After I lost you

Chapter 36: Death in the house

It was a cloudy, chilly morning, something quite strange because it was the last day of June. I was outside, watching the men working on the house when one of them, an old man named Bert, came towards me. "Miss, can you please tell old Billy we need him?" Bert asked me with a smile. "Sure, just wait here" I told him. I walked for minutes, trying to find old Billy but he was nowhere around there. 'Where can he be?' I thought. I saw another man painting the kitchen and approached him. "Paul, have you seen old Billy?" I asked him. "No miss, he didn't come here today. I think he is in the house." he told me "Thank you" I said and just then, I heard Thalia screaming. Worried, I walked as fast as I could towards the house and pushed the door.

Inside, Thalia was on her knees. I could hear her crying. Alan was next to her, trying to calm her down. I went next to them "What ha..." that was the only thing I could say by the time I was next to Thalia. She had blood on her hands and just in front of her was lying old Billy's body. His fingers and toes had been cut off, he had a knife in his throat and his whole body was covered in blood. I stood there, unable to say anything else. I started shaking like a leaf. "How..." I said with a shaking voice. "Thalia and I found him here. We don't know who did this." he said calmly. "Is he..." I asked, with tears falling from my eyes. "Yes..." Alan said and took a deep breath. Thalia was still shaking and crying. "Take her somewhere to sit" Alan advised me "I will go upstairs and try to find a sheet to cover him with" he said and walked up the stairs. "Come on" I said to Thalia and took her hand. "Sit" she sat on the couch. "He is dead..." she whispered. "I know, I know..." I said "He just..."

"Edith, you have to see this" Alan screamed from upstairs. I got up the stairs. "There" Alan told me, pointing next to old Billy's dead body. There was something written with blood. "YOU WEREN'T HERE SO I KILLED HIM INSTEAD" I read. "What can it mean?" Alan looked at me confused. I could only understand one thing. "Lucille..."