Past
The investigation continued after the funeral. The police searched what remained of our house, and we stayed with Leah's parents while we found somewhere else to go. They had specialist teams in the house for weeks, trying to savour every bit of evidence. That's the problem with fire. It destroys everything. It has no compassion, no sympathy for anything, alive or dead. It stops at nothing to destroy everything in its path, just getting angrier and angrier until everything is gone. And that's what it did to Leah.
The police called us into the station to inform us that they had nothing. They asked us if we knew anything that could possibly help them with the investigation. There was. I hadn't told them about the figure I saw. The Hooded Man. So, I told them. Everything. From the first appearance at college, Leah's college, Leah's own sighting, the fire, and the funeral, and how I presumed it was him that wrote that message on Leah's coffin.
The police were grateful. But mine and Leah's parents were rightfully angry with us. Something could have been avoided if I had told someone. I felt awful, and they knew that. They found the ability to forgive me.
In short time, the police concluded that it was a targeted murder. Someone had purposely wanted to kill Leah, and they did, nearly taking me with her.
The police did everything they could, but there was no trace of him anywhere, not even a fingerprint, or a strand of hair or anything related to him: not the spray can used at the funeral, the area outside our house, nothing.
Three more months went by and still nothing, the case had gone cold.
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The Fire
Mystery / ThrillerTwo years ago, Sophie lost her best friend in a fire. The authorities believed it was a targeted murder. But they never found who it was. Now the killer claims to be back, with a new victim. Can Sophie discover who it is before it's too l...
