A Man in the Window
Summary: Y/N learns of the fourth family to have been murdered in the LadyLane Massacres- a series of murders taken place in their town, starting with the Ramirez family in LadyLane. Later she hitched a ride from her older brother Mateo who works as a detective to solve the case. He takes her home before she continued her work on the case, before suddenly noticing a similarity between the girls of each case and herself. It was then she saw something in her window that seemed to morph into its own shape.
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"Pinche... Oye, hermanita!" Mateo's scrunched-up face softened as he saw her, cursing in Spanish before calling for his little sister. Y/N stepped out of the police vehicle as it halted, smiling and waving as she dusted off her skirt.
"I'm finally here, how's everything?" She asked with a look of concern, quickly running over in her clicking heels. Police cars and ambulances surrounded the house of a supposedly safe neighborhood, where crime seldom happens- but it seems this family of five just wasn't so lucky.
"We don't know what happened. But whoever did this obviously was responsible for the last three families that were like this," Mateo huffed, flicking his cigarette ashes on the road as he looked at the lovely, two-story house, "each person was brutally murdered. There's nothing we've been able to pick up on in any of these cases, but each time the same weapons are used. Other than that, they're good at covering their asses like always." Y/N nodded, pouting her lip. Two happily married parents and three children were the victims of today's killing. Tragic.
A tall man in a police uniform walked over, clearly out of breath as he spoke, "Nice seeing you, Miss L/N. Y'know, we really shouldn't be letting you see this until you're officially a part of the team, but these have been getting too frequent. This is the fourth family to end up like this, and the media and family have been looking at us an awful lot for information. Callin' it the LadyLane Massacres, and we ain't got a single damn answer for it all." Chief Manchester shook her head as other cops and detectives walked around the premises. Wrinkles on his forehead, dark spots under his eyes- these recent killings have caused this stress on many of the faces here. "But, eh, you're pretty good at finding things. And we need all the help we can get," the Chief continued.
"I understand, sir, and I'll do all I can," Y/N replied, nodding her head with a look of determination. Moments later, her mouth held open in shock as she looked at the gruesome scene in front of her: the bodies, the blood pools, the blood splattered across almost every surface. The horrified faces plastered on the victim's bodies, solidifying the pain they faced in their last living moments as they fought for their lives.
"Fucking horrible, innit," Chief spoke as he put his hands in his front pockets. The daughter was dead in the kitchen, intestines ripped out. A mother died on the stairs, her back ripped open with window shards in her back. The large window above the stairs was busted open- likely how the killers got in, and they got her quickly. Upstairs, the father had his arm behind his back, popped out of socket. He had 3 bullet wounds in the head, and two in the leg. Another daughter had a giant hole in her chest, dead in her room as if an ax of sorts hit her- and finally, the son was dead outside. The broken window of his bedroom indicated he tried to jump out to escape and had that ax plunged into his head before he could reach safety."
"Okay, well..." Y/N cleared her throat after looking at all the bodies, a sweat building up on her face. "We can deduce that the mother died first. Someone had an ax, or a hatchet, and attacked the girl and the son while someone else went after the dad with a gun. Someone else must have gotten the daughter, and possibly another then went straight for the mother."
"That's what we're thinking," he explained. "We'll be extracting the bullet from the father to see if it's the same used in the other killings. But we know each time, an ax or hatchet had been used along with a knife are the three weapons."
"I wonder what their intention was," Y/N mumbled, holding her chin in thought as she turned to look at the dead daughter in the kitchen. "They just busted through the window unexpectedly and killed them. What for?"
"Well, we have a few suspects," the Chief replied, "but nothing's for sure. It's gonna be hard to find someone connected to everyone at once. They must have known where to look before they entered and who their victims were."
"For sure," Y/N replied. "To murder entire families, children... It's gotta be more than just random sprees. This family was connected to either the killers themselves, or with something they wanted to protect..." She trailed off, furrowing her eyebrows as a random white piece of something caught her eye, just barely out of sight. Something was under the table, a foot away from the daughter's bloody hand. It had a slight glare that caught her eye from her angle.
Y/N crouched down, grabbing the thing carefully on its corners. A little flat, white piece of plastic, slightly curved, and with a little smudge of blood. This must have cracked off of something, given the rounded corners until the ridged side.
"What is it?" the Chief asked, raising a brow and shining his flashlight.
"Let's get this DNA tested. It's oddly placed and look, there is a bloody spot," she spoke with a look of focus, handing it out to a lady who held a bag for evidence.
Y/N always had a talent for justice. Mateo always said it started after they found her in the woods one winter night when she went missing and the police found her deep in the woods. Although they never figured out how she got there, and she never could remember anything she saw, she does remember the police. The ride to the station was full of questions for the officers about their jobs from the two siblings.
Mateo was going to be a detective anyway, and well, it made it easier for Y/N to follow in his footsteps.
"Horrible, isn't it," Mateo stated, sighing as he drove away from the scene. Y/N nodded her head, looking out the window and the snowflakes falling from the sky.
"I just wish they'd let me see the full system. I feel stupid when they call me out there and not give me all the information; like how am I going to help ya'll if you don't give me anything but an eyesight?" she sighed, resting her head against the cold window. Her E/C eyes shunned as they passed the lit street lamps that brightened the snow patches on the ground. The snow always was a familiar, warm feeling for her.
"Well, it's sensitive information," Mateo chuckled. "We don't want some good-for-nothing delinquent looking at our data."
"Really, shoplifter?" Y/N giggled, sticking her tongue out. "Don't think I'll let you forget about that one time. Dad was not happy, haha." The two laughed in the car, embarrassment flushing the face of her brother.
"Let's not bring that up around the other officers, okay?" he chuckled. A moment of peace was shared between them before the low atmosphere of the crime made its quiet return. As they turned into Y/N's street, Mateo broke the silence. "But... hey, honestly. I'm really thankful to have you here in a few years, joining the force. Dad would be proud of us, y'know, for following in his footsteps."
"Oh, he really would be, hah hah," Y/N chuckled softly, looking over at her brother. He looked a lot like his mother- brown skin, dark eyes, dark hair. But he was as tall, strong, and broad as their father. It always was a curious thing for her to notice considering she didn't know her mother enough to know what resemblance she had. But, what mattered most to her and that she still had the relationship of true siblings despite having different moms.
"Say... I think we're all very passionate about this case. Y'know, the LadyLane Massacres..." Mateo trailed off as if he wasn't sure about what he wanted to say next. "And... as long as you keep it a secret between us, I can temporarily lend you my computer to look at police data whenever you need it. I think your help will be vital."
"Seriously?" Y/N smiled brightly. "Mateo, that means a lot to me, thank you! And don't worry, the secret will be safe with me, heh heh," she boosted. "Well, as long as you don't take all the credit from me."
"Heh heh, well, with that being said..." he replied, slowly bringing the car to a stop, "get the hell outta my car, woman."
With the last joke of the night, they hugged before Y/N went back up into her apartment. It was cozy, sorta minimalist due to the lack of money to go all out, but it was home. And the homiest part of her home was the guest bedroom/office, to where she walked straight towards the moment she took off her jacket and shoes. Two hours of investigating at the actual crime scene, and now countless hours investigating the entirety of the LadyLane Massacres as a whole in this little office.
She sat down at the computer desk, humming to herself as she logged into her double monitors. "Sorry hermano," she said cheerily as she sipped her cup of tea. "I've had your info for a very long time already. 'preciate the help, though."
A few minutes passed, and finally, she had full access to what her detective brother had on the police databases. Any person jailed or imprisoned could be viewed from her screen, as well as any digital case files assigned to him. For example, the four recent family murders- just what Y/N wanted to see. Pictures of the bodies and faces were uploaded to the databases, as well as details of the crimes and pictures of evidence.
Each murder was done in a similar fashion- giant open gashes on some, indicating the use of a blunt object like an ax or a hatchet. Other bodies had gunshot wounds and/or knife wounds, sometimes with brute force as well. It's hard to imagine only one person having the capability to use all three weapons to effortlessly kill an entire family in different rooms each time- therefore leading to the speculation there was a minimum of 2 killers. But most, including yours truly, believe there are three or four.
"Interesting..." she mumbled, her eyes reflecting the bright images. The images of bloodied bodies flashed across the screen as she scrolled through last week's case. A girl about her age popped up with her head nearly decapitated from her neck save for a few more inches of flesh connecting them. Blood soaked her shirt down to the pools of blood that developed around her corpse, her face blue. A girl who looked... very similar to Y/N.
A chill ran down her spine as she made the connection. The H/L, H/C hair, and the dead, whitened E/C eyes of the girl- let alone the face shape. Y/N clicked on another folder of another family related to the LadyLane Massacres. Scrolling through, it was a family of four; the Burninghams. Each of them was shot in the living room, a clean killing save for the daughter.
She died against the wall while the others died on the couch, shot dead. Her hair was seen ripped out and on the floor, showing she was likely pulled away towards the wall. She was shot in the legs, had each finger cut off, but worst of all, an ax or hatchet wound split open her forehead right down the middle. She looked a lot like the last girl.
Y/N squinted her eyes as an uncomfortable feeling washed over her. Another case- the Ramirez family of 4, with a daughter looking the same. That's when something else in her head clicked: the sons each look similar to Mateo. Not as much resemblance, but there were commonalities with each victim.
"Who are they looking for...?" she mumbled to herself as she flashed the images of each case again. The daughter would be thrown around and murdered the most brutally. And each time the daughter and son looked similar to Mateo and her.
She shuddered, wrapping her arms around her torso and leaning back in her chair. "Gosh, that's scaring me haha," she softly joked to herself, "it almost makes me feel like they're looking for..." Her voice trailed off as she squinted out her dark window, seeing her reflection faintly. She watched stiffly as it almost looked like her reflection was moving, or morphed...
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