Double Deal

Chapter 8

Ajax told Zephyrus his theory:

“What if… Daz knows that your sister has taken the place of Dexter, and has seen what she’s been doing. Daz approves of it, and lets the monsters know that they have to listen to Astraya as well. Which means Deiros Momus, who is presumed to be a monster, is under the command of your sister. As a taunt, the killer was instructed to kill vulnerable girls, the same that you had exploited when you were Dexter's servant. Deiros Momus was here last night, watching us in the backyard, but he was instructed on what to write by your sister and dropped off the death certificates-”

“But Lola is tied into this too. The notes keep saying “Lola has 2 days,” which means that… Lola is being blackmailed for something she did, which is linked back to her parents. Whatever happened to her is the reason why she has a bounty on her head,” Zephyrus interrupted.

“Is there any reason why monsters would want Lola for something she did in her past?” Ajax asked.

“Not that I can think of off the top of my head…” Zephyrus said.

Suddenly, the memory of him and Lola’s conversation at her house popped into her head. “The Shadow Man,” He said simply.

“What about him?” Ajax asked.

“The shadow man is a monster that is tied to people who’ve-” Zephyrus stopped.

“Who’ve what?” Ajax asked again.

“Ajax, I think you’re right.”

“About what?”

“Tom being Deiros Momus. Think about it. Deiros isn’t a Greek god, which is the theme, right? Because it’s tied to me. But Momus was the god of mockery or ridicule. Which means that Deiros is a mockery. Sort of like, ‘oh, you’ll never figure it out,’ right? And the reason is because it's not one god. It's a combination of two of them. And I think they’re Deimos, the greek god of terror, and Eros, the greek god of love.”

Ajax thought about it. It made perfect sense. “All the victims have been female, which is why I assumed the killer was male. Mei Morgan. She’d gone to the club alone the night she died. Presumably, that's where she would have met Deiros, who would have ‘seduced’ her, tying it to Eros. Monsters feed on fear, which is a tie to Deimos.”

“And mockery would come from how close Tom has been to us this whole time while we’ve tried to figure this out,” Zephyrus finished his thought.

“Okay, but there’s one problem. Kharis. She says she’s known Tom since senior year of high school,” Ajax pointed out.

Zephyrus and Ajax sat quiet. “The only explanation is that…”

“Kharis knows,” They both said at the same time.

“And that means that Lola is in danger. We have to go find her now,” Ajax said, hopping off the couch.

Zephyrus and Ajax ran to Lola’s house, but when they arrived, they found cop cars and ambulances pulled up in the front of the building. Ajax walked up to one of the cops, “What happened here?”

“Kid, I need you to back up,” The officer responded.

“I’m related to Samuel Ross. What happened here?” Ajax repeated.

The officer refused to answer. Ajax saw one of the detective’s that Sam was always working with. Ajax ran past the officer who was holding him back, with Zephyrus closely behind him.

“Detective Cowell!” Ajax called.

The detective jerked his head. “Ajax. You shouldn’t be here.”

“What happened here?” Ajax asked again.

The detective sighed, before looking around to see if anyone could hear him. “They found a girl dead in her apartment. Her roommate is pretty shaken up.”

Ajax and Zephyrus froze, “What room was it?”

“Room 203. She was found stabbed on her bed.”

Room 203. That was Lola’s apartment number. “And the roommate? Where is she?” Ajax asked.

“She’s at the precinct. Like I said, she was pretty shaken up. But I’ve already told you more than I should have. You’re more than welcome to go visit her,” Detective Cowell said before walking into the building, leaving the two boys standing there, in shock.

Someone was dead.

Zephyrus and Ajax raced over to the police station. They had to confront Kharis. Ajax walked in first. “Officer Peters,” Ajax said to the officer at the front desk.

“Hello, Mr. Ross. What brings you here tonight?” She responded.

“Can I speak to the girl who was brought in not too long ago? She’s the one who found her roommate dead. I know her,” Ajax said.

Officer Peters stared at Ajax. “Unfortunately, right now, they’re talking with her. If you wanna talk to her you’re gonna have to wait at least an hour, maybe two.” She told them.

“Okay, that’s fine. Just, let me know when we can go see her. Please, it’s important,” Ajax said.

Officer Peters told them to sit at the chairs in the hallway.

Ajax sat down for a couple minutes, tapping his foot, before standing up and walking back over to Officer Peters. “Officer Peters, I have a question.”

“Yes Ajax?” She responded, looking up from her computer.

“A couple days ago there was a girl brought in a part of the Deiros Momus case-”

“You’re not supposed to know about that. I see Chief Ross is still up to his usual gimmicks,” Officer Peters raised an eyebrow.

Ajax smiled awkwardly before continuing, “Well, I wanted to ask if I could view the body-”

“No,” Officer Peters said simply.

“Please? You already know that my uncle-”

“What your uncle did is illegal and I’m going to pretend like this conversation never happened,” Officer Peters cut him off, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m sure that if I were to solve this case with your help, you could get a promotion,” Ajax said simply.

“Did you just try to bribe me?” Officer Peters has a blank look on her face.

Ajax just froze. “Please, I really need to see the body,” He continued.

Officer Peters sighed. “Follow me,” She said, getting up from her desk and leading Ajax to the morgue.

“Thank you so much,” Ajax said, as she held the door open for him.

“Pod 4,” Officer Peters said as he walked inside the freezing cold room.

The door slammed shut as Ajax walked over to the door that Officer Peters had told him. He held his hand out to the metal handle when a voice from behind him said, “I’d be careful touching that if I were you.”

Ajax jumped, immediately moving his hand from the handle. “Oh, hi Diener Rogers,” He said after he turned around, seeing who it was.

The morgue attendant, who had entered through a different door than Ajax had, walked over to a desk, grabbing some files, “You really shouldn’t be here, Mr. Ross. Who let you in this time?”

“I’ve been sworn to secrecy,” Ajax said, receiving a small chuckle from Rogers before he continued, “There was a girl brought in the other day, linked to the Deiros Momus case.”

“I can’t help you Mr. Ross,” The diener said, looking over the files he had grabbed.

“Please, Rogers, my uncle let me know about this case because he knows I can help solve it. Please help me,” Ajax asked sincerely.

The diener bit his lip. “FIne,” Rogers said hesitantly, as he grabbed a different file, handing it to Ajax, “Her name is Amelia Taylor. Time of death estimated at 1am. The body was disinfected the same way the previous ones were, so there are no fingerprints,” Rogers opened Pod 4, pulling out the bed with a white cloth on top of a body.

Rogers then proceeded to lift the cloth up and fold it down to right above the waist of the girl. “I’m sure your uncle told you, but everything appears to be the same between her and other victims, except this one has visible lacerations to her neck.”

“She was strangled,” Ajax said simply.

“Yes, but not with a rope or wire. The lacerations aren’t thin enough to be one of those. There are also small fractures visible in her neck.”

“She was strangled by someone’s hands. In order to do so… they applied weight to their hands, presumably their body weight,” Ajax deduced.

“And you’d be correct. The person was on top of her with their hands wrapped around the victims neck and leaned down on their hands to apply their body weight to her neck to choke her.”

“Why would they do that if the killer has never done that before?” Ajax murmured to himself, crossing his arms.

It took him a second piecing the information together, then it dawned on him. “They weren’t doing it to choke her. They were doing it to keep her quiet.”

The diener raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Think about it. This has never happened before so either the killer is changing their kill style, which is unlikely based on why and how serial killers kill and this killer's previous kills, or they were almost caught and had the girl started screaming for help, their identity would be exposed. So as a safety measure, they applied as much pressure as they could to close her vocal cords and keep her from screaming,” Ajax explained.

“Hm. Interesting deduction,” the Diener said.

Ajax continued to examine the body. Something was off to him. “Do you have a picture of the markings on the body of another victim?” He said, pointing to the writing carved into the stomach of the girl.

Diener Rogers walked over, rummaged through a cabinet and pulled out a different file. He flipped it open, rifling through the papers, before pulling out a picture. He handed it to Ajax, who examined it. He placed the picture next to the stomach of the girl laying on the metal bed. Looking at it closely, though it was hard to see, the writing on the girl’s body was different than that in the picture.

“Will you run a handwriting analysis to see if the handwriting on all of the victims match?” Ajax asked.

“Yes, but it is going to take time, and we’ll most likely have the results in a couple of days,” Rogers said, “Is there anything else you would like to look at right now?”

“Not that I can think of. Thanks Diener Rogers,” Ajax said, leaving the room as the diener smiled.

Once the door shut, the smile disappeared as he put everything back. The door that he had walked in shut as someone walked in with a smile wide on their face. The diener froze, not turning to face the person, knowing who it was without looking.

“Don’t worry,” The diener said, his voice shaky, “I won’t do anything.”

“I know you won’t,” The person said, “But you shouldn’t have helped him with anything to begin with.”

“Ple-please, I-I-I- won’t do it again,” The diener was shaking.

“I know you won’t,” The person said, pulling out a knife.

Ajax walked up to Zephyrus, who was waiting on a bench for him. Ajax explained what happened. “Hm, interesting,” Zephyrus said. They continued talking for the next hour while they sat impatiently waiting to talk to Kharis. Eventually, Officer Peters walked into the hallway, calling the boys over, and led them to the room where Kharis was being held. “Just remember boys, she’s still shaken up,” The officer said before opening the door.

Zephyrus and Ajax rushed in.

And they saw Lola.

Lola was sitting at the table, hugging herself.

Which meant that…

“Lola? Are you alright?” Zephyrus asked, walking over to her.

Lola had tears in her eyes when she looked over at them. She hugged Zephyrus.

“What happened?” Ajax asked.

“I didn’t go home last night. I went and hung out with Tom. And I accidentally fell asleep and in the morning when I woke up, I stopped by the cafe and I noticed that Kharis wasn’t there, even though it was her shift. I asked Hyram what happened to her, but he said that she wasn’t answering her phone. I walked home after to see what happened, and she wasn’t answering when I was knocking on her door. So I walked in, and she was on her bed, covered in blood. She wasn’t moving, so I called 911,” Lola said in a shaky voice, pausing every once in a while as she choked back a sob.

Zephyrus continued to comfort her, but looked at Ajax with a confused face.

They let Lola go home the next morning, but since her apartment was a crime scene for murder, Ajax invited her to sleep at his house. Sam was still missing. When they got back to his house, they found another sticky note saying Lola had 6 hours. Lola had gone and laid down in Ajax’s bed. The boys sat down on the couch, completely confused about what had just happened. “If Kharis is dead, then maybe she didn’t know after all,” Ajax said.

“It’s convenient, don’t you think?” Zephyrus asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Right after we come to the conclusion that Kharis is involved, she dies,” Zephyrus explained.

Ajax sat in silence. He agreed with him, but the fact that she was dead- “I still think we’re right,” Zephyrus said, interrupting his thoughts.

“Okay, but what are we gonna do?” Ajax said.

“I’m gonna go find my sister. I think that you should figure out more about Tom, whether that be following him, breaking into his house, whatever it is. If you see something suspicious, take a picture of it.” Zephyrus suggested.

“How are you gonna find your sister?” Ajax asked.

“No idea, I’ll figure it out,” Zephyrus said before promptly standing up and walking out of Ajax’s house.

Ajax was waiting for Lola to wake up. He walked upstairs and leaned on the doorframe to his room, watching her sleep. It only took him a couple minutes to realize he was being weird, but as he turned to walk away, he heard Lola call him.

He turned to see her sitting up, rubbing her eyes. “Hey,” Ajax said, “How are you feeling?”

All she did was shrug as Ajax walked into the room. He sat down on the bed next to her. “She was my friend. How are you supposed to react when the only person you considered family is gone?” Lola asked.

Ajax was silent. All he did was wrap his arm around her in comfort. He didn’t know what to say. Sure, he had lost his mother, but he was young when she died. He didn’t really remember her. All he had was Sam, who was missing. They sat like that for a couple minutes, before Ajax looked at her.

“Well, we’re going to find out what happened to her,” Ajax said, before standing up and holding his hand out to her.

Lola took it and stood up with him. “Okay, where do we start?”

Zephyrus was just walking around the town, thinking of where his sister could possibly be. He would have used his compass, but his sister’s magic was strong. There’s no way a simple trick would be able to find her. The cab wouldn’t work either because it can only take you to places that the driver knows. He thought about what other things he might be able to use to find his sister.

Zephyrus stopped walking. He thought back to when he saw what happened to the torn page from the potions book. Mariel had met her boyfriend at an abandoned warehouse and her boyfriend had mentioned Daz.

Zephyrus had recognized the street when Mariel was walking, but not the actual building which meant 2 things: It was either restored, or demolished and rebuilt.

Which meant it was the perfect building to be hiding out in.

Zephyrus was going to call for the cab, but before he could take out a coin, his problem was solved. A rag went over his face, as another arm wrapped around his neck and dragged him back into the alley that was behind him. Zephyrus struggled against the person, but failed, and soon passed out.

When Zephyrus woke up, he was tied to a chair by his hands. As he was coming to his senses, he looked up and saw someone sitting at a desk in front of him. As his vision cleared he knew immediately who it was. “So, you knew I was looking for you,” Zephyrus said, throwing his head back.

“Glad to see you’re awake, Favonius,” His sister said.

She had just finished writing something. “Greene,” She said, holding the paper up. Someone from behind Zephyrus walked up to the desk and grabbed the paper from Astraya. “Take that to them for me,” She said.

Zephyrus watched as the guard grabbed the paper from his sister. He recognized what it was. “So, you’re the one who wrote those,” Zephyrus said. They were the death certificates.

“Yes, that was me. Congratulations, you figured it out,” Astraya said in a mocking tone before finally looking up at her brother.

She put her pen down on the desk, and it transformed back into her stele. Zephyrus noticed that his stele was on the desk too. “Why did you write them?” He said.

“I thought your friend, Ajax I believe, told you what they were. They let people know when they’re going to die. People who’ve crossed me or are no longer necessary,” Astraya said, folding her hands.

“So the ones that were left in his house are real.”

“Yes.”

“And how would you break the enchantment on them?” Zephyrus asked.

“If there was a real answer to that, I wouldn’t be telling you. But, you can’t break the enchantment on them. Once they’re written, your day to die is set. All you do is wallow in fear until eventually you die.”

“And so you’ve just killed me. Your own brother. Just like that?”

“You’re the one who got involved,” Astraya said simply.

“It’s not like I had a choice,” Zephyrus said.

“Well, you chose to die over being put in prison,” Astraya glared at him.

Zephyrus looked at the table. It had been 2 years since he’d seen his sister, and yet she still managed to intimidate him. “So why are you looking for me?” She asked, starting to type on a laptop.

“Do you know who Deiros Momus is?” Zephyrus asked.

Astraya stopped typing. She looked at him, “What about him?”

“So you know who he is?” Zephyrus said.

“What about him?” Astraya repeated.

“He’s attacking one of my friends,” Zephyrus explained.

His sister scoffed. “You don’t have friends,” Was all she said.

Zephyrus just looked at her. “And how would you know? We haven’t talked in over 2 years,” Zephyrus growled.

“Just because I haven’t spoken to you doesn’t mean I haven’t been watching you,” Astraya said, continuing to type on her laptop, “I mean, I got you here, didn’t I?”

“And you haven’t wanted to talk with me at all-”

“Zephyrus,” His sister said sternly. The only time she called him Zephyrus was when she was being serious, “You really think it's smart for you to have gotten involved with me after what Dexter did to you?”

“You act like you care,” Zephyrus said with a straight face.

Astraya looked at her brother with soft eyes, before the look immediately disappeared. “Why did you bring me here?” He asked after the moment of silence.

“I needed you out of the equation for a little. Things are falling into place, just as they should. I’ll let you go tomorrow morning,” Astraya said simply.

“You never answered my question about Deiros Momus,” Zephyrus said.

“All you asked if I knew him.”

“Who is he?” Zephyrus asked.

“Doesn’t matter. You’ll find out soon enough,” Astraya said dismissively.

Zephyrus glared at his sister. “Who put the bounty on Lola?”

Astraya looked at her brother again. “I don’t know,” She said simply.

“Liar.”

“I haven’t lied to you once.”

“Then why don’t you know who put the bounty on Lola?”

“It's best not to meddle in others' business. An important lesson I think you should learn, or you’ll end up dead,” Astraya said.

“Was Kharis supposed to die?” Zephyrus moved on.

Astraya chuckled. “Favonius. You of all people should know not to trust so easily.”

“One last question-”

“I think we’re done here.”

“Astraya-”

“Guard,” She called.

“Is Tom the murder-”

That's the last thing Zephyrus said before he was struck on the head and passed out.

Ajax and Lola waited until nightfall before following Ajax’s plan. “Are you sure this is where he lives?” Lola asked.

“Well, this is what it said on Sam’s laptop. Honestly, I’m more surprised that you don’t know that this is where Tom lives,” Ajax said.

“I’ve never been to his house, okay?” Lola said.

“Okay, but are you sure he’s not here right now?” Ajax asked.

“Yeah, he said he’s working a closing shift right now,” Lola responded.

Ajax and Lola walked into the apartment, but something immediately felt wrong to Ajax. “It’s too quiet in here,” Ajax said.

The lobby was empty. There were no decorations. It was so empty that their footsteps echoed as they walked. “You’re right, that is really weird,” Lola said.

They walked over to the elevator and hopped on. “Room 317,” Ajax said, pushing the button for the third floor. They got off when it stopped. Ajax put his ears to one of the doors.

“It’s dead silent,” Ajax said walking over to another door and doing the same thing, “They all are.”

“Like, no one lives here?” Lola said.

“Yeah,” Ajax said, walking down the hall to Tom’s apartment.

Ajax dropped down and started picking the lock. “Why would he live in an apartment all by himself?”

Ajax stood up and turned the doorknob. “Who knows,” Ajax said, slowly walking into the apartment.

From the look of it, nothing was out of the ordinary inside his apartment. It was very tidy, which makes sense for Tom being OCD. Ajax took some gloves out and handed a pair to Lola. “Put these on.”

Ajax started walking around, opening cabinets, looking for anything suspicious. He didn’t find anything. “Ajax?” Lola said, calling him over. She had opened Tom’s nightstand drawer.

Ajax looked inside the drawer. “So, he’s kinky,” Lola said.

Ajax almost laughed. “Not the time, He said.

Inside the drawer was a couple of “toys.” Ajax went back to searching. After a little while of searching, he looked under the kitchen sink while Lola took a picture of the drawer. Ajax pulled out a tarp along with a pair of rubber gloves. “Lola…” Ajax said, unfolding the tarp.

Ajax pulled out the black light from his pocket, turning it on and flashing it on the tarp. Lola felt sick to her stomach.

The black light revealed splotches of blood. The tarp was covered in it. Ajax looked at Lola. “Lola, I’m sorry-”

“You were right, weren’t you?” Lola said quietly.

Lola’s phone suddenly started ringing. “Who is it?” Ajax asked.

“Tom,” She barely managed to squeak out.

“Lola, you need to answer it,” Ajax said.

“I don’t know if I can-”

“Lola, if you don’t he’ll become suspicious,” Ajax said.

“Or maybe I’m just not looking at my phone-”

“Lola,” Ajax said, standing up, “You need to answer the phone.”

Lola took a deep breath. She brought the phone to her ear, “Hello?” She tried to speak in the least shaky voice possible.

She paused as Tom told her something, “What?” Lola said in a shocked tone.

“Okay, I’ll be right there,” Lola said.

Lola hung up the phone. “What did he tell you?” Ajax asked.

“The police just went to the cafe and arrested Hyram for Kharis’ murder.”