When Ryan and Michelle entered the abandoned house, guns raised, an eerie feeling shook Ryan's spine. Was this really happening? Were they really going to catch Alice's killer? They never anticipated what was about to come. A dark figure emerges from the shadows.

In a raspy voice, they taunt the hero, having once again bested him. Stepping into the light, the figure thrusts back their hood, revealing the face of... "K.. Kara? W... What are you doing?" He questioned.

"You were so naive Ryan, I was right under your nose all along. But apparently you're too incompetent." Kara said.

"H- How could you do this? To me? To Rachel? To Alice? THE GIRL YOU HAD KILLED!" Ryan shouted.

"It was all for you and Rachel! I love you both! Micheal Blair is the REAL enemy, his company is trying to take over mine!"

"H.. How can you talk about love when you're so full of hate?" Ryan asked.

Kara cocked her head to the side, "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"You don't strike me as a professional criminal." Michelle stated.

"That's what makes me so great at it. Who do you think wrote those letters, having Officer Daniels send them to you? Hacking into the security cameras so you couldn't see me."

Kara smirked, "You have no power over me."

"Are you sure about that?" Ryan asked.

Michelle began laughing darkly, "Y'know, for a 'smart' criminal, you just made the wrong move."

"Oh really? And why is that?" Kara asked.

"Well you just gave your entire plan away, to two cops who ARE turning you in or putting a bullet right between your eyes. Take your pick." Michelle answered.

"I'm telling my plan to two dead people." Kara took a gun out of her back pocket, pointing it at the two officers. Her whole aura was intimidating, vindictive, and conniving. This wasn't the woman Ryan married, in fact, she was the opposite, why didn't he see it before? He guessed she was too good at hiding it all until now.

"I guess if you want something done you gotta do it yourself." Kara sighed in annoyance.

"I gave you multiple warnings Ryan, but you didn't listen, you HAD to solve this case."

"You had an innocent child murdered, all because of jealousy, that's NOT the Kara I know." Ryan said, as Kara shook her head.

"Then you obviously didn't know me well enough." Kara replied, both Ryan and Michelle kept their weapons raised, Ryan couldn't even fathom why his wife would do something like this.

She had an innocent girl killed, all because of some competition she and her employer's had with the girl's father. Micheal didn't even know Kara, much less know she was his competition, and even then Micheal wouldn't have done what Kara did.

"Put the gun down Kara, if you don't, I'll be forced to do something I don't want to do." Ryan was seething, although to others he probably looked calm on the outside. He hated Kara for what she had done, to him, to their daughter, and especially to the Blair Family, they were the victims in all of this. "Why? So you can play the hero? And win by taking me into custody, I don't think so." Kara told her husband.

"If you don't put your weapon down, all of your hard work would cease to exist. In fact, I could help you, why don't we make a deal?" Michelle stated, Kara looked at her, shifting her weight on the concrete floor.

Kara scoffed, not believing a word coming out of Michelle's mouth, "Why would I want to make a deal with a goodie two shoes cop?"

"Because you and I both hate your husband, we found out Michael Blair has been harboring money from your company, and to top it all off, no one would believe him if he was dead." Ryan caught on, Michelle was lying to Kara to make her stay calm, even though she was still pointing a gun in their faces.

"Let me join you, and then we can take out that other Blair kid. He's been meddling in the case, trying to find who killed his sister. Or we can just get rid of all of them, then Micheal's company goes under, and they're gone. You will never have to hear their names again." Michelle said.

"And your work... will go down in history."

"Liar." Kara whispered under her breath, and in one swift motion she shot her gun at Michelle's chest, and then sprinted off running. Ryan went over to Michelle but she waved him off, pulling off her jacket to reveal her bulletproof vest. "Go get her." She told him.

Ryan nodded and started bolting off towards where Kara went. As he sprinted he was right behind her, and then... BAM! he leaps towards her and throws her to the ground. Kara struggles under Ryan's grip, but he forcefully took his handcuffs and slapped them onto Kara's wrists. He got her off the ground as Michelle came running up to them.

She took Kara away from Ryan and they took her back to a police car, then back to the station, where they brought her in and put her in an interrogation room. Ryan was livid, he was filled with so much anger, pain, and guilt. He just couldn't wrap his head around the fact the woman he loved would take another human being's life.

Ryan had everything prepared, the documents, the photos, Barnes's statement, all of the works. He walked into the room, and sat across from Kara, he gritted his teeth, seething in his anger. It most likely showed, since Kara smirked at him, like she had just won a game of chess. Ryan scoffed, "How arrogant do you have to be to smirk, knowing you killed a child, over something as petty as jealousy?" He asked.

Kara leaned back in her seat, though she was cuffed to the table. "The girl got what she deserved Ryan, nothing good comes to hateful people."

"Do you even hear yourself? Cause nothing good comes to people who commit murder or conspire to do such a thing." Kara was absolutely insane, she was showing the classic signs of a psychopath. How did Ryan not see it? How could he miss this type of stuff?

Kara pouted fakely, "Do you know what that little girl begged me to do? She begged me to let her go, begging for her mommy, daddy, and older brother. Maybe if you were fast enough you would've been able to save her."

Ryan shook his head, "No. You don't get to turn this on me, YOU chose to kidnap her, YOU were the one who chose to kill her. And she has a name, it's Alice Blair."

"Ah yes, Alice, the pathetic little thing. All she did was cry and whine, I definitely don't miss that."

"Since you admitted to all of these crimes, it means you're going to prison for the rest of your life. I've got the reports, testimonies, everything that can lock you up for good."

Kara's face held no expression, Ryan could tell she felt zero sympathy for the things she did, but it was almost as if she was wrathful in a way. And much as he felt enraged, he still loved Kara. It was hard to wrap his mind around it all, "I hope you don't think that undermining me is going to distract you from the fact that it's your fault she's dead."

"You're wrong Kara, very wrong. Being condescending and patronizing isn't working, I thought you were smarter than this? You plotted this whole thing out, you woke up one day and decided to kidnap a thirteen year old girl and then kill her out of jealousy."

"Are you going to keep talking about what I did? Or are you going to throw me in a jail cell? Because I don't care if that girl's dead. If I had the chance, I would've killed them all."

"Of course you don't, you're a psychopath. You lack empathy and remorse, I don't understand how I missed these signs. But I'm not letting you get away with it." Ryan got up and left the room, Michelle followed him out of the station.

He kept walking, standing by the trunk of his car, his mind was frazzled, his emotions were all over the place, he didn't even notice the hot tears spilling from his eyes. He balled his fists and slammed it into the trunk, yelling out in anger and pain. Once he stopped there was a dent in the car, Michelle had never seen him like that. In the time that she's known Ryan she had never seen him break down the way he was right now.

It hurt her to see him like that, he looked so broken, like he failed somehow. It didn't make sense, why would Kara pretend all this time? Why would she do such a horrible thing? She doesn't even realize how many lives she's hurt. Michelle inched her way towards Ryan, reaching out and putting her hand on his shoulder.

As a silent expression of sympathy, Ryan inhaled a shaky breath, holding his head up and heading back into the station. He went into Captain Quinn's office, seeing her writing on some documents. She glanced up to see Ryan and Michelle, who shut the door. She sighed and spoke. "I'm sorry about all of this Ryan, if you need to take a break I understand." She said,

"No. I'm fine, they've both already confessed to everything. I need to inform the Blair's about this, so if we're making arrests, we should do it now before they back track." Capitan Quinn nodded, she knew Ryan was too close to this case, it became personal very quickly. If she took him off the investigation it would just make it worse.

"Michelle. Make the arrests, lock Kara and Barnes in separate cells. Ryan, inform the Blair's before the media gets ahold of this." Both of them acknowledged it and left the room splitting up with Michelle going to get Barnes and Kara, while Ryan got in his car to go to The Blair's residence.

Soon Ryan found himself standing on The Blair's doorstep, memories flooding back to when he gave them the news of Alice's death. He knocked on the wooden door, seeing that the inside lights were on, it was currently 8 o'clock at night, pretty much every household was trying to pull off their night routines. Micheal answered the door, his expression was surprised.

"Hello Detective." He greeted the other man.

Ryan gave a small smile, "Hello Mr. Blair, did I come at a bad time?"

"Oh no, you're fine. Did something happen with Alice's case?" Micheal asked.

"Yes, I wanted to tell you before you found out through the news. Can I come in?" Micheal stepped aside, and let Ryan in. He called for Laura, and she came down from being in their bedroom upstairs. She greeted Ryan with a smile and said hello. "I have some news about Alice, we caught two suspects who confessed to the murders and are in custody. I wanted you all to know before the media found out." Ryan said.

"Y... You found whoever killed our daughter?" Micheal asked.

Ryan nodded his head, leaving out the fact that his wife was the person who planned and carried out the whole ordeal. He didn't want to burden them with that truth, not just yet, even if he had told them, he wouldn't know how they'd react. So for now he had to keep that a secret, Laura started crying, so did Micheal. Ryan heard footsteps, when he turned around he saw Scott, he must've been eavesdropping.

"Y... You found who murdered my sister?" He asked, and judging by the silence that came, he answered his own question. Justice, they finally got the long awaited justice for her. It's been almost nine months since Alice was taken, and six months since they laid her to rest in the ground.
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One Year Later

Scott was sitting down in front of Dr. Hendricks, their session was almost over. He felt relieved, that's all he could feel, like a weight was being lifted off of his shoulders. His life was getting back on track, he stopped cutting, he had been prescribed antidepressants, and things were finally looking up. "I'm glad you had a good week Scott, I'll see you next week okay?"

Scott nodded, "Yeah, I'll see you next week Dr. Hendricks." Once Scott left her office he and his parents went back to their home, upon pulling up to their house Scott saw a familiar bike and a certain friend sitting on his porch. It was Tyler, he waved smiling as his friend was exiting his car.

"Hey man! Ready to go?" Scott went over to the garage, grabbing his bike, waving goodbye to his parents and heading off with Tyler. They were going to the local swimming pool, summer vacation was upon them!

Tyler was mostly there to play as Scott's wingman, as Scott had developed a crush on a girl from his class. And along with being Scott's wingman, he had to be his own wingman. Scott was glad Mr. Gibbons actually gave him a few days off from helping work around the farm. He was able to sit back and be a kid for a while.

Apparently, the hot babes weren't going to wait all day, according to Tyler, they got to the pool and saw some of their other friends. They went over and started interacting with their peers, "Hey guys! Bout' time you got here!" One of the friends said. Tyler and Scott laughed in response, "C'mon Kevin don't play like that dude." Tyler replied.

Scott set up his towel at his chair, fixing his sunglasses onto his eyes, when Tyler waltzed up to him with a devious smirk on his face. "What are you doing Ty?" Scott asked wearily.

Tyler crossed his arms, "Hannah is over there with Bailey, you should go talk to her." Scott turned his head, finding Hannah in the crowd of wet and sweaty people chatting with her friend Bailey. He swallowed the lump he didn't know he had. "Scott, go and get your girl. She likes you I promise, just be yourself!"

Scott sighed, looking at Tyler. "Why do you have to hype me up?"

"1. It's my job, 2. An actual real-life girl likes you, and 3. I'm your best friend, if I don't hype you up who will?" Tyler joked.

Scott shook his head while smiling, Tyler did have a point. "Yeah, yeah." Tyler told him if he didn't get his butt up he'd drag him to Hannah. So reluctantly, Scott got up, making his way to Hannah, who was giggling at a joke Bailey told her. She looked up and saw him, Bailey smirked at her and went over to Scott's friends to silently judge from afar.

"Hi Scott, what's up?" She asked. Scott became red in the face, his crush was actually talking to him, he couldn't believe he was having butterflies in his stomach. His sixteen year old mind was absolute mush. "H.. Hey Hannah. I uh... I wanted to uh... ask you something." Scott stuttered out.

"Okay, ask away!" She exclaimed.

"Um... would you maybe uh... wanna go out s.. sometime?" Scott sighed, he felt like he sounded stupid.

Hannah smiled at the other teen, "Are you asking me out Scotty?"

Scott cleared his throat, "Yeah! I mean yes." Hannah stood up and kissed Scott's cheek, seeing the boy's face flush.

"I'm free this Saturday. I'll see you later Scott."

"I'll pick you up at eight." Both teens exchanged numbers and smiled. Young love was beautiful, at least to everyone around them, their friends were smiling and cheering for them.

Once Bailey was out of earshot Tyler and the rest of the boys were teasing Scott, Tyler was happy to see Scott smile, it'd been a while since he'd seen Scott smile. But he was glad, especially after last year, he was in a good place.
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Meanwhile with Ryan he eventually told The Blair's the truth, they didn't hold anything against him. He couldn't have known Kara would do something like that, but when he told Rachel she didn't believe him, he had to show her the news, and it spread like wildfire. Soon, people began to know everything.

Some expressed sympathy, and others thought Ryan must've been really stupid to not see that his wife was a psychopath. He didn't care about how the media or the people of Krebess, Missouri painted him. He was just glad that the whole thing was over. He didn't have to worry about catching the killer anymore.

Michelle decided she missed her hometown, and she didn't want to go back to the city, so she had her captain transfer her to Ryan's department. Captain Quinn agreed to this arrangement, she thought Michelle was a good match for Ryan. Their personalities clashed at times, at least when they first met, but they eventually became friends.

Michelle set down Ryan's coffee cup, sitting across from him. "Right, the coffee express stops now. You're only getting one cup a day, use them wisely." She joked.

Ryan rolled his eyes playfully, "You might as well buy me a coffee machine for my desk, my ADHD needs to keep quiet somehow Collins."

"Ha ha Bowen, but seriously you need a stress ball." Michelle joked as she jotted down some notes, it was insane to think Alice's case was done for. He couldn't imagine that a year ago that everything would come to a halt. But in the end, Alice got her justice, so did the young woman Felix Barnes had killed months later.

Ryan mostly felt terrible for Rachel, she lost her mother, not knowing how to handle the heavy topic her father had cases for every single day. He hated seeing her so upset, Rachel even told Ryan that she hated Kara for what she did. But she still loved her at the same time, she didn't like how she felt, Ryan put her into therapy, while also going to therapy himself.

Fortunately for the both of them their lives have improved, but for Kara, life was... interesting to say the least. She was going to be in jail for the rest of her life without the possibility of parole, the same went for Felix Barnes but on two counts. The public says that it's karma well deserved, everyone agreed, including Ryan, Michelle, Rachel, and The Blair's.

Neither of them would be able to hurt anyone again. The world was better off having two less criminals walking on the streets. And no matter what, life was slowly getting better, for each of them, some less than others. Ryan and everyone involved were just glad this bloodshed crime was long overdue.

(And that my friends is the end of Bloodshed Crime, I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. This book has been in production for a year and I'm so glad it's now officially published. Here are a few questions I want you to comment the answers to:)

(Who's your favorite character and why?, Did you know Kara was the real culprit?, And lastly how did you like the book overall? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this book, now it's on to making another original. As always this is Mia signing off, over and out my internet peeps! 😁❤️)
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The End of Bloodshed Crime
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