After a sleepless night full of fear, guilt and self-hatred, Cassie was glad that a new day had come, but she knew that it would be a rough day for her because she had made the hard decision to pay Brady a visit, she thought it appropriate to apologize to him in person no matter how hard and uncomfortable it would be.

Once Cassie arrived at the station, she  found herself unable to move from her seat. She was yet to plan what to tell Brady, she respected him and she knew he respected her when they met, so the thought of someone she admired losing respect for her due to her stupid actions broke her heart. After about ten minutes of sitting unmoved in her car she was able to muster enough courage to step out of her car and walk into the station building.

Once she was at Brady's door she saw that he was having a conversation with a girl that looked to be her age, she backed away about to leave, but she stepped forward again, deciding to rip off the bandage and apologize rather than being a coward. She knocked on his door and slightly opened it, she poked her head in so that she was visible enough.

"Hi," she cleared her throat and kept her gaze on his carpet which needed to be swept. "I'm sorry for disturbing you I can see you're busy and all but-- " before she could finish he cut her off.

"No, no, come in Cassie, I was actually hoping you'll show up today," he greeted cheerfully. She was relieved, he looked like he had already forgiven her. "There's someone I want you to meet, this here," he said motioning his hands to the lady in front of him "is my baby sister Tamara," he ended the introduction with a proud big brother smile. 

Tamara rolled her eyes at him. "Brady, I literally just turned twenty, when are you going to stop referring to me as a baby?" She stood up to face Cassie and gave her a warm smile.

"Hi, I'm Cassie," she  greeted in a small voice. 

"Trust me, I know who you are," she said and pulled Cassie in for a quick hug. "My brother has not stopped talking about how smart you are and how much you've helped him with this case." 

"Hmmm thanks Brady," she chuckled uncomfortably "but we make a great team, I couldn't have done anything without you," she stroked her arm gently.

"Come on Cassie, stop being so modest," Brady said.

"I'm not, really I couldn't have done any of it without you," she smiled shyly. "So Tamara, how come I've never met you before?" Cassie took a good look at Tamara and marvelled at how beautiful she was. She looked like one of those people you see on television, and hate them because of how beautiful they are, how loved they are, how wonderful their life looked, and how humble they seemed. She looked perfect. She had long blonde hair which she had curled, her eyes were blue like the ocean, dimples appeared on her cheeks whenever she smiles, and her smile, it was captivating. She was tall, very tall, and very slim, and she dressed very fancy in a mini dress and thigh high boots, as if she was dressed for a party. She also beared a strong resemblance to her brother who was equally handsome.

"I was a model for a while, so I was always away from home," she said with eyes filled with both joy and sadness. Her tone was very chirpy even when she looked sad. "But now I'm back to Freetown, Brady's making me go to University," she pouted. 

"That's great,  if you ever decide you want to go back into modelling let me know, my mum owns an agency and she's always bugging me to join, maybe if I bring someone to her she'll leave me the hell alone," Cassie rolled hr eyes.

Tamara placed her hands on her chest and smiled, "Aww thanks Cassie if I ever give up on University I'll come find you," she smiled. "It was lovely meeting you but I have to go, I start school tomorrow and I need to take care of a few things first," she gave Cassie another hug and for Brady, a peck on the cheek. "Ciao!" She said in a high pitched voice before strutting out.

"How come you never told me you had a sister?"

"You never asked about my family," she raised an eyebrow.

"Oh so now it's my fault" she joked as she sat down on the chair that Tamara sat in.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about Cassie?" Brady asked changing the topic.

" I wanted to apologize for what happened yesterday, I should never have kissed you, and I'm also terribly sorry for Tyler's behaviour, I've never seen him get so violent before," she ranted. "I'm so sorry, I guess you could say I'm just a stupid teenage girl"

"You're just a stupid teenage girl" he joked.

"Brady!" She scolded.

"What?" he lifted his hands in defence "I'm just following orders," she smiled. Cassie was happy that he did not make a big deal out of what happened, he tried his best to make the ambiance in the room as light as possible, there was no awkwardness, they were back to normal.

"Now that we have that out of the way I need to talk to you about something more serious. Yesterday when I left your office I found out that my friend got into an accident, only that I don't think there was anything accidental about it."

"That's terrible!" Brady exclaimed "I hope your friend is alright."

She nodded "But he's in critical condition still," she frowned.

"You mentioned you believe this was no accident?" he crossed his arms over his chest, "we're there any witnesses at the scene what makes you so sure?"

"The killer, he reached out to me again," she breathed heavily, her lips quivered.  She took her phone out of her pocket and clicked on the message she received from the killer. She handed the phone to Brady and he rubbed his temples and grunted as he read the message.

"You should have brought this to me yesterday," he said.

"I wouldn't have been able to face you yesterday," she bit her bottom lip. Brady nodded understandingly. 

"That bastard," Brady mumbled under his breath. "This is my fault, I'm sorry for bringing you into this." 

Cassie shook her head, "I'm sure I would have gotten involved in this with or without your help," she said confidently. 

"Cassie this case is getting more dangerous by the day, I can't let you risk your life. I have to ask you to stop coming here."

"I have to do this, for Avril and for all my friends. I'm going to catch him," she said with determination.

"You're fearless and that's generally admirable, but sometimes it's stupid and this is one of those times."

" I can't just seat back and watch, that shows fear, and if he sees fear he'll think he's won. I want to help, even if it's on the downlow I need to help, for Matty," she said as she shed a tear.

Brady sighed, closed his eyes and pushed his head back. He opened his eyes again and looked at Cassie carefully. "You can't be seem at this station again, we can only work together over the phone."

"I'll do my own personal research and if I find anything else I'll give you a call."

"Perfect, but please be careful, I won't forgive myself if I put a seventeen-year old girl in danger."

" I'll be just fine. Have you found anymore potential parties the killer could target?"

"Still those two parties we found earlier, we'll see to it that one of those parties doesn't hold."

"Do you think you can catch him this time? He's gotten away with four murders already."

"We'll have our men outside the venue of the party dressed like civilians, no girl that fits the killers profile will be let in. He must have already chosen his next victim, we'll ensure she's not at that party. We will send some of our female officers who fits the profile to act as a decoy, we hope that he tries to attack her, and then our guys run in to save her."

"But the officer will not be the right age, he'll get pissed, this could backfire."

" Killing is his kryptonite, if he can't find his chosen victim he'll want to attack someone else. He has to fall for the trap. And I'm sure he always has a backup victim I case something goes wrong. We have already created social media profiles for the officer we'll send, we'll make sure she fits his profile."

"Hmmm go on" Cassie said already liking where the plan was going.

"This killer shops on social media to find his targets. He probably has a lot of women that he's stalking on social media as we speak, and if someone new comes up he'll find her. He'll find the officer's page, and even though she's not his initial target, she'll most likely be a backup plan if he spots her at the party."

"You seem very confident with this plan," she commended.

"It has to work Cassie, because if it doesn't then there will surely be a new victim, and we'll have to wait till November to come up with another plan. This town is losing patience, they say the police is incompetent, which I'll agree to. We're not trained for this, and we're too proud to get outside help, that's why they recruited me, cause I'm from here, and as the leading detective people are looking to me to solve this. I'm desperate," he said nervously.

"Talking about the killer is making me weak, let's talk about something else. Are you excited to have your sister back?"

"Extremely excited, but sadly I won't be seeing much of her, she said she'll rather stay on campus than to live with me."

"Yeah I don't blame her, you can be quite boring," Cassie laughed.

"I used to be cool when I was your age," he bragged.

"Yeah I'm sure you were" she said sarcastically. "You and Tamara, it's weird how you look so much alive even with completely different hair and eye colours," she commented. Cassie thought once more about Tamara's appearance and a look of worry appeared on her face.

"What's wrong Cassie?" Brady asked when he noticed the horrid expression on her face. She swallowed hard.

"Does your sister by any chance like parties?" He laughed at that question.

"Tamara has always been a party animal."

"And how old did she say she was again"

"She just turned twenty, last week actually. Cassie what are you getting at?" as soon as he asked the question he paused and then he cursed. He hit his head hard with his palms three times. "Crap!" He exclaimed. "Tamara fits the profile perfectly," his voice shook. His face hardened and then he punched hard on his desk and swore continuously. 

"Brady calm down okay?" Cassie got up from her seated position.

"How can you tell me to calm down Cassie? I made my sister come back to town. It never occurred to me how much she fit the profile, probably because she wasn't in town and she wasn't the right age till last week."

"You can make her leave."

"Tamara is the most stubborn person I know, she thinks she can take care of herself, if she wants to stay here she will, and no one can make her leave, not even that psychopathic killer."

"Now more than ever we need the plan to work," Cassie said, Brady nodded, staring into nothingness.

                                                                                                       *

As soon as Cassie left Brady's office she knew that she had to make some more apologies, and the next person on her list was Tyler. She knew that her conversation with him would be a lot harder than the conversation she needed to have with Tyler.She drove to his house, and many times during her drive she had to fight the urge to turn around. 

She could see Tyler's mansion from a distance and her heart sunk at the sight of his fathers house. Tyler's father was one of the richest men in Freetown, he made all his money in the city as a surgeon but chose to settle in a small town to live a quiet life, once he retired he properly settled in Freetown where he ran a few businesses. Tyler's house was highly secured with a huge gate that always had a guard around it. The security guard walked up to Cassie's car and smiled warmly.

"Welcome, Miss. Meyer" he greeted. Cassie was relieved that Tyler had not requested for her not to be let in.

"Hi," she greeted back as she released the breathe she was holding. He walked to the gate and opened it wide enough for her car to pass through. She drove round the exquisite water fountain in front of their house and parked her car right in front of his house. She wiped her sweaty hands on her pants before bringing them to his doorbell.

She rang the doorbell then she froze because she realized that she did not know what to say to him. She turned around, deciding she was not ready, but in that moment the door swung open and she turned around to be faced with Tyler.

"What are you doing here?" he questioned dully

 "I'm so so sorry, I hate myself for what I did," she sniffled.

"Please leave, you're the last person I want to see," he said dryly. 

"Please, don't push me away, not again," she pleaded with her words and her eyes.

"Listen Cassie, it's best that we are apart, I'm bad news okay, I'm no good for you."

"Don't say that, you're the best thing that has ever happened to me," a tear escaped her eyes but she quickly wiped it, she was tired of crying. She looked deep in his eyes and she could see a series of emotions, he just stood there staring at her, he did not speak.

She leaned in closer and got on her tiptoes as she crashed her lips on his forcefully, at first he stayed still, but he later returned her kiss. Their lips moved in perfect synchronization, a small moan escaped her lips, he placed his hands on her tiny waist and turned her around so that her back was on the wall, he pressed himself against her completely closing the gap between them as he took over the kiss, she passed her hands through his beautiful hair and gently pulled on it as they kissed passionately.

Tyler suddenly pulled away as he caught his breath back, she stared at his succulent swollen red lips and was tempted to lean in for more, she almost did until she noticed something in his eyes, sadness.

"Why do I feel like that was a goodbye kiss?" she asked breathlessly.

"Because it was," he replied not able to look her straight in the eyes.

"Tyler please don't. I love you." He looked at her deep in her eyes as if he was searching for something in them. He stepped back into his house and watched her. 

"I loved you" he replied coldly before shutting the door. 

                                                                                          *

who do you guys think the killer is? Do you think it's someone already introduced in the story, or it'll be a new character?