Revelation

Who's Person C?

John Bernard was tired. It was only 11:37 in the morning, but he was pretty beat down after six murders in a day; most people would be. He decided he needed a cup of coffee, and went to the first floor to get some in the main lobby. He looked around at the room as he passed by, watching the other officers, and got lost in his thoughts for a bit.

Bernard became a police officer at the age of 23 after his mother was killed by a burglar, though he'll deny this being the reason to anyone; even Detective Ellyas. Bernard was a very open and honest person, but he always kept that aspect of his life private. Bernard met Simone Ellyas six months prior on a kidnapping case in North York. She was tall and dark with curly brown hair. He thought she was attractive, but he found her quite disagreeable and felt that she didn't like him either. In fact, it took them quite a while to warm up to each other.

Bernard on the other hand was quite the polar opposite from Ellyas. He was short and decidedly unattractive. While Ellyas was intelligent, stiff and a bit cynical, he was kind and mild-mannered.

He payed the one dollar fifty cents for his coffee, and started to head back to his office when his phone vibrated; it was Ellyas.

"What's up?" he answered, sipping his coffee, then recoiling at the hot temperature.

"Well, there may have been a third person involved."

"How do you think?" he asked, grinding his teeth on his burnt tongue.

"Well one of them shot the other, but the second guy died of a bullet to the back of the head. How do you expect him to reach that himself?"

"Mhmm," he muttered, thinking to himself. "So... person B shoots person A, then is shot by person C."

"Looks like it."

"Who's person C?"

They paused for a bit, and Bernard cautiously sipped his coffee. "Well," he sighed, "we'll wait for forensics to give us more information, but for now, I think we can rest."

"Rest?" she questioned. "It's 11:41 in the morning."

"Let's - let's have lunch."

* * *

"So...how's your mother?"

They were sitting in a Tim Hortons off by the station. The sky had cleared a bit, and some sun rays creeped in through the window, illuminating Ellyas in a golden glow. He caught himself staring at her, and quickly looked down at his cinnamon roll.

She looked at him for a few seconds, and smiled. "She's doing fine." She sipped her coffee.

Bernard ran through his mind, thinking of possible topic of conversation.

"So, uh... what do you think?"

She looked up, bemused.

"You know, about this case."

She narrowed her eyes at him, smiling. "You didn't really take us away from work to talk about work, did you?

He chuckled nervously. "No, I guess not..."

"However," she continued. "While we're on that subject, we might as well continue to discuss it."

He placed the cinnamon roll down.

"Frankly, there is something very strange about these murders," she noted. "Not only did they all happen at the same time, they're not your typical murders, and none of the victims are remotely related in any way."

"It's weird, all right," he agreed, raising the cinnamon roll to his mouth.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you," she remembered. "Blood analysis came back; they were injected with the AIDS virus."

Bernard choked on the cinnamon roll. "They - they were injected -"

"Yep," she replied, grimacing.

"What's the point of that anyway, I mean why not just k-"

"You think I know?" she sighed.

They sat silently for a bit.

"Well, we should probably head back now," she sighed, sipping the last bit of her coffee and tossing it into the trash.

Bernard took a look at his cinnamon roll, and stuffed the rest of it in his mouth.