p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Song for the chapter: /span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"All these things I've done - The Killers/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"October /span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"emspan lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Oh Marilla," she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs,"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it? Look at these maple branches. Don't they give you a thrill –several thrills? I'm going to decorate my room with them." /span/emspan lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Estelle closed the novel in her lap, looking down at the grass green cover of her book. It was one of the last things her parents had bought for her, the cover soft under her fingertips where it was not broken up by the words that adorned the cover. The title in blue foil, emAnne of Green Gables/em often made her think of her own life, often being equated to the character with her dreamy state when she was young with two braids – although she definitely didn't have red hair./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"One thing Estelle had never really resonated with in relation to Anne was her love of October. Yes, the leaves changing was pleasant, but she had never been fond of many aspects of autumn. Autumn generally symbolized dying, going into the bleak territory of death. She would much rather have the finality of death rather than waiting in limbo for it to happen. Estelle also found that rather big things happened in October too. Occasionally they were nice, like when her friend found out she had been accepted to McGill; when autumn was applied to her, they were often full of catastrophe./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"This time, though, she hoped to change everything. The first act of this change was to institute a habit she hadn't had since she was sixteen, which was going for a morning jog before the world woke up. She dressed in black leggings and a hoodie, hoping that the plain monochrome colours would help others ignore her as she went by. One thing Estelle hated was being watched. Picking up a granola bar from the counter, she shoved it into her mouth as quickly as she could, swallowing after only a couple bites (then wincing as it scraped her throat, instantly regretting not being more careful) before grabbing her water bottle and heading out the door. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Once upon a time, everyday would start with these jogs. They were idealized amongst her friends, none of them ever coming on them but saying that Estelle always had her brightest ideas while alone in the world with her music and nature. Granted, nature had never been her favourite thing: while beautiful, she much rather would be inside where it was warm, safe. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"As she got outside, Estelle breathed in the brisk air deeply before starting off down the street. She remembered a time when she would jog no matter the weather, only staying inside when her parents physically forced her to because the weather was too dangerous or because she was ill. Even then she would start up the old Wii in the basement and go for a jog on the fit option, looking at all the other mii's as she passed them by. Even when they visited her grandmother in the winter, she would go on a jog to clear her mind from all the questions that her family inevitably asked her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Music blasting in her ears, Estelle let the feeling of her heart beating in time with her feet hitting the pavement swaddle her in a cocoon of comfort. She remembered the days when the only calming thing would be the patter of her feet as she walked across the floorboards, back and forth motions creating a sense of security that one got from the familiarity of a motion. That's when her therapist had suggested jogs, they would be more productive but still have the receptivity of movement./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"At this point though, even as she had stopped pacing and was just once again picking up jogging, Estelle wondered if she was perhaps changing along with the seasons. She had decided the night before while lying in bed staring at the ceiling, the obnoxiously loud laughing of her roommates filtering through the flimsy door from the other room, that this autumn there would be a change. Instead of October being the month of terrible things, she would allow it to become the month of new experiences. She wouldn't lay in bed in the morning, arms wrapped around her knees as tears leaked out of her eyes, she wouldn't go and find another toxic relationship that she tolerated because letting others dictate her life was easier than figuring it out herself, and she definitely wasn't going to let the memories of past Octobers haunt her like ghosts who hadn't yet figured out their purpose to let them out of this world and into another./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Estelle glanced around at the trees that were starting to change colour. This year she was going to enjoy the cooling air, the crunching leaves, and all the inane pumpkin spice products that hit the shelves. This year she was going to graduate, do something with her life./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"She was stuck in her head to the point that while Estelle was aware of where she was going, stopping to let traffic go by and not running into benches, Estelle wasn't to the point of avoiding everything in her path. That was something that cemented her back into reality when she felt her foot hit something that was definitely not a rock, but not a crack in the sidewalk. It was soft but hard at the same time and had the power to stop her from where she was going. Panicking, she lifted her arms up just in time to protect her skull from hitting the cold cement, and the sleeves of her sweater protecting them from becoming bloody messes from the gravel that was left behind from other shoes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Looking behind her, at first Estelle wasn't completely sure what she was looking at. Her mind was brought back to high school, when people sitting on the floors in the hallways would delivery stick their legs out to trip the younger grades. But this was different, the leg was attached to a body she had somehow missed, a body that had not willing tripped her but one that didn't know better. Because at this point, they didn't know anything./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"A scream was caught in the back of her throat as she was frozen staring at them. Brown eyes were frozen in fear, skin tinted grey and lip blue. Their skin was sagging from the rain that had fallen the night before, and their mouth open as though they had been calling out for help. The most prominent feature that drew Estelle's eyes though was the red hole in their forehead, blood dried in the river flowing away from it but somehow not landing on the cement./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"She tried to scramble away, fear taking away her ability to move. Her body didn't seem to want to operate, her shoes sliding across the ground. When she finally had some success, it was hampered by her not realizing that her foot was tangled in their leg, and she simply fell again, not having the time to cover her head before it hit the cement with a smack./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Estelle laid there, dazed, staring into the eyes that seemed to be more familiar the longer she looked, lifeless yet looking as though they held many secrets they wanted to tell. Finally, her arm moved, slowly pulling her cracked phone from the pocket it had been held in, headphones still hanging out with music playing. She ripped the wire off and dialed 911./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Minutes later she was sitting off to the side, ice pack held to her head but otherwise ignored. She watched as they surrounded the area, taping everything off with yellow and talking into radios. The coroner was there, the ambulance only there for her but obviously annoyed at the fact that she wasn't actually in need of immediate medical help. Her shoes were taken, a policeman walked over and started to say something but as she stared at him, she could see his mouth moving but no words coming out. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Estelle looked past him, across at a tree that was changing colours and at the vinyl halloween stickers a child was putting up in their apartment window. She decided that nothing was going to get better, Octobers would be the same as Octobers always were. And instead decided that she was going to live by a different quote from emAnne: "Isn't it nice to think tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet/em?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"––––––/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"The sun had risen into the sky and was shining down brightly, slowly melting the frost, as Malcolm walked towards the scene. Dani was slightly ahead of him, London Fog steaming from her cup. The smell was a small comfort as they had drove, one from his childhood that wasn't marred with the dreams of serial killers. Instead, memories of Jackie as she told him stories quietly in the morning while Gil was still sleeping./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Malcolm shouldn't have been surprised to already see Edrisa on the scene when he arrived. She was generally the first one there along with Gil, and Malcolm would have thought they came together if it wasn't for the medical examiner's vehicle parked beside Gils own muscle car. He shook his head as he saw the car, wondering if Gil would ever realize those things were a lot more trouble than they were worth. Edrisa was crouched beside the body, which was laying in bushes, wet from the rain that had fallen during the night. He saw another examiner get up, an evidence bag with flesh in it being sealed. Edrisa was crouched beside the body, taking samples from the dirt behind it. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Execution?" He asked as he and Dani stopped a couple of feet away. Gil looked over at them, sunglasses covering his eyes so Malcolm couldn't tell what he was feeling right away. From behind him, he heard a scoff. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""What gave that away?" JT came out from behind Gil. "No ID on the guy, we'll have to do facial rec and hope that someone reported him missing."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""I'm guessing late teens or early twenties; I'll know more when I can do some tests." Edrisa looked up at them. "Cause of death is emdefinitely/em the shot to the head."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Malcolm nodded as he looked around at the scene. The park was desolate, and there were quite a few cars driving past now as it was around the time people with normal nine to five jobs headed off to work. "The body had to have been placed last night, there is no way nobody would have not noticed him lying there."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Maybe they wanted to mind their own business." Interjected Dani as she walked around Malcolm to get a better look but appeared to change her mind as she quickly turned away from the body and towards her coworkers./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Perhaps. Who found him?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Ritchie Fuentes was walking home from work around two. He walked all the way to the subway station before he called the cops." Malcolm nodded as he looked around at the scene, hoping something would pop out at him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"It was a normal small park, one to break up the mass amounts of brick building in the area. A couple benches and a path straight through that went to the next block. While Malcolm knew that emmaybe/em the body had been there for a while, that the people who drove by never called the police. Malcolm wanted to believe that they were better than that, though, that even if someone never gave their name they would phone if there was a strange man lying under a bush for more than one day without moving./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Another thing Malcolm noticed was that while the body had obviously been disturbed by the man that found him, there was another shoe print deeper into the bushed that wouldn't have gotten there by someone just casually walking past. And the fact that the body was as decomposed as it was meant that they hadn't been killed there but placed there. The Adidas shoes were worn, pattern rubbed off the back of the soles and dirty, headphones laying haphazardly beside him but not attached to any device. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Cellphone?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Nope." Gil replied as he walked over to stand next to Malcolm. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Do we know where they were killed?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Edrisa looked up at him, an annoyed expression crossing her eyes before they went back to being bright and happy. "I'll find out more when we can do tests, but they were definitely moved here post-mortem." She studied him for a moment, "you look very awake, did you have coffee already? I didn't have time, but generally I drink…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Edrisa, the vic?" JT let the annoyance sit on his face, something that they were all used to. A blush spread across her face as she looked back down and started speaking quickly,/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""I'd place the time of death in the last week. Obviously killed by the bullet wound to the head, but I can see some faint bruising on the face that appears to be anti-mortem."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Let us know if you find anything else, thanks Edrisa." Gil gave her a quick smile before turning to his team and walking them a few steps away. Malcolm looked around at the area, eyes scanning to see if there was anything that would give away possible motive. This look like anywhere though, he noted to himself, a plain place for someone who was trying not to be noticed. It was always hard to solve a case if it was more than forty-eight hours after death, and Malcolm was just thankful that it hadn't been even longer./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Dani and JT spoke to each other, and maybe to him, but Malcolm didn't hear the words and instead they flew over his head as he puzzled. Suddenly, Malcolm felt like he was being watched. The hairs on the back of his neck stood, and he put him hand back to rub his neck as he glanced back around. Behind them was the crime scene, in front apartment complexes. What he was feeling was almost like what would happen before the girl in the box would appear, but she didn't. This feeling didn't even equate to what he felt when he knew his father was watching him when he was younger. Instead, it felt sickening, like someone was on the hunt./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Bright, you good?" He turned to Dani who stood next to him. He could tell she was worried, while her face was blank her eyes were expressive. He never wanted to tell her that her eyes told him more than her words did, because he feared that if he did, she would shut down even more than when they'd falsely arrested him. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Malcolm forced a smile onto his face, one that he hoped was convincing but by the look on Dani's face he knew wasn't. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Never better."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"All these things I've done - The Killers/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"October /span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"emspan lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Oh Marilla," she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs,"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it? Look at these maple branches. Don't they give you a thrill –several thrills? I'm going to decorate my room with them." /span/emspan lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Estelle closed the novel in her lap, looking down at the grass green cover of her book. It was one of the last things her parents had bought for her, the cover soft under her fingertips where it was not broken up by the words that adorned the cover. The title in blue foil, emAnne of Green Gables/em often made her think of her own life, often being equated to the character with her dreamy state when she was young with two braids – although she definitely didn't have red hair./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"One thing Estelle had never really resonated with in relation to Anne was her love of October. Yes, the leaves changing was pleasant, but she had never been fond of many aspects of autumn. Autumn generally symbolized dying, going into the bleak territory of death. She would much rather have the finality of death rather than waiting in limbo for it to happen. Estelle also found that rather big things happened in October too. Occasionally they were nice, like when her friend found out she had been accepted to McGill; when autumn was applied to her, they were often full of catastrophe./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"This time, though, she hoped to change everything. The first act of this change was to institute a habit she hadn't had since she was sixteen, which was going for a morning jog before the world woke up. She dressed in black leggings and a hoodie, hoping that the plain monochrome colours would help others ignore her as she went by. One thing Estelle hated was being watched. Picking up a granola bar from the counter, she shoved it into her mouth as quickly as she could, swallowing after only a couple bites (then wincing as it scraped her throat, instantly regretting not being more careful) before grabbing her water bottle and heading out the door. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Once upon a time, everyday would start with these jogs. They were idealized amongst her friends, none of them ever coming on them but saying that Estelle always had her brightest ideas while alone in the world with her music and nature. Granted, nature had never been her favourite thing: while beautiful, she much rather would be inside where it was warm, safe. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"As she got outside, Estelle breathed in the brisk air deeply before starting off down the street. She remembered a time when she would jog no matter the weather, only staying inside when her parents physically forced her to because the weather was too dangerous or because she was ill. Even then she would start up the old Wii in the basement and go for a jog on the fit option, looking at all the other mii's as she passed them by. Even when they visited her grandmother in the winter, she would go on a jog to clear her mind from all the questions that her family inevitably asked her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Music blasting in her ears, Estelle let the feeling of her heart beating in time with her feet hitting the pavement swaddle her in a cocoon of comfort. She remembered the days when the only calming thing would be the patter of her feet as she walked across the floorboards, back and forth motions creating a sense of security that one got from the familiarity of a motion. That's when her therapist had suggested jogs, they would be more productive but still have the receptivity of movement./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"At this point though, even as she had stopped pacing and was just once again picking up jogging, Estelle wondered if she was perhaps changing along with the seasons. She had decided the night before while lying in bed staring at the ceiling, the obnoxiously loud laughing of her roommates filtering through the flimsy door from the other room, that this autumn there would be a change. Instead of October being the month of terrible things, she would allow it to become the month of new experiences. She wouldn't lay in bed in the morning, arms wrapped around her knees as tears leaked out of her eyes, she wouldn't go and find another toxic relationship that she tolerated because letting others dictate her life was easier than figuring it out herself, and she definitely wasn't going to let the memories of past Octobers haunt her like ghosts who hadn't yet figured out their purpose to let them out of this world and into another./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Estelle glanced around at the trees that were starting to change colour. This year she was going to enjoy the cooling air, the crunching leaves, and all the inane pumpkin spice products that hit the shelves. This year she was going to graduate, do something with her life./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"She was stuck in her head to the point that while Estelle was aware of where she was going, stopping to let traffic go by and not running into benches, Estelle wasn't to the point of avoiding everything in her path. That was something that cemented her back into reality when she felt her foot hit something that was definitely not a rock, but not a crack in the sidewalk. It was soft but hard at the same time and had the power to stop her from where she was going. Panicking, she lifted her arms up just in time to protect her skull from hitting the cold cement, and the sleeves of her sweater protecting them from becoming bloody messes from the gravel that was left behind from other shoes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Looking behind her, at first Estelle wasn't completely sure what she was looking at. Her mind was brought back to high school, when people sitting on the floors in the hallways would delivery stick their legs out to trip the younger grades. But this was different, the leg was attached to a body she had somehow missed, a body that had not willing tripped her but one that didn't know better. Because at this point, they didn't know anything./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"A scream was caught in the back of her throat as she was frozen staring at them. Brown eyes were frozen in fear, skin tinted grey and lip blue. Their skin was sagging from the rain that had fallen the night before, and their mouth open as though they had been calling out for help. The most prominent feature that drew Estelle's eyes though was the red hole in their forehead, blood dried in the river flowing away from it but somehow not landing on the cement./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"She tried to scramble away, fear taking away her ability to move. Her body didn't seem to want to operate, her shoes sliding across the ground. When she finally had some success, it was hampered by her not realizing that her foot was tangled in their leg, and she simply fell again, not having the time to cover her head before it hit the cement with a smack./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Estelle laid there, dazed, staring into the eyes that seemed to be more familiar the longer she looked, lifeless yet looking as though they held many secrets they wanted to tell. Finally, her arm moved, slowly pulling her cracked phone from the pocket it had been held in, headphones still hanging out with music playing. She ripped the wire off and dialed 911./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Minutes later she was sitting off to the side, ice pack held to her head but otherwise ignored. She watched as they surrounded the area, taping everything off with yellow and talking into radios. The coroner was there, the ambulance only there for her but obviously annoyed at the fact that she wasn't actually in need of immediate medical help. Her shoes were taken, a policeman walked over and started to say something but as she stared at him, she could see his mouth moving but no words coming out. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Estelle looked past him, across at a tree that was changing colours and at the vinyl halloween stickers a child was putting up in their apartment window. She decided that nothing was going to get better, Octobers would be the same as Octobers always were. And instead decided that she was going to live by a different quote from emAnne: "Isn't it nice to think tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet/em?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"––––––/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"The sun had risen into the sky and was shining down brightly, slowly melting the frost, as Malcolm walked towards the scene. Dani was slightly ahead of him, London Fog steaming from her cup. The smell was a small comfort as they had drove, one from his childhood that wasn't marred with the dreams of serial killers. Instead, memories of Jackie as she told him stories quietly in the morning while Gil was still sleeping./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Malcolm shouldn't have been surprised to already see Edrisa on the scene when he arrived. She was generally the first one there along with Gil, and Malcolm would have thought they came together if it wasn't for the medical examiner's vehicle parked beside Gils own muscle car. He shook his head as he saw the car, wondering if Gil would ever realize those things were a lot more trouble than they were worth. Edrisa was crouched beside the body, which was laying in bushes, wet from the rain that had fallen during the night. He saw another examiner get up, an evidence bag with flesh in it being sealed. Edrisa was crouched beside the body, taking samples from the dirt behind it. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Execution?" He asked as he and Dani stopped a couple of feet away. Gil looked over at them, sunglasses covering his eyes so Malcolm couldn't tell what he was feeling right away. From behind him, he heard a scoff. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""What gave that away?" JT came out from behind Gil. "No ID on the guy, we'll have to do facial rec and hope that someone reported him missing."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""I'm guessing late teens or early twenties; I'll know more when I can do some tests." Edrisa looked up at them. "Cause of death is emdefinitely/em the shot to the head."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Malcolm nodded as he looked around at the scene. The park was desolate, and there were quite a few cars driving past now as it was around the time people with normal nine to five jobs headed off to work. "The body had to have been placed last night, there is no way nobody would have not noticed him lying there."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Maybe they wanted to mind their own business." Interjected Dani as she walked around Malcolm to get a better look but appeared to change her mind as she quickly turned away from the body and towards her coworkers./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Perhaps. Who found him?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Ritchie Fuentes was walking home from work around two. He walked all the way to the subway station before he called the cops." Malcolm nodded as he looked around at the scene, hoping something would pop out at him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"It was a normal small park, one to break up the mass amounts of brick building in the area. A couple benches and a path straight through that went to the next block. While Malcolm knew that emmaybe/em the body had been there for a while, that the people who drove by never called the police. Malcolm wanted to believe that they were better than that, though, that even if someone never gave their name they would phone if there was a strange man lying under a bush for more than one day without moving./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Another thing Malcolm noticed was that while the body had obviously been disturbed by the man that found him, there was another shoe print deeper into the bushed that wouldn't have gotten there by someone just casually walking past. And the fact that the body was as decomposed as it was meant that they hadn't been killed there but placed there. The Adidas shoes were worn, pattern rubbed off the back of the soles and dirty, headphones laying haphazardly beside him but not attached to any device. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Cellphone?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Nope." Gil replied as he walked over to stand next to Malcolm. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Do we know where they were killed?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Edrisa looked up at him, an annoyed expression crossing her eyes before they went back to being bright and happy. "I'll find out more when we can do tests, but they were definitely moved here post-mortem." She studied him for a moment, "you look very awake, did you have coffee already? I didn't have time, but generally I drink…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Edrisa, the vic?" JT let the annoyance sit on his face, something that they were all used to. A blush spread across her face as she looked back down and started speaking quickly,/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""I'd place the time of death in the last week. Obviously killed by the bullet wound to the head, but I can see some faint bruising on the face that appears to be anti-mortem."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Let us know if you find anything else, thanks Edrisa." Gil gave her a quick smile before turning to his team and walking them a few steps away. Malcolm looked around at the area, eyes scanning to see if there was anything that would give away possible motive. This look like anywhere though, he noted to himself, a plain place for someone who was trying not to be noticed. It was always hard to solve a case if it was more than forty-eight hours after death, and Malcolm was just thankful that it hadn't been even longer./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Dani and JT spoke to each other, and maybe to him, but Malcolm didn't hear the words and instead they flew over his head as he puzzled. Suddenly, Malcolm felt like he was being watched. The hairs on the back of his neck stood, and he put him hand back to rub his neck as he glanced back around. Behind them was the crime scene, in front apartment complexes. What he was feeling was almost like what would happen before the girl in the box would appear, but she didn't. This feeling didn't even equate to what he felt when he knew his father was watching him when he was younger. Instead, it felt sickening, like someone was on the hunt./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Bright, you good?" He turned to Dani who stood next to him. He could tell she was worried, while her face was blank her eyes were expressive. He never wanted to tell her that her eyes told him more than her words did, because he feared that if he did, she would shut down even more than when they'd falsely arrested him. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"Malcolm forced a smile onto his face, one that he hoped was convincing but by the look on Dani's face he knew wasn't. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;""Never better."/span/p