The Victimless Crime

Chapter 20: "An Answer"

Locke is left alone in the living room feeling the emptiness. He clenches his fist, sighs and turns to the books and papers on the floor. Though, a certain object catches his attention. On the floor, he picks up an orange lilies tainted with blood.

He walks to the guest room where Charles is. Charles managed to turn his head.

"She went out,"Locke said bitterly with a grimace on his face.

"It's best if you look for her," Charles said.

"She clearly said it's not my business," He puts the flower on the side table and grabs the first aid kit.

"Don't blame it on her, Locke,"

Locke doesn't answer unconvinced at all. He takes the first aid kit and stands up to put it on the cabinet.

"If you want to blame anything...blame it on the past and the bastards that brought her to her worst," Charles groans.

Locke stays standing in front of the cabinet letting the anger wash away. He takes a deep breath and finally turns to Charles. There's probably no point in getting mad.

"I've noticed it...since before, Oli keeps things from me,"

"It's only because she's scared, Locke,"

"Is...is there something I don't know, Charles? These days I feel like I'm talking to a wall. I know something is wrong, but she's not telling me,"

Charles groans and pushes him to slightly be able to leans his back on the headrest. "I'm not really someone to kiss and tell, but as you can see with my situation, I don't think I can actually do this alone. I'm out of option,"

Locke frowns. "What do you mean?"

"The suspect for your case," Charles takes the flower by the side table.

"She knows who it is,"

Locke doesn't answer.

"She knows who it is? If she knows then she should tell me at least or maybe give me a hint,"

"Oli knows enough to realize that this man will not simply give in to the police. He's a devil that's been lurking around for too long eating the innocent," Charles sighs. "However, she only believes that it is better to work on this alone than asking for help,"

"And why is that?"

"Because the man you are looking for is Oli's ex-boyfriend,"

"Someone like you?" Locke frowns.

"Much worse, Locke. Ever heard of a psychopath?"

*******

A victim is nowhere to be found. The mother said he was stabbed...but...but the mother may be lying. There are no- no blood identified. There are knife marks on the room. The victim seems to be correlated to that logo on his blazer. There's...he- I

Her mind is all over the place trying to put bullet points on what she knows. The sky grumbles as she continues to walk down the sidewalk. She paces quickly as if time is catching up on her, and if it did, she'll lose all her senses again. However, it seems she's losing all senses in her life.

Her mind tries to recap every piece of the puzzle they have, but it seems she always ends up jumbling them again. It doesn't make any sense!

Then, the sky grumbles once more. The atmosphere around her stills before the rain downpours. She stays still, letting the water blanket her every skin. Though, as she does, tears also falls across her cheeks letting the rain take it away from her.