Once Upon A Murder (Wattys 2016)

Chapter 3

As the night sky darkened outside, Briana lay on her bed, shuffling around only to get up feeling completely restless. After surrendering themselves to a really long day and hearing a very disturbing scream, the gang had called it. The first thing Briana did was sleep, but now sleep seemed to be the last thing she needed. Sweat laid blanket covered her while her heart rate increased and for the first time in her career Briana could not leave her work behind.

Working in an environment where death is a constant factor, Briana had always thought that she had seen it all. She believed in leaving her work behind and when she stepped inside the four walls of her comfort called home, she didn't want to work herself up. That had been her mantra her whole life. But for the first time in her career this particular case simply wouldn't let her be. She needed a distraction. And so at twelve in the night Briana got up for a quick shower.

She turned on the shower and as warm water caressed her curvaceous body she felt herself relax. Water droplets dripped down her smooth skin, leaving trail marks for the others to join in. She needed to stop her thoughts but everytime her body seemed to relax, her mind played the story followed by the screams. Cursing the sudden chills that escaped her, she walked out.

How a sweet fairy tale could be turned into a murderous story was something she could not fathom. Sighing Briana changed to her comfortable shorts and top and tried to gather some sleep.

Suzy Jon's had always hated Massie Dolworth. She felt that there was something completely off about Massie, be it the way she walked, the way she talked, the way she dressed, her high end job, in short every small thing of Massie Dolworth annoyed Suzy Jon's. They lived in the same apartment but both women maintained less contact with each other. So when Suzy heard that Massie was dead, she didn't feel a bit of pity.

Sitting with her legs crossed in what is called as the interrogation room, Suzy cared less about the blood stained walls or of the two detectives that read some file in front of her. She eyed flirtatiously at Adam who had a clean shaven face, the smell of after shave and cologne hitting her when she leaned forward. That's when she caught the picture of Massie dead body and gasped. It was one where she was dressed as Sleeping Beauty.

Her gasp was enough for Briana and Adam to acknowledge her presence. Before Briana could pull all the contents of the file inside, Suzy's hand reached out and pulled the picture out.

"So beautiful", Suzy exclaimed her fingers tracing Massie's face.

"Miss Jon, if you please", Brianna responded reaching for the photo.

Once Suzy had let go, she stared in disbelief at the other two of them.

"Miss Jon, we apologize for bringing you here, our other room's pretty occupied right now, so we got you to this one", Adam added.

"And here I thought you wanted to scare me to confess looking at the bloodied walls", Suzy laughed and winked at Adam who simply rolled his eyes.

"So coming back, what's your relationship with Massie", Briana asked. A strand of hair had escaped from her neatly tied in ponytail and lay smoothly against her face.

"Massie, we were flat mates. And I hated her" Suzy replied shrugging at which Briana stared at her in shock, while Adam chuckled.

"Why do you hate her?", Adam asked once he had controlled himself.

"Let me guess, she stole your boyfriend?", Adam continued playing his serious look while Suzy scrunched up her nose in a disgust.

"She did. Everything about her was off. She could never be that pretty if it wasn't for the make-up.", Suzy replied pointing at the file.