Skeleton One

17:03 HOURS

Over the last several months, much of what they've seen led CSI, investigators, Major Case Detectives, and top brass to converge on Two-Zero-Six, Fifth Avenue, intensifying the investigation.

Standing in front of X-4's lifeless body, Maxine couldn't help but tremble. The haunting memories of that fateful night filled her mind, suffocating her with anguish and overwhelming fear. But amidst the trembling of her hands and the parched dryness in her mouth, she discovered a newfound ability to steady herself. She summoned an inner resolve that allowed her to suppress the overwhelming emotions, shielding them from view.

At that short-lived moment, Maxine learned to numb herself as if she had placed a veil over her senses, blurring the sights, muting the sounds, and dampening the fragrant sensations of the world around her.

Kelly stood beside her, gripping his cell with both hands and snapping several pictures of the scene. When he finished putting the phone in his front pocket, he switched his gaze between Maxine and the corpse. His own fears, like slumbering beasts, remained entombed within the dark, musty chamber of concealed traumas, haunting echoes, and searing anguish.

"Are you okay?" he asked. He took hold of her bicep with a gentle hand, gliding his fingers toward her elbow.

She looked into his eyes, a half-smile on her lips, her eyebrows narrowed toward her nose. She reached and took his hand into hers, interlocking with his fingers. As soon as she felt the warmth of his touch, her smile filled, and she mouthed I love you.

Detective Korman walked over to Kelly, observing his intense interaction with Maxine. His stare lasted only for a moment, but it felt piercing. A brief disapproving nod showed their interaction was unfavorable.

"So, Corporal?" said Korman.

"Kelly. This is my boot, Maxine McMenamin."

Korman's posture changed. He dropped his shoulder, sighed, and his face became drawn.

"You're Callum's kid?" He said to Max, then redirected his gaze toward Kelly. "Can I trust her? That guy tried to make my life miserable, so forgive me if I'm a little pissed off and hesitant to speak freely."

Maxine stepped across Kelly toward Detective Korman, her eyes squinted and jaw flexed. Kelly stretched his arm toward Maxine's hip, taking a step forward.

"She's squared away," he said. "That much, I promise. She's nothing like her old man."

Korman nodded his approval, and with two fingers flexing toward his palm, he led them from the body toward the window.

Maxine stood at the window, her eyes fixed on the Decomposition K9 and their handlers as they began their search. Some split off toward the side of the yard, disappearing, while three remained in the front, undecided. Only one dog and handler entered the house and went to work.

"It's good that X-4 whacked himself. That's one less headache to worry about. But I'm here about someone else, a cold case from ten years ago."

Kelly reached for his cell phone in his front pocket, took it out, and swiped the screen. He then pulled up the group chat with his father and uncle and sent them the pictures of X-4.

However, Maxine felt intrigued.

"You said something about Skeleton One earlier. Is that what this is?"

"McMenamin, when you work in a town like this, with a four-hundred-year-old curse on it, you find it a beacon for everything wicked and bloody."

Kelly, who still had a mouthful of tobacco, stepped toward a CSI and asked for a cup. When the investigator rummaged through his kit, found a specimen cup, and handed it to Kelly, he released a colossal mouthful of juice and saliva.

As he returned to Korman and Max, he wasted no time in joining the conversation.

"Just my opinion, but somebody purposely arranged that backyard to make us send out the dogs." Said Kelly as he spit again. "My guess is it's the guy who tormented X-4 into killing himself."

Korman raised his eyes, his forehead wrinkling as he seemed to agree with Kelly's take on the scene.

"These types of killers don't commit suicide," said Korman. "They kill until they get caught and then take on a god complex in the pen. They don't carve themselves up and then slit their wrists. It's too neat and clean."

Maxine suddenly flinched when the dog barked and whined as he clawed at the floorboards underneath X-4's corpse.

They watched as the handler comforted and spoke to the dog, helping him to pinpoint the exact spot that alerted him.

"Step back, please," said the handler as his dog scratched at the KBAR, moving it and then barking at the floor directly beneath the steel chair.

The lead CSI Lieutenant moved in, putting his hands outward by his sides, and walked us backward. Two gloved investigators in white examination suits moved to the front and back of the chair.

"This is freaking insane," said Kelly. "X-4 buried his victims in shallow graves in Haley's Woods—"

"Who said this is one of his kills?" said Korman. "There's more than one psycho on the loose. And for whatever reason this town hides its skeletons."

Maxine got Kelly's attention by clearing her voice and staring at him. "Skeleton One," she whispered.

The CSI investigators took a hammer and pry bar to the floor as they readied to pull up the boards. The first strike of the hammer created a hollow thud, revealing the absence of a subfloor and showing that someone had moved and replaced the same boards.

The floor gave way, and CSI removed the broken pieces as they came loose from the floor. That's when the grievous smell filled the room as if releasing a specter from a cage.

Everyone winced from the smell except for the CSI Lieutenant, who kneeled on one knee and peered beneath the broken floor.

He reached through the hole with a gloved hand and seemed to move or touch something. He stretched and groaned as his shoulder moved deeper beneath the floor.

It wasn't a moment before his arm and hand emerged, clasping a blood-stained plastic bag. He held it up to the light, getting a better look inside.

"There's writing on the envelope," he said as an investigator laid a folded paper blanket beside the open floor. He stretched the plastic to find a clear spot that made the message clear. With both hands, he pushed, moved the envelope, and wiped dirt and blood blocking the envelope's writing.

"For," he said. He continued to manipulate the plastic. "For officer—I can't quite make it out. "

However, resonating deep within her soul, she knew she was the intended recipient, and its author was Dole of Saint Bonnot. And despite her earlier triumph over X-4's death and her reaction, sheer fright washed over her, paralyzing her where she stood. The surrounding air grew thick with darkness as if a demonic legion hovered, their wicked presence suffocating her very essence.

She cleared her throat, gathered her breath, and spoke.

"It's for me," she said. "Maxine McMenamin. It's from him."