ℂ𝕃𝕆𝕊𝔼ℝ 𝕋ℍ𝔸ℕ 𝕐𝕆𝕌 𝕋ℍ𝕀ℕ𝕂

║NINE║

      AS NICOLE vigilantly walked into the McBride's home with Neil, she waved her hands in the air to remove cobwebs from the way. The place was dusty and lacked maintenance. The stairs made creaky noise as she and Neil  climbed up to the McBride's bedroom.
They walked into the door that was left ajar and a fowl smell greeted them. Nicole hunkered down looking for the socks she had seen in the picture. She smiled when she found it. She quickly wore a glove and picked up the brown socks.
“This place smells funky.” she scrunched her face as she put the socks into a nylon bag. She was careful so she wouldn't contaminate the socks with her own finger print.
“What do you expect? Close to three years now, no cleaning.” Neil stood at the door way observing if anything had changed since the last time they came. He walked around the room and opened the closet which made an awful smell diffuse around the atmosphere.
“Uh–oh, I think I have found what is causing the stench.”
Neil covered his nose with his handkerchief.
“What?” Nicole stood up, walking to where Neil stood.
“Dead rat.” Neil said as he rolled out a tissue and picked it up.
Nicole sighed and shook her head “We will just dispose it.” she said. “We've got no time to waste Neil, let's go to the basement and see what we can find.” As they were about to leave the bedroom, they heard a noise from downstairs, Nicole brought out her hand gun from her side pocket, positioned it and ready to pull the trigger, Neil also did the same as they walked quietly downstairs, they were careful so that the stairs wouldn't make noise.     They steped down the final steps to the hallway, Nicole pointing her gun to the door, Neil pointing his gun in the opposite direction. The door opened slowly.
“Hey, it's me!” The forensic scientist shouted as he saw he was on gun point.
      Sighing, Nicole put her gun down and tuck it in her pocket while Neil laughed.
“God saved you Mr Henshaw.” Neil said to the forensic scientist.
“I was ready to pull the trigger.” Nicole said and laughed.
“Have you taken the evidence?”  Mr Henshaw.
“Yes.” Nicole handed the nylon containing the evidence to him. The forensic scienctist followed them to the basement. As they walked into the basement, Nicole covered her mouth and nose with her hand, trying to stifle the gorge that raised in her throat. The basement had a very bad smell probably because of the blood that had dried on the rug.
“Oh goodness!” she said irritably. Neil and the forensic scientist searched the basement, trying to see if they'll find any thing while Nicole stood at the doorway watching them.
     They walked out of the house after they had searched every nook and cranny of the McBride's home. The forensics drove to the lab immediately while Neil and Nicole waited outside beside the police vehicle.
“I pray we get the result on time.” Neil said to Nicole.
“Yeah… concerning the missing persons case, I'm thinking we should bring Travis in for questioning.” Nicole folded her arms as she leaned on the door of the vehicle.
“That's true.” Neil nodded his head.
“Good afternoon!” Neil and Nicole looked over to where the voice came from.
“Hello Mrs Orwell, Good afternoon.” Neil said as Mrs Orwell walked towards were he and Nicole stood.
“Good afternoon.” Nicole smiled at Mrs Orwell.
“It's been a long time. What brought both of you here.” Mrs Orwell asked, she was carrying groceries.
“We came to check out something because we are still working on the case.” Neil told her.
“I thought you would have dumped the case.”
“Dump? No, we can't relax when we know here is a murderer out there.” Neil said. “I guess you went shopping?”
“Yeah, I did.” she smiled.
“Have you seen anyone strange come around the house since the day the couple was murdered?” Nicole asked.
“No.” Mrs Orwell shook her head.
“Has anyone asked you questions about the murder since then?”
“No except from some few nosy people but that was a year ago. Everyone has forgotten about them except me because they meant a lot to my family.” Mrs Orwell smiled sadly.
“Alright, thank you Mrs Orwell, we'll be on our way now.” Neil said as he opened the door to the driver seat.
“No problem. Bye.” Mrs Orwell said and walked to her house.
       Sliding into the passengers seat, Nicole phone rang. She brought it out from her purse and looked at the caller ID, it was her mother.