THE MIND OF A MONSTER

CHAPTER 6- The Victims I

Rachel's POV

True to Dolores'words, it was actually colder outside Hagni. 

As we rode down the lonely driveway, all I saw were tall trees by both sides of the road. Someone could even be easily killed and dumped here.

The more we drove into Brooklyn, the more nervous I got. This place just gave off some sort of bad energy.

" You don't look so good. You okay?" Dolores asked, breaking into my thoughts.

I tore my gaze from the trees and focused on her. But she wasn't staring back at me.

" It's my first time out of Hagni. You might think of this as cowardly, but being out here just feels off." I looked away, expecting Dolores to laugh.

I waited for several seconds but she didn't. 

I looked back at her, searching for an expression on her face but I saw nothing.

" Put yourself together no matter what. We're visiting a man who lost his daughter. It'll be difficult to get anything out of him if we can't even put on bold faces." Dolores said, breaking the loud silence in the car.

"Mhmm." I nodded and mumbled.

After driving for over two hours, we finally pulled up in front of a house. 

It was the first house we saw in Brooklyn. When we got out of the car, I looked ahead and I saw other houses, simply scattered around.

Dolores nodded at me and we started walking toward the front porch. Dolores went closer to the door and pressed the doorbell.

She pressed it over three times before the old wooden door creaked open. Dolores had somehow gotten used to ringing the doorbell, she wasn't expecting a response just yet.

She moved back a little and whoever opened the door, came out.

It was a man who looked like he was just approaching his fifties but still had turned completely grey. He had a shoulder length grey hair, grazing his still firm shoulders.

He was almost as tall as Dolores. He seemed like he recently shredded a lot of weight as the blue trouser and orange shirt looked too big to be fashionable.

As he stepped on the front porch with his brown leather boots, the old wood creaked noisily.

" Good day?"  His voice came out questioning. Probably a little loud too, but not the aggressive kind of loud.

" Good day sir...." Dolores started, regaining her composure.

".... I'm Detective Dolores and this is Detective Rachael. We're both from Hagni police station. This is the residence of Mr Steven, right?" 

Dolores sounded like she was being really careful with her words.

Which was odd as she never cared about the impact of whatever she said, on whoever she said it to.

" You are. How may I help you officers?" He was beginning to sound less confident.

I guess he was already hinting on our purpose for coming here. It ached that we had to remind him that Tina was really dead.

" We believe you already got the news of your daughter's death, Tina I mean." Dolores waited for his reaction, or response.

" I have." He bowed a little.

" If you don't mind sir, we would like to ask you a few questions. " Dolores said.

He shot up his head at Dolores, then turned to look at me. 

I didn't know if I should have smiled at him, even just a little.

He hesitated for a while but slowly nodded in agreement.

" Sure." He muttered, opening the door for us.

In the end, I smiled at him before entering his house.

Unlike the outer part of the house, the inside was rather....... cozy?

While the iron roofing sheets looked like they were at the brink of falling apart, the beautiful grey ceiling in here just gave off a warm vibe.

The window outside, the steps, the door in fact everything else on the outside looked like they had been existing since the beginning of time.

But standing inside the house, made me doubt all of that. 

While the living room was small, the kitchen was like a wide landscape. 

The orange fluffy chairs looked new and shiny. From any angle you sat, you could get an amazing view of the big flat screen TV. 

Until now, I didn't notice the sleeping cat at the center of the room. It was so beautiful, it added to the welcoming extravagance of the living room.

Again, I looked over at the kitchen and I just couldn't help but actually gawk.

The utensils were so well arranged, they looked like they were actually into printed on the dark themed wallpaper.

The counter was long and different fruits were neatly arranged.

Since I stood a little far away from the kitchen, I couldn't get to see more of its features.

" Nice house." I and Dolores said simultaneously.

We turned to look at each other and smiled, a little. I didn't know she was also giving her eyes a tour.

" Thanks." The man said, showing us to two of the orange seats.

He disappeared immediately, to the kitchen. Without wasting more time, Dolores and I brought out our writing pads, and recorder.

Mr Steven came back with two cups of mango juice. Well, I guessed it was mango since it looked too dull to actually be orange juice.

" It was all my daughter's idea, you 

know." He said, sitting opposite us.

Yes, mango!

I realized I was right after taking a sip of the content in the glass.

" Impressive." Dolores commented.

She did all these?

Why was she living in that hell hole then?

" Before we get down to the questions I plan to ask, I need to ask you one thing." Dolores said, equally taking a sip.

Mr Steven adjusted on his seat, showing that we had all of his attention.

" Why didn't you come to claim your daughter's body? It's been days since her death but you never came to Hagni. Mr Steven Maxwell, we have been expecting you to show up. It was a lot of stress tracing Tina's source to you, you know?" Dolores sounded pissed but again, she had a flat unreadable expression.

She was right anyway. Mr Steven's action was actually vexing. It was so hard getting a lead. 

How could he never bothered to have come?

Tch! He was just like my father.

" I...." He sighed deeply, his shoulders falling as he slouched on the chair.

" I know I should have come. I should have never left my daughter's dead body like that. But really, it's just a lot, you know. The one family I had left was finally gone. Initially, I found it hard to believe that my Tina was finally gone. But when I did, I just couldn't bring myself to actually coming to stare at her lifeless body, cold in a morgue." I swear I saw a tear escape his eye.

I could totally understand him now. It must have been very difficult to believe that one person you always longed to see, was actually dead.

" Well sir, if you don't mind, we could arrange a therapy session for you. If you're okay with coming all the way to Hagni over and over." Dolores offered, finally smiling a little.

Mr Steven only nodded, saying nothing else.

" Well sir, we did a little investigation after Tina's death. A summary of everything we found was that Tina was a sweet soul. What do you have to say about that?" Dolores asked him, scribbling something on her pad.

" Well, whoever told you that, told you the very truth. My daughter has always been so down to earth and caring. In fact, caring to a fault. She always saw the good in everybody, even when it wasn't there. Of her friend group, everyone in the city thought she was the nicest. She never had enemies, or brought trouble anywhere she went. If peace were a person, it would be my daughter." Mr Steven said, probably recalling the nice smiles Tina must have worn while helping the people she could.

I imagined that too.

" You said she had a friend group?" Dolores asked.

" Yes. They were cheerleaders in highschool. They called themselves blue angels." 

Blue angels?

As I leaned on my legs, I felt a small sting on my thigh. It made me remember the nail with blue polish I had in my pocket.

" Sorry, did you say blue angels?"

Why was this name reminding me of the nail in my pocket?

" Yes?" He cocked his brows at me.

" Do you pictures of them? " I asked him.

He nodded and I could see Dolores flashing me a questioning look from my peripheral vision.

" Could we see them?" I asked him.

" S... Sure. " He stood up and disappeared through a small door I was just noticing.

He slammed the door shut, waking the sleeping cat. The cute adorable animal just scrambled away, into the kitchen.

I expected Dolores to ask me something in his absence but she didn't. She probably didn't want to mess up the recording.

He came back with a big album.

He handed it over to us. " That's an album for just Tina and her friends. There are singular pictures of each of the seven member friend group."

As we looked through the picture, I realized that Tina was actually really beautiful. She was a Blondie with pretty green eyes, just like her father's. Her smile was contagious because I smiled once I saw her smiling.

She was holding hands with a girl with brown framed nerdy classes. She looked pretty tall and beautiful.

" She's pretty." I said subconsciously.

" Thanks. " Mr Steven said.

I looked through the entire album, hoping to find any of the girls wearing blue nail polish but none of them did.

Why this creepy feeling then?

" Do you mind if we kept this?" I asked him.

" Sure. I always made several copies of each picture Tina took. I thought she was going to leave with any of them but she didn't leave with even one of the pictures. " Mr Steven sounded sad.

" Why didn't she? " Dolores asked Tina's father, taking the words out of my mouth.

" Tina left Brooklyn for Hagni three years ago. It was only two years after she graduated college and one of her friends died. It was a big shock to us all. It was a night before Brittany's niece's ninth birthday. She was found dead. Her wedding was only a week after, how sad?"

" I don't know if it was out of sadness but the rest of them just fled Brooklyn few weeks after Brittany's burial."

I and Dolores exchanged looks.

Brittany had died and Tina and the others had fled?

How Sketchy?

" Where was she found dead?"I asked Mr Steven.

" In the basement of her parents' house." Mr Steven asked.

" How was she found dead?" I asked him.

Tina's father looked at us, confused. He opened his mouth to say something but shut it back.

" How was she found dead sir? " Dolores asked him, sounding firm and very strict.

" In the most mortifying state. She was stabbed in her private areas and other parts of her body were scrapped off."

What?!