"Get out of the way! What happened?!?"
The former savior yelled and pushed people out of her way in order to see what they had been all staring at. A couple of people were laying on the floor holding a bloody towel close to a woman's chest. They kept pressing the wound trying their best to eliminate the bleeding.
"Let me see!"
She pushed and old lady at her side and finally had clear vision of what was going on. She kneeled down taking a closer look on the woman and her jaw dropped. The woman's fingers and toes were missing... plus she had been stabbed in the stomach. That looked like whoever the killer was had plenty of time with her.
She tucked her hair behind her ears and then it hit her. That's why the face looked familiar. It was Trina Moore! Emma placed Briana's head on her lap and run her fingers through her hair.
"Briana stay with me! It's gonna be alright, just promise me you won't close your eyes!"
"SOMEBODY CALL AN AMBULANCE!"
A random guy yelled slowly freaking out.
"I need you all to calm down. We need clean gauzes and four more clean towels! It's important that the towels won't be dirty! We can't risk her getting infected."
Emma ordered a couple of men around her and they immediately stood up and run towards different directions in order to bring what Emma ordered them to.
"Briana ... talk to me please. Where were you?"
The petite woman shook her head in pain and let out a moan. Emma rubbed her shoulders sympathetically.
"I'm gonna help you I promise! But I need you to help me as well. Can you do that?"
She asked all serious focusing her sight on Briana's face.
A couple of seconds later Briana nodded her headed and winced in pain.
"Where were you Briana? You need to tell me! It's gonna be extremely helpful!"
Emma pleaded the woman. She then felt another hand touching her own shoulder and turned around to see Vanessa looking at her all alarmed and gloomy. Emma held Vanessa's hand and kept talking at Briana. Under no circumstances she couldn't let Briana fall asleep.
"Trina please honey you need to answer me this! Where were you and who took you? I just need location and someone that can be finally considered as a suspect."
"She's clearly not in place to answer questions right now."
Vanessa pointed out and grabbed the clean towels pressing them against Briana's wounds gently. She cleaned up the spot with a couple of wet rugs and helped the woman breath by placing a pillow underneath her head.
"Right now every single word from her can be useful."
"Gardens..."
Briana spelled through greeted teeth and screamed in great pain.
"Gardens? The gardens what?"
"Lion..."
Before she managed to complete her sentence she fell unconscious.
"NO! Briana! Come on wake up honey! Wake up!"
Emma shook her shoulders in an effort to wake her up but Trina was unconscious and was getting even more pale now. She had lost way too much blood for sure.
"Emma the ambulance is here."
Vanessa whispered when she noticed the big white vehicle parking at the entrance of the hotel. Three doctors were running towards the crowd while pushing a gurney.
"I'm gonna go with her. In case I find out anything useful I'm gonna call you okay?"
Vanessa turned towards Emma and forced a sympathetic smile.
"Thank you Vanessa. Call me as soon as she gets out of surgery."
"I will."
Vanessa hugged Emma tight and followed the doctors inside the ambulance. They shut the door and immediately drove away.
"Alright you people there's nothing for you to see here. Get back to your mourning routines!"
Emma said moving her hands to make them go away. She was about to turn around and leave as well when she noticed a well dressed man (in suit) that was pacing towards her direction. She narrowed her eyes trying to see his face when she realized that it was Michael Brown. Vanessa's left hand.
"How can I help you?"
Michael stood up in front of her holding a pile of paperwork in his hands.
"The police officers are on their way. This time we couldn't keep it a secret any longer. The mob was getting frustrated and terrified. We had to act soon. So you might have to testify and reveal your identity to the cops."
"Okay I'm gonna handle the cops and you better calm down the residents. Our culprit started killing in front of everyone .. he's not afraid anymore Michael. He's pretty proud of the terror he has already caused."
"Unfortunately I do believe that we are dealing with a mentally disturbed person. Probably a serial killer."
"No... it's not a serial killer... did you see Briana's body? He cut off her fingers and toes. He probably kept them to himself as a trophy. Most of the criminals that do that, they are suffering from mental pain as well. He needs reassurance. He needs to feel powerful. He doesn't have a specific motive or category of people that he kills. He just needs release. Plus If you take a look at her wounds they are pretty straight and carefully created. He didn't make a single mistake. That means that he knows how to use a knife."
"What about a doctor? Doctors know how to use a scalpel. Knife won't make any difference."
Emma cleared her throat and looked around skeptically scanning the area. This specific case was worrying her a lot.. she had never seen such a crime. Everything was so weird... the location of the murders, the people, the background story... she had so many dots to connect and she couldn't connect them at all.
Michael handed her a beer.
"Want some?"
"It's 9AM."
"Still..."
"Yes I could use a beer."
She admitted and drunk a sip of the freezing liquid.
"So it's not a doctor... who could be the right one for the job?"
He rubbed his chin and looked around the people passing by.
"Hey what about the gardens? Briana mentioned the gardens. There could be something helpful there."
"Okay... as soon as the police is here I'm gonna tell them to investigate the gardens with the hunting dogs."
"Okay. Let me know as soon as you find something."
Michael nodded his head and left. Things were getting out of hand... and she had no idea how to deal with this. She grabbed her cellphone trying to call Regina but the other line was dead. That woman was unbelievable.
She dialed Killian's number and pressed the call button.
"Can't believe you haven't even called me once!"
Emma frowned in confusion and scratched her head.
"Huh?"
"What the hell mum?!?"
"Henry?"
"Exactly!"
She heard the young boy huffing annoyed from the other side of the phone and tapping his fingers neurotically on the handset.
"Honey I'm sorry. I've been really busy. I was planning to call you as soon as this madness is over."
"Seriously? I think that there are more important things that we need to discuss right now! Why are you working with Regina? Why didn't you tell me?!?"
He raised his voice aggressively.
"Henry this is really not the right time!"
"Mum please! You should have told me! How could you even accept to participate in that mission while you knew you with who you would be working with!"
Emma rubbed her temples and shut her eyes desperately.
"I'm sorry... but Henry she's changed! She's a whole different person now... and you have no idea how much she misses you and how much sorry she is."
She bit her lips and wanted to slap her face. If Regina ever found out that she told Henry such things she would definitely kill her. Well there's only one thing Emma knew for sure, she was digging her own grave.
"You did not just say that. What kind of a spell did she cast on you to change your mind?"
Henry asked irritated.
"Henry... she's changed... I never expected to say this but you two need to talk at some point and short this out."
"So you two are friends now?!"
He snapped and chirped.
"Henry..."
"DON'T! You're crazy to even believe her mum! She's gonna destroy us all over again! You can't do this to our family."
Before Emma got to speak her phone died because of empty battery. She stared at the black screen of her phone and placed it back inside her pocket annoyed. Henry could wait for now.. she had more important things to do. She would be able to solve this out later on...
USA:
Regina landed in the San Diego airport and immediately called a cab to transfer her at the San Diego County Jail. She walked inside the vast building and reached the secretary's desk.
"Good morning."
The familiar voice that she spoke to last night greeted her.
"Hi. I'm Regina Mills. We spoke on the phone last night about Robin Hood's case... I told you I would come over here to find out more."
The scruffy secretary looked at her astonished and examined the former queen from head to toes.
"Can I see your budge?"
Regina nodded and handed her her budge and identity card for a clarification. The secretary nodded and stood up.
"Give me a minute. I gotta call detective Donn Hill. He's the lieutenant general of our department and the only one who has authority on the perpetrators files."
"Okay thanks."
The older woman walked away inside a small room that had barely any light inside of it and Regina sat down on the wooden chair behind her looking around her in the room. Prison was a gloomy place... everything inside the building seemed dark and eerie. Even though there were windows on every wall of the room, there was still no light inside the main entrance of the building.
No wonder how people turned even more crazy and psychotic in here. A few minutes later detective Donn walked inside the room holding a pile of folders.
"You must be agent Mills."
Regina nodded her head and approached him on the long table at the left corner of the room. They sat down next to each other and Donn placed in front of Regina one of the folders.
"So... How come you want to know who bailed out a Robin Hood if you don't mind my asking."
"He was my husband... I don't even want to remember that period of my life. Anyway, I'm working on a case and Robin happened to call me anonymously a couple of times threatening me so I need to make sure."
She looked away uncomfortably and then back on the file examining Robin's accusations of the past and the former trail.
"It was a man called Killian Jones. He bailed him out three weeks ago offering us a pretty generous amount of money. He said he's an old friend of Robin's and they looked quite happy to reunite."
Regina's jaw dropped. She looked at Donn with a livid look on her face and slammed her hand on the table.
"Excuse me but you released a monster from prison because a random guy handed you a big amount of money in cash? Are you fucking kidding me? Where's your dignity anyway?"
"I'm sorry ma'am but that's the way it goes."
"Do you realize what that man did to me? He rapped me, beat me up and harassed me for years straight! When he finally got in jail I felt so much relief. I felt that I was finally safe! I spent years not being able to sleep at night till I get over what he did to me and now he's free again because of you!"
She yelled furiously and terrified at the same time. She couldn't believe it was Killian. Why the hell would the pirate help robin out of prison? They were not even friends in the past...
"I think it's time you leave ma'am."
Donn commented and pointed out the exit door.
"You're such a pig... you better learn how to honor your budge sir! Your job is to protect the citizens of this town, not to become an ungrateful and greedy pig! You discuss me!"
She grabbed her purse and walked out of the vast building snootily. She had to get back to France... she had to let go of her own issues and focus on the case for now! Why would Killian help Robin when he knew exactly what kind of crimes Robin had committed? Should she tell Emma? Should she keep it a secret for now? She had to find out herself...
—So... Opinions on Killian?
I'm sorry for uploading the same part again but I had written down the wrong name for the dead body, so I had to change the name!
