Rod - The Weapon

Chapter 8: Water

"I still don't understand, how come only one of the cameras was damaged, like how?" Henry asks.
I reply, "Well yeah, Alex and Sam felt that it was suspicious too so they checked the cameras manually. Guess what they found, insulation on the wires were damaged, mostly due to long time use. Plus, when they checked the camera for other damages, water had seeped through the crevices and cracks. The camera was totally busted.

The other camera was comparatively newer, apparently it had been replaced recently and was in good condition."

"Eh, makes sense I guess, also you said that your street was run down, so I guess that happens," Henry says to which I nod in agreement.

"But the timing couldn't have been better for the murderer, seems like an amateur to me because who just leaves the camera to capture your face while you murder someone else?" Guy asks promptly to which I reply, "Maybe there was a purpose to it, who knows, maybe a small part of them wanted to get caught. Could be out of guilt, or could have been a genuine mistake since they managed to cover up the rest of their tracks."

Both of them shrug and Henry says, "Well continue, I need to know what happens next."

I think for a moment and reply, "We questioned a guy named James who worked at the gas station down the street. Well, this was actually an inmprovement in our investigation.

He stated that around 11:45 pm on Halloween night, Alice came up to him and asked for the restroom. She then proceeded to ask him to buy her some water, more like threatened.

He bought it for her, and you might wonder why he didnt call the cops. Thats because things like these were so common back then that the cops didnt bother much, plus it was just a water bottle and the guy was used to this.

Then apparently she just walked away texting on her phone. That's all that I could get from him. He didn't see anything else. We questioned him in his house, he rarely was there, but later payed a visit to the gas station. Fortunately, it had a camera. We scrolled through the footage to find the exact timing and day.

She was right there, alive, receiving a bottle from James' hand. Then she took out her phone, like I said, and started texting someone. We couldn't see much but from that angle, we knew that it was not a saved number.

Then she just walked away towards our street. We could only conclude one thing, the person who was either helping her out or trying to catch her was definitely not someone she contacted frequently or not someone who she could contact legally and get away with. Or it could have just been the fact that since she was being chased, she wanted her friend to not get in trouble.

I know, a lot of possibilities, but you can't really rule out any. It might even cost someone's life.
If the person who she was texting was in fact the murderer, then somehow they were trying to lure her out of her den. We just hadn't figured out how and why."

Henry sighs and says, "Yeah, this story, I honestly wish it had a proper ending."
Guy replies, "I know right? Like I will die without knowing who murdered Alice. Even if they were caught, would they experience a bad punishment?"

"Yeah, totally. Just because you murder a murderer or an abuser, it doesn't mean that the one who committed the crime isn't a murderer. Some states might reduce the punishment, some might rule it out as self defense if the circumstances were like that. But if you did it on purpose, a crime would be a crime after all, doesn't matter if its for the good or the bad." I reply.

Henry just says, "Thats not fair now. I mean, a person goes out of their way to get rid of some sicko from our society, yet they're considered in the same category as that sicko."

I reply, "Well, we have the law which gives the apt punishments for each type of crime. For instance if Alice had gotten caught, she would have probably faced life imprisonment, even though a lot of people would want to kill her. It might not seem fair, I totally agree, but again the law is the law. It shows no exception to anyone. In my opinion, I just hate murderers. It varies from each situation, but still I hate them. In this instance, I don't hate the killer, I just don't like him or her."

Guy says, "Yeah, uhm out of topic but related, while you were investigating the case, what happened to Kenny?"

To which I reply, "His parents told us that he fell into a coma. He never woke up till we lived there. I don't even know if he is alive right now, I hope he is doing well somewhere."

Henry says, "I feel sorry for his parents, I can't even begin to imagine how painful the whole situation would have been because they had to be strong for their child."

I just nod with a bit of sadness. Then I continue, "I'll cook us something, what do you guys want?"
Guy replies, "Hen, does pasta sound good?" To which Henry replies, "Yup, I'll have some pasta too."

I just stand up and walk to the kitchen, take some raw pasta and throw it into the boiling water. I come back to the table, pick up my phone and set a timer for 10 minutes. I sit down and just stare at them.

Henry says, "Do you want to cook or tell the story?" To which I chuckle and reply, "You can see me cook and tell you the story in the kitchen if you're willing to stand in there."

Both of them nod and we go to the kitchen where I start prepping to make the tomato sauce and say, "Well the gas station guy said only that much, and you can't really view the murder from the gas station as you'd have to go deep down the road to our street. So James was the last person to view the victim.

The next person who was on our list was Carlos, the blacksmith. We asked him the same questions and he just said that on the day of Halloween, he went to work, a small workshop where he made different things out of iron and steel. Around 7pm, he closed the shop and came back home, ate dinner and slept. He also said that John, an unemployed guy in my street,  joined him for the night because apparently there wasn't any electricity in John's house. We'll come back to John in a bit.

We did check the footage at the entrance of the street, Carlos didnt lie at all. He was really skilled, he made weapons too, if you asked him nicely.
It wasn't legal though, everyone in the neighborhood knew but no one was willing to rat him out until he caused actual trouble.

That was the beauty of our Karen filled community. At all times, if a person didn't cause trouble to the people of our street, no one actually cared whether he did legal or illegal activities.

Carlos was a single man with very few furnitures, he didn't mingle among the people much but was a man who was polite and to be honest he had a good reputation too."

The pasta sauce already smells so good.

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I'm sorry for publishing this chapter late. I was cooped up with school work. I hope you find this interesting and stay with me through this journey. Please vote, comment and follow!!