His Conundrums

Chapter 44

Blame Her

Since morning, Alex’s been answering phone calls, and the media keep asking about what had happened with the Lampt’s younger daughter. He’s been waiting for the autopsy report for two days, and his men are doing investigation from other cases. Their department seemed a bit short of hand.

“How’s your father?” George asked Audrey.

“Not good, as you can see,” she took a glimpse of her father from the glass window that divides the offices. She stirred her coffee.

“We have a lot of cases these past few weeks. Are you working overtime again? You just finished your previous case a while ago,” he said.

“I can’t take a rest knowing none of us did, so I might as well work with dad,” she said.

“You need a hand? I can spare a few hours a day. I only have two light cases this week,” he offered.

“No, we’re fine. We can handle it. We have Mr. Welsch and his buddy work with us. It’s just the media are too annoying, and the victim’s family’s been pressuring us to get things done immediately.”

She sighed. George looked at her.

They heard someone coughed from one corner not too far from where they are and saw Alex standing behind them. George greeted his boss, and Audrey did the same.

George saw Alex looked at him with fierce showing on his eyes, and he felt chills all over his body.

“Dad, I mean, sir. I think it’s time for us to fetch the autopsy report,” Audrey reminded her father.

“Can you get me some coffee first?” Alex told Audrey but still looking at George.

George didn’t know what to do but picked a disposable cup beside the coffee maker.

“Come on, dad. Stop teasing him already,” Audrey pushed Alex.

“But I just want some coffee,” Alex protested.

“I’ll buy you some on the way there,” Audrey told him.

-0-0-0-

Sirius spent his time alone in his apartment. He had with him the keychain they found at the Lampt’s girl clothes the night they found her on the river. He took it yesterday from Alex when he heard they found nothing on it.

He looked closely and found another letter on the other side. It was an English letter Q carved in an italicized manner. It’s not carved that deep and significant to notice. It was on the lower right corner, where the edges seemed a bit rough. It looks like sharp objects like knives did not carve it.

He took his phone and dialed Joe’s number, but he received a call from Alex.

‘The autopsy was done. Meet us on the coffee shop you always spend your time,’ Alex told him on the other line.

“Okay, I’ll be there within five minutes,” he said before ended the call.

He took his belongings along with the keychain and drove off to Mr. Lauve’s coffee shop.

-0-0-0-

When Sirius arrived, Joe was already there. He greeted everyone by nodding his head and immediately sat on the vacant chair on their table.

“She was stabbed with a knife that is a hundred and twenty-four millimeter long. The cut was deep, but it’s not that wide, so we were looking for a knife or any sharp objects that might resemble the weapon,” Alex started.

“But nothing came to mind, so we searched for our records and found the same cut from a case four months ago,” he added.

“Four months ago?” Sirius asked him.

“Yeah, the month where you had your car accident.”

“We found something odd on your father’s body. We found a metal that went through his heart. We’ve been searching on where he might get that, but we found none. Aside from that, nothing more suspicious, so we thought maybe it was a piece of metal from your father’s car that got through him,” Alex told him.

“My father…”

Sirius didn’t finish his sentence and suffered yet again from one of his headaches. The pain hurts even more than before.

“Dad, can we have dinner at home tonight right after I got my award? I really missed mom’s cooking,”

“Yeah, it’s been so long since we last ate dinner with everyone,”

He grunted and fell on the floor. His face was red, and his veins became visible under his skin. He heard everyone calling his name.

“Sirius?”

“Call an ambulance, now!”

“Sirius, are you with us?”

Everything around him made his headache worse, and long before he knew it, he passed out.

-0-0-0-

Hallray High School is mourning the loss of one of its dear students. The teachers, along with the other volunteered students, gathered around to place flowers and a picture of Venice Lampt’s in every corner they seemed proper. Some students light up a candle to pray for her soul. But the occurrence didn’t interrupt each of their daily activities, including quizzes and club activities.

Luna was on her way to the clubroom where her locker was and changed into her practice clothes. He changed her skirt and blouse and tied her hair. She heard someone’s approaching.

“I saw you earlier,” Martha, one of the cheerleaders, told her.

“Thank you for the attention,” she said.

“In front of Venice’s offerings.”

She stopped and faced her.

“What? Is that something wrong?” she asked.

“You should have light a candle to make it more realistic and dramatic,” Martha suggested before she turned away.

Luna glared at her as she walked towards the door, but Martha faced her again and saw the look on her face.

“Oh, scary!” she said and laughed on her way to the gym.

Luna dropped herself on the bench behind her. Her life changed after what had happened to Venice. Everybody’s been pointing out their blames at her, but she knew she didn’t do anything wrong. She’s not been on good terms with the Lampt’s, but that’s not an excuse.

She needs to clear her name, and that includes her family’s. She was determined more than before, and so. She decided to investigate on her own.

She grabbed her hair tie and redid her hair. She made a bun and tied her hair tightly.

“Nothing will change if I let them consume my fear and anger,” she said to herself and made her way to the gymnasium where everybody was.