Copper was the Culprit?

-PART FIVE-

Her thoughts are a strange ocean for everyone. Whenever she speaks to them I see the wandering begin in everyone's eyes, desire to flee the conversation written on face, thinking the churnings of her mind petty words, fluff and never substance. Her thoughts were guarded, hardly ever letting an unconsidered word escape on her little lips and others may think of as self-control. In a way it is, but the effect is to leave her on the outside, rarely granting a glimpse of where her emotions really lie. She doesn't know who caused her to hide, or even if it is just within her nature. The thought trundled through her brain like a through train, with no intention of stopping. As she watched its tail lights winking in the distance, all trace of it leaving her neurons, wondered if maybe that was the one idea that would have made her millions.

The silence was a poison to them, for in that void of sound the shallowness of their conversation was laid bare. What used to be an intellectual banter of politics and comedic moments was utterly vapid. It was recycled, re-hashed, twittered garbage worthy of Fox News. And so without another word. Silence gnawed at her insides. Silence hung in the air like the suspended moment before a falling glass shatters on the ground. The silence was like a gaping void, needing to be filled with sounds, words, anything. The silence was poisonous in its nothingness, cruelly underscoring how vapid their conversation had become. The silence was eerily unnatural, like a dawn devoid of birdsong. Silence clung to them like a poisonous cloud that at any moment could choke the life from them. Silence seeped into their every pore, like a poison slowly paralyzing them from either speech or movement.

As they reach the front lodge of the mansion gives them a relief from unnatural and uneasy silence after the confrontation.

A house with a long and narrow, perhaps only twelve feet wide at the front, but it stretched some thirty feet back like a giant shoe box. It was five stories high and had a one story extension at the rear for the kitchen. A huge rose garden carved as a maze had been planted in front, and although it had obviously once been carefully planned and loved. The house was indeed Elizabethan, with wooden and metal panels along the corridors, ornate chandeliers, and oil paintings of old bearded men in tunics and ruffs. The stairs led down into a tall galleried room with a rug spread out over flagstones and a fireplace big enough to park a car in. A long polished wooden table had been set for three. Two way stairs were seen as the main door open, came to a roundabout with a fountain at the center, swept around it, and continued up toward a fantastic sprawling house. It was Victorian, redbrick topped with copper domes and spires that had long ago turned green. There must have been at least a hundred windows on five floors facing the drive. It was a house that just didn't know where to stop.

As they hold Peterson carefully, leading them to the nearest elevator going to the basement, it is very hard for them to walk using stairs.

"how can you be so sure that he's not even dead?" tiredness can be heard as Gray uttering his lines

"I'm holding his pulse and I know he's alive" she simply utters

They look pretty tired specially the young demon filled with bruises and blood spots.

"He's losing lot of blood, curing his wounds isn't enough at all" Gray stated while carefully help young Peterson to move forward.

"I can do a blood transfusion… idiot"

As the elevator door opens, the hallway has as much personality as the hospital. The floor is slate grey and the walls dove. Above the ceiling is made from those polystyrene squares laid on a grid-like frame. The light is too bright for everyone's eyes after the darkening gloom outside, find it abrasive, enough perhaps to bring on one migraines. Above every door pass is a large plastic sign, dark with white lettering- no fancy fonts, just bold and all-caps. It's so new and spotless, feel like the whole building must have just gotten beamed here from some-place dirt is outlawed. Nowhere is the chronic underfunding more evident than in the hallways. They are for the most part crammed with patient, strapped in- eyes toward the naked fluorescent tubes that flicker as though they tend to hypnotized. The luxurious navy blue walls are deeply scored by the metal framed trollies, the drywall showing though like white scars. The elegant prints on the walls are full of spirit, full in vibrancy that they appear sun-bleached in this windowless strip. A door in the middles seems to be their spot.

Lycko immediately tap her car towards the co-called tapping identification entrance, lying the semi-dead Peterson on the laboratory bed gives them a relief.

"Kindly call Price, we need a helping hand with this one" she stated as she stretches out her body as if she holds a sack grains.

As Gray hurriedly leave the room, she manages to inject dextrose into Peterson's vein to replace lost fluids and provide carbohydrates to the body. It is a simple sugar derived from corn and other vegetables. It has many uses, including sweetening foods and extending the shelf life of many products. Bodybuilders may use dextrose as a supplement. Dextrose to treat many conditions, including dehydration and low blood sugar.

After injecting the so-called dehydrating supplement, the young lady removes her jacket and place it with a white coat. Putting some medical gloves and proceed in treating his major wounds.

"he has an abdominal trauma" she utters as she observes his condition. Giving an eye to eye on every inch of his bruises specially his stab.

"knock! Knock!" the man chuckles as he enters the doorway, Lycko immediately looks at the direction of the guy talking.

She gives him a hug which makes the guy see his wounded face.

"hmm… I missed you sweetheart" his eyes widened when he saw the bruises to the face of his sister "shit! What's happen to your face my twin sister?"

It was Price

"ugh… our twin sister you bastard" Gray stated between the hug moment of his two twins

"who the hell was that?" as price makes his way through the unconscious body.

"he has an abdominal trauma" he stated while touching the wounds.

"my dear bastard brother, we need a blood transfusion and assistance" Gray handed Price a white coat and a plastic gloves

"what happened to him?" Price asks a question while preparing the equipment for the transfusion

"I stab him" Lycko simply utter as she starts to prepare the machine that helps them to distinguish if he has an internal damage.

"Here, let me help you" Gray lend his hands to help his twin sister to proceed on the gross assessment to examined physically. Performing a paper clip is taped over entry and exit wounds.

"abdominal trauma due to stabbings, these injuries may be life-threatening because abdominal organs bleed profusely and if the pancreas is injured, further injury occurs from auto digestion. Injuries of the liver often present in shock because the liver tissue has a large blood supply. The intestines are at risk of perforation with concomitant fecal matter complicating penetration." She continuously utter while preparing the things for the surgery.

"It may cause hypovolemic shock and peritonitis. Penetration may diminish bowel sounds due to bleeding, infection, and irritation, and injuries to arteries may cause bruits. Percussion reveals hyper resonance or dullness suggesting blood. The abdomen may be distended or tender indicating surgery is needed. The standard management of penetrating abdominal trauma is a laparotomy. A greater understanding of mechanisms of injury and improved imaging has resulted in conservative operative strategies in some cases." She added

"laparotomy?" as Gray asked

"yes… a surgical incision into the abdominal cavity, for diagnosis or in preparation for surgery." Price added.

"gotcha!" Gray exclaimed as he gets the result of Peterson's physical exam.

"what it says?" Lycko curiously asked

"presentation of a patient with penetrating abdominal injury may reveal shock, hypotension, narrow pulse pressure, tachypnea, oliguria, and an apparent trajectory or open wound. It may reveal signs of peritonitis such as guarding or rebound tenderness. The approach we can do to patients with penetrating abdominal trauma will depends on the type of instrument that caused the injury and hemodynamic status." Gray stated professionally while looking in the eyes of his twin sister and twin brother.

"if that's an ordinary knife, we can easily put some stitches and prevent the bleeding through antibiotics and give him transfusion" Price added while holding the blood type Peterson needed.

"I use my dagger" the young lady stated without an effort to look at the two.

"seems we should start on transfusion and stitching; I guess?" Price suggested to the both.

The young lady immediately goes straight to the victim and do the procedures it needed. The trio has a professional background at a very young age that can make them a team wherever their forensic sort of mini lab runs. It took hours before they finish the procedures. Having not ordinary count of stitches makes them save Peterson's life. After gaining their strength after an hours of procedure, they immediately do blood transfusion towards the victim. Waste no time was the exact method their following at.

"a way of adding blood to his body after an injury. If his body is missing one or more of the components that make up healthy blood, a transfusion can help supply what his body is missing. Depending on how much blood needed, a transfusion can take between 1 and 4 hours." Price explaining procedure while conducting it.

"So it looks like we should stay here and wait?" Gray suggested

"our blood is made up of several different parts including red and white cells, plasma, and platelets. "Whole blood" refers to blood that has all of them. In some cases, if a person may need to have a transfusion that uses whole blood, but it's more likely that he'll need a specific component." Lycko utter as she removes her coat and get rid on her bloody gloves.

"we'll just wait the transfusion to be finished" Price go straight to the direction of his siblings while removing the protections he's been wearing.

"Looks like an achievement to us?" Gray happily stated as he wiped his sweats

"yep!"- Price

"yeas!"- Lycko

"while we're waiting, I just grab some snacks, any add ounce?" Gray happily utters

"coffee"-Price

"Strawberry beverages lift my mood up"- Lycko

"well then, stay here… I'll get some" as Gray leaves the room an irritating silence spread all throughout the room, the apparatus was the only thing that creates music through their ears.

"about the evidences that Lock gave to me… I have the result" Price broke the silence while having a cotton containing anti-biotic and go straight to Lycko's direction.

"ouch!" Lycko irritated hissed when Price mend his bruises

"when did Hermano handed to you?" she asked

"the night after the so-called funeral of your boyfriend" he utters while seriously put some therapeutics.

…

-THE NIGHT AFTER THE FUNERAL-

-FLASHBACK-

Driving towards the cold road of this street gives me goosebumps, softly splashing water droplets hit the car windows as I drive onwards. The skies are overhung with a blanket of darkness, so much so that I can barely tell the difference between the sky and clouds. Despite car rides feeling tedious, the rain commonly calms me, I watch raindrops race down to the windows. The occasional wave of a puddle can be exciting, but I'd rather be outside in those puddles than stuck in this car.

Reaching Sol y Luna makes me rejoice as my drunk feeling makes me irritations.

Reaching the mansion while feeling quiet dizzy and blurry. I walked inside the mansion and contact him.

"Price Williams speaking" he utters against the mouthpiece

"hey! It's me Knight-Lock Chase" I introduce myself "Can you meet me at the lobby of the mansion? Pendelton handed you something" I stated as the phone hanged up.

Waiting a moment, the bottler continuously serves me with a freshly baked pastries and handed me a cup of tea.

"Hey bud! How's my sister doing?" Price sat in front of me breaking a fortune cookie in between.

"she's fine pretending to be okay" I chuckles as I stated the fact

"that demonic brat" he chuckles before taking a sip on his tea cup

"what's bring you here?" he asked me

"Pendelto handed me this. He said that we should do testing to the blood on the knife also, classify this bullets and guns on the other hand Lycko also give me this bullet. Can we identify the types through this simple examples?" I stated and he nodded and get the things and put it on a metal basket.

I guess he uses that thing for forensics

"I should probably go home" I ended up the small chitchat we had and say goodbye.

"Tell Knight-drain that his plans affect my sister so much, I'm afraid that her demon returned"

-END OF FLASHBACK-

"Can you handed me the results?" the young lady utter after Price puts bandages on her face and arms

"yeas! Sure… just wait here I'll going to get it" Price flashes a sweet smile and kiss Lycko on her forehead. On that very moment after her brother leaves, she felt safe and make her take a deep sigh. As she closed her eyes, she felt relaxation flows all over her body as she let her body relax to feel the sensations she wants. She's too hard trying to pretend.

An hour passed and she falls asleep because of the tiredness which her body was just acquiring.

…

"hey, sweetie… wake up" Gray wakes her up handed a cold strawberry milkshake

"how long was I asleep?" Lycko while blinking her eyes and yawn. Looking around her brothers drinking their brewed and munching some decker.

"an hour I think?" Price stated

���how's Bailey?" she asked

"an hour left and the transfusion was already done" Price sits beside her and let his sister lay on his thigh.

"just rest sweetheart… you need it" while caressing his sister's hair and forehead.

"how about the results?" she asks her brother

"what result?" Gray intertwined on the conversation

"the forensic stuffs" Price calmly stated as he read the paper which contain the result.

"The DNA found in the knives matches with Copper Richardson's blood, while the gun that Pendelton found matches to the bullets you've found" Price explains the result.

"so you mean, the evidences may lead us to just one suspect?" Gray seriously murmur

"on the other hand, yes… but there are some cases that our suspect was too brilliantly intelligent to set another up making his mess become to others" Price states his premonitions as he took glance at the sleeping Peterson

"you mean, those men in the pictures may be framed up?" Lycko stated

"Unfortunately yes" Price answer

"yet the blood seems fresh isn't it?" Price and Lycko automatically stare at him

"What do you mean?" Lycko asked

"as our dear Price handed me the blood samples, it's a day fresh, I'm just thinking that if it was the murdered weapon, the blood should be stained already" taking a sip from his brewed that makes a little silence between the three of them.

"So there is a possibility that Copper was still alive before Peterson found the knives on the West drive house?"- Gray

"It's Westfield drive brother" Lycko correct her brother and take a sip of her milkshake.

"but Richardson found dead and bloated three days before he found the weapon"-Price added an idea

"I'm confused, maybe someone uses Copper's death for his so-called self-salvation?" Lycko hissed

"Maybe"-Price

"Possible"-Gray

"hey! How about the idea of a gun?" Gray changes the topic making the tension decreases

"it's John Moses Browning's Colt M1911A1 pistol" – Price

"replace weaker .38 caliber pistols"- Gray

"looks like we have one antagonist here" Lycko stated

"I also found formaldehyde at Richardson's crib… also, Peterson stated after he passed out that Richardson's ask him to broke in here and get my embalmer equipment" Lycko tells idea on the situation as if she was telling a story

Price handed Lycko's head on the pillow and stand up, going straight to the patient and remove the equipment his using for the transfusion.

"we should just wait him to recover" he stated

"maybe Richardson has a connection with all of this" Gray stated as he stretching his body.

"what if Copper Richardson fake his own death too?" Price and Lycko both frowned as they heard Gray's idea

"what did you say?" Lycko confusedly ask her brother to repeat or even explain

"do you mean?" Price astonishingly asked

"I just stitched the patterns that the culprit gave to us that maybe Copper was the Culprit himself" he chuckles for his ideas

"we should take rest here and wait for him to wake up… Sweetheart take a nap okay" Price kiss her forehead and cover her with a blanket.

Price and Gray go straight to another couch and take their own naps while Lycko staring to at the ceiling digesting the idea given to her by her brother Gray.

"what if Copper Richardson fake his own death too?"

"maybe Copper was the Culprit himself"