Today is not a good day for Lilia. The drug dealer she had been taking care of has run off after being told of his impending death upon awakening, and she hasn’t been able to find him since yesterday. She hasn’t been able to find the owner of the taunting voice either, and she is afraid that it will find her charge first before she does. It also doesn’t help that her boss had told her an hour ago to give up on the drug dealer and go help with the soup kitchen on Hertel Street. Her response: Hell No. How would she look like to all of her charges if she just gave up on one of them and ran off to do something else? Like she didn’t care, that’s what! She has to find him fast before her boss finds out that she disobeyed him and lose her job. Then, who will be there for her charges?
“Bad day?”
“Raiden,” the young social worker becomes happy as she turns to see the named police detective, “I’m so glad to see you! I need your... help...”
Her sudden happy mood evaporates like morning dew upon seeing the one she has been looking for being escorted to a police squad car by two other police officers. The drug dealer looks at her for a brief second, face full of hope, before the officers push him inside the squad car and drive away.
“Wait,” Lilia calls to the squad car, but the officers ignore her and she turns to Raiden, “Please Raiden, you have to let him go. He’s-“
“Sorry Lilia,” Raiden interrupts, “We found him dealing acid to a group of minors, including one of our informants. We also found other types of drugs on him, and he has a warrant for his arrest for failure to appear in court, which his bail bondsman is not too happy about. I cannot turn him over to your custody without a court order.”
“He was attacked a few days ago!”
“That doesn’t excuse his behavior. He has to face the consequences for his crimes. If we let him off on your behalf, more criminals will want to use you and your fellow social workers as a ticket out of court and jail time, and I don’t think your boss or mine will appreciate that.”
The social worker growls quietly at both her friend for not helping her and being reminded of where she is supposed to be at right now. She will have to save her charge during court, once she has the date.
“By the way,” the police detective begins, stopping her from asking about the court date, “One of Jenne’s customers was attacked last night.”
“What?”
“I had forewarned her that something like that would happen. Like usual, she didn’t listen to me and thinks herself untouchable. It might prove interesting as to how our favorite private detective will react in regards to this bit of news.”
“Why are you telling me this? Tragic it may be, it’s not like I care about her nor does she never wants to help me. Wait, isn’t that confidential information you just told me?”
“It’s not confidential if everyone else knows about it. Besides, I’m just having a chat between friends. That’s all.”
“Your idea of chatting leaves one to wonder,” Lilia comments dryly.
* * * *
“What happened here,” John, Richard, and Daisy hear as they step inside the nurse’s office.
“Richard got hit with a softball in the arm,” John explains as said young man is led to a chair in front of the nurse.
“Geez,” the nurse fixes her glasses, “You’re the fourth person this week to have an injury from gym. You guys need to be more careful. I’m limited to what I can treat here.
“However, you guys are in luck today, for a friend of mine that is a resident at Buxon Memorial Hospital is visiting me. If you like, I can ask him to see your arm.”
“Sure,” Richard replies, wincing as he lets go of his injured arm and rolls up his sleeve.
“I’ll be right back,” the nurse said as she gets up and leaves the room from a side door.
“Is she always that grouchy,” the taller young man asks once he is certain she is out of earshot.
“Usually,” John answers.
“Most of the students coming in here pretend to be sick so they can take a nap,” Daisy adds before the door opens to reveal a tall young man wearing thin-framed glasses and a kind smile walking in.
“Hello there,” he greets, “I’m Danny. Laurie tells me you took a softball to the arm. I know how that feels, having been hit many times myself as a child.”
“It was my fault,” Daisy confesses with slight guilt, “I egged the batter on.”
“A nice lady like you,” Danny exclaims teasing before sitting in the chair in front of Richard, “How’re you doing there, son?”
“My arm feels like it’s on fire,” Richard explains with a slight grunt, “but other than that, I’m okay.”
“I’m going to press on your arm in different areas and you tell me if the pain is worse there or not. Then I’m going to twist your arm to see if the bone has been broken and you tell me if the pain is worse or not. Okay?”
“Sure,” Richard extends his injured arm and the medicl resident presses his fingers in different areas, getting a few painful grunts and hisses when pressing in certain areas. He then twists the arm slightly in different directions and bends it at the elbow a few times.
“The good news is that your arm’s not broken,” Danny said happily, placing Richard’s arm down, “The bad news is that your arm’s going to be sporting a good-size bruise and you might feel stiff when using your arm for awhile. Whoever hit you with that softball must’ve used all of his strength to do it.”
“Pretty much so,” Richard agrees, rubbing the tender skin that’s starting to darken in color.
“Do we have any ice packs Laura,” Danny asks.
“Right here,” she pulls out a gel pack and a roll of gauze, handing them to him.
“Keep this on the affected area for a few hours to reduce the swelling,” Danny instructs as he sets the icepack on Richard’s arm, “Try to avoid anything that will put stress on your arm, and you should be fine in a few hours. You’ll have to tell your little siblings that you can’t rough house with them for the next two days.”
“Um... I’m an only child,” Richard corrects, feeling uneasy about the medical resident’s statement as he finishes tying up the ice pack.
“Oh, I’m sorry. You look like the big brother type of guy. I need to work on assuming things too quickly. Do you need any painkillers?”
“No, not really. I can manage.”
“Okay. You’re all set.”
“Here are your hall passes,” Nurse Laura hands each student a piece of paper, “You all head back to class now, and no more hitting each other with softballs or anything like it.”
“Yes ma’am,” John, Richard, and Daisy reply before they leave the nurse’s office and head back to class.
“Really,” Nurse Laura sighs, “I had thought the kids around here would lay off the hazing on the new kid during their first month here.”
“That kid was new? He didn’t act like it. Isn’t he starting late into the new year?”
“I heard that his family just moved into town last month and missed the first week of school. I also heard that he had a confrontation with the football team’s quarterback during the Extracurricular Fair, a first in history since the quarterback started at this school.”
“Hm.”
* * * *
John sighs as he reaches home, seeing Jenne’s car in its usual spot. His sister is home, probably been so for awhile.
‘Good,’ he thought, going inside and heading upstairs, ‘I can tell her the news about my weekend plans, and maybe find out what she had been doing this morning.’
He’s not surprise to see the ‘Closed’ sign in the window of the door. Jenne and Ellisaüch will close early if there’s no business at all for the day. It should strike him off, considering the sudden boon of cases in the last few months. Maybe everyone is waiting to see what will happen now that there are live victims to tell who the mysterious Single Family Serial Killer is. Hopefully, it will be enough to close the case and everyone in the city can finall
y get a good night’s rest without fear of getting killed in their sleep. He knows that he will.
John opens the door and his hopes of having a nice conversation with Jenne disappearing almost in an instant. His sister is at her desk, eyes glued to the computer screen as she clicks away with her mouse. Whenever the private detective goes onto the Internet, she doesn’t pay attention to anything else. Whatever he says will go in one ear and out the other.
“Hey Jenne,” John calls, but receives no reply, “Jenne? Sis! Get off the damn computer already! I need to talk to you!”
Nothing.
“I swear, you are worse than a nerd at that thing!”
“So says the one that spends hours on here during the weekends.”
John nearly jumps at the statement, seeing that Jenne is smirking at him. Damn bitch loves to scare the pants off him. A quiet chuckle alerts him to Ellisaüch sitting at her desk, further adding to his humiliation.
“Don’t scare me like that,” he yells at Jenne.
“Don’t you assume that I’m not paying attention.”
“You usually aren’t paying attention when you’re on the Internet.”
“No Internet for me today,” Jenne stretches her arms over her head, “I have to review the accounts before Ellisaüch sends them over to the auditor. If they’re not done right, they’ll zap all of our savings just to fix what is wrong before they can fill out our tax returns for the IRS.”
“I doubt I would make a mistake that big,” Ellisaüch mumbled, sitting at her desk with both her arms and legs crossed.
“I doubt they would send us to the poor house just for that,” John adds, “Anyway, Richard had invited me over to his house for the weekend. You know where the sleeping bags are?”
“Basement storage, although you may want to buy a new one, since you’ve outgrown your dinosaur sleeping bag after your last growth spurt.”
“I was going to borrow yours, but if you’re offering to buy me a new one...”
“Whatever happen to your allowance? I give you more than enough to pay for your meals and other necessities.”
“Saving it for college. You know how expensive tuition is. I can’t afford to spend all of it on useless stuff. It’s already hard enough trying to get a scholarship and with you as my only source of income, since you forbid me from having a job so long as-”
“Fine,” the private detective takes out her wallet and tosses John a few dollar bills, “I expect the change. And the receipt.”
“Yes Mother,” John sings, making both siblings laugh.
“By the way,” Jenne suddenly thought, “How long have you and Richard been friends?”
“Close to a month now. Why?”
“Kinda moving fast now, ain’t ya? You became study buddies the first week after becoming friends. Daisy had accepted Richard after the second week and all three of you have become a tight-knit group. Now, after over three weeks, you guys are planning sleepovers. Next thing I know, you two will be dating.”
“Wha... We’re not like that Jenne,” her brother yelled, cheeks turning pink and Ellisaüch’s snickering not helping matters one bit.
“Hey, I got nothing against gays. I fully support your choice in sexual preferences or your choice in lovers. Just make sure you use a condom. You never know what anyone is carrying.”
“I... I can’t believe you! We are not dating, and we both like girls!”
“Whatever you say,” the private detective smiles teasingly, “Just remember to bring your cell phone with you and call me if there any problems.”
“I will,” John replies sarcastically, heading for the door to the residential area of the apartment, “I’m going to go do some homework now. Call me when dinner’s ready... or delivered, since it looks like you’ll be pulling an all-nighter again.”
“I already called Sammy’s. The usual will be here soon.”
“Nice. I haven’t had any of Sammy’s in so long. Let me know when it gets here.”
“Will do,” Jenne writes on a pad of paper as John heads to his room. Once he closes the door, she turns her eyes back to her computer monitor.
“You know he’s going to think I’m lazy with those lies of yours,” she looks up to see Ellisaüch pouting with a slight frown upon her face.
“I think you underestimate how well John can tell lies from facts,” Jenne points out, “and he overestimates how well he can hide the fact that he knows when I’m lying. He wanted to know where I was this morning, but chose not to ask because he thought I was busy with a case instead of the auditing of our accounts.”
“Which we did last month. You do know that he will figure a way to find out without asking or bugging either of us. I can only hope that he doesn’t make a mess out of my desk in his search like he did when he was young. Such a curious fellow, he was, and quite a messy one at that.”
“And that is why I keep what I don’t want him to know in my one place he is afraid to look: my room. I’m surprise that you don’t take anything back to your place if you’re so afraid of someone going to either steak it or destroy it.”
“I don’t need the useless clutter of work invading my place of relaxation.”
“Oh yeah. I tend to forget that you’re a neat freak.”
“Which reminds me. I will be cleaning the office tomorrow morning. It is in need of it, seeing as you don’t like to clean for months on end unless mold develops.”
“I have to keep the place as close to minimum cleanliness as possible, lest I wish for social services to come and steal John from me, like they have tried to do so many times. They despise the fact that an older sibling is caring for a young sibling without a parental figure or a non family guardian watching over him. They have allowed it when I was a police officer, but as a private detective, they’ve been doubling their efforts to make me look bad and them the good guys.”
“Considering that seven out of ten children that come into their care end up in abusive foster homes before the new regulations came into effect last year, they need good publicity right about now.
“So tell me. Did you find anything about our little mystery that’s your latest interest? “
“I will in a second,” Jenne picks up the phone and begins dialing.
Just then, a shadow appears at the door and knocks at the door.
“Hello? Sammy’s Pizza.”
“Will you get that for me,” Jenne asks, “The money’s on your desk.”
“What money,” Ellisaüch looks around and sees a wad of cash on top of her keyboard, “You need to tell me how you can do that. It gets annoying when you pull your Houdini tricks.”
“A good magician never tells her secrets,” the private detective snickers, “Hello, this is Jenne Cordovo.”
Sighing, the young secretary grabs the money and heads for the door.
Chapter 7
The castle of Lord Babil, the forsaken lord that chose not to side with anyone in the Crusade, stands quiet with its windows barely lit. The large stone building is the center of the village that had been forgotten by all of England. Once, people awed at the castle and its lord with admiration and love. Once, the people respected their lord that lived in the castle and trusted him with their lives.
Now, anyone smart enough to not disobey King Richard would stay as far away as possible. To go near the forbidden land is to sentence oneself to death.
The once clean and lavished hallways are covered red with blood, the furnishing destroyed and the carpet torn. Corpses of servants, knights, and villagers laid about, each in different stages of decay and each had different limbs severed. In the kitchen, the body of the one of the chefs is half-laying on the stove with his head in a pot of boiling liquid. In the sewing room, several maids have wounds from a weapon that speared through their backs or chests. One had fallen upon the spindle of a spinning wheel, the tip sticking out of her eye. In a room within one of the tall towers, a couple lie upon a bed, their bodies littered with stab wounds and the sheets stained r
ed below them. Even in death, they still cling to each other like the lovers they once were.
To anyone visiting the castle, it would give them the appearance of a realm of Hell.
A loud scream fills the empty hallway suddenly, the sound full of fear for one’s life filling the once quiet hallways with noise.
“No, my Lord! Please!!”
Any further pleading is cut off as a large axe pierces the screamer’s stomach, blood spraying for as the weapon is ripped away. The victim, a maid, stares upon the wound as she desperately tries to prevent the blood from spilling out, coughing up a glob of blood onto her dress. Her assailant stares at his work, a sick and twisted smile upon his face. She stares at him as she slides upon her rear, tearful eyes full of fear and betrayal.
“Why,” she whispered, “Lord B-babil...”
“Because it’s my right,” said lord replies as if his answer should’ve been obvious to her. He is the lord, the owner of these lands and everyone living in them. He can do whatever he pleases to whatever and whoever lives within his lands. He owns them all. He wants to torture them, he shall. He wants to tax them, he shall. He wants to kill them, he shall. The king had forsaken him, and all that lived in his lands, and so he is the absolute ruler of his lands... and his word absolute.
“P-please...” the maid begs in a ragged voice, “S-s-someone... Oh, God... Please help me!”
“God isn’t coming for those that take His Name in vain,” Lord Babil states before he slices the servant’s head off, watching with fascination as blood sprays forth from the neck after the head falls to the floor and rolls away. A sweet and pleasurable thrill fills his being, leaving tingles upon his spine and a feeling of power washing over him. It’s the best feeling ever. Better than conquering enemies or even sex! Speaking of which...
He laughs gleefully as he takes a cloth and cleans his axe. If he recalls correctly, his wife has been having an affair with the gardener.
* * * *
Two days of investigating for the Single Family Serial Killer’s secret has left Jenne exhausted and quite annoyed. It also didn’t help that she may be forced to give in to Raiden’s request in order to gain access to all of the evidence the police have on file, to which her pride will take a serious blow if she did. Ellisaüch, luckily, got her a case that would take her mind off her little mission for a bit. The private detective figures out that her cunning secretary is trying to help her avoid what is soon turning into the inevitable for her. What the hell. She could use the distraction.
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