Desperation

Chapter Six: Puzzle Pieces

  We decided not to tell John about the events of the day. It was a dumb decision, I know. Especially knowing whoever it was was after me. But we all just kind of kept it to ourselves. I mean, we didn't really all come to the conclusion not to say anything together. I think we were all scared to. And because no one spoke up, no one felt the conformity to speak up. If that makes sense. He and Michael came home together, both of them talking about the investigation. Me and Zach listened in while Mel and Chris were off doing their thing.
    "They've killed two people. But neither person has a connection, that we know of." Michael thought aloud. "Who was the second victim?" I asked. "The one who was shot in the head." "It was one of our own. A police officer. He works and lives a little ways out of town." "Name?" Zach asked for me. "Leita West." I knew that name. That was one of the officers who arrested Jeb. "Oh." I said quietly. "No connection. Same way of murder, same place." "Whoever it is definitely lives here. They know their way around the woods." John said. "Have you arrested any suspects?" Zach asked. We all sat in the living room, me and Zach sat together on the couch, Zach's arm around me.
   Neither Michael nor John mentioned it, but they gave me little smiles here and there. Zach nodded. I felt grown up. It was odd to be included in something this important. It felt surreal. It was getting dark, so Michael decided to leave after a while of coming to dead ends in the investigation. Me and Zach went to bed with Amara. We slept in the same bed again. We laid there facing each other. He played with my hair, looking into my eyes. "Did you ever think you'd be here?" He asked. "What do you mean?" I questioned. "Everything. Did you ever think you'd be away from your abusive mom, with a boyfriend, solving a murder mystery?" He asked.
   I thought back to when I was young. Back to when I had hope for myself. I couldn't remember for the life of me what I wanted to do with my life, what I imagined myself doing. Then when I was a kid. When I started losing hope. I saw myself still being with her. I shook my head. "No. I'd never thought I would be here. What about you?" I asked. He pondered for a moment. And for that moment, I wondered what he was thinking back to. What kind of family did he have? What kind of life has he led up to this point? Maybe I should ask.
    "No. I've never imagined myself like this." He finally responded. That was my opportunity. I didn't know how to phrase it. So I did him the same way I did John. "You know all about me. Tell me more about you. You can't be my boyfriend if I don't know anything about you." I had a boyfriend. I felt like I rushed it. I felt like somehow, he wasn't happy with me. No one could ever truly love me. Maybe I forced it. I thought back to how it happened. Which was strange. I didn't remember how it happened.
   We never asked each other out. We never fully said 'you're my boyfriend', it just kind of happened. That gave me some kind of comfort. Like I thought, how could I have forced anything if I never even asked? How could any of this have been forced if neither of us really asked anything? It was just an unspoken, mutual agreement. And deep down, I knew it was right. Almost all was right in the world. The only problem? The once calm town of Desperation was being ransacked by a murderer.
   He looked at me. "You don't not know anything about me." He said. "You know a lot." "I know you're a popular football player who fell in love with a nobody." I explained. "Who takes care of his disabled best friend." He added. "Okay, Okay." He finally agreed. "I don't have a tragic sob story. I mean, I think I've lived a normal life. My dad was a huge pro at football, he was in the NFL. But he broke his hip, like, shattered it a couple years after I was born. We couldn't afford living in a big state like we did, so we moved here to desperation. It became his obsession that I become a pro like he was." He explained.
   "Did you even want to?" I asked. "Well. Kind of. I wanted to please him. I wanted to make him and mom proud. So yeah, I guess I did. So it became my life goal. I got an opportunity to work with animals with the vet and that became a side hobby. Just taking care of the animals. That made me happy. Still does." He explained. "And then you show up at school. The thing about us, my family are all huge assholes. They're homophobic. When they find out about me and you, they'll be pissed." He said, sighing. "But I don't care. I'm happy with where I am."
   For some reason, that last sentence made me smile. I yawned, rolling over and popping a couple pills. I pressed my back against his body and he held me close, wrapping his arm around me. The next day I woke up to Amara pawing at my face. She needed to go out. I got up and dressed quietly to not wake Zach, and then took Amara out. It was like a repeat of yesterday. Extremely paranoid. But now I have more validation to be so paranoid. I'm pretty sure everyone in the mansion would totally disagree with me going outside at four in the morning all alone. I wasn't all alone though, I still had Amara.
   She did her business after five minutes of standing in the cold. She ran right up to the door. I guess she didn't like the cold just as much as me. I opened the door and she ran inside, me following close behind. I closed the door and locked it once again, seeing John sitting at the dining room table. He had a notebook in front of him like he was working on something. "You pulled another all nighter, huh?" I asked. He looked up at me. "Yeah. I did." He admitted. I walked over to him and took the notebook, reading over all of the information.
   "It just doesn't add up." He sighed. "Ralph was a normal everyday man, he worked at the market, had a wife and three kids, all grown or teenagers. Leita was a policeman, a widower with one daughter who's only six years old." He mumbled. "It doesn't add up. They had almost no similarities. There's no telling who done it." "Arrest the suspects and question their family members or friends," I prompted. "We already have. No one knows. I mean, of course the suspects have connections with both men, but everyone here has connections. They're telling us they only knew them the way you'd know Janet down the street. You know of her, but you don't know her personally." He explained.
    "They've had a couple run ins with the law so they know Leita." He shrugged. "It's like it's a puzzle, and we're missing the most important pieces." I nodded. I didn't know what to tell him. I was just as confused as him. Yeah, I was withholding information about yesterday from him, but honestly, what good what it do to tell him? All it would do was worry him more. Chris eventually woke up. She was always the second to wake up. "What are you talking about?" She asked, getting some coffee and sitting with us. "The case." John responded. She rolled her eyes. "Well duh. But have we made any progress?" "No. Not on our end. I don't know about Michael." John shrugged.
"Call and ask." She ordered. "It's seven in the morning, I doubt he's even awake." "In the middle of an investigation, of course he's gonna he sleeping in until eleven in the day." She scoffed. John's phone rang. It sat on the table, buzzing. I looked at it and Michael's name appeared on the screen. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear." Chris laughed. John picked up the phone and answered with a quiet, "hello?" I heard Michael's voice mumble, his words distorted to a point that I couldn't understand what he was saying. John's expression dropped.
"Okay, I'll be there." He got up and threw his coat on. "What is it?" I asked. "There's been another body found." John said blankly. "Shit." Chris grunted. It was like we ourselves were also connected to the case. "Keep us updated." She ordered as John left. "Whoever's killing these people is fast." Chris mumbled, going through the notebook. I nodded in agreement. "Yeah. They are." I felt like I knew who the killer was. Like there was a piece of information right in front of Me. The puzzle piece we needed. But I just couldn't find it. It was eating at me.
Chris shrugged. "Maybe this kill will be the one to show us." She said. "Maybe." I agreed. "They're just killing random people." She snarled. "No, they aren't." I said. "They can't be." I don't know what it was. I just knew. I knew it wasn't random. John called. I was the one to pick up. "Hey." I said. "It's the same as the other victims. Naked. Its Hudson." I knew Hudson personally. He was one of mom's boyfriends. She dated all the druggies here. Hudson, Eric, Danatel, Blanchit. I could go on for days. "Who was the suspects you arrested?" I asked. "There was three. Val, Darce, and Ravises." Them? They didn't have any connection to these people.
I knew them. They weren't druggies, they were thieves. Val did have some connection to Hudson. They'd had a rivalry a few years ago. I told this to John and he agreed, hanging up to discuss it with the others. It couldn't be Val, he was in custody. But maybe he had some connections to the outer world. Maybe he was convincing someone else to kill. But that didn't explain why they killed Ralph. Leita, well, he was a cop who probably arrested them at one point. I don't know, it was all still kind of jumbled. I wasn't cut out for this cop stuff just yet.
I still felt like I was wrong. Like I was missing something. That's right. It didn't all make sense. It didn't all add up. Whoever it was had some kind of connection to the victims. Whoever it was was from town, and whoever it was was after me. I felt like I knew who it was. It was on the tip of my tongue. I was going to drive myself insane.