The Ashes Within

Chapter 5: Five, Six, Who's That Chick?

"Um, young lady, I think you better go home now and let the adults do the job instead..," The man who turned out to be an officer said.

He then looked at one of his colleagues, who was sipping coffee out of a cup, and gave a small laugh.
Conor scoffed.

"But..," Ember started.
"Look, this is valid information, okay?" Conor said, defensively. "You friggin' son of a-"

"That's enough." The police officer said, all trace of humour gone. "Get out or I shall call your parents."

Conor and Ember sat on a bench outside, thinking.

"Ugh," Ember said.
"What are we supposed to do now...?"
"Well, I guess we continue on investigating with this information we have."
"I agree."

Ember and Conor walked to the nearby library. The cool air-conditioned air blew on their face, refreshingly, as they entered the library.

They went to sit at a corner of the library where there was nobody else.

"Since they are all killed at about sixteen." Conor said, in deep thought.
"There must be a reason..," Ember continued. "But what is it?"

Ember sat on her comfortable and soft, purple chair as she typed quickly into the computer.

"What about interviewing some of the victims' relatives?" Conor had inquired.
"Good idea!" Ember had agreed.
"But, how?"

As Ember and Conor had discussed how to interview the victims' relatives, Conor had said "Hey, isn't that.."
Ember had looked behind to see a fair skin, brunette about the age of her early twenties.

They had walked to her and said:
"Hey! You really look like someone we've seen in the news."
She had turned to look at Ember and Conor.
"I'm...Derald's sister." She had said.
"Derald, the boy who was missing?"
"Yes, I was the one who....f-found his body..." She had muttered, stammering.

The words had gone through Ember's mind: "Body found at drive way believed to be missing boy."

It was actually her who found the body.......

Back to the present...
'So he was sixteen?'
'He had just graduated high school. He was planning to major in banking.'
'Oh...'
Ember typed what she, Conor, and Derald's sister has talked about in the "interview".

They had decided to go to the nearby cafe to continue their conversation. Derald's sister (a.k.a. Geraldine) was mostly comfortable with sharing information about her brother's death.

After each ordering a coffee, Geraldine had said, 'So, what more do you want to know about Derald?'

The killer's eyes reflected the dim light in the corner causing them to gleam in the darkness as he looked at his notes which contained pictures of a few girls and boys.

He picked up the red pen at his right, thought for awhile before muttering, "...thirteen."

Then, he gripped the pen and crossed off a boy's face. "4 down, 13 to go."