Little Red House

Chapter 8 - Proof

Chapter Eight

We were sitting in my kitchen table with files scattered there and here. Colin leaned forward in a thoughtful state, a red apple in his hand. His dark hair was damp and stuck out on top of head. His blue eyes scanned the papers and the irises in his eyes sparkled with grey. Colin looked up and caught my eye,

"Hm?" Colin bit into his apple and slowly chewed.

"Oh, um," I struggled to pull my thoughts together, "Can you, can you review what exactly we're looking at?"

"Well, Vanessa Rixton is also known as Erica Grimston." ,

"False identity?"

"Most likely," Colin reached for a sheet of paper, "She has a record of false identity theft and was a suspect of drug dealing."

"The package; drugs?"

Colin paused to bite into his apple once again.

"I thought so until I looked into the drug dealing report. All arrows pointed towards a man known as Shadow. Who they think doesn't even exist."

"Shadow? Really?"

"Shadow is a famous myth. That's why all charges were dropped. They found the actual dealer, Martin Lense."

"Who is Shadow?"

"His name speaks for him. He goes and leaves as he wishes, shadowing his victims."

"A serial killer?"

"Not really. He doesn't like to get his hands dirty. He has a whole web of personal monkeys that do all that is needed. Nobody ever got close to his case. Except, a detective five years ago."

I picked up a typed up packet with a sticky note attached. The note read Shadow Case: Detective Madison.

"Let me guess. Detective Madison?"

"Yes. In fact, her father, a former policeman, was on Shadow's case when Shadow first started off. Detective Madison had a huge break through five years ago. She personally encountered Shadow but he slipped away before she could identify him."

"Sounds a little fishy to me," I spoke as I skimmed through the packet, "Oh! Right here it says, Madison had a theory that Shadow had a brother who died a while back, which caused him to start the whole Shadow thing. He spoke of a dead brother when they encountered. Also, she has a whole list of suspects that might be working for him. Wow. Why did she stop if she was getting close?"

"Fear? Maybe she was threatened. Whatever it was she stopped and declared that she was only chasing a myth in the criminal world. Addition to that, there wasn't even any proof that she actually talked to him."

"Double fishy. She broke it off so suddenly," I mumbled.

"The thing is nobody knows what Shadow is involved in. Drugs might be only a smart part." Colin got up to throw away the remains of his apple.

"Why do you say?" 

"People were murdered. People in high and low positions. Some where discovered to be involved in drugs but something tells me there was more to it. Madison thought so too."

"How did she meet up with this Shadow man? Did she find him?"

"No. He reached to her through an untraceable cell phone. He informed her of the place and time. She met him, they talked supposedly. And Madison signed off the case."

"That's it? No epic gun fights? Did she have back up?"

"Yes. But she insisted to go in alone. It was an abandoned hotel building on the North side. Whatever happened in there changed her mind about leading the case."