Love May Not Be a Game, But Murder Sure Is

Chapter Two

 "Name?"

"Lilla Jane Heartlay."

"Age?"

"Twenty-three."

"Now, detective-"

"George, why am I here?" George stiffened at the sudden switch of pace.

"Well, Lilla, there is a dead man in your house."

"Yes, I realized, but I obviously didn't put him there!"

"Lilla, I know, but you can't prove it..."

"Yes I can, you know that I can!" In that moment, the miniscule sound of the creak of the door opening sounded like an earthquake. Out from behind the slightly opened door stepped a woman who brought an air of superiority with her wherever she went. The chief stepped into the room, a handsome young man standing next to her.

"Hello, brother." Lilla felt a smirk growing on her face. The man exchanged a sly smile back, then stood stiffly as the chief tapped her heels together, calling him to attention. George stood silently against a wall as she surveyed the cramped room.

"Detective Heartlay, I presume."

Lilla stood at the sound of her name, observing the chief standing to her opposite. At five foot eleven, in her late thirties, Ms. Scarlet Ledermin fit into the role of leader to the most esteemed police force in North America eloquently. She kept everyone in check, a strong believer in perfection. She stood taller and prouder than everyone in the room. Lilla stood, her black converse and sloppy hair making her feel immature as the well-dressed chief clicked around the room, silently observing.

"Detective, I have been debriefed by a hoard of men who haven't taken two steps onto the crime scene at hand. I would like to hear something that hasn't been passed to me from the grape vine!" The chief took a seat, crossed her arms and waited. Lilla spoke, hesitantly at first, but then recounted the night as the words flowed off her tongue like a running river. She spoke of the gruesome elegance of the murders, of the invisibility of the suspect, and of the encounters of the late night. As Lilla was towards the end of retelling the last twenty-four hours the chiefs phone buzzed, disrupting the focused atmosphere of the room. She took a glance down at the noisy mobile, a look of fear flashing across her face before she composed herself and answered the phone, her back turning to Lilla as she strutted out of the room, the click of her heels echoing in the now-fallen silence. Her voice could be heard faintly from behind the closed door, just loud enough to make out fractured words, but Lilla dared not move any closer. She sat still in silence, thinking up thousands of possibilities of what that phone call could be about. George stood across the room from Lilla, her brother meeting them both in the middle. James, Lilla's older twin brother by one minute, something she would never get over, had been the assistant of the chief since before Lilla had started. He had always been the one who tried, the one who got good grades in school and went to an Ivy League college, just to get hired at the place Lilla had been fascinated in for years. She had been casually giving them tips into cases that they got stuck on for years before James offered her a job working as a detective with him. He told her it would be good for her to work close by to him so he could keep an eye on her, but she knew he just wanted an excuse to encounter the new detective who had joined the force. James glanced at George, his face turning strawberry red as they caught eye contact, both of them quickly glancing to the floor.

"Ugh, why don't you two just get a room already!" James and George's faces flushed as they tried to keep their cool.

"Lilla, what the fuck are you implying?"

Before her brother could defend himself any more, Scarlet stepped back into the room, flustered but trying to hide it.

"There's been another."

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Lilla stood above the scorched bodies, sitting around the table playing a mannequin card game. Each man in the circle held a single card, a king, queen, and a joker. Every part of the men was a crisp black except for ruby rose lips, puckered and untouched on each. Lilla took in every piece of information at the scene, the chief releasing her from interrogation to examine the remains. She stood next to the corpses, leaning over to examine the scene. The string of murders always led back to Lilla, to complex to be a coincidence, to simple to be a threat. The rose, the note, and now the cards held in the hands of the men in front of her, all hints about her life, things only a close friend or relative would tie back to her, all memories of her past she didn't want to be dug back up, much less pushed back to her in the form of death. The cards were carefully pulled from the hands by forensics, put into the plastic bags that would be brought back to the station for further investigation. Lilla zipped her leather jacket up to her chin, pushing her freezing hands into her pockets, and followed the stream of people out of the dank room, into the crisp air.

She wanted to be alone, her nerves on end with police she couldn't name going through her belongings. With frantic faces filling the police station, she couldn't have peace there. She walked into the quiet library, the librarian greeting her by name as she surrounded herself with books. Hot tears streamed down her cheeks, the overwhelming anxiety of the past few days taking over her emotions. The librarian was playing The Beatles over the loudspeaker, the words soaking into Lilla as she absorbed the feelings portrayed in each of the words. Lilla stayed there, closed off from the world, a surreal feeling overtaking her as she cleared her mind for at least a few hours before returning to the chaos of her life.

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She returned to the station, getting the message from James that the coroner's report is back. She noticed her brother struggling with the vending machines outside the station. James tried to shove the crumpled money into the vending machine. George approached him, leaning on the machine awkwardly and talking to James. Lilla walked their way as George helped James straighten out the cash and put it into the machine.

"You don't get anything from the vending machine normally, James!" Lilla flicked her brother's arm, his face turning a rosy pink as she teased him.

"What? I'm thirsty."

"Obviously."

James turned bright red, his embarrassment turning into anger as Lilla sauntered into the station, proud of her witty comment. She entered the mortuary, the blue cloth laid over the burnt body, covering what she wished to examine.

"Oh, detective, you're here. There's somethin' I need to show ya'. We found an anomaly when we were examinin' the bodies."

"An anomaly?"

"Yeah, each of the bodies had a differen' thing stuffed into their stomachs. The body tha' was holding the queen card was stuffed with rose petals, the body with the king card was stuffed with coins and things of that nature, and then the joker had bells stuffed all in 'em. Creepiest thin' I've seen in awhile. This shit is real messed up."

Ellie, the other coroner, stood over the body. Ellie's southern drawl elongated each of her words as she explained the autopsy of each of the three people, or used to be people. The bodies were normal on the inside, while the outer layers of skin were the only parts of the body that had been burnt. The person who committed the crime had obviously known what they were doing. Ellie quickly walked Lilla through the autopsy, and then Lilla left the mortuary.

Lilla was walking out of the station, until James halted her pace.

"Okay so hear me out..."

"Not the best way to start a sentence."

"You got an offering to go on the news. Tonight. You have to go!"

"Oh my God, if you're so excited about it why don't you go in my place?"

James let out an exasperated sigh. "They don't want me, bitch, they want you. You have to go. For me. Please? You won't regret it!" James pouted out his lip and made a whiny noise, causing Lilla to do an overly dramatic eye roll.

"You know what? Fine. Just this once. Text me the details." Lilla walked out of the building, leaving James shouting his thanks behind her.