Marrying A Murderer

chapter 1

(MADE FOR PROJECT. PLEASE PROVIDE FEEDBACK IN COMMENTS)

Its not as if anyone was going to get hurt. At least not yet. Right?!

She had two options. To either risk whoever was in her kitchen, witnessing her trying to escape through the door on their right, or slowly walking backwards towards the stairs. No matter what option she chose, she was going to be noticed. So with the safest option being to retreat upstairs, Vanessa slowly started walking backwards to go upstairs. Immediately, Vanessa knew her mistake. She had accidentally moved the rug and hit her foot on the bottom stair causing her to fall. Almost instantaneously, did the hooded figure in her kitchen turn around to face her. 

She started crawling, desperately to get to her front door. reaching over and grabbing onto the hat rack and attempting to swing it behind her, but to no avail. The hooded figure grasped the rack and threw it into the wall on their side, emitting a cracking noise. They dragged Vanessa backwards, down the hallway back into the kitchen where they had first encountered one another. In a desperate attempt to escape and rescue herself, she tried to grab the phone and dial 000.  Simultaneously, as the phone was ringing and the operator picked up, the hooded figure turned around, knife in hand, charging for Vanessa. 

Vigorously, using a Chef's knife from Vanessa's kitchen, the mysterious figure jumped onto Vanessa and proceeded to plunge the knife deep into her stomach, puncturing her internal organs, twisting the handle. While the figure went over to the kitchen sink, urgently trying to remove the blood from their hands, Vanessa had mustered up enough strength to grab the landline phone, in which the operator was shouting through. 

"M-my address is 145 O-Ophelia-a Court. I-I have been a-attacked and in need of a-assistance. My c-children a-are h-here

"Okay, we are sending someone now. Is your attacker armed?

"Y-yes. He is a-armed and d-d-dangerous, he-he is - 

Before Vanessa could even spit out who her attacker was, the landline was ripped from the wall, with pieces of the wall close behind. He spun Vanessa around, threw her onto the ground, along with everything on the dining table, and once again thrust the knife into her abdomen and tossing her body aside on the floor, lifeless. Who's to say what happened after that?

Not long after, police had already arrived at the scene, with forensic photographers in every room, attempting to decipher what had conspired. The police continued to ask neighbours within the area many question regarding the incident that had occurred that night, but all the residents of the town all had the same answer. That they did not know anything nor had any information regarding where Vanessa's husband was or any personal details about their family, as they were quite closed off people.

As one of the detectives, Iris Buchanan, made her way into the pairs bedroom, she had made a discovery regarding the whereabouts of Vanessa's husband, Trevor. According to a note made by Trevor directed to Vanessa, he had left early for his business trip the next day in Melbourne.  That had cleared up that mystery, however he was still a top suspect as no one knew where he was at the time of Vanessa's murder. 

Upon entering the children's rooms, she immediately knew this was a personal affair. Laying in each of their beds, was Ranee and Ryan, both shot dead in the forehead. As soon as Iris had witnessed this she was called into the kitchen, to be told that they had found a partial shoe print in some of the blood that had pooled from Vanessa's wounds. It was not much, but it was enough that they could find the type of shoe the sole was from. 

Eventually, the crime scene photographers left, the coroners made an appearance, collected the body and left, however, the police stayed for hours. They believed that Vanessa had put the children to bed, went to bed herself and then between the hours of 12 and 2 am something had angered Trevor enough, killed the children in their bed around midnight while they were sleeping, then murdered Vanessa in order to have no witnesses. At least that is what the cops thought. They did not know for sure if Trevor was the perpetrator, but he was top on the list. 

One day later results form the laboratories came back to the police headquarters and all they knew was that the half shoe print was taken from a Louis Vuitton shoe, very rare for the type of neighbourhood the family lived in. The area in which they lived was not a wealthy suburb, so a pair of shoes that expensive from such a high end store was quite unusual. The Moore's were not that wealthy, however the neighbour from over the road was living in luxury. Enough that he could afford such expensive shoes.

David Finch. The richest man on the block. The next person on the suspect list. It was the most logical decision to go over to David's house to figure out what the hell was going on. DNA inside the shoe had also suggested that David had frequently worn the shoes, as his DNA was all over the pair of expensive footwear. David was out for the day so the police decided to talk to him at night, when he would come home. The police knocked on his door, and almost immediately did Finch open his front door, to come face to face with a police badge. 

Warmly, he welcomed them inside his home, offering the police some drinks to quench their thirst. Politely declining, the officers sat on his couch, taking out a pen and paper, recorder and placing their things on the coffee table in front of them, with something falling on the floor, but nobody takes any notice, even though it made quite a loud bang. After multiple attempts of David asking why they were at his home they finally began to speak.

"We are here regarding the murder of one of the neighbour's wife. Trevor Moore, her husband is the prime suspect. Did you know him?" asked the policewoman, Iris. 

"Not well no. However, sometimes he would wonder over whenever he needed to use the phone or something". reported David.

"The phone? His landline phone was perfectly fine before he ripped it from the wall last night. "

"He kept saying that he could not get through to anyone, that it would never connect.Sort of like someone was stopping him from communicating."

"Has anything gone missing or has your wife reported anything, perhaps any strange behaviour in your neighbourhood lately" said Barry, the other policeman.

"Apparently she saw someone leaving Trevor's home around 2:30 am last night. Didn't catch who they were though, she was just going out because she couldn't find Rosie, our dog. She was just outside though. My shoes have gone missing though, Louis Vuitton's too. Most expensive thing I owned, even more pricey than my house".

Subconsciously, both policemen along with David, shifted their feet so no one could see their shoes, in case anyone was suspecting them of the murder.

"We found a shoe-print at the scene. We have not gotten any results back, but we will let you know if they are Louis Vuitton's. Did you receive any details from your wife about the figure leaving their home last night?".

"No, she was very secretive, just that it was someone wearing a black hoodie and had tan skin."

"Thank you for your time. We will let you know if we find anything. Here is our card if you remember anything else".

Upon leaving Barry looked down to see what made such a loud noise, however nothing was on the floor and all their belongings were back in their bags or on their waist belt. 

After a half hour or so, the police finally leave, driving back to headquarters to report on their findings. Once they get back Iris takes off her shoes quickly, stuffing them into the cupboard and changing into a pair of black flats. She heads over into the lab across the hall and receives information on the shoe-print. It belongs to a Louis Vuitton shoe, most likely the same one belonging to David, but where is the other shoe?

After having David ring them and ask about the shoe, Iris told them they were yet to find anything, withholding information from him, believing that it was for the best. They told him that he probably just lost his shoes. DNA was found in the shoes belonging to a woman after running it through multiple algorithms to find a match. But that's all they knew. Most likely  Trevor's wife. However , no other DNA was found.

At this point, Trevor is on his business trip, unaware of what has occurred. Multiple times his phone has rang, but he is in a business meeting every time that the phone has vibrated, indicating someone is trying to contact him. At pm that night he finally has a free moment and rings back the number that will tell him something life changing.