Red is for Revenge

Chapter 8

I looked around thinking I heard something. My hand rested safely on my dagger as I approached the bookshelf and pulled off a few research books and the latest set of encyclopedias my sister had gotten for me a couple of weeks before she was murdered. I placed them in my satchel. I heard a thud behind me near the window. Without even turning around I threw the knife. I turned to look to see Raph I had nearly missed hitting his arm.

"Damn it," he said. "You could have killed me."

"Then don't try and intrude into my apartment you're lucky I missed that knife was covered in poison," I said in a serious tone. "I told you all to leave me alone anyway." I looked up to see Mikey. "Get down from their Mikey and Donatello get out from behind the kitchen door. Where's Leo?"

"Right here," a voice whispered. I jumped grabbing another knife and stabbing the air behind me.

"Don't do that," I hissed turning to look at them. "Why are you all here anyway? I figured you would be pissed at me for storming out like that."

"Nah not really," Raph smiled. "They should be used to it because I do it all the time."

"The thing is they don't usually follow you Raph," I ran a hand through my hair nervously. "So why are you following me?" Raph pointed at Mikey. "So it was you're idea Mikey?"

"Yeah, you're our family now and if something happened to one of us you'd be there for each of us. So we should be there for you. "You left because Donnie and I were the only ones who would listen when things went from bad to worse. You felt betrayed after you had told us everything. You needed someone to depend on. We all brought you into our world and our hearts and two of us betrayed you when you needed someone to be there for you," he glared at Raph and Leo.

"Aw thanks Mikey," I gave him a hug. "But if ya'll ever sneak up on me again you are all so dead because I'm always armed."

"We know," Leo replied looking around amused. "I mean you almost knifed us for Christ sake!"

"Shut up Leo. That's what you get for sneaking up on me. Now I have things to collect and a mission to complete."

"You did not just call this a mission."

"I did so get over it or get out of my house."

"This isn't even close to a mission. You haven't killed or beaten anyone up. There has been no character conflict."

"Look Captain Leonardo I don't give a flying fladoodle what you consider a mission. This is a self-assigned assignment from my personal assignment log created by me." I pointed to myself for extra effect. The other boys were trying to cover up their smiles and stifle their laughter but it was no use. Leo just stood there kind of in a trance as he watched me. "Captain Leo, yoo-hoo Captain," I waved my hand in his face.

He snapped out of his trance and awkwardly reached up to adjust his mask. "I...uh think I'll go take a look in the bedroom." He disappeared into my sister's room. I turned around and started removing more books from the bookcase sticking them in my satchel.

"Isn't your satchel going to get mighty heavy," Donnie asked appearing from the kitchen.

"No it shouldn't," I stated not looking away from my work.

"Why wouldn't it? It will eventually get heavy, right? Won't it be a hassle to carry back to the sanctum?"

"No not at all. I hope you are prepared for me to reiterate a whole bunch of magic stuff to you. You see it was enchanted by my mother with a spell that extends it into a magical plane where it can take up as much space as it wants in another dimension. All I have to do is ask for what I want and it appears right here at the top of the bag. Here I'll-," I was cut off as Leo stuck his head out of the room a pained look on his face.

"Excuse me but El I think you might want to see this," he commented his face downcast. "You probably won't like it." I entered the bedroom quietly a somber feeling washed over me as I looked around.

"It's all cleaned up," I whispered. The body had disappeared as was to be expected I had already taken all the evidence I needed from that anyway but everything was clean. There was a new coat of paint on the walls. The bed had been replaced. "Either the government is trying to cover this up or the killer only wanted me to see it. Mikey is that knife that held the handprint up still on the table over there?"

"Yes it is El and the paper the handprint was on is rolled up beside it. Why?"

"Don't touch it. Nobody touch anything in this room this is a test. I can feel it in my bones. I'm not sure who it's from but I'm going to solve this case." I pulled some evidence bags and gloves out of my satchel. Then I fixed them to where they would fit turtle hands. I tossed a pair of gloves to each brother and then slipped a pair on my own. I threw the evidence bags to Leo who caught them easily. "Place the knife in one bag and the parchment in another. Then look around the apartment see if there is anything else worth bagging. Don't forget the washer and dryer."

"Yes ma'am," he replied.

"Leo, don't ever call me ma'am again. Just say, yes I'm on it or something of that nature."

"What can I do El," Mikey asked. I handed him a finger print kit. "Mikey follow these instructions okay," I pointed to the instructions on a piece of paper. "Test on every single testable surface and let me know if you encounter problems." He nodded and got to work.

"Raph I have an extra special job for you. I need you to scope out all dumpsters near by and check for a mattress it should have blood stains on it. Lots of blood stains and if you find it let me know by text. You still have my number right," I asked. He thought then nodded. "If you don't find it then come back here. It just means I'll have to go check the dump. You might smell afterwards though so don't forget to take a shower." He smiled and left.

"Donatello, I need you to scrape the walls where all the blood splatters were. They obviously painted over them and I need to take some samples to analyze. Take two samples of each. Here are some photos of the blood splatters that I took the last time we were here in case you can't remember where they were." I handed him some sample containers and the photos before moving around

"Wait Eleanor," Don said. I turned to look at him. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm just gonna' do some renovations and a search through my sister's clothes. First I need to find a hair dryer and recover a few family heirlooms."