Hello everyone :D Thanks for being patient with me, I know I disappeared again for a while but I'm back and I'm dedicated to continue working on Case File. I wanna thank everyone who's been reading voting and commenting, I can't describe how happy it makes me to know that you're enjoying my story and it keeps me motived to keep writing. I can't believe my story has more than 5k reads now! 

Also, I'm aware there are so many typos and I wanna edit my story as well as my other stories, but I'm gonna focus on writing for now then editing later.

Finally, I wanna give a shoutout to ItsAnanyaaa Thanks for reading and for you encouraging comments :)

Case File #21

(5th Crime) 

After finishing up the witness statement, Sharna went home exhausted after a long day. She went into Nicole's room to check that she's there and was relieved to find her sleeping. Sharna felt guilty about how she's been treating Nicole and decided to just make peace with her. "She's got nowhere else to stay" Sharna thought "especially after the whole mess with her now ex husband". 

She laid on her bed trying to sleep, but her mind wouldn't let her. Sharna loved her job and finding justice, but some night it wouldn't let her sleep. It was one of those nights and she kept tossing and turning for hours. For a few moments, she actually felt afraid as her mind was becoming very exhausted, the images of the victims bodies cut open kept playing in her mind... "Olivia, Lydia and Megan" she thought "and who knows who's name is next on the list?" This thoughts send shivers down her spine as she started feeling those tingles upon her skin, all over her body.  

After a while, she gave up hope on sleeping so she decided to just get up. She went to the kitchen, tiptoeing so that she wouldn't wake Nicole up, and made herself a cup of tea then went back to bed and grabbed the case files and Matt's research files. She kept looking through the pages when she noticed something in one of the files, a photo of Darren, Megan's boyfriend, in the background of one of Skylar's photos with a blackened eye, scars on his face and his arm in a cast.

"Scott Ramsey!" she said to herself "the hitman who men Megan days before her death, maybe he did this?"

She checked out Darren's social media accounts to see if he posted anything about what happened to him. Skylar's photo was posted a couple of months ago, around the same time Darren stopped posting any new photos for a while.

A few hours passed and Sharna heard footprints outside her room, but it was too early for Nicole to be up already and she's usually way too loud. Before she could do anything, the door opened ad Johnny, her ex boyfriend, entered the room.

"Johnny?" She was confused "What are you doing here?"

"Hurry.. We need to leave" He grabbed her by the hand pulling her from the bed towards the door

"I don't get it, how did you get here?"

"I found your backup key" he said as they got out of the apartment

"How did you know where to find it?" She asked

"I know you" He smirked

She giggled as he pulled her arm running through the street "Where are we going?" 

"To the haunted house up the hill" he said

Sharna laughed "I told you, there's no such thing as ghosts" she paused and looked at him, all of a sudden he was Matt instead "Ghosts aren't real" 

The were now inside the house, they walked to the piano room and witnessed the murder of Megan as the killer cut her open while still alive. Sharna's heartbeats were racing, the next thing she knows is that she's back in the street chasing the murderer. 

As she gets closer, she hears a familiar voice " Sharna" Nicole said "look at me" 

Sharna turns back and sees Nicole flying away in a hot air balloon.

"What's going on?" Sharna said

When looked back in front of her, the murderer was gone.

"Sharnaaa..." Nicole kept calling

Sharna started feeling something on her arm, she opened her arm and realized it was all a dream. Nicole was standing next to her bed holding a blanket.

"Oh, I didn't mean to wake you." Nicole said shyly "Your lights were on, so I though you were up and when I came into your room you were shivering from coldness." she paused "Sorry to wake you".

"It's okay" Sharna said yawning "What time is it?" 

"It's 7 am" Nicole replied

"Why are you up so early?"

"I have a job interview, I've been apply to a few job offers and finally someone called back." Nicole smiled "I preparing for my interview"

"Good luck" Sharna said and Nicole walked towards the door "Wait"

Nicole turned towards her

"I had an awful dream, it's very long and weird and by the end of it you were flying away in a hot air balloon" they both laughed "I don't want you to fly away from my life Nicole," she paused "even if sometimes you're too nosy and most times you're too much to handle"

"Couldn't you just tell me the nice part?" Nicole joked "I'm not flying anyway Shar... Don't worry"

"You once did though." Sharna said hesitantly "I didn't like being a backup Nicole, you either want me in your life or you don't. Not only when you were reminiscing for the past or needing something." she took a deep breath "I couldn't take it any longer, so I decided to push you out of my life instead of getting disappointed over and over again every time we talked"

"I admit I was a horrible friend to you, but in my defense at that time in my life I was confused and I just had so many things on my plate." Nicole buried her face in her palms "I lost touch of what's important as I was trying to please everyone and I took you for granted thinking that you'd always be there" she sighed "I'm really sorry Sharna, but that was years ago and I'm different now"

"I know and I decided to forgive you, so can you forgive me for how I acted before?"

"There's nothing to forgive" she folded her arms "Hmmm or maybe there is" she held up her index finger "You said my waffles were burnt"

"They were" Sharna said defensively " I still stand by what I said"

Sharna decided to sleep for one more hour before going to the station since she didn't sleep well at all last night and her head was hurting. She then got up, got dressed really fast and had her coffee on her way.

When she reached the station, Sharna had a meeting with Detective Howard, FBI agent Grand and officer Caleb discussing the suspects. 

"We were able to locate Julio as well as Professor Ethan, but Scott is no where to be found." Said Officer Caleb "We have the address of his girlfriend', so I'll go there today to see if she know where he is"

"I can't be a coincidence, he's no where to be found just after Megan's body was found" Sharna said

"Maybe we should show our witnesses, Kevin and the trespasser, the 3 photos and see if one of them trigger any sort of memory" Agent Grant asked

"When we questioned them, they both said they didn't see anything from the dark," Howard added "but we'll show them anyway, just in case." He paused scratching his beard "What about the suspects in the other 2 victims' cases, Olivia and Lydia?"

"There were a couple of suspects in Olivia's case, but they both have alibis." Sadi Agent Grant "In Lydia's case however, her boyfriend is the main suspect."

"But this contradicts the serial killer theory" Sharna added

"Unless he's the serial killer." Howard said confidently "We need to interrogate him too"

Officer Caleb left to go talk to  Scott's girlfriend while Detective Howard and Sharna stayed behind to talk to Hanna and Darren again, starting with Hanna who was shaking.

"As a part of a murder investigation, we usually check the victims' movement through the weeks leading to the crime" Howard said and Hanna was biting her nails and looking down unable to maintain eye contact with him.

He grabbed a folder, opened it and laid out a few photos on the desk showing her. "When we asked you and Darren you both insisted that the 2 of you didnt see Megan in 2 week before the murder"

She nodded and Howard pointed to one of the photos "look at timestamp" he clearee his throat "This was taken 2 nights before the murder"

"We didn't kill her" Hanna's voice was shaky

"We're trying to find the truth and you lied to us." Sharna said "Why did you lie?"

Hanna was silent.

"In the photos, it looks like the 3 of you were arguing" Howard added "which doesn't look good for you especially that you lied about it"

"We're trying to help you here!" Sharna sighed "You need to tell us everything you know, any detail might bring us to the real murderer"

"So do you believe us?" Hanna askes hesitantly "That we're innocent... even Kevin"

"We can't be sure about anything, but we have reasons to believe that you are" Howard replied

"Megan was my best friend, I love her, we grew up together, but recently she's been different"

"What do you mean by different?" Sharna asked

"She just became too selfish and... kind of manipulative" her voice cracked as tears started streaming down her face which she wiped with her sleeve "I don't want to say negative things about her, now that she's... she's dead"

"No one is here to judge you." Sharna said sympathetically "We just wanna catch whoever did this"

"A few months ago Darren and I started seeing each other," she started blushing "even though he was still officially dating Meg, but I already knew that she was seeing someone else so I thought she wouldn't care that much" She blew out her cheeks "She was so mad when she found out, not because she cared or anything, it was more of a possessive thing"

"Did she find out about you two that night?" Howard asked as he pointed to one of the photos

"No, that night we decided to cut ties with her and  that's why in the photos we seem arguing" Hanna tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Why did you all of a sudden choose to cut ties with her now?" Sharna wondered "You said you've been dating for a few months now"

"We were just sick of hiding and we thought it was best if we step away for a while at least"

"Why are you still lying?" Howard gasped "Tell us what else you're hiding?"

"I... I don't want to say things that might make Meg look like a bad person, I still love her and we had our good times, I don't want to remember her by the negative stuff" she breathed heavily "We found out a few days ago that she sent someone to hit Darren, at the time we thought it was an accident, but it turned out that she sent him after knowing about us"

Sharna remembered the photo she saw of an injured Darren "How long ago did that happen?"

"I think 2 months ago, maybe 2 and a half?"

"Why did she meet up with the hitman again lat week then?" Sharna thought "Their deal was long ago..."

After finishing the interrogation with Hanna, Darren came to the room next. Sharna noticed Hanna exchanging a look with Darren as he entered the room. Detective Howard told him that they already knew about him and Hanna and about he hitman, so that he wouldn't wasting time lying about it.

"We didn't lie, we just chose not to share this minor detail, it doesn't meant that we did it" Darren replied

"This is a murder investigation" Howard said angrily

"If it's a minor detail, why did you lie then?" Sharna asked "It reduces your credibility and we don't trust now what else you could be hiding"

"NOTHING..." Darren said defensively "We have nothing to hide"

"Tell us about the accident with the hitman Megan sent you" Howard said attentively

"I was driving one night when a car came out of nowhere," Darren threaded his hand through his hair "I braked, but still I hit the car and it wasn't even my fault he just appeared all of a sudden on the road." his hands squeezed into fists "The next thing I know, the guy came out of his car, pulled me out of mine and started hitting me. I blacked out and woke up at the hospital"

"Do you remember what he looks like?" Howard asked as he opened one of the files

"I'm not sure," He scratched his head "I was hit pretty badly in the head"

Howard showed him the photo of the hitman, Scott. "Looks familiar?"

Darren was silent for a few seconds "Maybe, but I can't be sure"

"On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being 100% sure, how sure are you?" Sharna asked

"7" he said "Maybe 8"

They asked him a few more questions without any more useful information. Sharna and Detective Howard believed that the kids weren't hiding anything else, they didn't even suspect them anymore, any of the kids. 

"At least we now know why Meg was linked to that hitman" Howard said

"But she had a deal with him months ago... I wonder why they met again last week" Sharna said as they walked out of the interrogation room.

"Yeah, me too. We'll see when we locate and interrogate him" Howard massaged the back of his neck as he walk away "I need to go get coffee, but good job Davis"

"Thank you sir" Sharna replied happily even though she was still not used to hearing compliments from Howard.

She grabbed her phone from he pocket of her jacket "19 missed calls?!" she said out loud in shock "and 7 messages". All the missed calls and messages were from Matt "What the hell is going on" Sharna said to herself then dialed Matt's number.

"19 missed calls!" Sharna said worried "What the hell happened?"

"Where have you been?" He said whispering

"I'm at the station, I was in the middle of interrogations." She paused "Why are you whispering"

"I sent you a photo, you should check it out ASAP." Matt replied "I can't talk about it now" he hung up

Sharna checked out her messages

"Sharna, call me"

"This is URGENT"

"You need to see this now"

"Why aren't you picking up"

"Please answer!"

"We received a letter from someone claiming to be the murderer, you need to see this"

The seven's message was a photo of a letter made up of magazine letter: 

"LISTEN TO ME AND LISTEN CAREFULLY, THIS LETTER IS TO BE PUBLISHED IN TOMORROW'S PAPER... OR ELSE I PROMISE MEGAN WON'T BE MY LAST. 

I HAVE A MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE, MAYBE CONSIDER THIS AS A WARNING. MY GOAL IS TO ELIMINATE THE SPOILT BRATZ OF THE SOCIETY, THEY'RE DEMONS IN DISGUISE AND TRUST ME I HAVE A LONG LIST. IT'S TIME TO RE-EVALUATE YOUR ACTIONS BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE CAUSE I'LL HAVE TO DO THE JOB. 

-THE JUDGE"

"What the hell?" Sharna thought and texted Matt to go somewhere in which he can talk freely.

"Did anyone see who left this letter?" She asked

"No, it was dropped off at the mail box and when we tried to check with the mail office who sent it, they had no idea." Matt sighed "There's a huge debate here whether to publish it or not..."

"Why didn't they call the police about it?" Sharna asked

"They're still debating it, but I thought you should know."

"They should have informed us first thing" Sharna's voice was angry

"You need to understand everyone here is panicking, we're dealing with a freaking psycho" He sounded wary

"I need to talk to Detective Howard about this" she paused "I think we'll be paying you a visit soon before your bosses take the wrong decision."

"Okay," He was silent for a moment "but no one should know I was your source or I might get fired"

"Don't worry and thank you Matt for trusting me... and for doing the right thing"

Sharna hung up and went to Detective Young's office rushing in.

"You should knock Davis, I told you I was on a break" He said in a frustrated tone

"I apologize sir," Sharna said closing the door "but I have some rather urgent news"

Sharna showed him the letter and told him what Matt had just told her.

"We should go there now, they should never publish that letter" Howard said getting up from his seat.

"Really? You think they shouldn't publish it?" Sharna was confused

They continued their conversation as they walked outside the station towards Howard's car.

"If they publish it, they're just giving him what he want." he looked at her emphasizing on his word "We never wanna do that with a serial killer, it'll only feed his ego"

"But what about his warning?"

"It's just words, he's a serial killer and he'll find a reason to kill anyway" He said as he started the car

"You're probably right, publishing the letter won't stop him from killing" she agreed and they were both silent for a while. Sharna was worried about this being leaked to the media anyways. "Does he already know that we're on to him?" she said to herself "Does he know that we were able to find a link with the other victims?"

They reached the "Parallels" New Paper building and they entered, Detective Howard ordered a meeting with the head in charge to discuss the issue. Sharna glanced at Matt, but decided to ignore him so that no one would suspect him of telling them.

After hours of debating and arguing in the meeting, Sharna was back at the station. They agreed that the letter won't be published and that it would be taken for forensic evidence although it's already been touched by so many other people already so they doubted it would contain any evidence now, but still they needed to check.

Sharna went home to rest, she was exhausted from her lack of sleep the night before and she needed to recharge because tomorrow she's going with Detective Howard to interrogate Julio and Professor Ethan until they can also locate  Scott. Caleb found out from Scott's girlfriend that he's out of town, she even insisted he's been out of town for over a week meaning he wasn't even in town at the time of murder which sounded a bit rehearsed to him.

As soon as Sharna laid in bed, she instantly felt sleepy. However, she decided to call Matt first.

"Hey" he said and Sharna knew from his voice that he was smiling

"I'm sure you're dying to know what happened in the meeting" Sharna smirked

"Certainly." He joked "I wanna know everything about the case... your whole life is pretty damn interesting to me"

"It's not as glamorous as you think." she laughed "My job comes with a lot of stresses too."

"I can imagine" he said sympathetically

Sharna updated him on the case and he promised he won't be releasing any confidential information and for some reason she knew she could trust him. After they hung up, Sharna just immediately fell asleep.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, there are probably 2 more chapter in this case and I'll try to post them as soon as I can. Anyways please vote and let me know all your thoughts in the comments.