Chapter 14

We went our separate ways a little while later and I was so excited to tuck into my new books. I was excited to see the twins too, I actually missed the little buggers. I got home at around 1pm and was greeted with tiny hugs and sloppy kisses. They were back and had missed me as much as I missed them. My mother and father sat around the dinner table with all of us that evening for the first time in a week and it felt a bit more normal. I wonder if they have any news on the case yet? 

After dinner, the twins took a bath and headed for bed. My mother, father and I took our usual spots in the living room to watch the news as we always did. Hopefully, our sleepy town would go back to being sleepy. Josh came onscreen and he was sweating up a storm, what now? 

"This just in", Josh said with tears in his eyes. He had clearly been crying. "Another murder has taken place, the police have determined that the incident happened early Friday morning. The bodies were found by a neighbor late this afternoon. We can confirm that no survivors were found at the scene." WTF? Again? Who is it this time? "It breaks this anchor heart to announce that the victims were found in their family home on Thatch Street, the Madison family have all been accounted for among the victims." I didn't know the Madison family but the faces placed onscreen looked kind and gentle. They looked like any other family, father, mother, two sons about my age, and a younger daughter, another face appeared of an older woman who must have been their granny. "If anyone has any information at all please contact the number onscreen." I got up and looked at the number my father had written down that he left by the telephone, it was the same. They hadn't caught these killers yet. No one would be safe until they do. 

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[Detective Haynes]

"Fuck", I whispered under my breath as I took in the scene before me. Madison was a good guy, he was one of the town's firefighters. We would grab a few beers after a long day. He and I were best buds at school. His life was more exciting than mine. There were more field fires and faulty wire fires in this town than actual crimes. I always thought that the flames would take him or a falling building, not an ax. He was fearless and would risk his life for a stranger on a whim. He was strong, who could have done this? 

We were all of seven detectives in the entire town. Our duties consisted mostly of admin and assisting the force on the ground, the usual things like domestic disturbances or violence, drunkards in public and petty theft. Nothing like this. I have been on the force for years and a detective for three of those years now. I am the youngest detective at present. Forensics was about to get a lot busier. We found the ax with fingerprints as we did the previous time but we knew that it was no good, these prints weren't in our system. We were going to need some assistance from a seasoned detective in solving murders. 

We searched the entire residence and found that nothing was stolen, just like last time. Everyone was found in their rooms, hacked with the same ax. There were multiple fingerprints but no way of identifying who they belonged to. There were at least three sets of footprints found in the pools of blood, roaming around the house. We spoke to neighbors and they didn't see or hear anything. I knew we were dealing with a gang and they were far from done with this town. 

*********************

 [Violet]

The air in the living room was thick and no one said a word. My father went to check that all the windows were closed and that the doors were locked. I still didn't feel safe. The unesy feeling in my stomach wouldn't go away. This town was known countrywide as the most boring town ever and now Bam! In just two weeks, two entire families were murdered. That is seven people, did the police have an idea of who could be behind all this? 

The next day my father went to the hardware store and found some cameras, spotlights, and alarms as an additional security measure. We immediately put everything up when he got home and I noticed that a lot of other people were doing the same. We never had to use cameras in town and every shop was soon sold out. They had to order stock that would take weeks to arrive, we were lucky to be some of the first with the additional security. People were scared and you could feel it in the air. I slept better that night, knowing that we had additional measures to warn us when there was an intruder and my parents moved the twins into their room. My father moved my bed into the twin's room which was the closest to their room and it would stay that way until these murderers were caught. 

By the next day, mostly everything was back to normal, we went to school as though nothing was wrong. There was talk about all the security measures that had been put in place the day before and what they cost each parent. I wasn't too interested at present. I headed to my first class and hoped to survive the day. I didn't get far when I heard someone shout "Hey wait up!" I ignored this and continued on my path. "Freckles!" came a voice from behind me and I stopped. Before I could turn around, someone grabbed me around my shoulders and hugged me to them, as they caught up to me. Michael was now next to me and mere inches from my face.