Mystery and Suspense (Mystery and Suspense, mystery books, mystery man, mystery thriller, mystery series, mystery romance, murder mystery Book 1)

by Jessica Coulter

  “We shouldn't. There's no yellow tape for a crime scene yet and its out back of my trailer. I can go out there whenever I want to.” Jamie told him. Not really thinking about getting into trouble. The only thing that the cops could tell them was to stay out of it. To let them do their job, which she was sure that they wouldn't go snooping around again.

  “I don't think that we should tell them about the bag. They are going to want to take it in for evidence.” Tom spoke up as Mark began dialing the number on the back of the card that Jamie had given to him.

  “Right.” Mark whispered, putting the phone to his ear and listening to it ring.

  He let it ring three times and then went into the bathroom when he heard the voice machine he got. Rolling his eyes it sounded like Charles voice, turning on the bathroom light he saw that it was small. A small sink and enough room for just using the shower, he pulled the curtain back and saw that the tub was too small for him to lay down in and take a tub. He crinkled his nose in disgust and left a message to call back giving Jamie's number and then hung up the phone.

  “So?” Tom asked when he didn't say anything but gave Jamie back her phone.

  “No answer, had to leave a message. I am sure they are out trying to look for clues everywhere.” Mark muttered.

  “Right.” Tom whispered, he couldn't keep his eyes off the bag that was sitting on Mark's bed. Wondering when he was going to open it.

  “Okay, well its now or never.” Mark groaned, looking down at the bag himself as he sat down on the bed and set it on his lap.

  “I would like to know what's in there. I mean if its something that we should hand over to the police then fine if its things that we might need then it would be good to find out.” Tom shrugged his shoulders. Not trying to rush him.

  “Right.” Mark looked at him and gave him a weak smile and then put his hand on the zipper of the bag.

  Mark slowly unzipped the bag that he was so focused on at the creek that he didn't hear his girlfriend being dragged off to be killed.

  He opened the bag wide and put his hand in. Before he could touch anything Tom stopped him by getting off the bed and taking his hand out of the bag.

  “What?” Mark asked him.

  “We should wear some rubber gloves or something. Remember if we are going to touch any evidence we should be wearing something.” Tom remembered how much shit they had gotten from Charles.

  “Good idea. Look under the sink in the bathroom. There might be some there. I don't want to ask the front desk and have them wondering what's going on. The man looked rather jumpy himself, not that I blame him. I would want to be home and away from strangers who come in and ask for a room not knowing if it might be their last night, just like everyone around here.” Mark told him. Remembering that the clerk looked white as a ghost.

  Tom walked quickly to the bathroom and looked under the sink. There was a box down there, he wondered how Mark knew that there might be rubber gloves under the sink.

  “How did you know?” Tom asked him when he tossed him the box, watching him open it and take out two gloves. Putting them on his hands quickly.

  “When you've been to a enough hotel rooms while trucking with your father when your a kid you just know.” Mark gave him a serious answer.

  “Nice.” Tom nodded his head.

  “Yeah, I have always wondered myself as a kid and my dad told me that housekeeping keeps it stocked so that they don't have to go back to the cart every time when they used cleaner in the bathroom.” Mark shrugged his shoulders. Not once did they take anything that didn't belong to them out of the hotel rooms they stayed at.

  “I wonder how many people take the gloves. I would assume not many. I know that a lot of people take soaps and towels all the time.” Tom told him shaking his head, not that he was one of them but to take towels that the hotel had to fork out themselves was hard to believe.

  “Are we ready now?” Mark asked, handing him the box of gloves and watching Tom slide two on as he tossed the box to Jamie who caught it with one hand.

  “I think so.” Tom nodded his head, sitting down beside him. Jamie sat on the edge of the bed facing them. Knowing that looking up Chad Porter would have to wait until later on. She wanted to know just as much as they did what was in the bag. The curiosity was killing her.

  Jamie looked at Tom who was staring and Mark who had to be the one to take the things out of the bag because he was the one who had found it.

  “Damn.” Mark whispered when the first thing he pulled out was a large butcher knife. Holding it up and looking at it in the light he saw what looked like dried blood on it wondering if it was Alice's or her cousin's. He shivered slightly and handed it to Tom who took a look at it without saying anything.

  When Tom tried handing it to Jamie she shook her head. There was no way she was going to hold the knife when she knew it had been used to kill someone. Tom shrugged his shoulders and put the knife down on the bed beside him.

  “You guys don't feel a little freaked out about holding onto something that was used to kill innocent women?” She asked them softly.

  “Of course it freaks us out Jamie. We have to do this, we have to see if there is anything else in here. That the police can take with them. We don't need it, it could be valuable evidence and the police will thank us for going in there and finding this. Though I am sure they will lecture us at the same time.” Mark told her, he wasn't mad at her but he didn't think that she realized just how hard it was for him to go through the bag. The bag that he so badly needed that cost his girlfriend her life.

  “Before we got to the trailer do you remember what you and Kellie talked about?” Jamie dared to ask him thinking about what Tom had said in the car.

  “Sure, we talked about wanting to help the police find out who killed those two girls. Hoping that we would find something, anything that would help solve the case. It sounded like she was really excited, almost like solving a mystery.” Mark didn't have a problem telling her the last thing that they had talked about.

  “Well, she got what she wanted. That knife is a good start I would say, if this can be solved she wold have known that she had died for a reason.” Tom pointed out to him, hoping that he didn’t' sound insensitive but she would be looking down at the success and looking down on them when the killer was finally apprehended.

  “I know. Well, I hope wherever she is she's not in pain anymore. That's how I look at it. Just pray that she wasn't tortured before she was killed.” Mark groaned as he took out another few knives that were much smaller then the butcher knife.

  Mark didn't even look at them, he just handed them to Tom when he saw that it looked like there was a book in the bag. The reason why it would be so heavy.

  “Wow, I can't believe this. I am not sure if I can even look.” Mark pulled out a black, leather, photo album that had the word 'Victim' on it.

  “If you want to I can take a look at them.” Jamie drew in a breath and let it out slowly. Knowing that their had to be pictures in there. There would be no other reason of why someone would put that on the front of an album.

  “Sure.” Mark told her, handing over the album. He was too chicken to take a look. Wondering just how many victims this person had.

  “Sorry that this is so hard. We have to do this in order to find out what is going on. If we can find out what's going on. I think its only right that we take a look before handing it over to the police.” Jamie pointed out to him.

  “I agree with you.” Mark commented, nodding his head slowly as he watched her slowly flip the lid open.

  He watched her facial expression when she began looking at the pictures. Her face growing white and her mouth opening slightly but not letting any words come out.

  “What is it?” Tom asked when he noticed the silence in the room after putting the knives down on the bed beside the butcher knife.

  “The theory of praying that Kellie wasn't tortured might be out the window. I would love to think that her death was quick though w
e wish that she wasn't dead at all.” Jamie shook her head, looking at the pictures. She didn't lift her eyes from the album as she turned the pages.

  “Tell us what you see.” Tom told her softly, seeing tears roll down her face silently. She sniffled and wiped the tears off her cheeks.

  “It looks like that he beheads every one of his victims. I don't remember the police putting that in the reports for the news when it came to Alice and her cousin, do you?” She finally looked up at him when he moved away from Mark's bed and sat down beside her to take a look at the pictures.

  There was a picture of a woman's head that looked older then them. Her eyes glazed over from death. Staring up at them and it looked like her eyes were accusing them of not helping her. On another page Tom felt like he was going to be sick. Looking at another beheaded woman she had her eyes out of her sockets. Her face scratched up with cuts.

  “I think I've seen enough and so have you. If you keep looking at this then you're going to have nightmares the rest of your life.” Tom tried taking the album away from her but she held on tightly to it.

  “How do we know that he doesn't have pictures of Alice in here?” Jamie glared at him.

  “She was killed last night. Who would be able to develop pictures so quickly?” Tom asked her, tugging on the album as she held on tighter.

  “Someone who has their own camera's and developing room that's who.” Mark answered him quickly looking at the two fighting over the album.

  “I will just flip through until I get to the end. If there is anything in here of her then it would be at the back of the album. It looks like the person went in order of the kills they had done.” She told him as quickly as she could. Hoping to come to a compromise.

  “Fine.” Tom sighed heavily shaking his head firmly. He knew that if he didn’t' let her then she would be haunted for the rest of her life not knowing.

  Jamie nodded her head, it wasn't very often that Tom had let her win an argument but he knew that it was crucial time.

  He watched her flip through quickly until she got to the last page that had a picture. Seeing that there was plenty more pages to flip through. Knowing that it meant the killer wasn't done yet with so much left undone in their crazy mind.

  Jamie had been right. There was a picture of Alice's body. Dead in the gutter, the second picture underneath showed that she had been beheaded. A knife was driven through her head. Jamie prayed that it had happened after she was dead. Hoping that she didn't endure so much pain as the picture showed.

  She looked at the width of the blade showing in the picture and then looked at the knives that were on the bed beside Mark and saw that it was the same butcher knife in the picture that was laying on the bed. Thinking that it had to of been Alice's blood on the blade.

  “Okay, okay I'm done.” She told him hurriedly, slamming the album shut and shoving the book into Tom's arms.

  Jamie's cell phone rang and she saw that it was the police. She answered it quickly and handed the phone to Mark so that he could explain what was going on.

  Tom went over to the bed as Mark paced the floor between the two beds and zipped the bag back up after putting the photo album in, the last thing he put into the bag.

  “Who would do something so awful and then want to take pictures?” Jamie muttered, getting under the brown blanket on the bed.

  “I don't know, I just don't know. Someone who needs some serious help.” Tom whispered to her. Shaking his head back and forth slowly.

  “Why wouldn't they say anything about the beheading on the news? The police obviously know that detail.” Jamie was so frustrated with the cops knowing that the public had the right to know what was going on with the case.

  “Maybe because they are waiting for someone to come forward. If the not the killer then someone who knows the killer. There are certain things that they keep out of the public’s view in in order to sift out the weirdo's that call in on something like this. I am sure that they have gotten plenty of calls and they are just waiting for the right one. People talk, whether it be about robbing or killing someone its all the same. When they talk I hope that the person they tell goes to the police.” Mark explained to her as he got off the phone and handed it back to her.

  “What did they say?” Tom asked him.

  “I told them where we are and they are going to be over here in a half hour or so. They didn't seem to happy when I told them that we have some evidence for them. When Charles asked me how we got a hold of something so important I had to go into detail about what we did and what happened to Kellie. They are going to have police search the woods, the told me that they were going to have a crew out there as soon as they got off the phone with me.” Mark gave him the details of the conversation.

  “Did they say we are in trouble?” Jamie's eyes grew wide. The last thing they needed to do was go to jail. Sure maybe that would be the safest place for them but she didn't want to be in jail and then have the community think that they had done something wrong or to have to explain to her own parents why she was sitting in a cell.

  “No. I don't think that they would arrest us. We are helping them out a lot right now. If it weren't for us going in there I don't think that they would have the information we have right? I mean I am sure that they would check all the wooded areas around the crime scene but not quick enough. Now that they know that something happened out back of the trailer they are going there right now.” Mark muttered.

  “I would assume that they have other police departments helping them we have a small department. They are going to need some kind of help.” Tom told him.

  “Oh I'm sure that they have the FBI and the government out there looking. I don't think they are messing around with this.” Mark agreed with him, setting the bag on the floor beside the stand that separated the beds.

  “They are going to have to call in more people when they see those pictures.” Jamie told him.

  “I wish that I could have looked at them to know what you were talking about but I just couldn't bring myself to look. I know what beheaded means but you are a lot stronger then me, I just couldn't look.” Mark felt disappointed in himself.

  “Don't be so hard on yourself. If I didn't look it would bother me the rest of the night wishing that I had. Some people can handle it and some people can't.” Jamie shrugged her shoulders. She didn't feel like Mark was afraid of looking at pictures that couldn't hurt him. She wanted to let him know that its all in how the person is. It didn't mean that he was weak.

  “So what do we do now?” Tom asked looking at the both of them.

  “I am going to look up Chad Porter on the computer and see where he is when the police leave. Something to do. I can't get it out of my mind.” Jamie told him, looking over at her laptop case.

  “Lets hope that its not him, maybe it will ease your mind if you find out that its not. I don't know how I would feel if a classmate of mine went on a killing spree.” Tom told her, giving her a hug.

  “He was always picked on though. Not by Alice, I think she just had enough of him pestering her. Maybe he has his own family now and living out his dream. Who knows, but I would like to think that he didn't turn psycho because of how he was treated back in school. Lots of people use to play mean tricks on him like tripping him up in the hall on our way to classes. But it wasn't just girls so say if he has something to do with it you would think that he would have a list of people who had done him wrong back in school and would have gone on a killing spree of men and women instead of just women.” Jamie thought about it for a minute.

  “So the kid had it rough.” Mark nodded his head.

  “I don't think rough enough to sit there and wait a few years to get his revenge. You would think that he would have fought back when we were in school.” Jamie was confused about that part.

  “Always expect the unexpected.” Tom shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to rule anything out. “He could have been waiting until someone least expected it. People who hold stuff like that in
get angry if they don't get it out.” Mark pointed out to her. Hoping that they found out about the guy she was talking about.

  “I guess.” She muttered and brought the blanket up all the way to her chin. Praying that they weren't killed off next. She was scared to die and not to mention the pain that was going to go along with it after seeing the photo's.

  There was a knock on the door before Tom could lay down beside her and comfort her. He looked out the shade and saw that the clouds were getting darker, it looked like rain was headed their way.

  “The cops.” Tom told them, going to the door and opening it for them. Letting them in he shut the door behind them.

  “We want to say first off, we don't know what we are looking at but as much as we are thankful for your help we can't have you kids getting in the middle of this.” Davidson told them softly. Looking at the bag that was on the floor.

  “We talked about it on the way over here. If you kids have to call about one more thing that you have found then we are going to have to lock you up for your protection. Its a fair warning.” Charles quickly told them after Davidson talked to them.

  “We know this. We were just trying to see if we could find anything out.” Jamie glared at Charles. Thinking that it was a fair warning when Davidson had told them, they didn't need to have it repeated.

  “You guys lost someone you loved because of getting involved.” Charlie told her harshly.

  “We know this. We aren't stupid, we know that it wasn't a wise thing to do but when were you going to tell the public that the victims heads were cut off?” She got up from the bed, getting really mad at him.

  She took the bag and handed it over to Davidson. Davidson watched as Tom went to go put his arms around Jamie. More or less making sure that she didn't do anything she might regret later. Though Davidson thought in the back of his mind it would do Charles some good to get punched once in a while so that he would watch his own mouth.

  “We can't tell them. You guys can't tell them either. How do you know about that?” Charles squinted at her.