Two weeks had passed since Tyler broke up with Cassie and everyday since then had been miserable; each day was filled with her tears, sad thoughts, and hoping that he would call her and say he regretted his decision. She isolated herself, and the only thing that made her want to get up everyday was the case. She did not reach out to any of her friends, she skipped meals and a couple classes because it was incredibly hard for her to focus in an environment filed with people that were angry at her. The only person that made an attempt to greet her occasionally was Danny, and while she was grateful for his attempt, it did nothing to make her feel any better.

She had visited Matt a few times at the hospital, making sure to only visit him when she was sure her other friends were not there. Sometimes he seemed to be recovering, and other times he looked like he had a long way to go before he would get any better.

She continued researching on the case quietly like she promised Brady. She hadn't received any more threats which gave her some peace of mind. She continually tried to look up information on burned roses, but in all her search she could not find anything significant, she also checked to see if any similar deaths had happened in the past, and after hours of research she stumbled upon an article and its contents grabbed her full attention.  It was dated 14th June 2004, which was ten years ago. The article was about a twenty-year-old college student named Rose Bryson who was stabbed thirteen times in the chest with a knife, her body was found at the scene of a college party on the thirteenth of June. When she was found a burned rose entwined in her blonde hair. It also stated that the murderer was never found and that the case had been closed after five years.

"Oh my God," Cassie exclaimed loudly"these murders have happened before, ten years ago" she said to herself, and talking to herself was something she had never done before. She smiled widely, extremely pleases with herself for discovering important information.

She looked up the name Rose Bryson and was able to find a few photos of her online, she was incredibly beautiful; blonde hear, blue eyes, plump lips. Cassie dug deeper to see if there were any similar murders that year, but nothing. It was very different from the Freetown murders.

She looked to find other articles on Rose's case, it was hard to find anything because the murder happened a really long time ago. Fortunately for her, she stumbled upon another article, which had a lot more information. In the article it was said that Rose attended a party thrown by her boyfriend, she left the party early with her boyfriend and he returned about an hour later without her, two hours after he returned Rose's body was discovered by her best friend Irene Andrews, and her boyfriend Peter Wood was taken in for questioning but they couldn't find anything that linked him to the murder and so he was set free. It also stated that everyone suspected him to be the killer, and it was speculated that his wealthy parents helped cover his crime. Cassie scrolled up to note the name of the journalist that published the article, but it was an anonymous writer. She looked at the date it was posted and oddly enough the article was posted only ten months ago.

Cassie re-read the article to see if she could find anything else, and she did. Rose's boyfriend's name rang a bell; Peter Wood, she knew she had heard that name before, and recently. She thought long and hard before the answer came to her.  Peter Wood was Brady's colleague, Peter Wood was Rose's boyfriend, he was a suspect. She cursed loudly and reached for her phone and dialed Brady's. It rang a few times before he picked up.

"Hello," he said in a raspy sleepy voice that Cassie thought was extremely sexy.

"Hey Brady it's Cassie, I'm sorry did I wake you up?" He said a few incoherent words which made Cassie roll her eyes, he must have been deep in sleep. "I'll let you sleep for a bit, I've found some important information on the case, give me your address and I'll come by later in the day," she squealed. Telling him the news in person was much more exciting to her.

"Yeah, sure," he said before cutting the call. A few seconds passed then she received a text message from Brady which contained his address.

                                                                                               *

It was 2:00pm and Cassie was sat in Brady's living room sipping a nice hot cup of coffee, it was her first time in his place. He lived in a small apartment, there was nothing fancy about it. He had minimal furniture and nothing homely about the place.  He had a big couch which Cassie sat in, a small chair, a small table in the middle of the living room, a small tv, and a black rug on the floor. For such a big man everything he owned was small.

"Interesting place you have here," Cassie commented nodding she looked around the space. He stood by the television arranging some CD's into neat stacks.

"Interesting?" he laughed. "I don't care what my home looks like, I'm hardly in here anyway, all that maters is that I have a roof over my head."

"Hmm," was all Cassie could muster.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Brady asked.

"Do you have a laptop?" Cassie asked excitedly. He nodded as he walked into a room, he came out holding a laptop which he handed  to Cassie. 

 "Password?" She asked.

"Pickles" he replied. She narrowed her eyes at him and waited for him to say he was kidding, but he looked serious so she typed in the password and to her surprise it worked.

"You should really get better at picking passwords," she scolded.

He shrugged "I never have anything important on my laptop so I don't bother, and besides I find it hard remembering those really hard complicated ones," he explained.

"Then why bother with a password in the first place?"

"I like a certain degree of privacy," he explained.

 Brady's password was connected to the internet so Cassie pulled up her email which contained the articles she had found earlier. 

"Come take a seat," she said to Brady and tapped a spot on the big couch, he obediently walked to the spot she touched and sat beside her. He allowed some space between them, which made Cassie slightly embarrassed. She placed the laptop on his lap and she allowed him to read the article she put in front of him.

she watched him carefully as his facial expression went back and forth between being confused and angry. He did not have to speak, his facial expression let her know exactly what was going through his head.

"These murders have happened before?" He finally spoke up blinking his eyes profusely at the screen.

"Yhep" Cassie said taking a sip of her coffee. "The murderer has come back to finish what he started"

"Could be a copycat," he said. "It's more likely since it's been ten years the first murder."

"A copycat? Hmmm, possibly but I have a gut feeling it's the same person."

"Did you notice that the first victims name was Rose? and the killers trademark is a rose?" He asked pointing to her name on the screen of his laptop.

"Yes I did, that definitely isn't just some coincidence, the killer knew the first victim, maybe he even loved her. And that brings me to the next article," she clicked on the next tab. "Check this out," she told him. She watched him read again and watched as his eyes widened in complete shock after he read the part that involved Peter.

"Peter," he said. 

"Your colleague was Rose Bryson's boyfriend at the time of her murder."

"I've known Peter for a while, we went to the same police academy, he's no Angel but he definitely isn't a murderer either," he said in his defence.

"He could just be a great actor," she stated.

Brady stared at the screen for a while and let out a deep breath. "I'll keep an eye on him, even if he is the killer, we're still gonna follow through with our plan for tomorrow. If it's Wood we'll catch him at the stakeout."

"Isn't Peter going to be part of the stakeout?" She asked.

"I know this sounds suspicious but he called in sick today, won't be working tomorrow either."

"Cause he'll be too busy claiming other victims" she scoffed as she rolled her eyes.

"Let's not point fingers yet, it could be one big coincidence okay?" he scolded.

"We'll see, but how come you didn't know about this murder? Weren't you at Freetown at the time?"

"I left Freetown in 2003, a year before the murder happened."

"Oh I see", she said nodding her head. "Anyways I have to go now, good luck tomorrow, and thanks for the coffee" she said, taking one last sip. He nodded. She got up and was about to leave but he stopped her by calling her name.

" Cassie, what are you doing for your birthday tomorrow?" he asked, a concerned expression on his face. 

"Nothing, I have no one to celebrate with, I'll have diner with my parents and maybe watch some tv" she said sadly. "That's not exactly how I planned on spending my eighteenth birthday but I have shitty friends," she said bitterly. 

" I really do hope you have a wonderful eighteenth birthday."

"Thanks Brady, I'll try."

                                                                                              *

The thirteenth of October had finally arrived and it was a day that doubled as Cassie's birthday and the suspected day of the next attack.

Cassie had a nice meal with her parents earlier that day, they ate at a fancy restaurant as it was their tradition whenever they had something to celebrate. Although she ate at her favourite restaurant she was incredibly sad because she knew that her celebration would end as soon as she had her last bite. On her other birthdays she would always make plans with her friends, and sometimes they would throw a party but she knew she was not getting that for her eighteenth, the year she looked forward to the most.

It was 10:00pm and Cassie was home alone watching back to back episodes of her favourite crime shows while shoving popcorn into her mouth, her parents were out and so she had the house to herself. She couldn't help but wonder how the stakeout was going, if it was a success then her life could go back to normal, and if it wasn't then her life would remain as miserable as it had been for the past two weeks. 

She heard her phone ring, and to her surprise it was Danny's name that lit up in her phone screen.

"Hello?" She said in a strained tone.

"Hey Cassie, I was thinking about you today and decided to call to wish you a happy birthday," he said.

"Wow," she said blinking in disbelief. "Thanks Danny, does this mean you've forgiven me?" She asked hopefully.

"No I'm still mad at you, but I just thought I should tell you happy birthday, bye Cassie I have to go," he said deadpan.

"Oh,"she said not being able to conceal the disappointment in her tone. 

"Bye Cassie,"

"Bye," she said, but he did not hear because he cut the call before she could say anything.

Her phone rang again and she looked down at the phone in her hand hoping that it was Phoebe. She saw that it was Brady and was disappointed, at the same time she was excited to know how the stakeout was going.

"Hey Brady,"

"Hey Cassie, Happy Birthday!"

"Thank you for the billionth time" she giggled. He had called her three times already that day to wish her a happy birthday.

"You're welcome," he chuckled.

"So how's everything going?" She asked.

"Well, we are doing everything as planned, we'll make sure that no potential victims get in, we've already sent in our bait, we're waiting now."

"Did Peter show up?"

"No, he didn't. I really do hope he isn't the person we'll catch today."

"Don't get your hopes too high. Call me if something actually happens, I'm watching some good television and you've rudely interrupted me," she scolded playfully.

"Let me guess, crime shows?" He asked amused.

"You know me too well," she smiled. " Talk to you later, stay safe."

"You too."

Cassie had dozed off in the middle of watching her show, and she woke up to the sound of the door opening. She sat up to see who had come in, she saw an image and focused an eye on the person for a while until her vision adjusted. It was Caleb. She checked the time on her watch, it was 12:46am, she wondered what Caleb was doing at home at that time, she hadn't seen him in a long time.

"Caleb?" she asked in a strained tone. He ignored her and walked up the stairs.  "Caleb, I'm talking to you" she said walking after him, it was a bit dark and so she switched on all the lights. "Caleb!" She yelled as she turned him around forcefully. "Oh my God!" She exclaimed at his appearance. He was shirtless and he had blood all over his hands, and some on his chest and pants. "what happened to you?" She asked in a shrill voice.

"Leave me alone Cassie," he shot back angrily and stormed into his old room. 

"At Least tell me why you look so terrible," she pleaded.

"I got into a fight okay?" he replied a little too quickly.

"You have no bruises, your body is perfectly fine apart from the blood all over your hands, and where's your shirt?" She asked looking around him. She noticed that he was carrying a black backpack and assumed that his shirt was in there. She let him go for now. Caleb had a temper and she wasn't in the mood to deal with him in his choleric state. 

She checked her phone to see about five missed calls from Brady, she was usually a light sleeper, she must have been really tired for her not to hear her phone ring. She also saw that she had a text message that was sent in at 12:30am. It was from Brady and it said:

Hey Cassie, I've been trying to reach you. Good news :there was no victim tonight. Bad  news:there was no killer either, he probably saw us and ran away.'

She smiled after reading the message, she was happy that no one else had to die. She was disappointed that they didn't catch the killer but the good news overpowered the bad. The news brightened her mood and so she decided that she had was in the mood to face Caleb once more. She opened his room door and was surprised to find it empty, and then she heard the shower running. She tiptoed into his room and looked around for the backpack he had been carrying, she found it on the floor beside his bed and then she quietly bent down, picked it up and unzipped it. When she unzipped it she saw a black trash bag inside, she felt it and she could feel something inside.She opened it and was welcomed with the sight of a bloody polo shirt that she knew she had seen Caleb wear before.

She pulled the bag out and underneath it she saw her heels, the one that she had left at Caleb's party on the night that Elisa Whitecloud died. Underneath that was what looked like a gift, she assumed that it was a birthday gift for her and so she decided to leave it until Caleb gave it to her himself. It was quite dark in his room and she couldn't see the last item in his bag properly. She reached her hands into the bag and flinched when something inside pricked her. She turned on the flashlight on her phone to get a proper look at what had pricked her and that's when she saw something that had recently become a danger sign. . . a rose. Her eyes widened and she could feel her heart racing fast.

She heard her phone ring and quickly picked it up before Caleb could hear it and know that there was someone in his room. She looked at the caller ID and saw Brady's name pop up.

"Hello," she whispered breathlessly.

"Bad news, a new victim has been found, she was abandoned in the car of one of the people who attended the party, we weren't vigilant enough because the killer struck again," he said angrily. "I don't know who the victim is yet, I'll find out soon." Cassie couldn't speak, she felt her heart race more and more.

The fact that Caleb's shirt was bloody and the fact that he had a rose in his bag was incredibly suspicious. Her mind skipped back to the time she saw Caleb and Elisa Whitecloud leave
his party together, the next time she saw her, she was lying lifeless in his pool. She remembered when Caleb called her asking her about the murder case, and she knew perfectly well that she hadn't mentioned that she was working on the case to him, and it was the same day that she received the threats that he called her. She also remembered that Caleb had the numbers of all her friends and they also got threatened. She thought about the time she saw Caleb's bike outside the hospital the day that Matt was admitted.

"Cassie are you there?" Brady asked.

"Yeah yeah, sorry I'm here" she replied, breathing heavily.

"Are you alright? You don't sound to good."

"I'm sorry, I'm just too overwhelmed by this news" she said. "I'm sorry Brady, can't talk now, I'll talk to you later," she said before hanging up. 

She kept on fighting with different thoughts in her mind, everything she had uncovered pointed to Caleb as the killer, but her heart told her that it wasn't possible. She had to think fast, she quickly grabbed the trash bad that the bloody shirt was in, she threw everything back inside his bag and then she ran out. She would take the shirt to Brady and ask him to take the bloody shirt so that it can be examined in the lab, that way she would know if the blood on it matched that of the new victim and then she would know for sure if her brother was a cold blooded murderer.