Chenford Story

34

Tim's POV

I somehow had to gather enough evidence to stop Lucy going to prison for a crime committed 16 years ago.

How the hell was it even possible to do that?!
There was no way any evidence would be left. So.... I needed Lucy's parents to confess that it was an accident.

That was going to be tough. Considering they might also go to jail for it, I wouldn't expect them to confess without some serious upsides. Was that bribery? Or blackmail? Neither? Both?

Everything about this situation was new and confusing.

I felt Angela slowly pry her phone from my white knuckles. Apparently I had been gripping that phone like my life depended on it for at least the last 10 minutes while I contemplated my decisions.

Lucy never wanted to leave. She loved me, after all of this, Lucy still loved me. I was conflicted on whether to love her back. After all of the hurt and pain she caused me, could I even still love her? What if she was different than when she left? I loved that version of Lucy, maybe I wouldn't love this one?

But after everything. It wasn't my fault, or Juniper's fault, or anyone's fault but Lucy's parents and that stupid night 16 years ago.

But I couldn't live like this, knowing Lucy wanted to come home more than anything. Knowing until I did something, she couldn't.

I had a plan. a very very plan that could probably get me fired. But hey, Lucy was worth getting fired over.

Half an hour later I was at the station.
"I need a warrant for 27 Peters street"
"On what grounds?"
"Um.... Previous child endangerment and child abuse?"
"Granted, give me a second"

An hour later I was knocking on the door of 27 Peters street, Lucy's childhood home, warrant in hand.
Lucy's father peered around the door, seeing an officer he tried to close it but I stuck my foot into the gap he had created.

"Sir, I really need to speak to you and your wife, it would be best if you sir down"
Reluctantly I was allowed inside.
It was a quaint house, two bedrooms, presumably one used to belong to Lucy. I looked over to the kitchen, a corner cabinet where Thomas Foxly probably died.

"I regret to inform you that your daughter, Lucy Chen was found dead this morning. She committed suicide. I'm so sorry for your loss."
I lied with everything I had. Lucy had clearly made me better at lying with her UC skills.
I saw the tears roll immediately. I had enough experience to know they were entirely fake.
"W-when will her will be ready?"
"There will be no reading, all of Miss Chen's assets will be given to her next if kin"
I saw the immediate anger.
"What do you mean next of kin? We don't get anything?!"
I shook my head.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a warrant to search your property due to some allegations made in Miss Chen's suicide note"

I felt Lucy's father's hands on my wrist.
"I suggest you let go sir. Unless you would like to be arrested?"
He reluctantly let me go.

I shook my hand fully away and proceeded to the back garden. Picking up a shovel.
The cherry tree was front and centre.
It was beautiful but obviously had been given some extra fertilizer......

I started digging. Angela arrived after a few minutes and helped me dig.
The roots went deep. Neither of us were sure how deeply the body was buried, or how much body there was left to find.
My shovel hit something hard.
I pulled it out of the dirt.
A human skull.

I looked back at Lucy's parents. They were paler than the skull.
These.... people... were the ones that had taken my girlfriend away from me for almost a year.
Because they couldn't accept that their daughter wanted to leave from their abuse.

We continue digging
Pulling up bone after bone.
Assembling them neatly on the grass, starting from the head.
I saw the large split in the skull where he must have hit his head.
After a few hours of bugging, we finally called for backup to remove the full human skeleton.
Practically every bone had been recovered.
Just as I went in to find the right foot, my shovel hit something.... Metal? Plastic?
I pulled it out.

What was it?
A phone?
A camera......

Why bury a camera with the dead body.....
This camera had evidence. It had to.

Evidence that Lucy didn't really mean to kill him. Evidence that she could come home to me and Juniper.