As Evil As Murder

02 | Better Late than Dead

"Normality is a paved road, it's easy to walk but no flowers grow."
- Vincent Van Gogh
_________________________

"That must be preset to London's timeline." Gloria sighed, pointing at the pocket watch in my hand.

"Yeah, duh. Someone is obviously pulling a prank on me." I shrugged and looked around for a change of clothes. However bizarre the morning has been, I had to reach the university on time. I hated being late.

"Prank? Seriously? Lottie, you are 25. Who the hell would still be pranking you?" She asked, her hands on her hips while I rushed around the room to find everything.

"Someone who missed the chance in kindergarten?" I suggested with a small smile. "And don't call me Lottie."

I was trying to find humor in the situation but I knew something was off. First the weird texts, now this. If someone was pranking me, they were really invested in making me nervous.

The bell rang before she could open her mouth again.

"Must be the cops," I said smugly. She nodded and went downstairs to let them in.

I took that five minutes to instantly change into a purple t-shirt and shorts. I looked in the mirror, sighing. It was hard to say I'm 25 now. Time went by way too fast. It seemed like only yesterday when I was graduating from high school, and Gloria was cheering me on from the crowd. Now here I am, on one of the top writing programs in Prescott University and Gloria actually has a job! The changes seemed too extreme.

I put my hair in a ponytail and applied some concealer so no one would see the dark circles under my eyes. I didn't want Gloria or CJ to worry about my nightmares.

CJ was easily my closest friend. I knew her from high school but we only knew each other's names back then. Getting a spot in the same university with no other familiar face made us talk more. I soon liked everything about her, from her dyed pink hair to her tough love lectures. She is mostly in the music department while I'm in literature classes, so we hardly see each other, but we always know where the other person is. If the FBI needs to keep an eye on me, they don't need drones because CJ would do the job ten times better.

I skipped down the stairs and saw some cops taking statements from Gloria. I went beside her to fill them in.

The older cop in front nodded to me in acknowledgment. I assumed he was a senior inspector because others were acting anxious around him, and he was surrounded by the air of a guy who is always alert. I handed over the pocket watch while he introduced himself as Inspector Hawkins.

"He left this behind," I said, pointing at the watch and they placed it in a plastic bag.

"Thank you, we will look for possible fingerprints," Hawkins explained. "It's not necessary since we have his name but it could help in case he was lying."

Gloria nodded gratefully, while I observed him more. He seemed to be in his fifties, judging by his thin greying hair and slightly tired eyes. There was a big scar on his left arm which was begging for attention all by itself. He coughed pointedly, and I realized I had been staring at it for a long time.

"I'm sorry-?" I asked him politely because I had no idea what he just said or asked.

"I said keep an eye out for this unusual fellow. He could be dangerous." His voice was mixed with concern, and a tinge of annoyance but I decided to ignore it.

I spotted a cop at the doorway who looked way too familiar.

"Is that-?" I pointed to him over Hawkin's shoulder. "Is that- oh my God- Rex!"