We'll Meet Again (Original Book)

|13| Culprit

The second they got that address on their hands, the three rushed to Nathalie's car. Nathalie made sure to be the one to drive this time. She didn't know if they'd survive another car ride with Jocasta on the driver's seat.

They had to get there fast if they didn't want to find a corpse in the old man's place. It was afternoon now. It had taken an entire day of searching, but Jocasta had managed to find the address that was soon to become the next crime scene. Nathalie broke so many laws today trying to drive fast. She drove expertly though. Tedric had to hand it to her.

There was this stereotype about women – they should never drive and when they did, they drove awfully. What an absurd stereotype. Tedric had little experience on driving – only because he had fought in the war, and it was part of his training.

"Hurry!" Jocasta growled. She was sitting beside Nathalie at the front seat and Nathalie pressed down on the gas as far as it could go. The engine roared. She was running on maximum speed. The police would soon start chasing after her if they happened to be on patrol.

"This is as fast as my baby can go," Nathalie cringed at the sound of the engine struggling.

"A psycho is about to kill my father!"

"I KNOW!"

"Nat!"

Nathalie looked ahead only to see another car coming right over them. She turned the wheel in record time taking her little white beetle out of the other, larger truck's way and back on her lane.

"Do NOT DISTRACT ME!" Nathalie growled and Tedric had never seen her this angry.

She was kind of scary.

The address was Saint Miller's Street 45. It was a large building with multiple apartments held by a single landlord. Nathalie stopped the car without even parking it properly and Jocasta walked out of the car way too fast. Nathalie turned at Tedric who was still on the backseat.

"Go after her and, please, make sure she doesn't get herself killed."

"Got it."

Tedric rushed to Jocasta while Nathalie parked the car properly and finally followed them upstairs inside the building. The man was supposed to be living on the second floor. The landlord came out to check the strangers who had just entered his building, but Jocasta pulled out her badge.

"SFPD. A man's about to get murdered."

"R- Right, proceed!"

The old man was of little resistance to them. They immediately started climbing the stairs, reaching the second floor fast. They already heard sounds coming from the apartment where they would find Leonard. There were grunts and groans and shouts accompanied with the sound of wooden furniture and glass being broken.

Without wasting anymore time, Jocasta kicked the door down and pulled out a gun. They saw two men struggling, one of them definitely looking like Leonard.

Nathalie knew that her 'dead' uncle was possibly not dead, but it was still shocking to see him after so many years. She could hardly imagine how Jocasta must have felt like, seeing her father like this, after all this time.

Then it was the other man, dressed in a black coat. His black fedora hat had dropped on the floor, and he had a dagger in his hand. Leonard had fallen back on the floor and the raven-haired man was about to attack him, but the three of them seemed to interrupt his plans of butchering the old man alive.

Jocasta pointed her gun at him and so did Tedric, targeting him with his own gun - the one he always had on his outfit for wherever he'd have go.

"Hands up, you are under arrest!" Jocasta cried out and even though two people were threatening to shoot him, the man made a run for it anyway.