THE THIRTEENTH DAY - BOOK 1

Copycat?

Two weeks had passed since Tyler broke up with Cassie and everyday since then had been miserable; each day was filled with her tears, sad thoughts, and hoping that he would call her and say he regretted his decision. She isolated herself, and the only thing that made her want to get up everyday was the case. She did not reach out to any of her friends, she skipped meals and a couple classes because it was incredibly hard for her to focus in an environment filed with people that were angry at her. The only person that made an attempt to greet her occasionally was Danny, and while she was grateful for his attempt, it did nothing to make her feel any better.

She had visited Matt a few times at the hospital, making sure to only visit him when she was sure her other friends were not there. Sometimes he seemed to be recovering, and other times he looked like he had a long way to go before he would get any better.

She continued researching on the case quietly like she promised Brady. She hadn't received any more threats which gave her some peace of mind. She continually tried to look up information on burned roses, but in all her search she could not find anything significant, she also checked to see if any similar deaths had happened in the past, and after hours of research she stumbled upon an article and its contents grabbed her full attention.  It was dated 14th June 2004, which was ten years ago. The article was about a twenty-year-old college student named Rose Bryson who was stabbed thirteen times in the chest with a knife, her body was found at the scene of a college party on the thirteenth of June. When she was found a burned rose entwined in her blonde hair. It also stated that the murderer was never found and that the case had been closed after five years.

"Oh my God," Cassie exclaimed loudly"these murders have happened before, ten years ago" she said to herself, and talking to herself was something she had never done before. She smiled widely, extremely pleases with herself for discovering important information.

She looked up the name Rose Bryson and was able to find a few photos of her online, she was incredibly beautiful; blonde hear, blue eyes, plump lips. Cassie dug deeper to see if there were any similar murders that year, but nothing. It was very different from the Freetown murders.

She looked to find other articles on Rose's case, it was hard to find anything because the murder happened a really long time ago. Fortunately for her, she stumbled upon another article, which had a lot more information. In the article it was said that Rose attended a party thrown by her boyfriend, she left the party early with her boyfriend and he returned about an hour later without her, two hours after he returned Rose's body was discovered by her best friend Irene Andrews, and her boyfriend Peter Wood was taken in for questioning but they couldn't find anything that linked him to the murder and so he was set free. It also stated that everyone suspected him to be the killer, and it was speculated that his wealthy parents helped cover his crime. Cassie scrolled up to note the name of the journalist that published the article, but it was an anonymous writer. She looked at the date it was posted and oddly enough the article was posted only ten months ago.

Cassie re-read the article to see if she could find anything else, and she did. Rose's boyfriend's name rang a bell; Peter Wood, she knew she had heard that name before, and recently. She thought long and hard before the answer came to her.  Peter Wood was Brady's colleague, Peter Wood was Rose's boyfriend, he was a suspect. She cursed loudly and reached for her phone and dialed Brady's. It rang a few times before he picked up.

"Hello," he said in a raspy sleepy voice that Cassie thought was extremely sexy.

"Hey Brady it's Cassie, I'm sorry did I wake you up?" He said a few incoherent words which made Cassie roll her eyes, he must have been deep in sleep. "I'll let you sleep for a bit, I've found some important information on the case, give me your address and I'll come by later in the day," she squealed. Telling him the news in person was much more exciting to her.