A murderous summer

Chapter 9

Finally, the storm was only a threat. Lightning streaked from time to time the gray sky without more damage. The girl had all the time she wanted to return home. Her brother slept on the sofa so she made little noise as possible to go up to her room. She swallowed a pill to quickly stop her headache. She continued her research, hoping to find something else. There were very few details about Laurie's murder, but she already knew them. She opened the window to hear better the rumble of the storm. She closed her computer and curled up on her bed. Fresh air entered her room. She took several deep breaths, feeling very good.

"Mom phoned up," a voice behind her said.

She didn't move.

"She wanted to know how you were."

"And I suppose you sold me."

"Yes and no. I just said you were out. She assembled the pieces of the puzzle herself."

Joelle sighed heavily, turning to him.

"And what do you want?"

Gilbert raised his eyebrows.

"Only to know how you are."

"Good."

"Listen..."

She sat up suddenly.

"If you tell me once more I have to talk, I'll hit you. Do you understand?"

"What the hell happened to you? You are more and more aggressive."

"Just with people getting on my nerves."

"Message received, but don't be surprised if no one wants to talk to you."

He quickly withdrew from the room, back down to the ground floor. She got up and moved to the window. She wondered how the evening was going to be. It wasn't the first time that young people gathered on the beach. Except that this time, the reasons were very different. DJ was right on one point: she surely had many enemies. But according to the memories Joelle kept from her dreams, the murdered wasn't a teenager. She suspected an adult. But who? Someone connected to their school? A teacher or even a maintenance employee? The clerk in a store? Killing someone just for fun, with no connection to his victims? It was even more horrible a murdered killing at random. No one was safe.

She pulled her knees under her chin. Was there ever had a serial killer cases in the area? There were still some in activity around the world. But in such a small town... it was downright bad luck!

* * * * *

The family meal wasn't jovial. They barely spoke. They finished eating before picking up everything. Gilbert slipped to his room. When the girl tried to do the same, her parents asked her to stay a moment. They wanted to talk to her. They invited her to sit down again at the table. Joelle wasn't very excited about this prospect. She sighed deeply, crossing her arms.

"We know you're living now something very difficult," her father began, "and everything seems to..."

"Can you get to the point, please?"

Her mother nodded after a quick glance at her husband.

"When you got home after spending the night on the beach," she said, fingers crossed, "we didn't believe a word of your story."

"You must understand that it was a little hard to believe.

"It's for this reason that we have punished you. You went out without permission to sleep out. You've never done that before!"