Killer's Mistake

In many ways, Rosewell Heights was considered boring - same old white painted fences, the usual well kept green lawns. }All the neighbours knew one another, and newcomers were welcomed with open arms. Secrets never lasted long in Rosewell Heights, and all the residents were guilty of discussing the hottest new gossip that circulated during early morning chats. The town, however, wasn’t as boring as it seemed. Unbeknownst to the residents, they were harbouring a serial killer. Responsible for most of the town’s runaway teens and missing persons, he was a genius at getting away with the perfect crime. Until, that is, he made a mistake by the name of Emily Owens. She knows her friend’s death was no accident, but how far will she go to prove it?
~~~
On Friday night, past most children’s curfew, cars began pulling up in front of Patrick Wood’s huge, pristine villa over-looking Rosewell Heights’ biggest lake – the perfect place for a house party. The house itself had large iron gates, a circular drive through with a variety of flower gardens, multiple balconies and crystal chandeliers visible through the glass windows. Music vibrated through everyone as crowds of people made their way inside. Mrs. and Mr. Wood were away on business; there was no need to knock, the doors were open. Kids sauntered onto the premises with liquor, and cheers were heard throughout the household. That night the house contained most of the town’s teenage population, after all, who would miss the biggest party of the year?

Emily Owens, dressed in blue jeans she’d bought the day before, her favourite green sleeveless top that brought the amber specks out in her eyes, stepped out of her older brothers Escalade followed shortly by her closest friend, Jess Young. Jess had curled her hair only hours before and she could see they were starting to straighten out. Jess, who wore a plain black hoodie that covered most of her face, gaped at the place. “Wow, I feel deprived.”

Joshua Owens, Emily’s brother, who was desperately looking for his long-time crush, Amber Stone, stood beside the two girls. “Agreed.”

“He’s so freaking spoilt.” Emily muttered, observing the expensive property. Their small group glanced at her briefly, before returning their gazes to the vast area. After a few seconds they made their way inside the entrance, heading straight for the drinks.

“I’m going to look around now.” Joshua yelled over the booming noise of the party. Emily nodded an okay and took a sip of her drink, and grimaced at the stench of alcohol. She knew how wild Patrick’s parties could get, and she certainly knew the substance at fault for it. Emily had been to parties like this many times – but it was the first time this year she’d been to one. Jess had finally convinced her to come. Soon it was only the two of them standing apart from the crowd, although Jess found her concentration directed at her phone. Silence fell between them and minutes passed before Jess finally looked up at her, and Jess’ gazed settled on her friend. “I’m going to go now, I’m meeting someone.”

“What?” Emily asked, taken off guard. There was no way she was going to be left alone at the party. “You can’t, who are you going to meet? I’ll come with.”

Jess was quick to protest, “No, don’t worry and you’ll find out who later.” Emily didn’t respond but pursed her lips and looked away, the message was received loud and clear: I don’t want you to come.

Jess smiled sheepishly and, before skirting away, said, “Look, it’ll be fun, mingle. Also, I’m getting a lift home from someone else, so don’t wait up.”

“Okay.” Emily said stiffly, not that Jess heard. She’d already abandoned Emily for someone else. Well, they better be worth it, she thought. Emily wasn’t lonesome for long, because before another breath had passed her lips; she was greeted by the presence of Jason Wells. She’d seen him around before – but only in passing. They weren’t the kind of people that mixed. He was a genius; some people claimed he was a maths prodigy. He had an older brother – Wade, was it? Wade was a rookie cop, and he’d moved away from Jason’s house five years before. Since Jason’s parents were barely ever around, he’s practically been living on his own. Jason’s gaze settled on her, and although he was acting normal, something seemed different about him. “Hey, Em, have you seen Jess?”

Emily raised an eyebrow, curious. “Sorry, Jess isn’t here right now; would you like to leave a message?”

His sheepish face told her that he’d heard her hint of sarcasm. He’d been glancing around the room their whole, short two-second conversation. It was obvious he was looking for Jess, but as far as Emily knew, Jess had never mentioned him.

“Okay, sorry,” He replied, “Do you know where she could be?”

“Nope, not a clue.” Emily was definitely not about to tell basically a random stranger where her friend might be, even if she herself didn’t know.

“Maybe,” Emily joked, “she’s hiding in your tooth collection.” Everyone knew that Jason had an unusual fetish for teeth, and had a whole collection dedicated to it, no one knew where he got them from. Jason, however, just ignored her – presumably not finding the humour in her comment.

He stepped back, still searching the crowds of people. “Okay, see you around then.” He turned around and weaved his way through everyone, and Emily lost sight of him as he passed by Lexi Tanner, another friend of Emily’s. Lexi waved and made her way towards her. Emily had known Lexi for years; she was the first person Emily knew in high school. She was wearing a clean white low-cut dress, which stopped just above her knees. It hugged her figure nicely, in all the right places.

Lexi had finally made it within talking distance to Emily and had opened her mouth to speak when the music swiftly cut off. Silence danced around the room for seconds before a shrill yell echoed around the room. “Police!”

The room erupted in chaos before Emily could intake another breath. Panicked yells flooded the room as everyone tried desperately to escape. We all knew Patrick Wood holds a lot of power, but Rosewell Heights Police Force wasn’t one that would let money persuade them. Emily scampered towards a door that was positioned near her, and tightly gripped Lexi’s hand while hauling her towards it. She pushed past others as they hurried out the door. Hearing no complaint from Lexi, she veered towards the parking lot running fast and blind. She spotted her brothers face dive into his car and made her way towards it, diving in with as much force and energy as her brother had. She looked at her friends face, illuminated by a nearby streetlight, ashen. She looked like she was going to throw up.

Joshua briefly glanced in the rear view mirror at the girls. “Where’s Jess?”

“Oh, um,” Emily gasped, breathless, “Catching a ride with someone else.” Her brother nodded before pulling away from the mansion and swerved quickly away from the iron gates. He peeled onto the main road and kept his hands attached to the wheel, nervously glancing back and forth – as if the cops were following.

“Slow down,” Lexi’s strangled voice muttered, “The last thing we need is a speeding ticket.”

Joshua visibly relaxed at the wheel, but his eyes remained trained on the road. “Yeah, you’re right.” Silence lapsed around us during the journey to Lexi’s house. In fact, the only noise that broke the silence is a scraping cough from Lexi, which was politely ignored. When we reached Lexi’s house she stepped out with a whispered ‘thank you’ and wave, before her figure disappeared behind a wooden door.

“So,” Emily said, “d’you have fun?”

“Yeah, you?”

“Yeah.” After that, the conversation fell silent once again. It remained this way even after they vacated the car, and they made their way to bed for the night, sleeping soundly.
~~~
It was three days later, Monday morning, and Emily was heading for school when she heard a short knock at the door. She opened it, and was taken back to find two police officers standing in front of her. One woman, 6’3 ft and a man, 5’9 ft were standing stiffly in front of her. “Miss Owens, may we come inside?”

“Yes, of course,” She stood back and ushered them in. “What is this about?” The two cops glanced at each other.

“Miss, unfortunately, we are not here under good circumstance. One of our officers found Jess Young’s body this morning. It appears she drowned in the lake while at the party she attended on Friday night. We understand you were close, correct?”
Emily’s throat closed, but a muffled ‘correct’ escaped. In the minutes that passed the two police officers asked her a series of questions, and she answered them robotically.

“Do you know if she was under the influence?”

“Has she suffered any depressive thoughts?”

“Was she using?”

“We believe her death was an unfortunate accident, and there seems to be no foul play involved, nothing is at fault except circumstance. Unless any new evidence comes forward to prove otherwise, the case will be closed. Thank for you time, Miss.”

They left quickly, and all was quiet. Emily’s thoughts were racing. She shivered, her eyes squeezed shut, and her breathing laboured. Jess is dead? Her heartbeat was erratic; would she still be dead if Emily hadn’t waited for her? She knew she should have waited. She slowly slid down the door, and her eyes stung. Three days after the party, Monday morning, Jess was no longer heading to school. Instead, she curled up in front of her front door and burst into white hot tears, and sobbed while her brother, who was listening silently from another room, comforted her. That day, nobody wondered where she was, the news was spreading like wild fire and the rumours were catching. This wasn’t the first time a member of their community had died as suddenly as Jess did, Jess was just an extra tally.

~~~

Emily and Lexi sat side by side on Emily’s bed. While Emily’s eyes were stained red, Lexi’s held sympathy as she gazed at her friend still reeling from Jess’ death. Lexi had arrived shortly after she heard the news, with Emily’s favourite chocolate chip cookies. Since then, they’d been sitting in silence, each wrapped in their own thoughts of remorse. They thought of all the things they could’ve done that just might’ve helped their friend.

“You know what’s really bugging me?” Emily said, wiping angry tears from her eyes. Lexi looked at her heavily; this was the first she’d spoken since she’d arrived. “What?”

“They say that she went swimming and the tide or whatever disrupted her and she . . . drowned. But Jess if terrified of water, so tell me why the hell she would just go and take a leisurely swim in a freaking lake?!”

Lexi eyed her evenly, “What are you saying?” Emily stood up violently, and started pacing around the room. She was nervously picking at her fingernails – a habit she’d never been able to stop.

“What if,” She gulped, stopping short, “Her death wasn’t an accident?”

“Oh, Em.” Lexi’s gazed softened. She frowned, and studied her friend carefully. She looked hopeful and thoughtful, and gathered her breath accordingly. Lexi shifted uncomfortably. “Grieve however you want. But Em, don’t turn this into something it isn’t.”

Emily wasn’t listening; she was too busy connecting all the dots. “No, no, listen! Jess was going to meet someone, right? Well what if things weren’t as Jess thought they were, and her death was planned. It has to be that, it has to! So the killer was at the party. Quick, Lexi, who was at the party that night? Who could it be?”

“Okay, we’re not doing this,” Lexi said, slowly finding her voice. She couldn’t help her friend, she couldn’t believe it. “And this theory of yours . . . what will we do with it?”

Emily grinned. “It’s obvious really,” she said. “We go to the police.”

Lexi stared at her friend, her face a mixture of determined and anxious. She wanted to help her. She wanted to make her happy again. But for some reason, it made her feel . . . annoyed. Something about the way Emily wouldn’t let Jess’ death go – like she needed it to be murder – and the way Emily was looking at her, innocently hoping for something that isn’t there, prickled at her in a way she couldn’t even explain. She needed some time alone, before she said something she’d regret.

“Look, Emily, I need some space for an hour or so, do you mind?” she mumbled, jumping up. “You go to the police alone if you want.”

Emily watched her friend turn and exit the room, and heard her footsteps take her all the way outside. After she heard the car leave, she walked to her brother’s room. He’d stayed home to look after her.

Joshua was sitting on his bed reading a book when she knocked at the door. He put the book down beside him. “Is everything okay?” he asked. “Need my help on something?”

“Yeah,” She said quietly. “Can you drive me to the police station?”

His eyes widened and he leaned forward, “Why?”

Emily stared at her brother for a moment, debating whether to tell him. Frustration built up inside of her. Should she tell him? “I just want to check on something.”

“You sure?” He hesitated.

“Yeah, now hurry up.”

Within minutes Emily and Joshua had made it to the station. When they pulled up to the small car park, Joshua began taking off his seatbelt.

“No, you stay here.”

Joshua paused. “Fine,” He muttered, he didn’t want to argue with her. As she was exiting the car, her brother watched her closely, and she knew that he was curious about what was so important. She decided she was going to tell one more person about her theory – who else would believe her? Her first step she had to do was find evidence of foul play. The only way to do that was speak to the officer who found her body. Surely, there’s a clue hidden somewhere.
When she entered, the reception was positioned directly ahead of her, and she made a b-line towards it.

“Hello?” The receptionist asked her expectantly. Emily realised she hadn’t thought this far ahead – what could she say? She would hate if she was rejected before she even began. A moment of silence past before she spoke up.

“Um, I heard Jess Young has died recently, and I am inquiring about the officer who found her?” Emily managed to squeak.

“Officer Wells is the one you’re looking for,” she answered, and pointed to a man in officer’s uniform at the other end of the room. “If you have any questions speak to him.”

Emily sighed, “Okay, thank you.”

She walked towards the man. His name sounded familiar and she realised why. Wade Wells – Jason Well’s brother – was standing relaxed and drinking coffee on his own. She’d met him a few times before at social gatherings her parents dragged her along to. He was polite, and she liked that about him. He never asked questions he shouldn’t. He never invaded your personal space. He certainly never brags either. He was kind, respectful and modest, a model officer really.
When he noticed her he put down his coffee and smiled. “Emily, right? How can I help you?”

“Actually,” she grinned. “And I know this is going to sound crazy,” she said, “But I think Jess’ death wasn’t accidental.”

He frowned, “How so?”

“I just – I know.”

He released a heavy breath and focused on her steadily as seconds ticked by. “And you’re sure?”

“Positive, and I’m not giving up until I prove it.” Emily matched his look and a moment passed of silence, neither of them daring to speak.

“Well then, I’m glad you’ve brought it up,” he relented.

She did a double take. “You . . . are?” Emily was expecting for him to laugh in her face and call her stupid, maybe even call her crazy and ship her off to the looney bin. The last thing that crossed Emily’s mind was that he’d actually believe her – he’s not even asking for any evidence.

“Yes,” He admitted, snapping her out of her thoughts. “You see, when I found the body, Jess had an earring in her pocket; when we checked her house, we realised it didn’t belong to her.”

“Okay?”

“I didn’t focus too much on the earring; it didn’t seem like much of a deal. But, there was blood on it – and it wasn’t hers.”

Emily gaped at him, “Who’s was it?”

He leaned back and glanced around casually, as if they were talking about the weather. “I don’t know, we weren’t allowed to analyse it. We were denied permission as her death was labelled accidental.”

Emily reached for the desk and leaned on it. “How is that allowed?”

“I don’t know, we’ve never actually been denied before. That’s where you come in. I’m telling you this because I can’t go fishing around – I’m a cop. But you can, better yet, you’ll go unnoticed.”

“What are you asking me to do?” Emily gulped.

“Find out who that earring belongs to.”

Emily nodded at him, and the conversation was over. Just like that. So Jess was meeting a girl that night, and they got into a fight. Maybe that’s why she was holding an earring with blood on it – she’d ripped it out. Yes, that had to be it. Jess must have ripped it out as she was being drowned, and clung to in just before she died. But why would someone kill her, it doesn’t make any sense.

Emily left the police station deep in thought, and climbed into her brother’s car. He drove without asking any questions about what happened, and she was thankful for it. The journey home was uneventful. Joshua kept glancing at her worried, she was unusually silent. She ignored his looks, and tried figuring out whose earring it could possibly belong to. Soon she was caught up in her own thoughts. Once she goes back to school, she can look for anyone with a cut on their ear. Then she’ll know, easy as that. And if she can’t find anyone matching that description, well, she’ll just wait and see. She was pulled out of her thoughts as the car pulled to a stop. She hopped out, ignoring the stare she could practically feel on her from her brother. She drew to a violent stop, however, when she spotted Lexi sitting quietly, withdrawn and worried, on her doorstep.

Lexi stood up when she noticed her only few seconds later – also wrapped in her own thoughts. She adjusted her jacket accordingly to the breeze and gestured sheepishly to the door. “Can I come in?”
Emily shrugged, “Sure.”

Emily didn’t really know what Emily wanted, but she wasn’t about to turn away her friend, even if their last departure wasn’t on the best of terms. They walked in together and made their way upstairs. Lexi seemed to rush, skipping steps and eagerly walking into Emily’s room. Emily followed close behind, suspicious to what Lexi could possibly want. Once inside, Emily shut the door, and it was only them inside.

“Why are you here?” Emily asked.

“Look I think you’re right, Em.” Lexi said fearfully, her face unsure. “Jess was murdered.”

Emily was taken back. “Explain,” she ordered.

Lexi gulped, “So, after I left I took a walk and realised that maybe it wasn’t that crazy. Maybe there wasn’t just a murderer in this town, but a serial killer. Now bear with me, Em. I went straight home then, and checked for anything suspicious in this town from the last five years.”

“ . . . And?” Emily asked, after seconds of silence.

“And,” Lexi answered, “there have been three suicides, four accidental deaths not including Jess’, and there are currently two ‘health’ deaths that I think are all related.”
Emily blinked, “How the hell do they relate?”

“I told you to bear with me. I figured if there was a serial killer he’d leave a signature, you know, that’s what serial killers do. So I checked, and Em, there’s something in common. Everyone one was found with a missing front tooth. But all of them were written off as lost during the struggle or whatever. But, Emily, don’t you see? It’s a pattern!”

“There’s one more thing . . .” Emily said, and she tells Lexi about the earring. Lexi listened patiently, she didn’t interrupt her once.

“Wow,” Lexi said. “Who knew Wells would help.” She laughed, but Emily didn’t. When she told the story something began bugging her, like an itch you couldn’t scratch. Wells, it was something about – her eyes flew to Lexi. Oh my god. That’s it!

“Lexi, Jason has a collection of teeth! It’s Jason, Jason’s the killer! That must be why he was looking for Jess at the party.” Lexi’s face drops as realisation dawned. Everyone knew Jason had a tooth collection, but nobody knows where he gets it from. We all assumed it was animal’s teeth. But Emily and Lexi knew the truth. The teeth were evidence of the killings.
Emily spoke first, “If we can get those teeth, we can match the dental records and prove they were all murdered – even Jess!”

“Or,” Lexi said, “We can go to the police and get them to do it.”

Emily groaned. “No they won’t believe us.” She jumped off the bed and exited the bedroom, flying down the stairs with Lexi at her heel.

Lexi objected, “I am so not going.”

“Well,” Emily replied, “I am. If you won’t drive me, I’ll get the bus and go to the warehouse Jason owns, I think that is where he keeps the teeth, from the rumours anyway. Then, I’ll be in and out in a flash and prove Jess was murdered, easy as pie.”

“You do realise, you’ll be catching a bus to fetch human teeth from a serial killer, and it’s crazy!”

”I’m doing it.” Emily stated. Then, as quickly as the plan was made, Emily was gone, out of the door to catch a bus. Lexi was left staring at her retreating figure. When Emily was out of sight, Lexi realised that something had slipped their minds entirely, unnoticed in the recent stream of things. Crap she thought Em’s in trouble. Then Lexi closed the door and picked up the phone and waited impatiently for the other line to pick up.

“Hello?” Lexi said, “I’m in trouble . . .”

~~~

Emily squared her shoulders as she faced the overshadowing warehouse in front of her. You wouldn’t know if you looked at her that there was an icy chill which shot up her spine as the building came into view. Ignoring the voice that was telling her to run, she edged her way inside, and pushed forward. Her hands were trembling; it was the only sign that showed how she was really feeling.

“Hello?” She called, realising her mistake after she said it. No one is supposed to know she’s there. She listened with contempt as her voice echoed through the room. She walked forward, and scanned the area for any visible evidence of teeth. There was nothing there, just an empty, and abandoned, warehouse.

“Damn,” she muttered, disappointed. She couldn’t help it. It was the perfect crime. Before she could turn around, a click sounded from behind her and she recognised the sound of a gun, loaded, inches from her head and aimed at her.

“J – Jason?” She stuttered. A crippling feeling of terror made its way throughout her. A gruff, empty voice filled her with horror.

“Wrong brother.” His voice didn’t echo. Slowly, Emily turned around and flinched at the person in front of her.
Wade Wells. Officer Wade Wells was standing there.

In his terrifying glory, he was holding a gun solely trained on her. He was an arm’s length distance from Emily and panic wiped through her as she squeezed her eyes shut. Wade Wells is the killer? Why? How?

“You shouldn’t have some.” His voice was cold. “Too bad for you,” he said. He had a frenzied look in his eye, one of excitement and – strangely – intensifying control.

“I – I –“

He screamed, “Shut up!” My mouth closed.

He relaxed more, and smiled, it was animalistic. “This,” he said, cocking his gun, “is my favourite part.”

Two things happened at once; Emily dived like lightning to the side while the echo of the gun deafened her. Then, as if on cue, police swarmed the building screaming. Wade, bewildered at the new arrivals threw the gun violently, and realised in the same movement: he’d been caught. Police forced him on his knees and cuffed him while paramedics raced towards Emily. She scrambled away from them, fearful she was going to die. Emily looked down at her painfully clean body and saw a slight oozing of blood and sighed with relief.

It was just a flesh wound.

~~~

The next few hours past in a blur, Emily found herself in a pristine clean hospital room. She had a concussion, and they were going to keep her in overnight for observation. She couldn’t stop thinking about Wade. He murdered all those people? How? Why? She’d considered every piece of evidence she had but it made no sense. A knock alerted her attention, and
Lexi was standing there with a grimace on her face. There’s a lot of explaining to do.”

“Yeah, there is. Like what the actual hell?” Emily said, exasperated.

Lexi walked over to the chair close to the bed. “Okay, so, I’ll start from the beginning. After you left to talk to Jason, something kept bugging me about the earing. I mean, everything fit so perfectly but the earing just didn’t make any sense. So, I called my friend from the police station, you know, to see if she could give me any clues. It turns out, the earing didn’t exist, and Wade had lied. It got me thinking, if I was a serial killer and someone came to me saying there’s a murderer in town, what would I do?”

“Throw them off your case.” Emily muttered. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

“Exactly. I called my friend from the police and told her my theory. You can figure the rest out. And guess what they found when they raided his house? Jason’s cell phone. It turns out, Jason and Jess had been secretly dating for months. When they questioned Jason, he said he’d lost it days ago, and that’s why he went to the party. He was trying to tell Jess he wasn’t ignoring her.”

Emily’s eyes widened at the realisation. “And that’s why he was looking for her at the party.”

Lexi nodded encouragingly at her, showing that Emily was correct. Emily was staring miserably out the window. She knew it was unfair, but if it wasn’t for her stupid conversation with Jason at the party, she wouldn’t have been able to jump to conclusions so easily.

Lexi grabbed her attention again, “But Wade had been talking to Jess pretending to be Jason. It all started making sense. We assumed that Jess had been killed during the party, but it wasn’t, it was after the party. Or, more specifically, after the cops showed up.”

“So,” Emily said after a moment. “Wade was one of the cops that showed up to the party, and he, what, went straight to the place he’d agreed to meet Jess, pretending to be Jason?”

“Exactly.” Lexi repeated, a shy smile gracing her lips. It was right in front of them both, but they were too busy jumping to conclusions to see it.

“Well . . . now what?” Emily wondered.

Lexi, however, smiled a heart-warming smile. Then, with ease, lifted a box of Emily’s favourite chocolate chip cookies, causing Emily to smirk.

“Now,” Lexi replied slyly, “We eat.”

And, for the first time since Jess died, Emily really, truly, laughed.