The Heights

Part 3 (Chapter 16-20)

16, Lost

Whitewater Heights 2002

(the Inn)

Tragedy had once again befallen Whitewater heights. The wailing sounds of an ambulance echoed through the halls of the baby blue Inn. Jade had been shaking in silence for the last hour. She would forever have the image of Victoria's dead body engrained in her brain like an ink-black unwanted tattoo. Her mind was empty. It was as if all her thoughts and worries had simply grown a pair of legs and walked right out of her brain. All there was now was a shocking silence, so unbearable and so distinct. Jade couldn't feel her body, all she felt was the silence and the shock.

"J-J-Jade are you up for some questions," Detective Browne asked, he seemed just as shocked as Jade. But he knew exactly the answers to his questions. He was guilty. No one knew.

"I-I-I don't know," Jade stuttered in confusion, "all I can see is her body. Oh my god, I said it out loud. Her body!"

Jade was sitting on the velvet carpet that covered the staircase. She was a stuttering mess. Detective Browne had been asked to check up on her as every other detective was investigating Victoria's study. Her body had been sealed into a white plastic bag and carried out to the coroner's office for further inspection a few minutes prior. Jade couldn't bear to see the white plastic.

"J-J-Jade we will figure this out," Detective Browne added, "I assure you we will find a way to close this and your father's case."

Jade could smell the slight scent of whiskey in the Detective's breath. Wasn't his car still in the driveway this morning. Jade thought to herself. It was the first time, since seeing Victoria, that day that Jade felt a thought cross her mind. She couldn't help but savour the lingering feel of logic reentering her brain. She felt her body slowly come alive. The silence started to dissipate. As she felt her senses slowly come alive, she could feel her suspicions rise uncontrollably.

"Detective," Jade asked suspiciously, "did you walk home last night, after dinner at my Aunt Grace's?"

"I can assure you I drove home," Detective Browne lied, trying his best to evade her suspicions, "I like to often park my car in odd places so as to still get a little bit of walking done at the end of my long days of sitting down with paperwork."

"Did you drink this morning," Jade continued to interrogate, "your breath reeks of whiskey and coca-cola."

"That was from last night, I had a drink with my wife. She likes to get a little drunk before getting into bed with the husband," Detective Browne continued to lie, knowing exactly the night before he did the furthest thing from being with his wife, "I must've fallen asleep and forgot to brush my teeth."

"Sure thing, Detective," at that instant her trust in Detective Browne had completely disappeared. Jade no longer saw a trustworthy town hero, but a sly and questionable "officer of the law".

Jade was one that could get lost in the details. She was used to burying herself in the details of others so as to distract herself from the details of her own life. She was a master at reading body language. Detective Browne wasn't blinking at all, his feet were shuffling endlessly, his right hand was instinctively covering a vulnerable body part — his neck, and he was giving way too much information than he needed to. He is lying. Jade told herself.

Jade couldn't believe it. The only person who was trying to figure out her step father's death was lying. Somehow, she felt like she had lost August all over again. He's never going to figure out what happened. Jade felt deep down like the tiny bit of hope she had fizzled out. Well, if he's not going to then I am. She wanted to initiate her own investigation. That meant to talk to Mrs. Graham and straighten out the call. She knows something. Jade thought to herself. Jade knew the general protocol of a murder investigation, she had read them in countless hopeful manuscripts that were never published. A part of her felt like by figuring out August's case she could distract herself from the image of Victoria's body, even for a few hours.