Chapter Two

Avery and Hunter were at the New York City Police Department and they were talking about the Emelia Joy case. Avery was explaining to Hunter about when Emelia Joy was in the woods and how long she was in the woods playing alone before she was murdered.

"Okay, so Emelia Joy was playing near Central Park around ten o'clock to eleven o'clock in the morning, and there was surveillance footage of the person who murdered Emelia. But he is wearing a mask and black clothing with gloves. He doesn't want us to know who he is," explained Avery.

"Yeah. And here are the witnesses, who discovered the body. Mr. and Mrs. Gopher. They walk up to Emilia's body, and as you can see on the surveillance, Mrs. Gopher is calling for the police and ambulance. And then five minutes later, police and forensics, and the CSI arrive at the crime scene. This was the same morning when we announced the murder of Emelia to her parents," explained Hunter.

Avery sighed. "And any hair or fibers at the crime scene?" Avery asked. "Hair found on the ground. I'm thinking it's Emelia's hair because she was lying on the ground, deceased," explained Hunter.

Avery sighed. "So, her hair is a reddish autumn color," Avery said.

"Yeah," answered Hunter.

Avery sighed. Detective Avery Dexter was built like a greyhound—all sharp angles and a quiet, contained energy that seemed to vibrate just below the surface. She stared at the evidence bag on the stainless-steel table, a single strand of auburn hair. It wasn't just hair; it was an epitaph, a final, cruel punctuation mark on the life of eight-year-old Emelia Joy.

"He placed it there," Avery said, his voice barely a whisper, an accusation directed at no one in particular.

"What?" Hunter said.

Hunter Connor, her partner, leaned against the table, his bulk a contrast to her lean frame. Years on the job had etched lines around his eyes, and a perpetual weariness seemed to have taken root in his broad shoulders. "This killer. His type of hair color is red autumn color on eight-year-old girls... including brunettes." Avery rumbled, but his eyes, fixed on the hair, told a different story. "The ME's report, Hunter. It wasn't disturbed. No wind, no struggle. It was laid there. Like a period at the end of a sentence." Avery's frustration bled into her voice, the quiet intensity giving way to a sharp, brittle edge. She was a woman who dealt in facts, and the facts of this case were a jagged, ugly mess.

"A souvenir," Hunter suggested, his tone flat. "Something for him to remember."

"No." Avery shook her head, a sharp, dismissive motion. "A trophy isn't a single hair. A trophy is a locket, a toy, something from the victim. This..." He gestured at the bag, a sliver of copper-toned light in the sterile room. "...This is from him. Not her. It's a statement. 'I was here. And you can't touch me.'

Hunter pushed off the table, moving with a surprising agility for a man his size. "Arrogance. That's what it is. The arrogance of a sociopath who thinks he's smarter than everyone else."

"Arrogance, or a plea?" Avery countered, her eyes still on the hair. "Think about it, Hunter. No follicle. Just the shaft. Cut. Cleanly. What if he wants us to know something? What if he wants us to see a pattern?"

"The pattern is a dead little girl, Dex," Hunter said, his voice laced with the cold sting of finality.

"That's the only pattern that matters." Avery ignored the rebuke, his mind already racing down a different path. "Emelia had dark hair. Brunette. This is auburn. A contrast. A visual signature. It's not a mistake," Hunter said.

"We have a lot more than that," Avery said, his gaze lifting from the evidence bag to meet her partner. His eyes, usually cool and analytical, were now burning with a quiet fire.

"We have the silence. He made sure there were no witnesses, no sounds. He controlled the whole thing. The murder, the staging, even the hair."

"So he's meticulous," Hunter said, running a hand over his face. "Great. Another meticulous monster."

"No," Avery insisted, his voice dropping to a near-whisper. "He's not just meticulous. He's a storyteller. And that hair is the beginning of the story. The one he wants us to follow." He paused, a grim realization settling over him.

"And that story is always the same," Hunter said nothing, but the lines around his eyes seemed to deepen.

He knew what he meant. Hunter Connor slid the manila folder across the cold, steel table in the precinct's lab. The fluorescent lights hummed, casting a sickly yellow glow on the tiny, sealed evidence bag inside. Avery Dexter stared at the single, dark strand of hair, a fragile thread of life and death, taped to a glass slide.

"Emelia Joy," Hunter said, his voice a low rumble. "Our little angel. Hair was found on the ground she was lying on."

Avery leaned closer, his dark eyes narrowing. He'd looked at a thousand pieces of hair evidence in his career, but this one was different. It felt like a live wire, buzzing with some forgotten current. "Lab says no DNA from the root," he said, the words feeling dry in his mouth.

"No, but the microscopic analysis is back," Hunter explained. "It's a long strand, dark brown, but with this... this reddish tint at the tip. And the cross-section... It's unusual. Triangular." He slid over the report, which Avery barely glanced at. He was still staring at the hair, a cold knot forming in his stomach.

"I've seen this before," Avery said, his voice barely a whisper.

The fluorescent lights seemed to dim, the noise of the precinct fading into the background. Hunter leaned forward, his expression shifting from procedural to concerned. "What's wrong, Dex? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Avery didn't answer. He reached into his own pocket and pulled out a small, worn plastic evidence bag. It was old, the plastic yellowed and brittle. Inside, taped to another glass slide, was another strand of dark hair. He placed it next to the sealed bag from Emelia's case. Hunter blinked, then squinted, comparing the two. Avery held his breath.

"Dex, what is this?" Hunter asked, his voice strained.

"It's from my sister," Avery replied, his hand trembling slightly. "Mackenna. Found it under her pillow after... after we lost her."
Hunter's eyes darted from one strand of hair to the other. "It's the same," he breathed, the realization dawning on his face.

"The color, the reddish tint... even the shape."

Avery nodded slowly, a dark wave of certainty washing over him. The years of doubt, the quiet despair of his sister's unsolved murder, came rushing back. He had always known Mackenna's death wasn't an accident. Now, here it was, a ghost from the past reaching out to him through a child's tragedy.

"The lab didn't know," Avery said, his voice hard.

"It's an old sample. I never showed it to the medical examiner nine years ago.. It was my... my last piece of Mackenna."

Hunter was silent for a moment, letting the weight of Avery's revelation settle between them. He had known Avery's sister was gone, but not like this. Not that Avery had carried this piece of her, this single, damning piece of evidence, for all this time.

"You think it's the same guy," Hunter said, though it wasn't a question.

"I don't think," Avery said, his knuckles turning white as he clenched his fist. He looked at the sealed evidence bag, his eyes filled with a raw, vengeful fire. "Okay. Then we will find a medical examiner who knows if this piece of hair is still considered evidence." Hunter said.

The end of that story, the one the killer was writing, was another dead girl. And the silence, the utter, suffocating silence of a carefully executed crime, was the hardest thing of all to break. "Okay. You know it makes me suspicious about Mr. Piper. I mean I understand that he doesn't like Emelia, but do you think he may have killed Emelia Joy," wondered Avery.

"Well, if we can do some investigating on Mr. Piper, maybe we'll get something out of him," says Hunter.

"Okay. And let's see if he has any records or anything like that first. Check any more surveillance footage of the scene, we'll hopefully catch this guy," says Avery.

Avery walks to his desk and he sits behind his desk as he sits in his chair. Avery looks up the records of Mr. Piper. "It looks like he has been charged with a misdemeanor, and first-degree rape of a young teenage girl back in 2005 here in New York. He served 10 years in prison and was released in 2015. He was forty-five years old when he was released. Now he's fifty-five years old," says Avery.

"But nothing about a murder," wondered Hunter.

"No," answered Avery.

Hunter nods his head. "Do we have any other witnesses," says Avery. "Uh." Hunter looks for more surveillance footage and he notices a man wearing a baseball cap and walking downtown Manhattan in Central Park, following Mrs. Joy and Emelia in Central Park. "This guy has been following Emelia and her mother for about ten minutes. Then Mrs. Joy turns around and the guy goes a different direction, almost pretending he wasn't spying on Emelia and her mother," Avery explained.

"Then we should talk to Mrs. Joy if she ever got a good look at the guy," says Hunter.

"Yeah. But first, let's get that strand of hair." Avery said.

Avery stands up from his seat, grabs his black leather jacket, and puts it on before he and Hunter walk away from their desks and leave the police department. They had gone to see the medical examiner first. Avery placed the small evidence bag on the steel counter. Inside, a single strand of auburn hair rested on a piece of white cardstock, an anchor in the sterile world of the Medical Examiner's office.

Avery didn't need to read the faded scrawl on the bag to know who it belonged to; he had stared at it almost every night for the past nine years. Mackenna Dexter. Found 11/14/16.

Dr. Aris, a medical examiner with a weary-eyed kindness, peered over her glasses at the evidence. "Avery," she said softly, "I thought this case was cold."

"A new one came in," Avery explained, his voice tight. "A lot of similarities. I was hoping for a link."Emelia Joy. She was the same age Mackenna had been when she died," explained Avery. Dr. Aris handled the bag with clinical care, her movements were precise. She took the hair to a new, state-of-the-art DNA analyzer, a machine that had been a fantasy when Mackenna's case went cold. She ran the test. Avery stood by, his heart hammering in his chest, a nine-year-old boy in a detective's suit, still waiting for his sister to come home. After what felt like an eternity, Dr. Aris returned, her expression one of gentle regret.

"I'm sorry, Avery," she said. "No match. No foreign DNA. Nothing new."

Avery nodded, his face a mask of practiced indifference. He took the bag, the strand of hair still a useless, beautiful whisper of the past. As he walked out, the sterile fluorescent lights of the morgue seemed to fade to black and white, leaving the world as colorless and cold as it had been the day they found his sister.

Meanwhile, Avery and Hunter were standing outside the front porch of Mr. and Mrs. Joy's house during an after-funeral ceremony to honor the death of Emelia Joy.

"Mrs. Joy, we're sorry for your loss. But, I'm sorry for having to interrupt an important ceremony, but we need to know if you have seen this guy following you around Central Park about a month ago," says Avery.

Avery showed a video of the surveillance footage of the man following Mrs. Joy and her daughter, Mrs. Joy sighed. "Yeah. I thought he was following my daughter and me," says Mrs. Joy. Avery nods his head. "Okay. Did you get a good look at his face?" Avery asked.

"No. As soon as I turned around he started walking away." Mrs. Joy shrugged her shoulders. "I thought maybe he was following me. But I didn't get a good look at his face," says Mrs. Joy.

"Okay. That's all I needed to know," says Avery. Avery smiled at Mrs. Joy.

But just before Avery was about to walk away, Mrs. Joy stopped Avery and she started another conversation with him. "Avery? Please get this guy who murdered my daughter," says Mrs. Joy. Avery looks at Mrs. Joy, and he nods his head. "I will do everything I can," says Avery. Avery smiles at Mrs. Joy and Mrs. Joy nods her head.

"I'm sure you will make a good cop," says Mrs. Joy.

Mrs. Joy sighed and turned around, before walking up to the front door She opened the door and walked back into her house and shut the door. Avery sighed. Mr. Piper was standing outside his home, in his yard, doing yard work. Avery noticed Mr. Piper looked at him with a suspicious look on his face and Avery and Hunter started walking back to the unmarked police car. Avery gets into the driver's side of the car, and he gets in the car and shuts the door. Hunter gets in the passenger's seat and he shuts the door. Avery puts on his seat belt and so does Hunter.

Avery has a flashback of his little sister Makenna, lying on an autopsy table. Once the flashback had gone away, Avery spaced out. "Avery?" says Hunter. Avery looks at Hunter. "What?" Hunter asked Avery if he was feeling okay. "Yeah. It's just, well. I don't know. Emelia reminds me a lot of my little sister Mackenna. I was fifteen when she was murdered," says Avery.

Hunter doesn't say another word this time. Avery sighed and he nodded his head no. "The detectives who investigated her case, have never been able to find the killer," says Avery. Hunter nods his head, understanding Avery. Avery takes the keys and turns on the car. Avery pulls the gear into drive, takes his foot and pushes on the gas, and pulls out of the driveway of Mr. and Mrs. Joy's house.

Up until now, Avery was at his house, alone. He was sitting on his living room couch and he was reading the paperwork of Emelia Joy's case, and Avery looked at a photo of Emelia Joy, in the file. Avery closes the file and lays it down on his coffee table, in front of him. He stood up from the couch and headed up the stairs before entering his bedroom.

After Avery entered his bedroom, he turned on the lights. Avery takes off his baseball cap and his leather jacket, and he starts to get undressed while walking to his closet and then entering his closet before he walks up to one of the drawers and pulls it out and grabs a pair of pajamas. After closing the drawer, he puts on his pajamas after taking his shoes and his clothes off and he walks out of the closet and then he walks up to the light switch and turns off the lights once again before heading to his bed. It was pitch black outside and Avery heard dogs barking outside.

After Avery pulls the covers to the side, he sits in his bed, lifts his feet, lies on his side of his bed, and takes the sheets and blankets and pulls them on top of him. His head touched the pillow. The dogs continued to bark. Avery eventually fell into a deep sleep. Until around two in the morning, Avery was trapped in a dream. Avery was having a bad dream. In his dream, Mackenna was shot in the chest, and she bled out after falling onto the ground after being shot. Mackenna was screaming before gunshots were heard once again. Mackenna was calling for help. She was crying.

"Avery!" shouted Mackenna.

Avery gasped as he woke up. He just lay there in his bed, thinking about the bad dream he had woken up from. Avery sighed and he propped himself up from the bed and leaned forward to rub his eyes with his fingers and moaned a little bit. After rubbing his eyes, Avery just sits on the side of his bed, thinking not this time about Mackenna, but Emelia Joy. Avery decides to get out of his bed and heads down the stairs after leaving his bedroom.

Avery walks up to the living room couch and sits back down again. He grabs the file of Emelia Joy's case, opens the file, and looks at the paperwork once again. As Avery reads the paperwork, he sees something suspicious about the document. Avery remembers that Emelia was the same age as Mackenna when she died. As well as how when Mr. and Mrs. Gother had reported the same 911 call, of how Emilia was murdered and Avery remembers the detectives who investigated the case of Mackenna Dexter, had explained to his mother as he overheard the conversation from his bedroom that Emilia died the same way Mackenna died.

They were both eight years old when they died, and were shot in the chest by a gunshot. Avery frowned and he had to think for a second. After closing the file, he sighed. On the same day, he went back to work that day of reading the paperwork of Emelia Joy's case, and Avery was explaining to Hunter that Emelia was the same age when his little sister Mackenna died and they both died by being shot in the heart, and died of complications where an artery had burst. They both bled to death.

"So you're saying that the killer who killed your sister may be the same killer who killed Emelia Joy?" wondered Hunter.

Avery sighed. "Yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying," says Avery.

"Okay. Well you know what this means, right?" says Hunter.

"It's a conflict of interest if I investigate the case. But Hunter, this is a killer whom the detectives back in 2017 closed the case after no suspect was found. I have to be the one who investigates it," says Avery.

"I get she was your sister. But Avery, Captain Jonson won't like that," says Hunter.

Avery sighed. "I have to," says Avery.

"Avery," says Hunter.

"Look, I have to. Hunter, this is my sister we're talking about. I must be the one who gives her justice," says Avery.

Hunter sighed.

"Please," says Avery.

Hunter rolled his eyes and said, "I guess. But don't let Captain Jonson find out," says Hunter. "I won't," answered Avery. Hunter nods his head, understanding Avery. Avery and Hunter sat back down at their desks. Avery and Hunter continue to investigate the fact that the killer may still be out there, and will Avery and Hunter catch the killer? Avery and Hunter went to speak to more witnesses who witnessed their possible suspect walking around Central Park following Mrs. Joy and her daughter Emelia Joy and one of the witnesses is named Jenner Saber.

She is a fashion photographer who works at a modeling agency and Avery was asking Jenner questions.
"Now Mrs. Saber, did you ever get a good picture of this guy's face? Maybe if you saw him at a different time besides being in Central Park?" Avery said.

"No. But I just saw him walking behind this lady and their daughter. I was at the park with my daughter too and she and I go to the park once a week every Saturday," explained Jenner.

"Okay. And you don't know perhaps anyone else who may have seen this guy walking around the park?" Avery wondered.

"No. Not that I know of," answered Jenner.

"Thank you," answered Avery.

Avery turned around and walked away and Jenner went a different direction. Hunter was standing beside the car and was waiting for Avery to come back after questioning a witness. "Any luck?" wondered Hunter. "No. Mrs. Joy says she didn't get a good look at the guy's face and neither did Jenner," says Avery, sighing.

Hunter noticed Avery taking his hand and fingers stroking his hair to the side and was looking all worried.

"Hey, relax. We will find this guy," says Hunter.

"It's not just that, Hunter. What if this guy killed my sister on purpose? What if it was all a bunch of misinformation about the murder," says Avery.

"Well, we won't know until we investigate further. But you do seem under a lot of stress," says Hunter.

"Of course I'm under a lot of stress, because this is my sister's killer we are trying to find," answered Avery.

Hunter sighed and said, "well this is also Emelia Joy's killer too," says Hunter.

"Yeah," answered Avery, nodding his head.

"So how close were you and Emelia Joy?" Hunter asked.

"Oh well you know, she was my neighbor and she loved to be around the yard and play outside and Mr. Piper, he never seemed to have a fondness for Emelia. I remembered him yelling at her for trespassing on his lawn. I had to go confront him to let him know that she was just an eight-year-old girl and didn't need to be yelling at her. Boy was I angry at him too," says Avery.

"Yeah. Well since he didn't have any records of him murdering anyone, do you still think he could be the one spying on Emelia Joy and your sister Mackenna," wondered Hunter.

Avery sighed and said, "I mean it's a possibility. But I don't see him as someone who would hurt Emelia. I mean yeah he's a jerk sometimes, but murdering Emelia and my sister, I don't see him in the picture," says Avery.

"Well, what if we can just have him come down to the station, because I've just got a lead that Mr. Piper had been spotted at Central Park today and he's by himself," says Hunter, showing a photo of Mr. Piper to Avery on his iPhone.

"That could mean anything," says Avery.

"Yeah, but he's at Central Park and why is he there by himself and with nobody else," says Hunter.

Avery sighed and said, "Okay."

Once Avery and Hunter had returned to the police station, they brought Mr. Piper into the interrogation room. Mr. Piper was sitting on the chair behind the table and Avery had walked up to Mr. Piper after entering the interrogation room and shutting the door.

"Avery, why am I here?" wondered Mr. Piper.

"Well I don't know Mr. Piper, you tell me," answered Avery.

Avery sits in front of Mr. Piper on the other side of the table and Mr. Piper sighed and said, "This is a waste of time," says Mr. Piper. "Oh really? Then you can explain to me why you were at Central Park today? You were there by yourself and you also were by yourself. I see that in this one photo, you were following around this little girl, and her mother. But a few minutes later, you followed the girl and her mother to Times Square and that was the last time I saw you," says Avery.

"You were taking photos of me?" wondered Mr. Piper.

"Is that a problem," wondered Avery, laying out some photos on the table in front of Mr. Piper.

Mr. Piper laughed in a mocking manner and he said, "Well, I don't see how that would be possible in the slightest to make me a suspect," says Mr. Piper.

"Oh really? Because I had two witnesses say that they saw you wearing a baseball cap and had your face covered and as soon as these people saw you coming towards them, you walked away and turned in another direction," says Avery.

"Yeah, but I'm not the suspect," says Mr. Piper.

Avery sighed and said, "Mr. Piper, I'm not naive. But you followed this girl and her mother in Central Park to Times Square just two weeks after Emelia Joy was killed," explained Avery.

"I'm not the suspect," says Mr. Piper once again.

"Okay then who do you think may have wanted to kill Emelia Joy," wondered Avery.

"Let's just say that I may have spied on these people, but do I look like a killer or something," says Mr. Piper.

"I don't know, you tell me," answered Avery.

"Well, I'm not the suspect you're looking for. I was only there to spy on little girls but not kill them," says Mr. Piper.

Avery softly smiled and said, "We will see about that. But the other day you tended to have a problem with Emelia crossing your lawn and you yelled at her," says Avery. "That's because she doesn't listen," says Mr. Piper. Avery nodded his head and said, "Are you sure you didn't kill Emelia Joy, because you seemed pretty rough on her? I get it, because she's a kid and she's learning how to ride her bike and kids may be a problem for you, am I wrong," says Mr. Piper.

"You're not right either," says Mr. Piper, smiling at Avery, but in a mocking manner.

Avery nods his head once again. "Okay. Well, let me just continue this conversation between us. Did you ever come across a meeting with the little girl whom you followed from Central Park to Times Square on the same day you followed her? Because I have more photos of you that you were at the girls' and her mother's house around two in the afternoon today," says Avery, showing more photos to Mr. Piper.

"Okay, so that doesn't mean I was gonna hurt the girl. I was just there to talk to her mother," says Mr. Piper.

"I find that hard to believe," answered Avery.

"Yeah? Well believe it," answered Mr. Piper.

Avery took the photos and put them all in a pile and opened the file after piling the photos and then closing the file before he took a deep breath and said, "Mr. Piper you better not be lying to me," says Avery. "I'm not," said Mr. Piper. Avery nods his head in understanding of what Mr. Piper had just said. Mr. Piper was furiously looking at Avery and Avery softly chuckled before he grabbed the file and pulled himself up from the chair, then grabbed the chair after standing up and pushed it back against the table.

Therefore Avery walks up to the door and he opens it before walking out of the interrogation room. After Avery shuts the door, he turns around and sees Hunter entering the viewing room. "Hey, did you get anything on what Mr. Piper had to say about why he went to the little girl and his mother's house," wondered Hunter, after standing next to Avery as Avery was looking through the window and seeing Mr. Piper sitting alone in the interrogation room and staring at the window.

"He said he just wanted to talk with the mother. We need to find out what her name is and what her daughter's name is too," says Avery.

"Okay, well since you took the photos, do you know the name of the street they live on?" wondered Hunter.

"Yeah, and let's go talk to the mother. I think she might tell us what Mr. Piper had to tell her when he decided to spy on her," says Avery, before walking past Hunter and leaving the viewing room. Hunter turned around and he followed Avery into the squad room.

After arriving at the woman and her daughter's house, Avery knocked on the door and footsteps approached. The door made sounds as the woman opened it. "Hi, Mrs. Walnut," says Avery. "Yes?" wondered Mrs. Walnut. "Hi, I'm Detective Avery Dexter and this is my partner Detective Hunter Conner, and we're from the NYPD," says Avery, as he shows his police badge.

"Hi. Can I help you?" wondered Mrs. Walnut.

"Well, we think you can help us out with this investigation that we're currently conducting. It's actually about this man who came to your house today earlier this afternoon and I think he told you his name is Mr. Piper," says Avery.

"Yeah, yeah, I remember him. He came by to my house to talk to me about something," says Mrs. Walnut.

"And do you know what he wanted to talk to you about," wondered Avery.

"Yeah, he said that he was lost and needed help finding his way back home," says Mrs. Walnut.

"Oh, and he didn't say anything that concerned you or anything," wondered Avery.

"No. No. I was thinking maybe he got lost or something, he wanted me to give him a ride back home and I asked him if he drives a car because he looked like he could drive one and he said yes. But then my daughter Callie came downstairs and greeted Mr. Piper right before he changed his mind about giving him a ride back home and left," says Mrs. Walnut.

"Oh, I see," answered Avery.

"Is there something I should know about this particular guy," wondered Mrs.Walnut.

"Uh no. We actually just been wondering why he would come by to your house, and he followed you from Central Park to Times Square and then your house," says Avery.

"What? I didn't know that," answered Mrs. Walnut.

"After he asked you if you could give him a ride home, did anything about Mr. Piper make you feel like you're in trouble or something like that," wondered Avery.

"No. He seemed nice, and seemed a bit lost too. But since you just told me he followed me from Central Park and Times Square, then to my house, I am glad I didn't let him in my house," says Mrs. Walnut.

"Okay and please don't hesitate to call me if he ever comes to bother you and your daughter again. Here's my card," says Avery, taking out a business card before handing it over to Mrs.Walnut.

Mrs. Walnut took the card from Avery and said, "Yeah, I definitely will." Avery nods his head and smiles before thanking Mrs. Walnut for talking to them. If Mrs. Walnut had any questions or concerns, she would immediately give Avery a call.

"Okay, thank you, Mrs.Walnut. We will let you be. Thank you for your cooperation," says Avery.

Avery turns around before he starts to walk away and he and Hunter head back to the unmarked car. After walking up to the car, they enter the car and they both shut their doors at the same time. Avery this time was the passenger in the car and Hunter was the driver. While having a conversation with Hunter, Avery explained to Hunter about his sister Mackenna once again, while in the car.

"So, Mackenna was with her best friend Amy Rodriguez who was literally in the same woods playing on their bikes together," says Avery, sighing. "I think Amy may know something about the killer," says Avery.

"Avery, this was a long time ago. Wasn't Amy the same age as Mackenna?" wondered Hunter.

"Yeah. They were both eight years old at the time. Mackenna died in cold blood, in the same way Emelia Joy had died," says Avery.

"And how do you remember that? You were fifteen at the time," says Hunter.

Avery sighed. "I remember the lead detective told my mother while I was taking a peek out of my bedroom door that night saying that Mackenna was killed by a gunshot to her chest which burst an artery," explained Avery.

"And let me guess she died as soon as she was shot right in the chest," wondered Hunter.

"Yeah, the same thing happened to Emelia Joy. Hunter, this killer is still on the run. I just need to get answers on who this killer is," says Avery.

"I think we should just take it one day at a time. You're already getting ahead of yourself," says Hunter.

Avery nods his head. Avery went quiet for a moment and he said, "I should have told my mother what my father did to me before Makenna died," says Avery, in a lower tone of voice.

"What happened?" wondered Hunter.

"I was molested by my father. Mackenna witnessed the sexual abuse and she told my mother about the abuse. So after Mackenna told me she told my mother, I just lost my temper. I blamed her for our dad going to prison for the abuse. A week after my father was sent to prison and after I told Makenna I no longer wanted to have a relationship with her, I found out she was murdered," says Avery.

"Avery, I'm so sorry," Hunter said.

"Yeah. I just wish I hadn't told Makenna I didn't love her anymore. That was the last thing I said to her before she died," says Avery.

Hunter sighed and he said, "Don't do that to yourself, Avery. Her death wasn't your fault," says Hunter.

"Yeah," answered Avery.

Avery sniffed and looked at Hunter. Hunter softly smiled at Avery before he turned on the car with the keys. Avery looks away from Hunter and he faces the windshield. Hunter and Avery drove away from Mrs. Walnut's house and they are headed to Amy Rodriguez's house.