Chapter 37: He Knows I Died

Chapter 37: Chapter 37: He Knows I Died

The police had a new lead, and I anxiously hurried over.

My memory of my own death is hazy. After waking up from unconsciousness only to pass out again, some of my memories blurred together.

All I know is that I was drugged and knocked unconscious in the Street Alley. When I came to, I was in a dimly lit warehouse, tossed into a crude wooden shipping crate.

The crate was filled with straw, as if it was meant for holding porcelain or other fragile items.

Zeke Shaw discovered an iron-barred gate in the southeast corner of the orphanage, hidden by overgrown weeds. The gate was rusted, but the grass showed clear signs of frequent foot traffic, and the lock had been recently replaced.

"We searched this area last time, but the weeds were too high. You’d never find this place if you weren’t looking closely."

Zeke Shaw’s colleague said in amazement.

Zeke Shaw glanced around, his eyes landing on Asher, who had somehow already gotten into the yard. "When did he get over there?"

"Who knows? The kid’s as slippery as an eel. He was over there in a flash." The colleague looked exasperated. ’With moves like that, you’d think he could scale walls.’

Madeline and I followed Zeke Shaw as he pried open the lock and entered the yard.

It was a courtyard-within-a-courtyard at the abandoned orphanage, the kind of place where the director or other important staff would have lived.

The yard was spacious and, having been abandoned, looked rather desolate.

Frightened, I stuck close to Madeline Quinn. She was always braver than me, so she’d always walk ahead, no matter what.

’I... I think this is where they brought me after they knocked me out.’ I was now beginning to suspect that the serial killer wasn’t working alone.

’Asher definitely has an accomplice.’

’He’s a murderer. He’s just too good at pretending, and everyone is fooled by his looks and that innocent face of his.’

"He’s a murderer! He’s a murderer!" I screamed, losing control and rushing into the room.

The room was long since empty, now used as a small warehouse filled with wooden shipping crates.

My breath hitched. I looked all around me. ’This is it. This is where that person locked me up when I woke up.’

’This is where I saw Asher’s face.’

’He was frantically looking around, searching for something, and then he picked up an axe from the floor...’

I frantically searched the room and finally spotted the axe in a corner. There were still dried bloodstains on it.

"Captain Lowell, there’s an axe over here."

Zeke Shaw walked over and surveyed the area. "There are drag marks, but this isn’t the primary crime scene."

"There are restraints here, and scraps of fabric."

"A few strands of hair in this crate."

The medical examiner, a senior of Madeline Quinn’s from school, carefully examined the scene, determined not to miss a single clue.

On the wooden crate I’d been trapped in, the medical examiner found a few strands of hair, snagged and pulled out by the nails.

’That’s my hair. It got pulled out when I tried to escape.’

’I remember groggily climbing out, trying to escape, only to have my hair yanked back. A person in a hoodie covered my mouth and nose, and I lost consciousness again.’

’The next time I woke up, I was lying on something cold, like an operating table... My blood was being drained from my body as he injected some other fluid into me.’

’I couldn’t see the killer. All I could do was lie there in despair, feeling my blood drain away, my soul slowly detaching from my body.’

’The next time I was conscious, I was already... dead.’

’For some reason, my soul woke up in the Fletcher family’s home.’

’I still don’t know where the primary crime scene—the place I was actually killed—is.’

"Captain Lowell!" Julian Fletcher’s voice called out to Zeke Shaw from outside.

Zeke Shaw went outside and saw Julian Fletcher, his face deathly pale, pointing toward a corner.

A pair of blood-stained shoes and socks lay carelessly discarded in the corner. "These... are Cece’s."

His voice was trembling.

’He’s started calling me Cece, instead of spitting out the name Cecilia Caldwell with disgust.’

’But hearing him say it now just makes me sick.’

"Judging by the available evidence..." Zeke Shaw trailed off, looking at Madeline Quinn. "I’m sorry... Based on our professional experience, Celia Lynch... has, in all likelihood, been murdered."

Madeline Quinn’s breath hitched, her legs went weak, and she collapsed.

The medical examiner reacted instantly, catching Madeline Quinn. "Madeline, Madeline!"

I stood there, crying my heart out, with no idea how to comfort her.

’I’m okay, Madeline. It wasn’t that painful.’

’I just... experienced a despair unlike anything I’ve ever known.’

"Julian..." Over on the side, Julian Fletcher was also unsteady on his feet, his body swaying.

’I couldn’t tell if he was acting, but I found it laughable.’

"Impossible... She can’t be dead," he kept muttering under his breath.

"Captain Lowell! We’ve found a major lead!" A female officer ran in from the courtyard, looking frantic. "All of the known female victims... they were all adopted from this orphanage. Every one of them was either an orphan or a child abandoned by their parents."