This month I’m taking part in the A-Z Challenge! Which means I’ll be writing 26 posts (on set days through the month) each one corresponding to a letter of the alphabet. Today is day 7, which means letter G.
My theme for the month is: Secret Diary Of A Serial Killer. Each post will be a new chapter in the story – I’m really excited to finally get this novel idea out of my head and into words. I hope you enjoy it! 🙂
Previous Chapter: Forest Start from A: Anna
Garbage
While Capinksi went to talk to some officers, I took a walk around the back of he cabin, looking for anything the serial killer might have left for me to find.
Moving her there – thrown out with the trash – made me realise he didn’t write my name to pull me into the investigation for fun, he wrote it to sign my name on my kill. Making it clear this wasn’t him, and he saw it as garbage.
Nothing looked out of place, other than crime scene tape tied around trees to cordon off the area. I doubled back and stopped by the dumpster, looking again at the lock keeping it shut.
“Hey, Capinski,” I said, calling around the building. “Come look at this.”
He jogged over and looked at the lock. “It’s to keep the animals out of the garbage,” he said.
“I know that. But look at how new the lock is,” I said, pulling it up so he could see better.
I could tell he was having some kind of internal battle. Possibly jealous that I’d discovered something that might give us a clue. However I was also having an internal battle, not knowing if the serial killer had left evidence inside that might point to him, or if he’d added something pointing to me.
“I’ll get some techs to come and check it out,” he said, finally.
He went back to the officers and pulled out his phone on the way, answering a call. While he was busy I took the chance to have a stroll away from the buildings, closer to the trail and closer to where I had left Anna’s body.
Everything looked as I’d left it – the dirt swept to remove footprints, the pine needles covering everything else. The tree I’d leaned her against showed no signs of ever touching a dead body.
I stood next to the tree and looked around, trying to see where he could have watched me from. The parking lot wasn’t far, but under the trees like this made it difficult to see into the forest from there. The cabins were all empty, and the extra few further into the woods were mostly shuttered up this time of year, the owners sharing time between forest living in the spring and summer, and beach living in autumn and winter. One of them will come back here not knowing I used their tub to wash a body.
“What are you doing over here,” Capinski said.
His voice startled me, I was so lost in my thoughts I didn’t see him walk up a side path from behind the cabins.
“Just… Taking a look around from a different vantage point,” I said. “You never know what you might find.”
He nodded. “Come on back down, we have to go,” he said.
I let him walk ahead of me a little and mentally kicked myself for not knowing about this path.
“Something happened?” I said.
“Yeah, they need us back at the station,” he said.
At the bottom of the path I turned and looked back up into the forest, trying to see how visible I might have been. It looked just as dark and hidden as the main path, there’s no way anyone would have seen me from down here at night.
“What was that?” I asked, not really paying attention to what he just said.
“They need us back at the station,” he said, irritated at repeating himself. “They think they have an I.D. for the latest victim.”