Giselle

a passionate crime and a passionate friend

7th of September

Lieutenant Gabi Alfaro sat in his office, reclining on the chair. The morning light shone through the small window behind him and reflected on the photographs of Mary Payton’s body. It had been two months since her gruesome murder and they were slowly running out of clues and steam.

They had examined all the evidence carefully and found nothing.

Mary Payton was the owner of the ‘L for Love’ Orphanage. She founded the orphanage over twenty-five years ago and had helped hundreds of children avoid starvation, disease and even death. She even helped the parentless children to find permanent homes.

Of course, her long career running the orphanage had allowed Mary Payton to gather numerous contacts over the decades. And thus, tracing those contacts was a hard and arduous job and it had done little to aid the investigation.

The only important piece of information they had learnt in that exercise was that the victim, although a kind-hearted woman, was an incorrigible gossip. Grudgingly and unwilling to desecrate the woman's memory, her companions and acquaintances had told them one thing: Mary Payton knew all the town's secrets.

That got the veteran policeman thinking. Had Mary Payton stumbled on a piece of information that cost her life?

It was a good hunch but he had no evidence in favour of the theory. That, however, simply meant he had to go hunting.

Rising from his chair, the lieutenant holstered his gun, picked up his jacket and briefly glanced down at his table. He picked up the photo showing the cut on her neck, looked at it for a second before returning it to the table and walking to the door.

He placed a hand on the knob but before he could turn it, the door swung open and almost hit him in the face.

Startled, he stepped back and was met with the face of Detective Sharon Charleston. His partner in crime. In solving crime, that is. One look at her heart-shaped face and Gabi could tell that she had news for him.

“Detective…”

Sharon stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. “Lieutenant, the forensic lab found something in the body.” She produced a clear small plastic bag and held it up between them.

Gabi took the bag and examined it. Visible within the bag was a mass of black thread. Or wool, he thought, as he brought the bag closer.

“Where was it found?” Gabi asked, without looking up.

“In her throat. She seemed to have swallowed it. It was covered in mucus and blood. That’s why it took the lab a while to find out what it was. From the position it was found in her throat, the lab guys believe that she swallowed it shortly before she died.”

Gabi turned the bag over. Shortly before she died, he said to himself. A piece of black wool. Where was it from? He had searched the house thoroughly and he was almost certain that such material did not come from within Mary Payton's house.

Did the murderer bring it with him? Did he shove it down her throat? Or did she swallow it willingly? How does it connect to the murder or does it even have anything to do with it at all?

So many questions and so little answers.

"Well, no problem." He returned the bag to her. "I was actually on my way to the murder scene. I am hoping to get fresh insight." Gabi pointed to the bag. "You can return that to the lab and meet me in the parking lot."

Sharon nodded and opened the door for her lieutenant. They exited the building and entered Gabi's car.

As he drove to the outskirts of town, he discussed the issue with his detective. “We’ve been on this case for two months now. We’ve established the cause and manner of death. We’ve established what kind of weapon was used in the murder. What are we yet to establish?”

Without skipping a beat, she replied. “The motive.”

Gabi clicked his tongue in agreement. “Yes, the motive. And the motive is very important in a case like this because there are no apparent suspects. All the alibis check out and everyone apparently has no issue with the victim. So why was she killed?”

Sharon stared out the windscreen as her mind flashed back to the bloody scene. “Nothing was taken. Everything in the house was intact. So it definitely was not a robbery that led to a murder. She was not raped or assaulted in any manner. The weapon was never found. Probably because the murderer brought it and took it with him. All the evidence leads to a premeditated murder but…”

“But the way she was killed tells us it was a crime of passion,” Gabi completed. That led them to the jilted lover theory. “Numerous stab wounds covering her body, each of them brutally deep and wide. It paints the picture of a person taking the life of his loved one in a jealous rage,” he said as he pulled up to the house.

Sharon nodded. They had been over this before. "The town, however, says that Mary Payton was very single when she died. And no evidence points to the victim having any sort of secret lover."

"That's true," Gabi said, turning off the engine. "And there is another thing that tells us that this was a premeditated murder."

Sharon waited but it did not seem like her lieutenant would elaborate. He, instead, stared at the house, lost in thought. She was used to this, however, and tapped him on the shoulder. “Lieutenant.”

He started, then shook his head. “Sorry about that. Let’s head in.”

Sharon followed him out of the car and into the house. She crossed the threshold and felt a chill. She could not help but recall the first time she stepped foot in the house. she could remember in startling vividity the initial sight of the body. The way it lay, the blood pool around and leading off it, the temperature of the room and the colour of Mary Payton’s body.

The entire scene had been cleaned up, of course, and all the police DO-NOT-ENTER tapes had been removed as well. It had been two months after all.

But the physical cleaning did nothing to erase the emotional stains left by the murder.

Sharon walked into the dining room and studied the white china sets and the shiny silver utensils. Dust had begun to settle on them. No one had come to pick them up. Mary Payton had no family. No parents, no siblings, no children. Her only family was the orphanage, the children she made her own.

Sharon was certain that for as long as she lived she would never forget the look on their faces when it was announced that Mary Payton had died. Those children, bereaved of their parents and rejected by their family, had once again being struck a painful blow.

It filled her with all sorts of pain, wrath and anger. Why kill this woman?

Sharon shook the dark thoughts away and returned to the living room where Gabi stood, behind one of the sofas, staring intently at the wooden floor. She followed his line of sight and realized that the spot he stared at was exactly where the body lay when they found it.

Taking a few steps closer to see if there was something left that the cleaning crew missed, she was met with the sight of an empty patch of floor. She looked from the floor to her lieutenant, back to the floor and finally back to her lieutenant.

Who knows what he is seeing, she thought. Sharon was about to turn and explore the other parts of the manor when Gabi spoke.

One line and it turned her blood into ice.

“This was the work of a serial killer.”

***

“Stop looking at him,” Jaden hissed angrily into Giselle’s ear.

Giselle pushed him away, equally angry. “I am not looking at him. Get off my back,” she hissed back and tried to focus on the speaker.

Ever since Jaden had seen Giselle speak with Brent, his mood devolved rapidly throughout the morning. As they sat on the plush cushions of the lecture theatre, listening to the various lecturers speak about the start of the new year, the tension between the two friends became palpable.

Jaden, on one hand, was convinced that whenever Giselle’s eyes wandered to the left of the hall, where Brent currently sat, she was looking at the wickedly handsome new student. And he flared up at the thought.

Giselle, whose eyes were following the lecturer as he walked from one end of the platform to the other, was supremely pissed with Jaden’s attitude. This was one of the times that Jaden’s protectiveness rubbed against her the wrong way.

Thankfully, the orientation concluded soon and they were free to leave. Giselle shot up from her seat, slung her bag on her bag and stomped out of the hall.

She had no idea where she was headed but she just wanted to leave, especially as she heard Jaden call out behind her.

“Giselle, wait up. G, come on.”

She ignored him and marched straight out of the building. It was only when they were at the parking lot, out of earshot of anyone that she spun around and faced her friend. He already looked apologetic but Giselle did not let that deter her.

"Jaden, I've had it. I've had it. I…"

Jaden took a step towards her. "I know. I'm sorry, Giselle. It's just that…"

Giselle raised a hand to stop him. “Jaden. I want to speak.”

“I’m sorry. Go ahead.”

Giselle took a deep breath and tried to organize her thoughts. “Jaden, I really appreciate the fact that you look out for me. I really do. But you can’t control me. I will not allow you to. I simply will not allow you. I can and will talk or interact with anyone I want to. If you keep boxing me in or trying to stop me from making any male friends, then you will have to decide if our friendship is worth it.”

Jaden looked panicked but he waited for a few seconds to make sure she was done speaking.

"I'm sorry, Giselle. I never want you to feel like I'm boxing you in. That was never my intention. Really. I just want to make sure you're safe. That's all. You just met this guy. You don't know anything about him and I…"

Giselle threw her hands in the air. “That’s it. That’s exactly it, Jaden. You’re too protective you can’t even see the truth. I was never looking at Brent. I was just following Professor Barclay as he walked all over the stage. I was never looking at Brent.”

Silence, as the two friends looked at each other from the ends of a seemingly unbridgeable gap. Giselle knew where Jaden was coming from. She did. If there was an award for the person most likely to fall for a prank, scam or con, then Giselle would win that award unchallenged.

She was gullible, she knew. But she still wanted to make her own mistakes and learn from them. And to her, Jaden’s overprotectiveness insulted her at times. It made it seem that she could not make good decisions on people without his input.

“So you see, Jay, you need to tone it down. I can promise you that I will do my very best to be more discerning when it comes to guys, to people in general, but you have to dial it down. You just have to.”

Jaden sighed, his eyes on the tarred road beneath them. Raising his eyes to meet hers, he said in a dejected voice, "I'm sorry, G. Truly. I don't want us to fight like this. I'll also do my best to make sure this does not happen again. So, forgive me please."

Jaden’s eyes pleaded with her, black and glowing.

Giselle sighed and looked away. “It’s fine. Let’s… let’s forget about it.”

“Thank you.” Jaden took a few steps and closed the gap within them. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair, wrapping his arms around her.

Giselle reciprocated and they stood in the parking lot, hugging each other. She drew back a little and smiled up at him. “Look at us, fighting on our first day.”’

Jaden laughed and she felt the rumble in his chest. “We’ve never started the school year in a normal way.”

“We have.”

“Nope. We’ve not.”