Our Sick Inheritance (editing)

Chapter 6 - Break The Chain

It was as if the Devil were trying to grip Kyle's conscience and pull him into the darkness so that he couldn't see the light. Born to argue, he kept staring to stay in the fight. The fact that his Stacy was lifeless and naked under the thin sheet that held the secrets of her death were more than Kyle could register. The blood in her hair and drool dried on her face made Kyle want to take her and cover her up so nobody on earth could see her. He refrained because he knew he would be destroying all the evidence needed to find her killer.

"Kyle, look again, it's not your daughter Stacy." Detective Miles Cruz repeated a little louder than he had before, but Kyle could barely hear his voice in the background.

Listen! Listen! Listen! Were the words that were loud as sirens in Kyle's head. Like a small child not knowing what to do, he looked at his friend's face. His ears were having a difficult time hearing what Detective Cruz Miles was saying. It sounded as if Cruz was speaking a different language.

"Her name is Jolene, just like on her mail." Miles was saying. The mail.

Kyle looked back at the naked dead girl on the bed and studied her face. It wasn't Stacy's face. It could have been, but it wasn't. This girl could have been Stacy's older sister but only by a few years. Kyle was Stacy's father and unless his wife could have hidden a full pregnancy and birth from him which would be impossible, logic told him this wasn't his daughter. Kyle took a deep breath. He could feel his body shaking and his brain coming into focus as if he were getting control of his own thoughts again.

"Oh my God." Kyle said in a bare whisper and quickly wiped his hand over his whole face in hope to wipe away the image he saw to start over.

"I know. I had almost the same reaction. I couldn't be sure, so I pulled up your daughter's Facebook page and studied Stacy's picture next to Jolene. They are extremely similar, but Jolene is several years older. It took me a few minutes. I called you first. You should be glad you had me here, because nobody's voice could reach me until I made the confirmation. Everyone thought I was just being a dick by ignoring them." Detective Cruz explained.

Kyle looked closer. Finally, able to erase that this girl could have been his daughter, he paid closer attention. He felt a need to figure out this story faster than ever. Then another familiarity struck him. Jolene looked like the same lady he had seen in the window just a few minutes ago.

Jolene's t-shirt had been pushed up to her armpits. Blood soaked her shirt collar and down her right shoulder. She looked bruised and injured besides the nakedness indicating she could have been raped as well as battered. The look of despair frozen under Jolene's tear stained face pulled hard at Kyle's emotions. He was still trying to shake pictures of Stacy from his mind. The most disturbing aspect for Kyle was that her open eyes were marinated in a red substance. Though this wasn't the only time he had seen blood in a person's eyes, it wasn't any less shocking. The tightening in his chest made him slow breathing. His ears started to ring, and he had to pinch the lobes to make them stop.

"Blood?" Kyle asked Miles.

"Yes, it has already been tested. We rushed samples to the lab already to find out whose blood it is." Sergeant responded.

With grim trepidation Kyle stared at Jolene. He took in every detail and allowed a sadness fall over him for the girl. The blood in her eyes gave an eerie sense that the soul was spit on. Kyle noticed Miles was avoiding looking at Jolene also. Kyle understood, for Miles had a daughter a few years younger than Stacy. Kyle shook his head. He felt exhausted even though his system only required a few hours of sleep a night.

Most often Detective Kyle worked their murder cases. This serial chain of six female victims along the West Coast called for his attention for the last year and half. Kyle's small team was determined to find the killer, but they aren't much closer to answers than when he first started. It was just in the last six months that girls seem to drop like flies as the murder timeline got shorter between each one.