Page 7 of Merciless Obsession
When I got to my porch I paused, seeing a box waiting for me. I didn’t remember ordering anything, but then again I was always preordering things, so I might have forgotten.
I walked up the steps and leaned down to pick up the package. There was no return address or anything.
“How old?”
“What?”
“The girl. How old was the girl?”
I blinked a few times and shook my head, positioning the box under my arm and moving to unlock my door.
“Fourteen.” I opened the screen door and tapped the code to unlock my door. My brows furrowed when my alarm didn’t go off after I opened my door. I made sure to always turn it on when I left the house, but I had been in a rush this morning. My house was set up like a fortress. I made sure my security was state of the art and spared no expense.
“And let me guess, no leads?”
“You would be correct about that.” I looked around my living room and nothing looked out of place. Since getting that text at James’s house two days ago, I’d been a little more on guard than normal. When Charlie was first taken, I stayed paranoid, swearing the boogeyman was waiting in the shadows after every turn. It took a long time for that feeling to go away and I refused to live like that again.
I walked to the back of my house where my dining room was and set the package on the table then headed for the stairs to go to my office.
“This shit is getting out of control, Inaya. It’s been nine years since my sister was murdered and there are still girls going missing and the people responsible are nowhere near getting caught. The police don’t give a damn, most people assume these girls just ran away because they come from low-income households or they’ve been in some kind of trouble.”
Stepping into my office, I went to my board and looked it over. I knew whoever was running things had some cops and judges in their pockets, it’s the only thing that made sense as to why they hadn’t been caught yet. I’d scanned the dark web, and while I found some things, it wasn’t enough to help me.
“I know how much this means to you, Ziora, and you know I got your back with whatever you need. I might not be tech savvy like you, but I’m here for you.” I smiled softly.
“I know. Although I lost my sister, having you around always made me feel like I had another.”
We talked a little longer before hanging up. Heading to my desk, I plopped down in my chair and booted up my computers. Opening a drawer, I pulled out a red strawberry sucker and unwrapped it, plopping it in my mouth then getting to work. I clicked around until the hidden files I had appeared then entered the password to unlock them. Charlie’s file appeared. I had studied this thing forward and backward. I could probably describe it word for word without even looking at it. There wasn’t much to go on. My sister was beaten, raped, and strangled to death. When she was found all she wore was a ripped, tattered T-shirt, panties, and a single sock. She had been missing for three months before her body turned up. She was discarded like trash in an alley. A restaurant owner taking out the garbage found her and called nine-one-one. According to the ME report, she had been dead at least a week before she was located and assaulted repeatedly.
My lips tucked into my mouth when I clicked the photos of the crime scene. The images of my sister’s lifeless body haunted me for months when I first saw them, but now I was numb to it. She looked peaceful, as if she was sleeping, and it helped me lie to myself that she went peacefully. My mom worked a lot and my dad was always in between jobs. While most siblings argued, me and Charlie didn’t. Our dad was a drunk who spent his days yelling and beating my mom. She refused to leave him, no matter how many bruises he put on her body. While he never touched me and Charlie, he did yell and belittle us, so I tried to protect her from all that. When I wasn’t at home, most of the time I had Charlie with me if I could. She didn’t deserve what happened to her.
My throat tightened as I pulled up another file. The old detective leading this case had taken his life, according to the medical report I hacked into. The detective was the same one who half worked my sister’s case. He was dirty and crooked but covered his tracks well. It didn’t make sense to me for him to kill himself though. He was months from retirement, his daughter had just had a baby boy, and he and his wife had just celebrated their thirtieth anniversary. From the latest deep dive I did following his death, he was able to pay for his wife’s treatment and she was healthy now. He wasn’t having any more financial troubles, so suicide didn’t make sense. In fact, every month he received a deposit of ten thousand dollars. When I tried to trace the money, it led back to an offshore account and the name connected was fake. I tapped my pointer finger on the mouse. This wasn’t the first time I had suspected an overdose was used as cover up and part of me wondered if that’s what this was. I just needed to prove it.
I glanced over the details of the last girl found before the detective’s passing. Much like all the other girls before her, she was beaten, raped, and strangled, and found at some randomlocation thrown out like trash. There was never any physical evidence or DNA left on the girls. No one ever saw anything suspicious in the area. It was like a ghost was doing all of this or it was being covered up.
Once, I found a site I suspected was linked to the missing girls. Their appearances had been altered, hair a different color and length. It was only valid for seventy-two hours and it looked like they were selling the kids listed. Sadly, there were more than just girls from The Sticks on it too. Whoever uploaded the girls were as good as me when it came to hiding their digital footprint because I had yet to figure out who they were. It was frustrating but I wasn’t giving up. I hadn’t seen the site again, but I was keeping an eye out for it.
“Don’t worry, Charlie, Iwillget justice for you,” I mumbled, pulling the sucker out of my mouth and switching to another screen.
A yawn escaped my mouth and I rolled my shoulders back. My kickboxing class was catching up to me. Shutting everything down I left my office and headed downstairs to grab my laptop.
Before going back upstairs, I grabbed a glass of warm lavender tea with two creams and honey, then paused, remembering the package I brought inside.
Grabbing a pair of scissors, I went over to the box, set my laptop down, and cut the box open.
I took a drink of the tea and scrunched my nose when a smell hit it. There was a notecard laying on top of a bunch of packing peanuts. Grabbing it, I sawBumblebeewritten on the front. My heart stumbled a beat. Only one person called me that. My pulse picked up. Flipping the card over I scanned the written note.
Here’s my present to you, to remind you no one else should put their hands on you. The surgeon has been fired.
My lips parted. A tightness formed in my chest and my stomach dropped. I looked around my dining room that suddenly felt too open. My home was always my safe haven. And whoever this was stalking me was trying to ruin it.
Tossing the note to the side, I stared down at the white foam peanuts. My heart became lodged in my throat making it hard to swallow. My brows furrowed when I dug through the peanuts and my hands brushed over something cold and rough. Gripping the object, I pulled it out. My eyes ballooned seeing it was a severed hand. Bile rose in the back of my throat.
Quickly I flipped the box over and another hand fell out. The hands were crusted with dried blood and one still had the wrist bone attached and sticking out. A scream left my mouth and I dropped the glass of tea, causing it to splatter at my feet when the glass shattered. I stumbled back, feeling uneasy on my feet. My body suddenly felt as if I was lit on fire, my head became woozy, and my eyes heavy.
“Wh-what.” I struggled to get out.
Everything became blurry and I attempted to reach for the chair in front of me when my legs gave out and I collapsed on the ground. I tried to tell my body to move but it refused to listen. My eyes darted around when the sound of footprints sounded behind me.
