HUSHED SILENCE

She was morbid. Nothing like that was ever heard of. It was whispered from time to time but being a believer? That was suicidal. She looked around, feeling eyes on her, and being certain that her mind was playing games with her, again, she continued turning from page to page, looking at the strange writings scribbled at the margin of the book. “The world is ugly and vain”, her mother used to say,” but if you would know exactly where to look, you would realize it is a thing of beauty too.” It was almost closing time and miss Carey, the library keeper, was eagerly counting the minutes to when she would lock the ancient building, pocketing the key and the responsibilities that came with it in her brown trench court. She would not have minded sitting on her counter, twenty minutes past her closing time, keying in the registry of the new books donated by the Great Catholic Church of England, if it were ten years ago. Back then the library used to be packed to the brim with youths smiling at her politely and beaming every time she added them a few more minutes to wind up whatever it was they were doing. Everyone wanted to be a doctor, an engineer or a lawyer and they were not shy to work for it. She looked at the few people scattered around with their heads buried in their books. The world really was dynamic. The numbers had started dwindling five years ago. The library was half full, a quarter full until the number dropped to around ten to fifteen a day. She would see kids on the pavements with their heads buried in their phones, busy typing their life away. It was not unusual seeing one miss a step and fall. It was both alarming and infuriating. What type of generation was this? Does the society really expect generation Z, as they are famously known, to take the world`s civilization to the next level? The clock ticked tirelessly. It was six In the evening. Susan glanced at miss Carey and smiled. She was lost in her own world. The book before her was enticing and she really did not want to leave it behind. She took it gingerly and dropped it in her bag casually, as though It was hers to take. Then slowly, she walked to the exit, waved at miss Carey and set on her path towards home. What`s one book anyway? She intended to return it before she even realized it was gone. *** The sun kissed the waters of the sea, where the heavens met the earth. The wind gently caressed its surface and the deafening silence in the parks impregnated the air with a calmness only known to the few who dared test their luck. A maniac was out on a killing spree and if the bodies of the dozens of victims lying in the morgue with toe tags and no names attached to it wasn’t chilling enough, the newspaper with their wild imaginations was. The Daily newspaper delivered to people`s doorstep had once again reminded people why the night was to be feared. The Bow Killer strikes Again. The Police have no lead on the Jack Ripper case. Will You Be The Next Victim? The lieutenant at the warshaw precinct hated the people in the media. She had a killer on the loose and having the people in her city scared to death did not make it easy for her. The station sounded like an exorcism in progress with the constant ringing of phones any time the clock struck five. People wanted police escorts to their home, in attempt to try and stay alive. The town was in chaos and it was dragging her life with it. It started with one body, then two and before she knew it she was receiving calls from the governor`s office to catch the bastard responsible for over ten deaths and throw him in jail. Her door screeched open and a head appeared from the other end. Susan smiled and walked in, files in hand and a frown on her face. “Tell me you have good news for me, Susan. I need a win today.” Susan shook her head and placed the files on her desk. Her nail polished was chipped and her hair a mess. She had dark circles under her eyes and her skin looked pale. The lieutenant was pleased. Being the lead investigator in the alphabet killer case meant she had no time to go the salon to get her hair and nails done. She wished, however, that Susan would sleep because she needed her fresh and alert for the case but that would be hypocritical considering the fact that she doubled down the pressure she received from her superiors and poured it all on her. “ Nothing. Once again our killer left nothing on the crime scene. No hair, no print, no sweat, no cell, no air. It is like he wasn’t there. We have reached a dead end, again.” Lieutenant Marie sighed and took a sip of her now cold coffee. Her big mahogany desk had papers scattered all over it. She reached over and took the now heavy file of the alphabet killer, opening it and staring at the first gruesome picture of his latest victim. Name :Maddie morales. Age :25. Place of birth: Georgia. Graduated 2016. Maddie had been found on her knees, totally naked on the south avenue street, a few blocks from the diner she worked in as a waitress. She had worked at the diner for seven weeks before her gruesome murder. “ Have we missed something Susan? I feel like we have missed something.” A door creaking was enough to stop Marie's train of thoughts “ sorry for interrupting. Detective, someone is here to see you.” Susan closed the door and followed Parker to the break room. He was tall, possibly 6`2 feet tall, a contrast to her 4`9 feet height. She had been beyond ecstatic when she had been assigned the alphabet killer, back when he was known as the bow killer and had only two victims. She joked that the shorter the person the bigger the brain, a statement that had greatly infuriated Parker who had been eyeing the case ever since it landed on the lieutenant`s desk. At first he was scorned for losing it to a woman but as time went by he was grateful the stupid slimy killer had landed on Susan`s desk. If she failed to catch him sooner, if the bodies continued piling up as they were, she would lose her voice and respect in the precinct and it would leave a dent in her record, something she would never recover from, being that she was a woman; moody and hormonal. He knew how hard she had worked her ass off to achieve what he could easily achieve with his eyes closed, because she was a woman. The injustices against women was something he was well conversant with seeing that he was brought up with a single mother and he had two sisters. His mother had become a widow after four years of marriage, leaving him and his two sisters behind. She had a job as a writer in the Vanity Affair magazine and he could count how many times she had been passed up for a promotion despite the ungodly energy she put in her work. Eventually she had been among those who had been let go when the company had a financial crisis and needed to reduce the number of those employed to cut costs . That, though, did not mean he was willing to slide and give her a free pass. He was willing to help her with the case but if her ship was about to sink he was glad he would be there to set sail and anchor his. Parker had been surprised to see him at his desk. Bald held. Blue tie, blue eyes, smooth face. He still had that Australian accent and he gripped his hand firmly when he offered it to him for a handshake. He used to like going to his place on Saturdays for barbecue. But that was a different time. A time when he believed in humanity, a time when sin was not the new normal, a time when Susan and he were partners and a time when Susan lived with the bald man. Things had changed and time had passed. His visit to the precinct was bound to start drama. Parker hated drama. Susan walked in and shut her eyes. What in hell was Wayne doing there? She turned and frowned at Parker who shrugged and walked out, closing the door with a soft thud. Her breath hitched and her heart raced when she looked at the man before him. He was sexy, taller and more handsome than she remembered. “ It must be serious if you felt the need to drive all the way here.” Wayne looked at her and his heart broke a little. Had she gotten curvier? He could see the outline of her hips in the gray skirt she wore daily. “ I have a killer to catch and any second wasted on you is a second I could use to finally catch this bastard” “ You are working on the bow killer?” Susan cursed underneath her breath. She used to be In love with Wayne. His voice always calmed her and a whiff of his manly cologne that smelled like forest and ash used to be the highlight of her day. That was two years ago. When they were living together in a two bedroom apartment north of Coast Villa. They were happy and were edging towards marriage, until she woke up on the first day of her honeymoon all alone. She had searched, prayed and patiently waited for his return. Her prayers had been answered six months later when he knocked on her door Sunday morning with a woman on his right hand and divorce papers on the left. She had mourned for the man she had once known and loved. And after a week of agony and grief, with no answers from the love of her life, she signed the divorce papers and proclaimed him dead in her life. Her husband left and never came back. The man sited across her, cold and detached, was a stranger in her husband`s body.