Violent Eulogy

Six

Day One

I wake up, feeling energized and happy. My mind gives me two minutes of peace and joy, remembering the great sex of last night, before reminding me of what went down after. I groan and roll in my bed. Letting out a sigh.

Damn it. I can't catch a break.

Yesterday my problems were a sneaky burglar and a ghost, they very much faded in comparison to my today's problem.

To kill or not to kill.

I stretch my arms and get out of bed, deciding to at least try to save the poor man's life, when a sudden realization hits me.

Last night I was absolutely sure I wouldn't be able to figure out his motives, I thought that was proved to be a waste of time.

But I had something neither Erin nor Ash had.

I had a name. The name of someone who was going to be the fourth victim.

I had a new link to try and connect.

Maybe, and just maybe, I really could save that poor man from myself.

I smile to myself as I leave the house, and a weak voice reminds me that the ghost is gone.

I start my day by reporting to Erin about last night's interrogation- God that sounds so faraway- and tell her I'll spend the day talking to neighbors and see if they saw some weird activity.
She nods and wishes me luck, which is weird since I expect her to tag along, but she doesn't.

As soon as our talk is finished and I've made sure that she wouldn't bother me, I dive back to my chair and try to dig as much as I can about Charles Bridge.

I read his file carefully,Charles Thomas Bridge, 42 years old, former docks worker, spent six years in jail for stabbing someone in a bar brawl. Alcoholic and violent. This dude was a real tool. As horrible as it may sound, the burden on my shoulders was a bit removed as I saw the world wasn't gonna miss out on much. The question that was popping in my head relentlessly was why would he want Bridge dead? They seem to be cut out of the same cloth, got answered as I read the next passage on his file.
His physical appearances.
He was Caucasian, 5'11 feet tall, had blue eyes and blond hair. He was the older, more beat up version of the boy I met and got threatened by last night.

Charles Bridge was his dad.

He wanted me to kill his dad.

I scoured his file for details, and find out he married a sixteen year old waitress named Shannon Jones when he was 21. Few months later she gave birth to a boy, Weston Charles Bridge, and ran away from the hospital, leaving them both and never looking back. Or at least that's what he said to the police after he was arrested and his eight year old son was taken by the social services.

There isn't much on his file to indicate what happened to him after he got out of the jail, the only updates were that he never wished to visit or know about his son, and few years ago he was admitted to a hospital for blunt head trauma, probably during another bar brawl. No charges were pressed and there wasn't a case made for it.

I sit there in silence for a while, reading the file again and again for clues, until the lines turn blurry before my eyes. I let out a deep breath and shut down the monitor as I hear foot steps approaching.
Captain stands beside me, trying to hide the concern in his eyes: "How's it going with the Fitzroy case?"

Oh, the Fitzroy case. That had skipped my mind.

I give him a little smile: "I'm checking the traffic cameras to see if I can detect a plate number that doesn't belong to the neighbors. That neighborhood is pretty exclusive, their cars are pretty obvious and I think if I put enough time on it, it might be an actual lead.

That was actually my plan to go through with, once I was done with my little side project of course.

He nods, impressed: "Sounds good, keep me posted."

I don't even bother getting offended. I was the girl who was deemed unfit for her job, and he brought me back anyway. He'll get whatever the hell he wants from me. Updates on my case? Sure. Working as a lackey for another obviously less talented detective? Sure. He can have the full timetable of my bowel movements if he wants to.

I make sure he has left before turning the monitor on, this time running another name on the database.