Mary's Bones

TWO

My brother had always been the outspoken sibling. The twin who shared all of his deepest secrets with me, even though I never asked for them. When he was alive, he used to tell me all about the cases he and John were working on. Of course, that didn't include confidential information, but still—I thought I knew Cory in and out like the back of my hand.

I understood, however, that was the furthest from the truth. Because here I was trying to figure out what my brother was being so secretive about that he kept it to himself.

This had been the third time leaves crunched under my boots as I mindlessly strolled in the same direction. The arch of my feet throbbed, and my head hung low. A sigh slipped from under my breath as I looked over the notes again.

Maybe I had it all wrong. I could have been misreading his message on the map. But no, this was exactly where the little black dot led to—a small open area in the dirt. The area was in between the trees in the middle of the woods, where vultures were often known for circling, and there were barely any patches of grass.

Whatever the case, the fact that I was going in circles with the vultures irked my nerves. I had seen so many of them that I wondered if there was a nest around here somewhere. Most likely.

"Urgh, Cory, what does any of this mean!?" I grumbled and kicked a pebble in front of me.

Even with a map in my hands, I was being dragged on a scavenger hunt to nowhere. This was definitely something up Cory's alley. Cory loved scavenger hunts. Whenever my parents held an Easter egg hunt on Easter Sundays, he was the first to begin hunting. That was part of the reason he chose to become a homicide detective. If he could piece the clues together, he was all for it.

There was no way in hell I could determine what his purpose for this map was at this rate. The files didn't help much either. There were just a bunch of pictures of children who all had a similar facial structure and similar background information on them. Other than that, they were in no way connected. Some parts of the files were hard to read since they were old and worn out. So, I couldn't tell if these girls were from murder cases, missing cases, or whatever.

"Geez, you're so weird, Cory. . ." I groaned.

Did his name just leave my lips? Well, shit, I guess it did. I couldn't remember the last time I said his name. I could only remember the times I tried. During the first two weeks after his death, I stammered every time his name was on the tip of my tongue.

Prior to preparing for the funeral was the very first time it started. My mother nearly broke down at the casket choosing when the Mortician spoke of Cory's name. She couldn't handle the viewing, so I'd been the one to assist my father. It took a lot not to break down too.

Because two weeks had already passed, Cory's body was already decaying. His fairly light brown skin tone was growing pale. The pores of his skin held cracks, spreading inch by inch beneath his body hair. Two perfectly circular bullet holes peered out from the white sheet as his chest remained on display.

He'd always been the lighter one of us. My mother had always joked it was because of my father's lighter skin complexion because it certainly wasn't hers. My mother's skin was dark, and mine was just a few tones behind her. No one would have expected Cory and I to be fraternal twins. No one's first impression was that he was Black either. He'd always been mistaken for mixed-race.

"We're going to find who did this to Cory. . ." Police officers told us those words the night he was rushed to the hospital.

John had been so messed up in the head that he was removed from the case. The suspects were found less than a week later. The store cameras caught them running out the front entrance with most of the cash register's money and my brother's life. It was all a matter of bad timing for Cory. He was caught in the crossfire and paid for it in the most gut-wrenching way possible.