If Only She Knew

27. Departure

One year ago...

Another year had passed and it was now January 2017. The VELLA cases, as they've come to be known came on strong like a fist against UK.

Head detective Archie Carolan was dead, which was like a dare against the National Police Force, and, meanwhile, his killer was ruled out to be Derek Brown and, implicitly, the VELLA who pushed Derek into it.

The ten VELLA operators had been murdered and then an assassin was murdered while trying to kill one of the VELLA victims in London...

The crimes just went in a circle, Ariana though, as she was doing paperwork back in the team quarters. She was lucky to be ambidextrous and that she could type with her left hand just as well, or she would be doing it with her tongue.

But, was this circle really a circle?

Michael really went out of his way to take his revenge on her this time, she cursed.

He revoked her going out on investigations for a month as a sort of punishment, the devil. That was painful.

"How're you faring there Ariana?" Mike came around and as she saw him, she stuck her tongue out at him even if it wasn't very lady-like, and started typing faster, etching her fingertips into the keyboards.

"I'm doing perfectly, Sir."

You shouldn't date your team leader, they said, but she did. Oh, how she regretted it all now, because it felt as if it was a few weeks ago, not over a year ago.

Wish the murderer got to him, she caught herself thinking even against herself as she typed. She wasn't even doing work, she was looking into the VELLA cases.

She didn't tell anyone but Ariana could bet that the entire VELLA thing was somehow related to the Big B. serial killer. She couldn't see it yet how, but she was sure.

She was sure Derek Brown didn't commit suicide and that he was framed.

She just couldn't see why. Why?

Because the killer was so good and made virtually no mistake, she couldn't understand his motivation. Why was he killing?

It drove her almost to biting her nails. She hated that she couldn't understand it. After so many months, so many suspects interrogated, so many deaths, she knew nothing.

If only she knew...

"What are you doing Ariana?" Mike came behind her, clicking his heels.

Skillfully and nimbly she quickly changed the things displayed on her screen right under his eyes.

"I'm writing a property crime report you see," she said while showing him her report. She had copied and pasted an older report from another case lest he came to check on her and caught her red-handed. She only slightly modified the names, dates and locations.

She was planning on doing the real work later but right now she couldn't focus.

"Hmm," he cleared his voice suspiciously as he left. Phew, she sighed inwardly. As soon as he disappeared in another room she quickly rummaged until she found that database.