Past Unveiling by Audrey Walker (little readers .TXT) 📕

get her for an interview, but she refused to appear. Despite the evidence, though, there is growing unrest among the people. Detective Matthews is still under investigation by Internal Affairs, and most people still see her as suspicious. We can’t help but wonder, what is really going on here?”

“Just shut off the TV,” Kyle said. “No need to waste your energy listening to this.”

“I am fine, Kyle,” she said. “I had another session with Evan Rosemond today. He helped me think clearly and said that I needed to keep my mind open. I have a killer to catch, and I can’t afford to collapse right now.”

“I see,” he said. “How did the meeting with Internal Affairs go?”

“I wish I knew,” she said. “Their faces were so hard to read, you couldn’t tell what they are thinking.”

“I know,” he said. “They can still press lots of charges against us if they want to. I think the only reason they haven’t yet is to prevent public backlash. An FBI agent was corrupt, and two of the police officers are suspected of various offenses. The public is already lashing out at the police, demanding reforms and thorough background checks. They are asking how they can trust a police force that has so many corrupt officers.”

“Where do we stand in our investigation?” Robin asked. “What about the recent murder that happened? Brief me, please.”

“The murdered woman was one Eline Gob, a librarian and a tourist from another city. She was here to visit her sister from the town of Hamsewille. She resembles you, having the same hair color and same color eyes, and slightly similar features. She had the post-mortem Tattoo as well,” Kyle said. “Once again, she was last seen at the local library, and no one saw her being taken. She was found dead near the cliffs, where you had the stand down with Jim.”

“I see,” Robin whispered. “And we have no forensic evidence?”

“None whatsoever,” Kyle said.

“He is clever,” Robin said. “Very clever. He makes sure he leaves no evidence. His initial plan was to frame and destroy my reputation. What is he going to do now? He won’t just kill me; he has to do something deeper.”

“Let’s investigate from the beginning,” Kyle said. “The mother. We will start with her and see what we can find about her. We will move on from there and try and track this child’s footprints. We will go to the last suspected location of the Butcher, see if we can find out where he was staying and if the child was with him. It should give us some clues.”

“That sounds good enough,” Robin said. “Let’s get to work.”

At that moment, Robin and Kyle’s phone started to ring at the same time. Her heart sank. Robin picked her phone up, as did Kyle.

“Matthews here,” she said.

“There has been another murder,” Andrews’ voice echoed from the other side. “And it’s bad. He went after the Mayor’s daughter.”

Chapter Six

Robin looked at the body of the poor girl sprawled on the ground. Her head was severed and lying near her, the vacant eyes staring at the sky.

“Christ!” Kyle said. “This is messed up.”

“It is,” Robin whispered. “Was there a note with it?”

“Yeah, there was,” Andrews said. “It’s a Greek quote about redemption. It makes no sense whatsoever.”

“The woman has the same black hair as Robin,” Kyle said. “But her eyes are green. That’s odd.”

“Not only that, the post-mortem tattoo is done shabbily,” Andrews said, “as if done by someone who hasn’t done it before.”

“Look,” Kyle said, holding up a magnifying glass. “He is right. You can’t tell unless you look closer, but the lines are rather shabby. Blowouts and skin punctures. The previous tattoos were perfect.”

“Maybe done by someone who has a hand tremor?” Robin asked, frowning. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

“And now he is re-using old locations?” Kyle asked. “Another murder outside the old church?”

“I know,” Robin said, her mind racing. “I have a suspicion that this isn’t the Executioner.”

“What?” Andrews asked.

“I think we have a copycat killer on our hands,” Robin whispered.

__

“Come to study your own crime, Matthews?” Lory said as Robin walked into the conference room.

“Enough!” The Captain said. “This is no time for jokes! We have a serious matter on our hands. I have a record, people – a record that will remain untainted. We must find this killer, and we need to do it now! He went after the Mayor’s daughter! Do you realize what this means? Damn, if we don’t solve this soon, all our jobs might be at stake. What we got, Burke?”

“The victim was found in the forest outside the old church, where Matthew’s parents got married. It had already been used as a sight for murder once before. The woman has dark hair but bright green eyes, one of the distinguishing factors from the previous murders. The incision itself, severing the head, is identical to the Executioner’s one but with a few differences. For one, the coroner claims that the blade used to do this was different from the others. Secondly, the incision itself is rather jagged instead of being a precise, sharp line it normally is,” Burke said. “We have retraced the steps of the victim. She was on her tour of various factories around the area. It was part of the Mayor’s campaign to get re-elected. After, she asked her guards to drop her at her friend’s house and ordered them to leave. The friend claims that she left her place around midnight, saying she planned on taking a cab and going to her boyfriend’s house. The boyfriend claims she never showed up. We have used CCTV footage to verify that both these claims are accurate.”

“So, she disappeared from her friend’s house in a cab,” the Captain said. “Locate this cab driver. See what we can find out about him.”

“Right, Sir,” Burke said. “We also believe she was using a lot of drugs. Her friend’s nervous and jittery behavior was enough proof. They both probably got high