Chapter 2: CHAPTER 1
As she walked down the isolated street leading her to her penthouse, Danielle Roe thought about her forthcoming date with her colleague, Mannie.
It was to take place the day after tomorrow and she was as nervous as she has always been when going on a date after her awful breakup two years ago.
Mannie Cooper was cute and sweet. She liked him but not in the same way he did.
Mannie had always loved Elle, even before her breakup with'him' but being the gentleman that he was, he never asked her out while she was dating'him' and he had kept his distance.
All that stopped when he got to know about her breakup. He immediately became Elle's bedrock. He had always seen himself as the better one for her and not 'him'. He didn't ask her out immediately they broke up. Being the sweet gentleman he was, he controlled himself and waited months for the right time before approaching her.
She hadn't been shocked, though. In fact, she had actually been expecting it a very long time ago. She replied politely and they had their first date. The date had gone well but truth be told, she wasn't ready to love again; partly because she has been insecure about men ever since Fred and mostly because she could never love anyone else as much as she loved him.
She tried to hide this fact, she really did, but no matter what, she knew that Fred had a piece of her heart already. She still tries to fill up that space, though, which is why she's going on this second date with Mannie on Saturday.
Yep, for the past two years, Elle has had just one date and definitely no man except Mannie in her life.
Danielle stopped dead in her tracks as she sighted something right beneath the street lamp adjacent to her penthouse. Oh, no. Not again. She immediately knew what it was, even from a distance but there was no need to jump into conclusions, right?
'Everything's gonna be alright' she said to herself. Before taking a step, she surveyed her surroundings and when she was sure that she was alone, she moved closer to the bump on the road. As soon as she saw what it was,her heart skipped a bit. It was exactly what she thought it was.
Another dead body by her ex with the usual signature and letter she had been getting after the breakup. Some months after her breakup two years ago, Fred began sending dead bodies to her, bearing letters which said the same thing:
"I will get you back as mine and I won't stop my passion"
She took a second look at the dead young girl. She didn't look a year over eighteen but she already had her life ruined. She slowly took the letter and opened it. It said the same thing but had an additional paragraph
" Expect me at your date with him my love"
She bit her lip and immediately ran to her house. She didn't bother about the body because Fred always had the dead bodies gone before anyone else that wasn't her could see it.
She dropped her things unceremoniously in her living room and went to her kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. While the coffee brewed , Elle tried to figure out how her criminal had found out about her date with Mannie. She had told him to keep their date a secret, mostly because of his safety. Fred's killings were based on females and she knew that but a killer was always a killer.
Just then, her phone rang.
"Detective Miller, so very good to hear from you" she said, sarcastically.
It was never good to hear from Mike Miller.
Mike was the detective in charge of the 'mysterious' killings and rape cases going on in and he was good. He was always this close to finding Fred but she has always been the one to cover up her love's tracks.
The detectives were damn smart, though.
Covering up his tracks wasn't that easy. That's right, ever since their breakup, Danielle never stopped covering for Fred.
Deep down, she thought she had a serious problem because she knew she was definitely risking her job.
Although, it wasn't her fault she was way smarter than her colleagues.
"Roe,how are you doing? Good to hear from you too but let's cut the crap-– another dead body has been spotted close to the city playground just now. It ain't the worst death but I can't have lil' kids taking as much as a glance at a corpse so I sent some officers, along with paramedics,to go fetch the corpse and run an autopsy test. Right now, I need you to get down here and file some paperwork"
Elle grunted. Being the assistant detective in charge of Fred's case was the worst thing ever, right after working with a boss like Miller.
He had always considered Danielle a useless agent and made sure she had something to do.
"Um, you know, I just got home Detective Miller and I haven't even–"he cut her short, as usual.
" No fucking excuses, Roe. Be here in exactly five minutes"and he cut the call.
" Shit!"she yelled but kept herself from throwing her phone against the wall. Yeah, things were damn expensive.
She ran her through her blonde hair. The coffee was done brewing so she poured herself a cup and added a lot of milk.
With two gulps,she had the cup empty.
She dropped the cup in the sink and went up to her room.
She was undressed in a couple of seconds and was having a hot bath. As she washed her hair, she went through everything that had happened today.
Mike had taken her to the city lake where the last corpse had been found. They had swept through the area for evidence but, as usual, had found none.
When they got back to the station, Mannie had asked to see her. She'd agreed to speak with him over lunch. That was when he asked her out to their second date. He also said he had something important to tell her.
Hope he won't push this relationship farther than it already is. She got out of the tub and ran to her closet. She threw a loose T-shirt over her head and wore a pair of khaki shorts. She slipped into her sandals and packed her hair into a loose ponytail.
In the living room, she took her phone and purse and out she went. Miller had just been bluffing, she obviously couldn't get to the police station in five minutes. It was a fifteen minute drive from her house and Mike knew that for sure.
He also knew that she had her car at the repair shop so she would have to go with her feet. It wasn't that late, though her street was deserted.
With her hand placed on her gun in her pocket, she moved really fast and she was at the station within minutes.
As she walked in, with a cigarette between his fingers and a cup of dry gin, fifty eight year old Mike looked worn out and tired.
"Hey" she said, and dropped her purse on the table. She was also tired.
" Roe, I was actually beginning to think you wouldn't come. Look over there" he said and pointed towards a table scattered with lots of paper work.
"I want you to work on those, immediately. Tommorow, we'll check out the corpse and the autopsy results" he said and dropped his cigarette into the ash tray in front of him.
He got up from where he was sitting and said, "oh, and lock up before you leave. I'm starting to think that the reason why we've made no progress in this case is because we have a damn mole. I know you may think I hate you and all but I think I can actually trust you. So, yeah, lock up and keep those papers safe" and with that, he left.
She thought about what he just said; he trusted her and here she was about to destroy any useful evidence she found in this pile.
She remembered her breakup two years ago. She had made a promise to herself to make sure Fred got caught if he continued that act of his but, for the past two years she had been breaking that promise.
Suddenly, she remembered why she hadn't put her ex in the cell to serve his time– Her son.
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