I knew I had him, but the moment of victory was chased away by a twinge of guilt at playing dirty. I have known Matt for a long time, meaning, I also knew what got to him.

He finally looks at me again and huffs. "Fine, but I don't think you will find much. The warehouse is for older cases, so the only evidence here is from the first victim. It's the fourth row and the third shelf up, the newest looking box there." He turns and grabs a pen and paper, scribbling down some numbers. "This is the case number, but you only have thirty minutes to look through everything, you really shouldn't be back here."

I grab the paper from him and before thinking about it, I plant a small kiss on his cheek with a big smile. "Thanks!" I skip away quickly, but not before catching the shocked look on his face.

I immediately felt disgusted with myself and slightly horrified at my own actions. I specifically kept a distance in our friendship, it made things easy and not complicated; But in a matter of minutes, I completely obliterated those boundaries I had so carefully upheld. I shook my head and pushed away the guilt. This was a matter of life and death; I could focus on silly things like that after I survived this insanity. It didn't take me long to find the box and I felt a glimmer of excitement as I took it down. It was lighter than I imagined, but I didn't let it concern me as I placed it on the ground to look through it. Pulling the lid off, I fought the urge to throw myself on the ground in frustration as I saw the contents of the box, Matt was right, there wasn't much here at all. There were a few college textbooks for biology and animal medicine, a wallet, and a small bag of what looked like toiletries. I grabbed the wallet and looked inside, a few credit cards, a café membership card, and a student ID. I pull out the ID and look at the photo, the girls name was Alexandra Martin and she had bright blue eyes and brown hair. Her hair and makeup were impeccable, and her wide smile showed perfect white teeth. Her grin was forced and bordered on hysterics, like she was trying too hard to look happy. I sigh and lean back against the shelves; these were the kinds of girls that people mourned over when they disappeared. Young, pretty, aspiring college students with a gleaming future ahead of them. The type of girls that people cried over, begging to know why such a horrible thing would happen to such a bright girl. I wondered the same thing as I looked at her photo, nothing in this box gave me any indication that she was the type to get involved with trouble. I scoff at the thought and roll my eyes; a simple ID and some textbooks gave you no information about anything but her college major. Though the longer I looked at her photo the more I felt like I had seen her before, like she was weirdly familiar. After a few moments of trying to place her in my memory I gave up, my patience running thin, and dropped her wallet back in the box before closing the lid and returning it to the shelf. Feeling disheartened I gave Matt a small, muttered goodbye and left the warehouse, the sun blinding me as I exited the building. I needed to get the actual case files and the evidence from the other victims, but I was at a loss of how to get said information. If they were in the main building, that means it would take more than a few close-up words with Matt to get my hands on them. Cars were flying past me as I walked down the sidewalk, trying to think. If I could at least find them in the building it would be easier for me to create a plan of action. In the distance the neon sign of my favorite restaurant catches my attention, it was a small little Indian place that served the best curry. I smiled, and started towards the restaurant, it was important to focus on the task at hand, but small joys are just as important. Solving my murder could wait for a few hours, I could really use some comfort food right now.

I spent longer than what I originally planned to at the restaurant, savoring the flavors of the food, the sounds, and smells of the restaurant. Almost creating a mental photograph of it, taking in every little detail I could until there was nothing left. I felt melancholy as I head to the liquor store for my shift. Part of me thought it was stupid to still come into work when I had better things to do, but I was mostly just lost and overwhelmed. I didn't figure out anything new that could help me, and I felt like I had wasted so much time for nothing. So, what would I lose by wasting more time working? I was sitting behind the counter flipping through a magazine when I came across an article covering controversial reform camps. The kind you send your troubled teen to in some pitiful attempt to fix your own bad parenting. I mutter under my breath and go to turn the page when a name catches my eye and I freeze, Sunshine Acres Reform. My heart starts racing and suddenly I'm there again.

It was the summer I turned 15 and I had just gotten kicked out of another foster home, this time for stealing, and my social worker had just about given up hope for me. In some final desperate attempt at making me adoptable she sent me to the reform camp, although I wasn't sure why, I told her I was fine on my own. The camp was deplorable, the cabins leaking and the beds dirty and filled with bed bugs, but the worst part about it was the girl that never spoke. Just being around her made me feel uneasy, like any minute she could snap, and I wouldn't even notice before it was too late. I had just gotten in trouble again and was cleaning out the showers as punishment when the girl came up to me, she had blood dripping from her hands and her clothing was splashed with it. Immediately the metallic tang stung my nose and I recoiled from her, gasping in horror as I looked at her manic grin.

"I took care of them for you." She giggled; her voice raspy from not being used.

My mind went blank as I staggered away from her, tripping on the mop bucket behind me and crashing to the ground. Her perfect white teeth gleamed in stark contrast to the dirt and blood stains covering her face and clothing.

"Alexandra." I choke out her name. "What did you do?"

Next part - Sept 4th