Her Secrets

Chapter 17

I wanted to do a victory dance when I stepped inside that office. It was a medium size office with a glass wall separating the meeting room in the far right corner. Other space occupied by five desks, Logan's desk at the head while other four desks faced each other in the middle. Every desk was filled with documents and files and they each had computers to work on. Four metal filing cabinets lined the wall on the left side with a water fiIter next to it. This office was better than I thought considering the fact that Logan and Richard came here only for this case.

All the things that related to recent murder cases should be here and if I was lucky I would be able to go through these documents before Richard arrived. 

Without wasting another time I walked towards Logan's desk and started to search the files. The first few files were not what I needed and I stopped when I found Levi's file again. For some reason I was nervous but I knew I had to read his statement If I wanted to know what had happened that day with Megan.

I found his statement on the very first page.

'I went out that night for a smoke. I knew Brittany and her death was not something I could get over with easily. So that was why I was alone. I wanted to clear my head from everything that was going on.

I told Jake before I left and when I got outside I walked towards the alleyway behind the bar since it was pretty crowded in the front. I was about to light up my cigarette when I felt someone coming up behind me. Instantly I turned to face the person and nearly missed the knife when she attacked me.

I could tell that it was a girl even though she wore a hoodie to cover her face. She was strong and we struggled a few times until we fell on the ground still fighting. The knife fell out from her hand and since it was dark we couldn't see where it was. I thought she would give up after she lost her knife, because there was no way she was going to win by fighting with an empty hand.

But I soon understood that I underestimated her when she found a rock and started to hit my head with it. After the first three hits I started to feel dizzy and I felt warm blood on the side of my head. I tried to get up but she hit me again so I stayed still thinking that she would leave me alone. But that was when she leaned in and whispered.

She said, "I'm NOT CRAZY, you son of a bitch! And don't think you know me. I don't kill someone without a reason and that's also why I'm going to let you live. Don't try to provoke me again and next time it will be the reason for your death"

After that she hit me again and I fell unconscious.'

I stared at the paper for some time. I remembered Logan asking Maddy whether she thought her sister was crazy! And I remembered Maddy's answer too. 'She's not crazy'. So did this mean that Logan did that on purpose? To provoke Maddy and get the reaction he wanted.

A sudden dizziness washed over me. If I was guessing correctly it was Maddy who attacked Levi that night and... and it was Maddy who killed Brittany too. No, no! What was I thinking? If that was true then Megan didn't kill herself too. No! My Maddy was not a killer. S... she couldn't even cut that dead frog on our table.

I clenched my hands, closing my eyes and I took a deep breath. Nothing had proved yet and there was chance that the killer could be Megan like she confessed in her suicide letter.

Her suicide letter! How could I forget about that?

I quickly scanned through files again looking for the analysis report. I found Megan's file and opened it, but was disappointed when I saw it had only her personal details and some other information. There were no autopsy reports or analysis reports.

I walked towards Richard's desk and started to go through his files again. I stopped when my eye caught a familiar name on a file. 'M. Brown?!' Was it Mark Brown? Maddy's father? Why was it here? Were they really trying to connect his death to Maddy?

But before I could open it I heard someone walk towards this room. I quickly sat down on the chair next to Richard's desk and took out my phone pretending that I was playing a game. My heart beat faster thinking that Richard would find out I went through his desk and also Logan's.

I looked up when I heard the door opening and felt relieved seeing that it was the officer who brought me here.

"Alex! Richard will be finished in twenty minutes. Do you need something to drink?" He gave me a warm smile.

Now that I think about it he recognised me first even though I didn't know who he was. And I didn't think it was a coincidence that he knew my name. He looked to be in his early thirties and he was definitely not from my town.

"I'm sorry! But do you know me? I don't remember you and you're not from my town either" I said apologising.

He smiled again and took a step further into the room, "I'm officer Leroy" he shook my hand, "it's no wonder that you don't remember me. You were ten years old when we first met"

But that answer only gave me more questions, "We met?! For what?" I was sure he was not a friend of my family. So if I had met him years back that meant he met me as a police officer.

"I met you when I started to investigate my first case. I remembered everyone and everything clearly because it was the first case I got to investigate after I joined the station here" he explained, "even though it happened eight years ago I still remember you and the boy who died. Because you two were best friends"

"What?!" I was surprised. I didn't have a friend who died, "What was that boy's name?" I was shaking inside.

He looked at me puzzled, "James Maxwell. You don't remember him?"

I shook my head violently to say no! My throat was dry and I felt sweat forming all over my body. I didn't remember him. If he was my best friend why didn't I have any memories of him?

"Shit!" I heard officer Leroy mutter, "are you okay, Alex?" He crouched down to my level, "I'm so sorry! I didn't think you still don't remember any of it" he started to apologise, "wait here! I'll bring your brother" he stormed off before I could stop him.

I stood up trying to reach the water filter so I could wet my dry throat. There was a slight dizziness but I managed to get there somehow. I drank two cups one after another of that cool liquid, giving me some comfort to awaken my body.

How was I supposed to find out about this boy named James? If I guessed correctly I think he was the first dead body that Richard talked about. But why didn't his name remind me of anything? Was it because I had lost my memory just like Leroy said? So that meant I had faced something that my mind was forced to forget so that memory wouldn't bring me any harm.

I pulled my hair out of frustration. My hands were already full with Maddy's case and now I had to find out what happened to James too.

No! James had to wait! He was already gone and Maddy was still alive. I needed to help her before I went digging into my own past.

My eyes landed on the 'evidence board' inside the meeting room. Some people call it 'crazy wall' or 'murder map' and that board was covered with photos and hand written details of recent incidents. I debated for a second about what to do. Richard could walk through that door in any minute. And I would be a fool if I missed this opportunity to read their evidence board. It was like a summary of hundreds of pieces of evidence and other documents in one place and it would help me to figure out any missing details.

I walked in without wasting any time and took photos of the board as much as I could. There were photos of Brittany, Levi, Megan and Maddy with another two people whom I didn't recognise. There were arrows pointing from them to Maddy who had her photo in the middle under the title which said the main suspect.

I took a closer look at the other two photos. First one belonged to a man and I recognised the name M. Brown, Maddy's father. The second photo belonged to a young boy and his name was J. C. Maxwell.