The Mirror

Part 5 (continue)

Little, Barkley, and Carnes present all the evidence they gathered
Carnes and Little discuss what the evidence could mean
Kyle Harris (The Professional Hacker) shows up at the station

Detective Little, Doctor Barkley, and Doctor Carnes are in the examination room. They are about to go over the evidence that Carnes and Barkley found.
“Okay, so, what do you guys have for me?”
“Alright, me first. When you gave me the pearls and note to examine, I spent hours running tests after tests; and I only came up with Austin’s, Lily’s, and Mike’s.
Barkley put on gloves, took out the note and pearls, and placed them on the table.
“You just reminded me, Barkley, I found a note in one of Mike’s dresser drawers and it was the complete opposite of what that note says.”
1st note found at Mike’s house: “I had a great time with you for as long as I can remember, but I have become sick with guilt. I would like to talk more about this with you in person. I’ll meet you at your house later in the night. See you soon- Love Lily xoxoxo.”
2nd note found at Mike’s house: “My love, our time together has been unbelievably romantic. I think I am going to end it with him. My time with you has helped me realize that I want and love you. I will contact you when it is done. From your beloved- XOXOXO.”
“Also, I found a picture in Mike’s house of him and Lily in Jason’s house and a rock used to break the doorknob off the back door of Mike’s house. In Jason’s house, I found pictures of him and Lily, but Lily’s face was crossed out in all the pictures.”
“Oh wow”, said Doctor Carnes.
“What’s next? Whatcha got, Carnes?”

“Okay, well this is a recording of the conversation Barkley and I had with Austin”:
[“Oh, I must be loved. I have visitors”, Austin sarcastically says.
“Let’s just cut to the chase, Austin. Barkely, let him know.”
Barkley says, “This is when Austin’s attention switches from Carnes to me. I sit down and place the Ziploc bag on the table in front of Austin.”
“So, I’m assuming, you got the results back and wish to share them with me?”
“Yes and no. We have questions for you because of the results we got. I examined the note and pearls many times, but I only got your fingerprints on both these items. Can you explain that?”
“Of course, but only when I get my lawyer and when the detective comes back. Sorry.”
“I’m going to ask you one last time, why are only your fingerprints on the pearls and the note?”
“You puny bastard, you better get out of my face before I cause you to have the same bandage your female doctor friend has!”
“Your turn.”
“Your brother is going to jail for a crime he probably didn’t commit. You could help-...”
“I do not care about my brother. He has never treated me as an equal. He has always treated me as a servant, an employee, never as a brother and business partner. I would not care if he were to go to jail for the rest of his life. I would not care if he died in prison because he was too weak to protect himself. The only thing I care about is what is rightfully mine and that is my publishing company. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some sleep to catch up on, bye.”
“If your brother goes down then all of you will go down, bitch”]

“Well, Miss Carnes, you seemed pretty heated.”
Little stared at Carnes for a few seconds before she noticed and then she started staring at Little. Everything was quiet for a minute until there was a knock on the door.
(Knock, knock, knock)
The knocking did not break the concentration of both Little and Carnes. Barkley looked at both of them, “I guess I’ll get that. Don’t worry, I’m not doing anything. You two stay right there!”
Barkley answered the door and it was Lillian from the photo shop office. She had all the pictures processed from the Detective’s camera. Lillian left and Barkley closed the door; he noticed that they both were still staring at each other, so he slammed the pictures on the table in front of Little, and that broke their concentration and silence. “Well! Welcome back to reality. I’m glad you lovebirds could join us. Shit, how was cloud nine? Would you like to go back?”
Little gives Barkley a death stare while Carnes turns her head to look at the photos.
Carnes says, “So, what are we looking at here, Detective?”
Barkley says sarcastically, “Yeah, so, what are we looking at here, Detective?”
“Alright, now pay attention. These pictures are from Mike’s house. This is the nude picture of Lily and Mike in Jason’s house and a trash can; I found the nude picture in a trash can. Next, I saw an area in Mike's backyard that was not covered by grass; I believe that Lily’s body was buried there in that spot. Lastly, and this one's for you Barkley, I found this rock in Mike’s backyard, which caused the door handle on the back door to be broken off, as I said earlier.” Little gives Barkley the Ziploc bag with the rock in it for examination. “Is your hacker friend on the way, Barkley? You told me he was on the way an hour ago!”
“Can you be patient, Detective Little? He said he was on the way.”
Barkley begins to examine the rock, while Carnes and Little go over the photos from Jason’s house.
“Explain Jason’s house pictures.”
“This one is a photo of him and Lily that was on one of his picture stands in his house, and it shows Lily’s face being crossed out of the picture. The next photo shows Lily's belongings still in her drawer. I also took pictures of scratches on the floor in the hallway, the master, and the guest bedroom.”
“Okay, Little, let’s backtrack. This is a lot of evidence to examine, so why don’t we break all the evidence down one piece at a time?”
“Yeah, sounds good to me, but first… HEY, asswipe, whose fingerprints did you find on the rock, if any?”
“Well, ass sniffer, it was easy to find; Austin’s fingerprints were definitely on this rock.”
“You’re finally doing your job, test tube baby, now what about your hacker friend!?”
“He said he’ll be here in an hour, OK!?”
“Tell him to hurry his ass up!”
Barkley rolls his eyes and proceeds to walk over to the table where Carnes and Little were sitting to go through all pieces of evidence one by one.
“Alright Doctors, the two notes supposedly written by Lily, which one is the real one and why?”
Carnes says, “I think the one that you found at Mike’s house is the real one because….”
“Because Lily and Mike’s fingerprints are on that note.”
Carnes and Little look at Barkley confusedly.
“How do you know that, Liam?”
“Well, Katy, I ran a test on the note and found that Lily and Mike’s fingerprints were on said note, DUH!”
Katy rolls her eyes at Liam.
“Play nice, ladies and…. ladies. Since you say that Barkley, that means either Austin or Jason wrote that note and also planted it in Mike’s house. If that is the case, then that explains the door knob being broken off the back door, something or someone being buried in his backyard, and the nude picture of both Mike and Lily being found in the trash can.”
Barkley interjects, “What if Mike actually did it?”
“No,” Carnes and Little said in unison.
“Come on Barkley, you were on a roll with the fingerprints on the note, don’t fuck it up now, ok?”
Barkley sighs in frustration at the Detective.
“Mike was already in jail when I went to search his house.
“True, but he could have done it before you arrested him”, stated Carnes.
“How the hell are you going to say no when I said Mike did it, but when you decide that Mike might have done it then you want to agree? What the fuck!?
Anyway, I think he had someone do it for him”, said Carnes.
“Hell no! When would he find the time to do it himself, Barkley? He was being held at the police station. Also, Carnes, who could have done all of this for Mike? Not his own brother, Austin! Based on the recording I heard, Austin has extreme hatred for his brother and he would not care if he went down for this murder or even killed. We all know that Jason and the other Jason would not even dream of helping the man who was sleeping with his wife!”
“Okay, Doctors, let me give you a perspective and a scenario. Let’s look at it as if Austin was the main criminal here; he wanted the publishing company, so he started looking for weak points in Mike to get him to step down as boss. One day Austin found out about Mike and Lily and he killed her to blame the murder on Mike. Of course, he needs help from Jason, so he tells Jason that Mike killed his beloved Lily, so he can make Jason think that all he wants to do is help him get revenge on the murderer of his wife. In Austin’s eyes, if it worked out in his favor, Mike would go to jail or be killed by the vengeful husband. In Jason’s eyes, he would have killed the person who murdered his wife. Finally, Austin would have the company all to himself without any interference from his brother.”
Barkley says, “How does that explain the beds being moved from one room to the other in Jason’s house? How would a rock being found in Mike’s backyard help Jason or Austin? How does Lily’s face being crossed out in the pictures tie in with that so-called theory of yours?
Carnes interjects, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with Liam. Also, how did Austin kill Lily and where is the murder weapon?”
“Hold your questions, you damn goons. Now let’s say Jason is the one behind all this shit; Jason found out somehow by Austin or on his own that Mike was sleeping with his wife. This explains why he wrote the damn book about it and gave it to Mike to read. I believe Jason has always had a split personality; it was just dormant, but finding out his wife was cheating with his boss caused the other personality to take over. The other Jason killed Lily in the master bedroom, packed down the body somehow, and buried it in Mike’s backyard. Jason wanted Mike destroyed for what he did to him. Now, guess what? Austin also wanted to bury Mike, in a sense, so he helped Jason with whatever he needed help with. Which explains Mike's house being broken into, fake evidence being found in Mike’s bedroom to make it seem like he was the murderer, and the guest bedroom being moved to the master bedroom in Jason’s house. Jason wants to make it seem like he is this helpless, heartbroken victim, but he is the mastermind behind all this shit and Austin is just along for the ride to see his brother go down and never return. Basically, Austin is a sidekick. That, my goonie Doctors, is a solid theory and statement. SHIT! I’m so good!”
Carnes looked at Barkley and then at Little in complete silence and said, “I finally see that Jason does have MPD. At first, I thought it was just some smart-ass murderer playing at insanity to get off easily. However, after he said that he’d do worse to me than make my forehead bleed if I ever tried to force him to come out again, I realized that he was not the normal Jason I started talking to. The dominant personality was sad, angry, worried; and he thought I was Lily. The other Jason was extremely cold-blooded looking, had dark, blood-lust eyes; and to top it all off he was cool as a sociopath. He scared me so badly that I felt my heart sink to the pit of my stomach.”
Liam and John saw the terrified look on Katy’s face. Liam starts to rub Katy’s back and says, “How are we going to prove any of this?”
“Well Barkley, if you would get your hand off of Doctor Carnes and focus more on getting that shitty ass hacker friend of yours here, you would not need to ask how are we going to prove this shit!”
(KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK)
“Well Detective Jealousy, I suspect that is….”
John slowly started to stand up, but before he could even look at Barkley, he ran his skinny ass to open the door to see that it indeed was his hacker friend, Kyle Harris.