“Ah,” Julie replied. “Well, I would be lying if I didn’t admit my confidence is a little higher. In the real world I would never have walked over to you so quickly, in fact, I probably wouldn’t have come tonight at all.”
“I’m glad you did,” the beauty said quickly. “Come tonight that is. And approached me.”
“So,” Julie said slightly uncomfortable. “If we aren't allowed to reveal who we are, what do we converse about?”
“That's a good question,” the beauty said thoughtfully. “How about dreams. Wishes. If we had a secret life, what would it be?”
“Gosh,” Julie replied as she led the beauty towards the terrace entrance. “If I had a secret life I think I would be a writer. I love to write. I’d live in a small oceanside village and produce amazing pieces of writing but never tell anyone who I was. I would enjoy my fame and money in private.”
“Hmm,” the beauty responded. “I would live on an island. I would walk around in a bathing suit all day and drink rum from a coconut. I would do something meaningless as a job just to make money for my adventures. We take our work so seriously in this life, and it sometimes stifles who we really are.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Julie said as she clinked her glass with the woman. “Sometimes we let our jobs become our lives. We miss out on things like conversations with beautiful women in masks.”
The masked beauty looked down and Julie imagined a beautiful shy smile underneath. The woman cheered with her glass once more and as Julie took a sip she noticed Kait and Tommy across the room and they seemed to be arguing. Julie turned her attention back to the masked beauty to avoid being nosey or drawing attention to them. The two women continued their conversation discussing books and then movies. Julie felt as if she was on a blind date that would always be blind.
Kait approached the two woman and smiled gently, only half of her mouth showing. She excused herself and pulled Julie to the side. Julie looked at Kait and could tell she was crying from the smears of mascara beginning to emerge from under her mask. Kait whispered into Julie’s ear.
“I am going to go home,” Kait murmured. “I’m not feeling well. Have fun okay?”
Julie nodded not wanting to set Kait into any more despair than she already was and watched as she made her way back through the crowd. Julie turned her attention back to the masked beauty who was looking upwards towards the sky. There was a surge in Julie’s stomach and her knees felt a little weak as she walked towards the mystery woman.
“I wish it weren’t cloudy,” the woman said still looking up. “I love clear nights and especially on Halloween.”
“Me too,” Julie replied following her gaze upward to the dark sky. “We are going to miss all the witches flying across the moon tonight.”
The two women laughed and sat down at a table in the corner. The night went by quickly as the women discussed all levels of things, skirting around anything that may give away their identity. It was refreshing being able to have a real discussion with someone without the details of who they were getting in the way.
As the night began to wear down, the crowd grew smaller and Julie looked around wishing there was more time; she wasn’t ready to turn into a pumpkin yet. She glanced down at her bag and pulled her phone out, making sure Kait hadn’t tried to contact her in her despair, but there were no missed calls or messages. Julie stood up, not ready to end the evening but knowing she had to cut it off at some point. She stuck out her hand to help the masked beauty from her chair and tripped causing the two of them to press tightly together. The woman’s hand ran up Julie’s leg and continued around her bottom and up to the small of the back. The two women stood pressed against each other ecstasy escaping their masks with each exhale of breath.
“Oh my God,” a woman in the distance screamed. “Help someone help.”
Julie shook herself from the intoxicating connection with the masked beauty and walked through the doors. She saw a large group of people in a circle around someone but the only thing she could see was a lifeless hand laying on the ground. Julie looked closer and a knot jumped into her throat and forgetting the rules of the party she threw off her mask and wig and ran towards the group.
“Watch out,” she exclaimed. “I work for the Sheriff’s office.”
Several people called out Julie’s name when they realized who she was and Julie knelt down next to the body. The woman was young and her eyes, still open, were set in stone, still gazing in the same direction they were when her heart stopped beating. The etchings over the woman’s body sent chills through Julie and she knew this woman had been dead for at least a few hours. Julie took her shawl from her shoulders and laid it over the woman’s naked body and pulled the cell phone from her purse.
“Hello 911?” she said calmly realizing there was no longer any reason to rush. “This is Julie the County Coroner; there is another body. Please send the Sheriff.”
Everyone was silent and the lights had been turned on. Julie gave directions to the host of the event to have everyone ushered into the other conference room until they could all be questioned. She then looked up, trying to find the masked beauty she was so enthralled with just moments ago but she didn’t see her anywhere. The police were already on the scene and Julie walked over to the terrace and looked out. Below her staring up was the masked beauty. She paused for a moment and then disappeared around the corner.
"Julie,” Kait’s voice startled Julie.
“What are you doing here?” Julie said confused. “You left hours ago.”
“I know,” Kait said as if she were scolding herself. “I’m an idiot, and I left my keys in your purse, so I just went and got some coffee and waited in the parking lot for you. When I heard the screams, I ran in to make sure you were okay. What are you looking at?”
“Oh,” Julie shook the masked woman from her mind and looked at Kait sympathetically. “Here, you can sleep at my house if you want. I saw you and Tommy arguing.”
“Thank you,” Kait said as she kissed Julie on the cheek. “You are the best.”
Julie led Kait to the door and had the police let her out since she wasn’t there for the incident and walked back over to the body where the Sheriff now was. He stood shaking his head and flashes from the crime scene photographer blinded Julie for a moment. She looked up at the terrace window and noticed the clouds begin to part, giving way to the bright illuminating Halloween moon.
The killer was here, Julie let the masked woman get away, and even her best friend was having a bad night. Julie wrapped her arms around herself as she shivered from the thought that the serial killer was so close, and she couldn’t help but wonder why her masked beauty had run off so quickly. Julie looked down at the body which was now covered with a white sheet, only her hand peeking out from the edge. Carved in the woman’s delicate palm was the number 13.
Chapter Four
The Sheriff’s office was abuzz with all the commotion from Halloween and Julie was nervously waiting for the Sheriff to return to the office. After everyone was ushered into another conference room, Julie assisted with the search and found another romance novel neatly tucked above the door about fifteen feet from where the body was. The problem with all of it was that Julie couldn’t figure out how the killer got the body in without anyone noticing.
Sheriff Bartlett entered the office and sat down at his desk. Julie waited patiently to address him until he was finished putting away a hundred files he had lugged in with him. When he was finished, he took in a deep breath and looked at Julie.
“Well,” he said. “The cat’s out of the bag. The whole town is terrified, and the mayor is taking major heat for not letting the public know sooner. We need to find this sick bastard and soon or the whole town is going to start shooting everything that moves.”
“I understand,” Julie said with confusion on how she plays into this whole scene. “What can I do to help?”
“Well, I’m glad you asked,” Sheriff Bartlett said as he handed her a ful
l file. “This is all the information on all six cases. I feel like you have earned the right to help out.”
“That’s awesome,” Julie beamed. “Thank you so much.”
“Yea,” the Sheriff replied. “But don’t get in the way and anything you find you bring straight back to me. Oh, and we figured out how the body got there unnoticed.”
“How?” Julie sat back in her seat and listened intently.
“We looked at these pictures taken by the staff,” he said as he handed the pictures to Julie.
“Oh,” Julie said cutting off the Sheriff. “That black table, it wasn’t there when the body was discovered. Someone hid the body under there and when they staff started moving stuff the body was found.”
“You should have been a detective,” Sheriff Bartlett said smiling.
“Okay well I am going to stop by Lydia’s desk and get the other detective’s numbers and then head back to my office,” Julie said as she picked up her bag.
“Lydia called out. Just grab the cards as you leave the station,” Sheriff Bartlett said, picking up the ringing phone on his desk.
Julie looked at Lydia’s empty desk and wondered why Lydia would call out on a day like this. It’s seemed strange to Julie that every time there was a murder Lydia would be gone for several days afterward. She shook the thought from her mind since there were bigger things to worry about, besides even if Lydia did have something to do with the murders Julie would never get close enough to find out.
The day was long, and Julie’s eyes began to hurt having gone over pictures of the bodies and crime scenes at least fifteen times. She pulled out the sheet that listed the highlighted passages from each book and began comparing them to the victims and what their lives were like. None of it made any sense to Julie all the girls were single and either working or college students. Julie sighed and put the paper down as Kait tapped on her office door.
“Hey,” Julie said. “I didn’t want to wake you this morning. You doing okay?”
“Yea,” Kait replied. “Much better today. Thanks for everything.”
“No problem,” Julie said looking down at several scrapes across Kait’s arm. “What happened to you? Get in a fight with a werewolf last night?”
“Oh,” Kait said pulling her sleeve down. “I just tripped and fell in a bush. You know how clumsy I am. Anyways, I am going to go grab some coffee; you want some?”
“Um,” Julie was about to respond when the morgue doors opened, and Sheriff Bartlett bulldozed back towards Julie’s office.
“Julie,” the Sheriff said breathlessly. “Detective Jones is heading out to try to find some info on the first victim and her life, see if there are any secrets. I want you to go along, you are better at talking with people, Jones is a little gruff.”
“Sure,” Julie said suspiciously. “Are you okay? You look like you ran a marathon just now.”
“Yea, yea,” the Sheriff replied. “I was trying to talk to Lydia, but she got upset and ran off. I'm not as young as I used to be.”
“She okay,” Julie asked, not actually caring. “She seems to dip every time there's a new victim.”
“She is fine,” the Sheriff replied. “You know she was the one that found the first body, right?”
“No,” Julie said shocked. “I guess that explains her weirder than usual attitude lately.”
“Well,” he continued. “She was at the ball last night, and it brought back a ton of memories for her. She is taking it pretty hard. I got her out of there before they started questioning people.”
“Huh,” Julie said. “I was there and didn’t notice her at all. Maybe because we were all wearing masks.”
“She was kind of hard to miss,” the Sheriff said as he walked towards the front desk. “She cleaned up good. She was the young lady with the sequin black dress and mask with the feather.”
Julie stopped in her tracks unable to move. Lydia was her masked beauty. Julie shook her head unable to come to terms with the thought that she fell for Lydia. The girl that hated Julie was the same girl that drank champagne and talked about her dreams for hours and then disappeared without a trace. Julie strolled towards the door, entranced in her thoughts, replaying every emotion and every movement between her and her mystery woman.
“Are you okay,” Kait asked. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”
“Yea,” Julie said as she shuffled out of the door. “I think I did see a ghost. The ghost of a woman I thought I’d never know.”
“What,” Kait asked, but Julie had already let the door shut behind her.
The drive to the first victim’s, Anna Flowers, hometown went slowly, and Julie kept to her thoughts. The detective was not very talkative, and they had worked out that Julie would talk to Anna’s best friend alone since she was easier to talk to and younger than the detective. When they pulled up outside of the house, Julie tore her mind from Lydia and prepared herself to question the first witness she had ever talked to.
The girl answered the door quickly and led Julie to the chairs on the front porch. She seemed nervous and hastily slammed the front door behind her. The witnesses name was Lisa, and she had known Anna her entire life. You could tell Anna’s murder had worn on Lisa and her eyes were surrounded by dark circles and her body looked frail and malnourished.
“I'm sorry to have to ask you more questions,” Julie said imagining it was her in this girl’s shoes, and Kait had been brutally murdered. “I just need a little more information.”
“It’s okay,” she replied. “But I told the other detective everything I knew.”
“Well,” Julie said calmly. “I'm not a detective. I'm actually the county coroner, but I have a best friend I've known my whole life too, and I can’t imagine what this has done to you. Instead of sending another detective I decided to come down myself and talk.”
“Oh,” Lisa said as her shoulders began to relax. “Well, what can I do for you?”
“A number was found,” Julie said choosing her words carefully. “And a book was discovered near the bo...um near Anna with a highlighted passage that read:
‘She was a lovely girl, plain, but cute, just the type of girl my husband would want. He did always go for the plain girl since he could control them. Poor thing, she actually thinks he loves her.’ Does that mean anything to you, Lisa?”
Julie watched as Lisa’s face turned pale white, and her hands began to shake. She put down the paperwork and reached for Lisa’s hand as comfort. Lisa looked off into the distance with a blank stare.
“Lisa,” Julie whispered kindly. “You don’t have to be afraid. Whatever it is will be confidential. We need to find out what the killer knew so we can get this monster.”
Lisa’s eyes darted back to Julie with the mention of the word killer, and the blood began returning to her cheeks. She let go of Julie’s hand and sighed, bringing her fingers to her temples and searching for the words in her mind. She slapped her hands in her lap as a tear ran down her cheek and looked at Julie.
“I told her to stop,” Lisa said sniffling. “She thought he loved her, but everyone knew he “loved” a lot of women.”
“Who?” Julie asked.
“Her professor, Jim Dove,” Lisa said rolling her eyes. “Anna was shy and easily coerced, and Professor Dove knew just what to say to keep her attached. She was sleeping with her married professor.”
Julie wrote as Lisa talked explaining the dates, the run-ins with the teacher’s wife, and anything she could remember. When she was done Lisa seemed like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders and she hugged Julie before retreating inside. Julie moseyed towards the car convinced already that the professor had nothing to do with the murder, it was a motive for some mentally unstable serial killer.
The detective looked at Julie when she sat down and waited for her to shuffle her notes around. This was going to be a manhunt of massive proportions, but Julie was even more furious than ever. This girl may have done something she shouldn’t have, but she didn’t des
erve to die.
“Well,” Julie said. “Let’s go interview the other victim’s best friends. I bet we find out those lines from the books are all too familiar with the victim.”
As the detective drove off from the witnesses’ house, the clouds in the sky began to darken, and the only woman Julie had on her mind was Lydia. She had to find her and put her suspicions and questions to rest, even if Lydia rejected her.
Chapter Five
Julie and the detective stopped off and talked to the second victim’s friend before heading back to town. Just as Julie suspected the second victim had been dating a married man as well and the passage linked up entirely. Whoever was committing these hideous crimes had a serious problem with adultery.
It was dark by the time Julie got back to the station, and she didn’t even take the time to go into the building. She jogged down to Lydia’s house, but all the lights were off, and no one answered the door. Julie stood outside of Lydia’s rundown childhood home trying to think of where she could have gone. They didn’t hang out ever and the only place Julie remembered seeing Lydia was sitting in a giant tree by the creek where she would throw rocks at her and Kait as children. That was it; Lydia had to be down by the creek.
Jack (Secret Revenge #1) Page 46
