Darkness Follows (14 page)

The
next morning, Ryanne lay in bed long after she woke up. In her head, she played
the conversation with Max over and over again. It was one of the most selfish
and thoughtless things she had ever done, and she didn’t blame him for holding
her accountable for it.

When
Aurina met Max, Ryanne knew she didn’t like him, or moreover didn’t trust him,
but Ryanne had.

She
peeked out her bedroom window, where Max sat in his car, and suddenly she
couldn’t get out of the bed fast enough. She threw on her jeans and blue
t-shirt and ran into the kitchen where Burrows and Aurina were drinking coffee.
She grabbed the pot and poured some into the last clean mug.

“Good
morning.” Burrows said.

“You
slept late. Hey, where are you going?”

Ryanne
flew past them down the hallway and out the front door. She didn’t even put her
shoes on, and headed straight for Max. He watched her approach with an odd
stare, and she realized he must have noticed her bare feet.

“Everything okay?”
Max asked,
getting out of the car.

“Yes--No,”
She caught her breath as she approached him from the other side of the car.
“Everything’s fine, but things aren’t fine with us.” Ryanne pushed the mug
toward him, and he took it hesitantly. “I know you’re upset with me, and you
have every right to be. I don’t know when it happened, but you’re the person I
talk to now. You’re who I want to confide in.”

His
eyes searched her face."What are you saying?"

"I
consider you a friend Max."

"Is
that what we are?
Friends
?"

"I
know friends don't treat friends like this. I really didn't think about how
upset
you,
or anyone would be for that matter."

Max
put the mug of coffee on the top of the car, and leaned against the door. He
looked down at the road, and when he wouldn’t meet her gaze, she took a step
closer.

“You
don’t have to talk to me now, but I want you to know, I’m genuinely sorry. No
excuses, just asking for forgiveness because I don’t know what to do now. I
feel alone in this place, and smothered at the same time. I feel like we are
always looking over our shoulder, and waiting for the other shoe to drop.” She
shifted her weight from one foot to the other as her feet began to sting from
the gravel underneath them.

Max
shook his head. "You really don't get it, do you?"

"What
do you mean?"

She
waited for Max to say something, but he seemed to look past her. Ryanne limped
away from the car at first, and then as her feet began to feel normal,
quickened her pace and went directly into her room once she got inside.

“Ryanne,
you okay?” Aurina called after her.

“Fine.”
Ryanne called
back.

“Hey,
can you come back in here for a second?” Burrows hollered, and Ryanne turned
around slowly, walking back to the kitchen. “I need to talk to both of you--get
caught up.”

She
went back into the kitchen and sat at the table with her sister and Burrows.

“I
just want to get on the same page,” Burrows told them taking a sip of coffee,
“We should probably start at the beginning. The first case relating to these
murders in Toronto was Inspector Jones’ three years ago. He was called to the
Longhearst campus at the beginning of a murder investigation. Maggie Drows was
her name, and she was in her second year of university. They found her in her
basement apartment. She lived alone, and the landlords upstairs weren’t home at
the time of the murder. They were the ones who found her body.” Ryanne
remembered the research she had done, and was pleased to be getting a more in
depth version of the facts.

“Fast
forward almost exactly a year later and I was the first to arrive on the scene
of another murder on campus. Julie Donahue. She was found by her boyfriend in
her apartment where she lived alone.” Burrows put her coffee mug down, and
leaned into the table. “Investigators seemed sure it was the boyfriend. He was
the only one who had a key to her apartment besides the landlord, and there was
no sign of forced entry. Something didn’t feel right though, and when I cross
referenced the files, I found Jones’ cold case on Maggie Drows. They were
similar in many ways, and it turned out to be connected to his case. ”

“So
what made you connect the two?” Aurina asked.

“It
was the way they were killed. They had both been strangled.” Ryanne said.

“That
was one of the reasons I was able to connect it. Though the victims had both been
strangled, and then tucked into their beds, and there was no real evidence at
the scene pointing to who was responsible. We were unable to find any DNA at
either crime scene, there was no evidence left behind. It was at that point
that Jones and I decided to look at the case together. We came up with some
theories, but that was all we had.” Ryanne shuddered at the thought of
positioning a dead body, manipulating it to look like the girl was sleeping
peacefully.

Burrows
got up and took her mug to the kitchen sink and stared out the window. “Then,
the bastard killed again; three weeks ago, almost exactly a year after the
second murder. The third victim was Ellie Cane. She rented an apartment, and
her parents found her body when they came to check on her after not hearing
from her for several days. She had been rotting there for almost a week
before they found her.” She leaned against the counter for a moment, and then
joined them back at the table. “It took a while,” she said, “but eventually the
DNA tests came back with a match to David Matthews.”

“So
that’s when I was brought in.” Aurina said.

“When
we brought David in for questioning he seemed genuinely afraid. He answered
questions at first, as you know, claiming he'd been with you, and then asked for
a lawyer. Thing is, Jones and I, we were almost sure David hadn’t been working
alone. He fit some of the description, but not all.”

“Like
what?” Ryanne asked.

“Like,
David seemed meek, and lacked confidence. Our profile of the killer suggested
that they actually had contact with the women on the nights they died prior to
their attacks at the campus bar. The women let them into their homes willingly.
And if we are right and they all met at a bar, the women had most likely been
drinking. Their guard was down, so it didn’t need to be someone they knew
previously. David wasn’t the type to approach women, wasn’t even the type who
enjoyed going to bars, being social, or meeting new people as I’m sure you
know. We were looking for the dominant and David was most definitely the
submissive.”

“That’s
what you were going on?” Aurina asked.

“That’s
all I can really tell you right now. When we met you, Aurina, you didn’t fit
the victims’ profile.
Young female between the ages of twenty
and twenty five, Longhearst student, living around campus and alone.
They were white females, but aside from these details, they didn’t have much in
common until Ellie Cane…and you Ryanne.” Ryanne already knew she had some
things in common with the victims, but they were things she was sure most of
the girls at the university shared. “After Ellie, we noticed the victims all
had warm toned hair colours, Maggie had dark brown mahogany hair, Julie had
strawberry blonde, and Ellie’s had what they call an ombre with dark red tones
at the top, and light red shades increasingly lighter by the tips of her hair.
Before Ellie, we saw the victims as brunette and blonde, but she tied it
together for us. When Jones saw you Ryanne, he knew regardless of the time line
that you could potentially have connections to the case because your hair is
Auburn.”

“So
you are saying my sister fits David’s type? That doesn’t make sense.” Aurina
started.

“If not David's, then maybe Jeremy's.”
Burrows said.

Ryanne
stared at the table. Burrows watched Ryanne for a while, and then turned her
attention to Aurina. “Nothing will happen to either of you. Not on my watch.”

*****

That
afternoon, as Aurina sat with Burrows and Ryanne, waiting for Chief Crawley to
come back from the police station after his teleconference with Jones, her mind
wandered to the possibilities that Jones may have found Jeremy. She didn't know
how long they would be waiting, and the suspense was getting the better of her.

"I'll
put on another pot of coffee." She stood and just as she did the front
door opened, and Crawley and Max entered. They went directly to the kitchen
table and got themselves situated.
Ryanne,
Burrows and
Aurina joined them hastily.

"Lot's
to fill you all in on." Crawley said, and opened the file folder in his
hands. "I’ll just get this out of the way--Jeremy hasn’t been found."
Aurina felt the knot in her stomach twist, release, and let out a huff of
breath.

"Your
parents are still safe, and they wanted us to let you know they love and miss
you.” Max told them. Aurina knew how worried they must be, and often wondered
what they would say when she saw them again.

Just
as Max finished, there was a knock at the door, and Aurina went to answer it.
Before she got to the door, Blake entered, wearing jeans and a clean black
t-shirt. He was also freshly shaved, and he smiled at her as he came in.

“Hope
I didn’t miss much.” Blake told them as they sat back down at the table.

"First,"
Crawley took out a picture from the file of a necklace Aurina recognized as the
one given to her by David. "This necklace was found in your apartment
Aurina.
A gift from David right?"
Aurina nodded.
“David took this necklace from their first victim, Maggie.
A
souvenir."
Aurina felt sick again, and the same feeling came back
as when she first found out about David. Blake placed his hand on her arm, and
Aurina took it away unintentionally.

"Once
Jones found the necklace, he looked for more potential souvenirs. That was when
they found out your mom’s bracelet had belonged to one of the victims as well.
We can't get a confirmation on the pearl earrings you lost," Max looked to
Aurina," because the family can't be sure she ever had them."

"That's
sick. I knew it." Ryanne said. Max raised his brows, looking to Crawley.
"What I don't get is why?"

“David
was smart. He knew he couldn’t risk keeping his souvenirs.” Crawley was shaking
his head.

“Why
did he give them to me?
To us?”
Aurina asked. She felt
the knot come back in her stomach, twisting and turning. She noticed Burrows
was unusually quiet, and seemed not to be paying attention. Maybe, Aurina
thought, this was old news to her.

“My
guess would be, so he could always see them.” Crawley put the pictures back in
the folder, and Burrows nodded slightly. At this Aurina stood up and ran to the
washroom. She leaned over the toilet, expecting to throw up, but when she found
herself alone, her breathing slowed, and she settled down.

Aurina
gained her composure, and stood up looking at herself in the bathroom mirror.
Her face was pale, and she turned the tap on cold, gathering water in her
hands. She splashed it on her face quickly, and then blotted it with a towel.

If
she believed that David did not directly kill those girls, which she did, this
was one of the sickest things she knew he’d done. To take jewelry off a dead
girl, from her neck, her ears, and
give
them as gifts
to her and her family. It was a concrete fact, and she didn’t have many of
those. The truth she realized was bound to be uglier than the thoughts that had
formed in her mind surrounding David.

She
came back into the kitchen to find they had all waited for her, and when she
sat back down again, she felt all eyes sneaking glances. She turned to Crawley,
and he continued.

"David’s
DNA was found on Ellie’s ears. The pearl earrings probably belonged to her.
That was how they recognized the pattern with the jewelry and as her earrings
had been ripped out, they knew the ones David gave to you had to be the same.”
Max told her. “Nothing else belonging to any of the victims was missing, so
Jeremy didn’t take anything that we know of.”

“When
we told Jones about Anne Marie and faxed her report over, he agreed that the
murder didn’t match David’s and Jeremy’s previous victims, however he still
couldn’t rule out the possibility that it was Jeremy." Crawley looked to
Max. “There was nothing missing from her, jewelry or otherwise, and she died of
stab wounds, not strangulation.”

“While
it’s unlikely that Jeremy is here, if he is, we still don’t understand why he
didn’t come after either of you.” Max said. “And why nothing matches up with
his other victims.”

"Finally,"
Crawley took out another paper, this time it looked like a photocopy, and slid
it across the table. “Jeremy sent Jones a letter."

Aurina
twisted it to face her, and read it quickly at first, and then slowly taking it
in.

Aurina
read slowly. "I won't stop until I find her."