A two sided mystery

Chapter 4 - Family

"Daniel."

"Yes Andrew?"

"Whose house is it this time?"

"This is the fourth victim's house. Timothy Carson's mother. We are here to ask her when she last saw her son."

"I know that. But do we have to go to each and every victim's house?"

"Well, you will be glad to know that we only have two other houses after this one."

"Really?"

"Yes. Really. Now stop acting like a little kid and knock on the goddamn door!"

"Alright alright. No need to be all moody about it. Geez."

Daniel stood outside the large house, clearly belonging to a wealthy family. "My first question though, before I knock, is if their house is this big, and their family is wealthy, why did the children just work simple jobs? They could have had a very good education, but they chose simple labor jobs? Why is that?"

"May be this is the wrong house?"

Daniel raised his hand, knocking loud on the door, the sound echoing through the air. "It can't be the wrong house. If they changed addresses, or someone else bought this and rebuilt it, we would know because they would file paperwork." The sound of footsteps could be heard approaching the door, but Daniel just kept talking. "And, if the paperwork hadn't been filed properly, then we will be able to fine whoever lives in this house." The door opens, a women who looks to be in her 30's standing in the open doorway. Without missing a beat, Daniel turned around, standing up straight and smiling. "Hi there! It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Daniel Shane, and I am a police detective. Is this the Carson Household?"

Andrew let out a sigh, bringing his hand up to his face and shaking his head, the woman in the doorway staring straight at him. "Yes, this is the Carson household. May I ask what business you have with us?"

"Well that is a simple thing. We are hoping to talk to the family members of Timothy and Ulanya Carson. May I ask who you are?"

"I'm Jen. Their sister. Please, come in. I'll go get my parents." She stepped to the side and cleared the way for them, gesturing into the house. "The lounge room is the first room on the right. Please wait in there."

"Much appreciated." Daniel walked in, looking around, Andrew following him. "Excuse us for the intrusion." Jen closed the door behind them when they were both inside, before she walked up a set of stairs to the second floor, Daniel and Andrew moving to the lounge room and waiting, examining the family pictures that decorated the area. "This looks like a nice family."

"Your right, it doesn't look like there is anything wrong with it."

"But there might be. After all, many families' fake smiles so other people don't think anything is wrong."

"Daniel, you are far too pessimistic. This is probably just a normal, happy family."

"Normal, yes. Happy, maybe not so much."

The two men fell into silence, looking over at each other, then back to the door. As if they had timed it, Jen comes back in with another women, looking to be in her late 40's, perhaps early 50's. The resemblance between the two women was striking. It was as if Jen was simply another version of the woman from an earlier time.

"Thank you for waiting, detectives. This is my mother, Sydney Carson." The older women, Sydney, smiled and stepped forward, extending her hand towards the men.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, detectives." Daniel reached out and shook her hand, Andrew following behind him, before she gestured at the table "Please, feel free to take a seat. I'll go get some tea ready for us all."

Daniel spoke up, shaking his head "I'm afraid we may not be for long enough ma'am. We are just here to ask a few questions before we are on our way."

"I see. Such a shame. Are you in such a hurry to finish this case?"

"Yes ma'am. I'm afraid we are. We don't know when the next incident could happen, so we are spending a lot of our time working on it."

Sydney nodded slowly "I can see why you would be in a hurry. Apparently there has been a number of, incidents already."

The two men looked over at each other before nodding back, Andrew speaking up "Yes there has been. The incident a few days ago was more severe than the others, and we are getting a little worried."

Sydney nods again as they all walk to the couches, sitting down and leaning back, Daniel pulling out his notepad and pen. "So, do you mind if we ask a few questions? They will be simple questions, but I would like you to answer them as best as possible."

"Of course. If I was not to answer your question then why would I have come down?"

"Fair point. Well then, Andrew?"

"Thank you for stealing my lines Daniel." Andrew stared at Daniel with an unsatisfied look before turning back to face Sydney. "Well then, first of all. May you please tell me your full name, birthday, place of birth and nationality?"

"Of course. My full name is Sydney Fiona Carson. I was born on the Fifth of August 1965 in New York. I lived in America for the first five years of my life before my parents moved to Britain, where I lived for the next 15 years, and met my husband. We moved back to America, bought this house and have been living here since then."

Andrew nods, Daniel writing everything down before pausing and looking up "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Of course not. Feel free to ask anything."

"Then I will take you up on that offer." He looked over at Andrew.

"Go ahead, ask away."

Daniel nods and turns back to Sydney, sitting up straight. "Your daughter was murdered by a blunt force trauma to the head, leaving her nearly unconscious, before she was cut up with numerous lacerations across her entire body. She died of blood loss within twenty minutes. We found her body in a pool of her own blood, with the words 'Joey was here' written on the ground next to her. A few nights later, we found your son in an alleyway. He had been cut up just as badly as his sister, however, as well as the cuts across his body, his chest cavity had been sliced open, and his heart had been removed, which was resting next to his head. The words 'Joey was here' were written on the wall nearby."

Sydney looked straight at the detective as Daniel stopped, taking in a breath, searching for a reaction, finding none. "I've told you this because you need to know. However, my question is as follows. Do you know anyone who could have a grudge against your children, or anyone who would want to harm you in any way?"

The room fell nearly silent, the ticking of the clock the only sound piercing the air. It was as if the entire household was holding its breath, waiting for a reaction.

"No. I do not. I cannot think of anyone who would want to harm me or my family."

"Then let me ask a different question."

"Daniel, that's enough. Stop." Andrew tried to stop Daniel talking but Daniel just flung his hand to the side, covering Andrews mouth, staring straight into Sydneys eyes.

"Why did you lie to us?"

AUTHORS NOTE

Sorry it's late everyone. Friday was really hectic for me (I was feeling lazy) so I couldn't find time to upload (I was busy playing games) and completely forgot. (that parts true)

On the other hand, I'll upload it properly next week! For all six, maybe seven people currently reading this series.