Under the Altswood Sky (The Altswood Saga #2)

Chapter 11 - Overture

Author's Note: When I was procrastinating writing this, I actually made a blog from the perspective of a tourist within Bottle Island, so when you stumble onto the link within the chapter, go check it out for bonus content and to look at the closest faces that I imagine the characters to be. (sorry guys, this is why I'm so slow at updating sometimes, I work on useless content no one actually asked for) Anyway, enjoy, and please leave me your thoughts <3

Chapter 11 - Overture

"Why would I put a disfigured mannequin in my own closet?" I demanded.

The clock ticked past midnight but we were still at the station, trying to work out the mystery that had just occurred. The last remaining officer grabbed his coat and shouted a farewell, leaving only Dad and me under a dim lamp.

"You said it yourself," I continued, "it was rigged to drop on top of me and pin me down, probably incriminating me further in the process, who knows? It's dumb luck that I saw it and left."

"It just doesn't check out," Dad said with a heavy sigh. "And look, you've been losing chunks of time recently—"

"When I lose chunks of time, I stand there staring into space," I interrupted. "I don't disfigure mannequins, and I sure as hell wouldn't shove them in my own closet."

"Luca, the preliminary examination can only find your DNA."

"So I was set up," I spat. "Oh my god, I can't believe we're having this discussion. Have you considered that maybe the report was changed?"

"Report?" Dad repeated, furrowing his eyebrows. "I was the one who dusted that thing for fingerprints."

I emitted a low shriek of frustration. If only Gabriel was here to back me up, to make me sound less insane, but Dad had sent him home after a passive-aggressive phone call from the Mayor.

"Hear me out, okay?" I said slowly. I pressed my hands against the desk. "Dad, you've always believed me, even when what I say sounds ridiculous. This might possibly be the most important ridiculous thing I've ever said, so I just need you to listen to me for five minutes, and then you can make up your mind."

He frowned, but didn't argue.

I grabbed a notepad to start drawing my diagram. 
"Let's go back a few months." I drew an arrow at the top of the page. "Rebekah claimed that she never killed Manny, and yes—I know you keep saying that she was squirming out from a larger sentence, but doesn't it kind of make sense if she didn't do it?"

I scribbled Rebekah's MO and circled it. "Rekebah never killed in public, or in places where she could be easily spotted. Shannon, Connor, and Larkin were caught in her giant explosions, so we have to disregard them, but in terms of her actual killing? Carter and Alicia were shot in dark areas, found long after they were dead. They had messages with their bodies as scare tactics. Birdy—" 

I paused, swallowing hard. "When Birdy and Maddison were shot, true, it was Manny's work, but he must have consciously followed Rebekah's pattern so they appeared as the same person." I drew a dark arrow away from the first circle. "That means Manny's death, smack bang in the middle of giant crowd where anyone with a wandering eye could have seen the shooter, defies it. And you always said to watch out for patterns that are broken."

"Yes, but Loosh," Dad said tiredly, "it makes sense. Manny was about to reveal his blackmailer. Rebekah must have been acting in panic so he didn't say her name."

I pointed the pen at him. "Now that's what I don't get. We knew Manny had a blackmailer who was the mastermind killer, so why did no one ever put two and two together and remember seeing Rebekah and Manny meeting? It's a small town. When anything is out of the ordinary, talk spreads, right? But Maddison was the only one who ever threatened him with telling Daphne about the gray girl—" I made quotation marks with my fingers. "—and the only logical reason I can think of is that they only met once, when Maddison caught them. Which means..."