CHAPTER EIGHT // SIARA LYNN DUPONT
[WORD COUNT: 2322]
[TOTAL: 24094]

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“Lynn,” Jacob tugged at my arm. “Can we talk?” 

I brushed his arm away. “Not now, Jobs. It’s not a good time.” Today was Friday and I had no leads. If I didn’t find one soon, there was no telling what would happen tomorrow or late in the night. Would the serial killer continue killing innocent people, inevitably putting them in misery for the rest of their lives or was this just a one time thing? I had an inkling that this wasn’t just a one time thing and it terrified me. I didn’t know who was responsible. My first guess was Holland Jefferson, the man that killed a handful of people in public, but he was being held temporarily in jail until the court gave us a date that determined his jail time, or even his execution. I’d figured that he possibly had an accomplice, but that thought was quickly brushed away. 

Though Holland was classed as a serial killer, he was one of the reckless ones. I knew it from the start, since he carelessly left the gun he used on the floor and shot the people in broad daylight, where there was cameras everywhere. He couldn’t be the one responsible for this. 

“What’s wrong?” Jacob asked, concern seeping out of his tone. 

I bit my lip, feeling the stress prickle underneath my skin like needles as I whirled around and faced Jacob. “I still don’t have a lead and I have possibly less than twelve hours to find something or else another number of people are going to die. So if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and review the information I’ve gathered to see if I missed anything.” I turned back around and rushed into my office, locking the door. I didn’t dwell on how rude I was being to Jacob and instead collapsed in my chair, running a finger over the pad on my laptop to wake it up. 

The screen brightened, resuming my last windows and pages I had left off on until I made the break to go get some coffee. I downed it in less than a minute, though it was scalding hot, which was when I ran into Jacob. I squinted at the luminous screen, wincing as it pained my eyes for a split second. These were the days I despised the most, the ones where I sat slightly hunch backed in my worn out office chair with an empty cup of coffee beside me, the screen of the laptop at it’s brightest setting. It tired me to no ends, and it didn’t help that I was absolutely exhausted. As much as I wanted another break, I could only hope that the coffee I swallowed was enough to keep me focused and awake. 

On my laptop screen, it showed the last footage I reviewed the last time Sheryl Larke was seen by civilians. She was a plump, short woman with curled hair that rested just above her shoulders. At the moment she was entering the restaurant she worked for with an stressed and blatantly annoyed expression. I watched her every movement with careful eyes as she entered the restaurant, checking to see if anyone followed her inside. When nothing else happened, I rewinded the tape back further to see if anyone entered the restaurant before her. Much to my surprise I saw Lux. I paused the tape and zoomed in on his expression, faintly recalling the conversation I had with Jacob regarding him. 

He told me that his full real name was Owen Wesley. I couldn’t help myself and checked into his file, reading every single detail described fully in dark print. His parents had died a death of a fire from a cooking accident and burned down the whole house. While that was happening, Lux was driving home and managed to drive off of a bridge that caused him to have permanent amnesia. I felt pity lurking beneath my heart, imagining the inner turmoil he must be feeling, constantly wondering if the people around him were apart of his past life or something similar along those lines. He was twenty-one years old and lived on his own, attending college at Rye University. He had little friends and associated with close to nobody. He seemed like the average New York citizen but I somehow couldn’t fathom the uneasy feeling that I got when I was reminded of him. Everytime I imagined his silky brown eyes and his black obsidian locks of hair that hung off of his forehead in a curled mess and his slightly curled nose and small pink lips, I was transported back to the memory when Jacob warned me of him. 

He seemed absolutely innocent. So why was I still suspecting him? 

I zoomed the tape back to it’s original size and scolded myself for drifting off for so long, the burden of people’s lives ending in less than twelve hours. When I found no one else suspicious I fast forwarded the tape to the end of Sheryl’s shift, watching with careful concise eyes as she exited the restaurant holding a sheet of paper. I immediately paused and zoomed in, trying to read the illegible words but it was too blurred for me to figure out what it said. The paper was small and square shaped, plain colored and had distinct shadows of black print, too small for the eye to see from where the camera was positioned. My heart thudded with anticipation. This was the only tape that hadn’t been scrapped from the servers so I was hoping that I could find something useful.

I pressed play and watched for the second time as she glanced at the sheet of paper and began typing on her phone. I frowned as the tape continued to play. Of course the lower officials attempted to track her phone earlier this week but the phone was out of service and out of location, meaning that the culprit responsible was smart enough to get rid of the cell phone. Sheryl crumped the piece of paper in her hands and dumped it in the trash can. The tape continued on from then and I paused it, exiting out of the player. 

Sheryl threw out the sheet of paper in the trash can. Considering the fact that New York was a city, trash cans were emptied out every day. It’s been a week since her death so the chances of finding that slip of paper out of millions of others was less than slim to nothing. With a frustrated sigh I banged my hands on my desk, feeling tears prickle my eyes. I took in a deep breath and held my tears in, holding in the growing lump in my throat and wishing desperately that the frantic thudding in my chest was nothing other than chest pain, even though it was something that ran much deeper than that. I had nothing. Absolutely nothing and I didn’t know what to do. 

It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep my tears at bay so I settled to heaving in and out, too distracted to hear my phone beeping repetitiously from my thigh. Blinking a few times to brush the tears away, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and realized I had two unread text messages. 

        - Lisa: 19:19 PM; I’m leaving to Alaska, Lynn. I’m not coming back to the city for another two weeks.

I reread Lynn’s text message over and over again, feeling the weight in my chest gain another few pounds. Why would she leave so suddenly without no notice? I couldn’t help but panic, instantly thinking the worst. What if the culprit got his hands on Lisa? She was all I had left that I trusted dearly from my family, I couldn’t lose her like I had already lost Mason and my father. My finger hovered over the call option on the screen and I didn’t hesitate in calling her. The dial tone tortured me for a few seconds until I heard Lisa’s groggy voice, instantly erasing any worries I had and also easing the heavy weight that settled in my chest.

“Hello?” 

“Lisa,” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Why the sudden disappearance? Why didn’t you call me instead of texting? You had me worried sick, I thought something happened. You shouldn’t do stuff like this, especially since someone might–” I stopped myself from revealing what else might happen tonight. I promised Lisa that I would catch the culprit and so far I hadn’t been doing a very good job. I didn’t want to disappoint her with my troubles so I settled for clearing my throat. 

“What?” Lisa sniffed audibly and then coughed. “I’m at the airport right now. I know this week has been really busy for you so I didn’t want to trouble you by calling.” 

I felt my heart swell with gratitude but I didn’t have the heart to tell her why I was so worried for her. “Be careful, alright? What are you doing in Alaska?”

“Visiting the house,” Lisa said, and then added “And Dad.” I could practically hear her biting her lip even though the call, a habit she formed ever since the death of my father and the placement of my mother in a psychiatric ward. 

I took in a deep breath and nodded, though she couldn’t see me. “Okay, be safe Lisa. Take–Take care of yourself.” My voice broke midway and it took everything in me to not cry. I expected a goodbye of some sort in person, not through a phone call. But it was obvious, Lisa needed space and time for herself and it would be selfish of me to intrude on that, so I settled on ending the conversation before I became a blubbering mess and before she would start questioning me on why I was so fragile. 

“Okay,” she said softly. “I love you, Lynn.” 

I took another deep breath and tried to swallow the growing lump in my throat. “I–I love you too. B–Bye.” I ended the call before she could notice that something was wrong. I shut my eyes and willed all the conflicting emotions rising inside of me away. I needed a distraction. Sometimes work was a great distraction from life but now, working on the case which had absolutely no leads had my migraine pounding at my head and the stress prickling at my skin. 

My eyes traveled to the other unread text message, from Jacob. With a shaky finger I opened the message and read the small content:  

        - Jacob: 19:21; Let’s go out for dinner. My treat.

I bit my lip, feeling a fresh set of tears fill my vision. Jacob was such a sweet guy, he always knew when I needed something at anytime and here I was ignoring him when he obviously wanted to talk to me. With fingers that were shaking more than before I read the text, I responded:

- Lynn: 19:24; Okay. 

I squared my shoulders, inevitably erasing the small hunch back I had formed from sitting in the same spot for too long, and stood. I grabbed my jacket from behind my chair and slipped it on, wiping my eyes to hide any evidence that showed others that I had been on the verge of crying. I then shut my laptop closed and threw out the cup of coffee in the garbage, taking my last deep breath of the night.

I walked away from my desk and towards the door, unlocking it only to reveal Jacob leaning against the wall beside the door. Our eyes met and I refrained from apologizing like a blubbering idiot and instead looped my arm through his and dragged him towards the exit of the station. 

“Dinner,” I decided to say, easing a small smile on my face. “Where are we going?”

I saw the confusion and concern fade from his eyes as he tightened his hold on my arm. “It’s a surprise. I want this night to be as least stressful as possible, considering the fact that you are inevitably stressed.”

I bit my lip. “I’m sorry–”

“It’s natural Lynn,” Jacob sent me his infamous grin as he interrupted my mid apology, which slowly morphed into a teasing, knowing smile. “We all get a little stressed during work. You just so happened to be the one that gets stressed the most.” 

I nudged him, knowing instantly that I was forgiven, the weight in my chest easing back a little bit more. “Shut up,” I returned his teasing smile as we entered his car. “So what was it you wanted to talk about?”

“I wanted to ask you to dinner,” He said, glancing at me for a few seconds before directing his attention to turning on his car. “But since you locked yourself in your office I figured you needed a few more moments until you eventually convince yourself that you need a distraction, which was why I settled for a text message.” 

I felt my heart swell as he pulled out of Decint County. “Thanks Jacob,” I said, calling him by his first name instead of his last. “I really appreciate all of what you are doing to take my mind off of things.” 

“You know I’d do anything for you,” Jacob pursed his lips together for a few seconds. “Now enough of the depressing and emotional crap, I want to take your mind off of things so instead of talking about work lets talk about something else.” 

I knew this would be a night to remember, so I could only hope that this night would go smoothly, without any worries at all now that Jacob was making an effort to distract me from this weeks troubles. 

So why did I get the feeling that something terrible was going to happen?

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