Victim of Addiction

Lilly and Scotty investigate a cold case involving the death of a fanfiction author. Casefile.

The Friend

"I, uh, have n-n-new evidence on Hannah U-u-underwood's case."

"Hannah Underwood?"

The brunette nodded. Grace Abbot was her name. She had chocolate eyes, a thin face and a smattering of freckles across her cheeks and nose, and was clutching a square brown handbag to her chest. "Sh-she died in 2002," she informed them, and reached into her handbag, puling out a sheath of papers and placing them on the table with shaking hands. "Sh-she was also known as 'V-victim of Addiction'."

Lilly gave her a quizzical look. "Um, it was her s-screen name. That's, uh, how I-I knew her. I-I was her b-best-net-friend," she blurted quickly.

Scotty picked up the papers. "Victim of Addiction," he read. "Name: Erin Collins Hillview?"

"Um, it was a fake name that sh-she used. You know. S-s-so that um, no one would know uh, who sh-she was."

Scotty nodded and continued to read. "Age: 15. Location: Philadelphia. Hobbies: Writing FF! and watching TV…"

Grace nodded. "That's her p-profile. Sh-she was, um, a very p-prolific author. Heaps and heaps of p-p-people had her on their favourites. Sh-she um, had a real ab-bability to keep it um, feeling like it was canon, no matter how outrageous the p-plot was."

"Sorry," Lilly interrupted. "Canon? FF? What did she write?"

"She wrote fanfiction," Grace managed to say without stuttering. "That's what FF st-stands for. Fanfiction is b-best described as writing um, about characters and um, s-s-situations etc, on a TV sh-show. Well, not all of it is TV sh-shows, you can write for b-books and other forms of media as well, b-but V-victim um, only wrote and read about TV sh-shows."

Lilly nodded patiently. "What else?"

"Sh-she just stopped updating her stories one day. We waited for months for an update, and I-I emailed her constantly. Then one day I-I got an email b-back saying that sh-she was dead and this was her b-brother. He asked me to p-p-post a note on all her favourite websites saying that sh-she wouldn't b-be b-back. I-I p-posted another chapter on all her WIPs s-saying that sh-she was dead and not coming b-back, and a note in her p-profile s-saying the s-same."

"How'd you know Hannah's password?" Scotty asked.

"Her b-brother told me. I-I don't know how he knew it."

"If you have evidence on her case, why didn't you come forward before, Grace?" Lilly asked gently.

"B-because I-I didn't know that sh-she had b-been murdered until last week."

At Lilly and Scotty's identical looks of confusion, she elaborated. "We had made a p-pact that we'd meet on our eighteenth b-birthday. We had the s-same b-birthday. I turned eighteen last week, and decided that I'd v-visit V-victim's grave s-so that I would b-be meeting her in a way. I emailed her b-brother again, to ask where she was b-buried. He told me uh, that there was no grave, s-since there was no b-body, they never found it."

"That doesn't mean I was necessarily a murder, Grace. She may have just drowned in a creek or something, as horrible as that sounds"

Grace nodded, and fumbled in her handbag for some more papers. "I-I know. B-but I went and reread all her work, redistributed it – a tribute, s-sort of. I-I um, also read the reviews on her work. I-I uh, found these in-in almost every chapter of every st-story that sh-she wrote."

Lilly picked up the new papers. Certain things were highlighted. She read the first one.

I'll get you for this. You stole my ideas, you bitch.

Authors Note: I only watch Cold Case for the actual case, so that's why the characterization sucks. Hope you like it.Please review if you want more.