A STUDY IN BLACK ✓

V

Josh stepped out of the car with Dallon trailing behind him. He clutched the sketchbook in his left hand and his camera bag in the other.

The whole scene was littered with police tape. The stairs that Tyler had climbed seemed to lead to the rooftop, because Josh could see Tyler's tuff of hair peeking from the edge.

Tyler sent him a thumbs up, to which Josh replied with his middle finger.

"Who the hell are you?" Josh turned and saw a blonde police officer eyeing him warily. He looked back at Dallon, who was too busy flirting up the medical examiner to help him.

"I'm Josh Dun, a sketch artist. I'm new here. I came with Tyler Joseph?" He phrased the last part as a question, because the officer's eyes kept narrowing until they were small slits.

The medical examiner beside him snorted. "You're kidding me. The freak got a buddy now?"

Dallon flashed his badge. "Relax, he's with me."

The officer nodded and moved so they could walk through the door. "You can check out the woman now if you need, not like you'll get much. Joseph's snooping around upstairs and will probably come over to see her later."

Dallon nodded. "Thanks, Pat."

Josh looked over at the dead woman. She lied on her back and looked about ready to attend her own funeral, wearing all black from he bottom of her way too tall pumps to her pinned back hair circling her head like a halo.

Half of her face was covered in blood, pale blue eyes staring colorlessly at the sky. Her legs were twisted in all the wrong directions, and he could see a single red and white petal in the palm of her hand.

Josh shuddered. Even though it did look like the woman jumped to her own death willingly, his gut told him something was terribly wrong. Maybe it was the petals he had suddenly noticed were everything in the crime scene, or maybe it was because he could feel Tyler staring bullet holes into his back. He knew he was searching for answers, but Josh had none.

Dallon crouched beside the woman, reading her information off of a clipboard. "Delilah Nelson. She was forty two." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Suspected suicide. It fits the others."

"I just don't get it," Josh mumbled, quickly sketching the outline of the body. He handed Dallon the camera, who took several pictures from different angles. "Why would someone kill people and make it look like a suicide, but then turn around and fill their stomachs with petals?"

Dallon shrugged, pulling the strap over his head and tucking the camera into its respective bag. "It's probably some cultist suicide pact. Wouldn't be the first time something like this happens."

"Cult suicide pacts?"

"Tyler overthinking a crime and making it more sinister than it actually is. Speaking of the little devil, what the hell's taking him so long?" Dallon looked up, shielding his eyes from the sun. He turned to Josh, pointing to the stairs. "Ready?"

They made their way upstairs, finding Tyler already deep into an investigation of his own. He sat back on his feet, using a pair of tweezers to collect some of the many petals lying around.

Josh's eyes drifted to the other side of the rooftop, his heart nearly leaping out of his throat at the sight hidden by police tape.

A second body, a young male by the looks of it, was lying on the edge. One arm dangled over the side, his face obscured by blood, hair, and cloth. A pool of blood circled him identical to the woman at the bottom. His head was split open and body contorted as if he'd fallen out of the sky.