If Only She Knew

28. The Killer's Desire

One month ago...
Unknown Point of View

They sat in the snow, looking at the landscape. The Cairngorm Mountains were drowned in white and a snowstorm was taking place a bit farther away from them as they sat on the peak of a slope overlooking the wooden cabins. There was a tele cabin going from up the hill, above them, running parallel with the slope.

Tay was very familiar with this place... He's lived some many moments here. He looked over at his girlfriend, all flustered, her cheeks reddened from the cold and her black hair tucked in her fluffy black cap and ski goggles as she sang softly. She had those cold, decided eyes that he knew no one could thwart.

He was the special one, and he liked to think he had the power, but in reality she did. His blue eyes that seemed to contain the whole ocean within them travelled the landscape and they landed on the few wooden cabins.

He looked over at her. She seemed exhausted. What they were about to do though, took some more strength and energy.

And he knew, it took her entire being. He was destroying her and somehow, helping her destroy herself. But she has consented to this, and was, even then, aware he wouldn't mind her stepping back even after everything they'd done. What they were about to do would change the country, forever. The world, even.

"How'd you think this is gonna end?" She made a slashing gesture with her ski pole in the snow. Her tone was wavering but her face was cold.

"This is gonna end the way you want it to," he assured her. He didn't want her in pain but he knew very well there was probably no way from saving her from herself.

*

One year ago...

A week later

Ariana felt the cold wind and snowflakes flow against her face as her hair flew in all directions, up on the mountain. She was then in Scotland, the Cairngorm mountains, Keith Mostafa's subordinate on his team of Scottish detectives. She had skied in these mountains in the past and wasn't exactly unfamiliar with this part of the world, but still new.

She and Joseph were housed in a really nice villa up on the slope, having a decent apartment with a good view to themselves. He also brought his cat, The Mistress along.

Right there, in the snow, skis in her hands, she felt her detective life was really beginning.

She would solve this case. She would catch this criminal... All while skiing and being in a winter wonderland vacation.

"What reason do you think the murderer would have to kill all those VELLA people?" a fellow detective on Mostafa's team, Damien, asked her, testing her.

She was new there and she was a blonde, so they had their doubts.

She again thought of how she knew nothing about this killer or the serial killer, and thus she couldn't tell his motivations.

Ariana looked at her new colleague Damien, a blond guy who was thirty. He had his skis in his hands too. Right there in the heaps of snow they were looking for evidence and other signs of VELLA and the murderer. Damien also loved skiing, and was good at it just like her, so they both decided to investigate like that.

Most people assumed the VELLA murderer didn't belong to the organization but somehow had history with it. Ariana though he could as well have belonged to VELLA in the past and now he was taking revenge.

"This killer seems to wear the trademark of the Big Bucharest serial killer. He kills the same way, except for the parade. And each person seems to have been killed individually while they were in different spots throughout the building."