As Evil As Murder

18 | Even the Devil Needs Help

Imagine having a complete stranger in your house. Imagine him being a stranger to himself. How would I walk on eggshells around Lucas if I don't even know for sure he is lying?

I looked at the paper in my hand which contained all the questions I should work towards answering.

Who is Lucas Whitmore?

Who sent me death threats? Why?

What did Heath know? Why was he killed? Did it have something to do with me?

What was the massacre Elise was talking about? And where did the kids disappear into?

I decided to concentrate on the problem with the most questions, which was Heath. I needed to know more about him and I knew exactly how.

I took out my phone and scrolled up on Rex's texts. Like I recalled, there was a picture of the obituary from a newspaper which read,

Heath Declan.
(1995-2017)
Life is a resting place for sweet eternity.
Condolences to Mrs. Marisa Karim.

I tried to search for this lady on Google but all I found was tons of Facebook pages with people of the same name. Then I did the smart thing and took up Heath's page. It was kind of weird to look through a dead guy's social page, especially since there was a lot of we miss you, we loved you messages on his wall. I found it kind of funny. Did these people think that Heath was just scrolling through Facebook in heaven?

I went to his friends list and searched up Marisa Karim and boom, there she was, with a horrible picture of a rose as her profile picture, just like everyone old on Facebook. I quickly scrolled down, trying to find some kind of address. All I saw was a picture of their house.

The neighborhood seemed familiar and it hit me that I was looking at Jomper's lane, where Gloria and I usually stop for Antonio's milkshakes when we drive to the beach.

Ideas began forming in my head. Should I go talk to her? Of course, I shouldn't. But I literally had no other resource.

I breathed out, my eyes landing on the clock. 3.25 p.m.

Lucas and Gloria could be home any second, so I looked around one last time for any object out of place, anything that might raise suspicion that I was outside. Just while I was eating the last slice of pizza, I heard the front door opening.

"Damn it!" I whispered and threw the piece into the trash can wistfully. I probably could have just lied that I ordered them online but I had to pretend to be in a hurry if I needed to go see Marisa.

"Charlotte, we are home!" Gloria's voice yelled from afar.

"In the kitchen!" I responded shrilly.

A few footsteps later, Gloria poked in her head, observing the scene with shrewd eyes. It was the first day of me being at home, she must have expected a big mess, and was surprised by how everything looked too clean. I cleared my throat.

"How was your day?" I asked, smiling. She narrowed her eyes.

"Fine, why?"

"Can't I be nice?"

"No," she answered and I rolled my eyes. Lucas walked past the doorways with slumped shoulders and messy hair.

"Watson!" I called and he turned his neck, dreading whatever I was about to say. "I need to go somewhere, want to come with me?"

"Where?" Gloria asked sharply. I sighed, perfecting the lie in my head before verbalizing it.

"I need to hand in the documents for dropping out of college. The front desk said it needs to be there by five."