COLD

°Chapter Five°

One day earlier... 

Hunter James stormed into Audrey's house and flew up the stairs bursting into her room furiously. He found Audrey on her dresser table, smudging some red lipstick on her face.

She saw him through the mirror, fuming at the doorstep and she looked back to smirk at him.

"Well... Well... Look who's here," Audrey said in a high-pitched tone.

She had this soft, sharp and high-pitched voice that looked nothing like her bony face.

He slammed the door and gave her a dangerous glare, his eyes in slits and rebellious.

"You're not going to tell Wesley anything!"

She stood from the dresser table, wearing her pink short chiffon night gown that showed off her black lacy lingerie. She sashayed towards him, getting so close she could feel his breathe on her face.

She snaked her arms around his neck tightly, pressing her bosom on his puffy chest. She looked at him seductively and bit her lip.

"I'm not going to tell Wesley a single word..." she paused and leered. "Just if you promise to do what I tell you to..."

He gritted his teeth, glancing away.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Wesley and you are best friends, right?"

"Get to the point, Audrey!"

"Patience!" she smirked. "Now listen, since he's your best friend, he will listen and consider anything you tell him. Even if it's murder."

He gasped. "You want someone murdered?"

"Nina, maybe. But that's in my future plans. God! You're so dumb! It's just a phrase," she got back to the point. "But anyways, I want you to coax Wesley into making up things with me again. We just broke up and I'm not ready to let him go just yet."

"Wesley is hard-headed! You know that very well. No one can coax him into doing anything he doesn't want to do," said Hunter.

"Well, that's exactly what I want you to do!"

"That's impossible! How will I make him patch things up with you if he broke up with you?"

"Then if you can't do it... I guess I'll just have to tell him the whole truth..." she ran her fingers through his chest. "That his best friend, Hunter, is gay!!!"

Hunter tried to control his anger.

"Stop it Audrey..."

She ran her fingers down his face and his neck.

"And I'll tell him how madly inlove his best friend is with him," she said softly.

"Stop it Audrey!" he shoved her off him angrily.

She sneered at him. "So madly inlove that he used to f**k me so that in a sick twisted way, he could feel sexually connected to him!"

"He won't believe you! No one will!"

"I have videos of you in my laptop m**********g, moaning out Wesley's name. Thanks to the camera videos you recorded that I stole from your phone when you were asleep in my room. I also have pictures of him you took while he was asleep! I'll also tell him you were f*****g me, his girlfriend, so that you'd feel sexually connected to him. You're an obsessive possessive sick creep..." she sneered at him. "But nobody will know that side of you if you just do as I've told you."

His anger spiked. "You went through my phone!"

"Thank God I did!"

Hunter snapped and slapped her so hard on the cheek. His phone fell and slid under the bed but he was too furious to care about that. He grabbed her neck and strangled her so hard that she was choking. She tried to fight him off but he was too strong for her.

She was gasping for air. She was not breathing. But he didn't feel the slightest sympathy for her.

He just wanted to strangle the life out of her.

****

"Sir, you called for me?"

Detective Darren poked his head inside Lieutenant Barnes' big office in The Kingsville Police Department.

"Get in."

He strutted inside the big neat office, everything arranged in place ; From the files on the wooden desk, to the books on the shelf to the cosy couch near the huge windows that gave a peak of the scenic view of the town. This was the third time he was in his office and not once was it untidy.

"Have a seat, Detective."

"Thankyou, sir," he took a seat next to a woman he had never seen before. Atleast not in the two weeks he had worked here. She was definitely new here.

She had striking deep green eyes and a wild, thick dark brown hair. It would take eternal blindness not to notice her striking beauty.

She cleared her throat loudly, staring at Lieutenant Barnes so that he would stop ogling her.

Detective Darren was embarrassed by his behavior and he blinked back to reality, Lt. Barnes giggling as he stared at him.

"Detective Darren, you seem impressed by our choice of recruiting the new Detective."

He knew it. She was new here. There was no way he could have missed that face. That hair split so perfectly in half at the middle. But she looked a bit young to be working in such a big police department.

"Detective Darren, meet Detective Megan Wolf. She'll be your assistant in The Audrey Yang Homicide."

"Nice to meet you-"

Megan Wolf cut him off, narrowing her green eyes at Lt. Barnes.

"Assistant?"

"Yes, Assistant."

"I thought you said, Partner."

Barnes shrugged. "Same thing."

"I am not his assistant, Lt. Barnes. I'm his partner in this case. That was the agreement."

"And that is still the agreement, Det. Wolf."

She gave a small sated smile and straightened the collar of her coat.

"Good."

Looking at her, Darren knew it wouldn't be easy working with Det. Wolf. But he loved a challenge. And this beautiful feisty woman was a challenge.

She stretched out her hand to him, a small smile lighting up her face.

"Nice to meet you, Partner."

He chuckled.

He liked her already.

****

Wesley Wood had not come to school that day. Neither had Hunter.

Tyler had tried to reach both of them but none had picked up his calls or replied to his texts. He was frantic with worry and he couldn't concentrate in class.

With what happened to Audrey... He knew anything could happen to anyone... Even his friends...

After the second class, he sat with Jacob, Blake and Rence at the cafeteria. Rence was munching mannerlessly on muffins. Blake looked bored, playing video games on his phone. These two didn't get along much (Rence and Blake). Jacob sipped his yogurt, silent and still like water in a tank. It seemed as the years went by, Jacob grew more quiet.

Jacob Stewart used to be this loud, "life of the party" fun guy but now, he wasn't into parties anymore. He rarely talked and when he did, it was only when someone had asked him something. He stopped joking around and being the goofy person he used to be. He had slowly but surely turned into a shadow of himself.

"What's up dude!" Rence greeted loudly as Tyler fell on the chair, next to Jacob and Blake.

Now Rence was quite something... He used to be the complete opposite of them. A shy quiet nerd who they used to mock and make fun of in the first year in college. But when he was recruited into "The g**g" by Hunter, it all came as a surprise to all of them. He wasn't cool like them. He didn't wear the kind of clothes they wore. But then he joined them and turned into this whole different person. He dropped his nerd glasses and big hoodies and started wearing cool leather or baseball jackets. Ty secretly felt that no one in the g**g really truly liked him. They just tolerated him. But someone who showed pure dislike for Rence from the start was Blake. And in return, Rence used to bodyshame him for being 'fat'.

"Rence, have you talked to Wes or Hunter?" asked Ty as he bit on the cream chocolate donut.

"Nope."

"Jacob?"

He shook his head.

"Blake?"

He shook his head, still playing video games.

"Why? What's up?" asked Rence curiously.

"They are not picking my calls or answering my texts, guys."

"Wes can be such a snob and Hunter must have overslept and misplaced his phone."

Rence's theory kind of made sense. Wesley didn't feel like talking to anyone sometimes. He'd just shut himself out from the entire world. And Hunter, he loved sleeping and not more than once had he complained about misplacing his phone. He hoped that was true...

"Why are you so worried anyway?"

"Haven't you guys heard?"

It came as a surprise that they were in the dark about the killer in town.

"Audrey Yang was killed."

****

Nina Locke marched in the deserted school corridors, her brown satchel bag slinging on her shoulder. She was immersed in thoughts. Thoughts that ate her soul up.

Over the few months, she had drastically changed. Life was punishing her. This was a punishment for how she treated her. For not standing up for her... But she was okay with life punishing her...

A group of girls gawked at her from head to toe and showed disgust.

"What the f*****g fashion!" They mocked. "That big coat, big pants and ugly old boots! Ew!"

But she cared less about what she wore to school. She wanted to get her diploma, get a decent job and help her mom... And take care of her fifteen year old brother, Nate.

All she cared about now is family.

Not the clothes she wore to this godforsaken school.

She was on her way to the gate when she bumped into some two girls. They were rushing and they hit her, making Nina drop her books.

"b***h! Check where you're going!"

In no mood to get into a scuffle, she kept quiet and picked up her books. But they just wouldn't let her be.

"You're not going to say sorry!" one of the girls that was a redhead taunted.

"You're really in the mood for a fight, huh!"

The red-head pushed her. "What did you just say!"

"Look, I'm in no mood to-"

She pushed Nina harder.

"Hey! Hey!" A voice stopped them. "Let her be! Don't Touch her!"

Reluctantly, the girls ran to the opposite direction.

"Thanks, Tyler," Nina muttered.

She had always liked Tyler. Had a little crush on him that quickly faded... Then Wes happened...

"Are you okay, Nina?"

"I'm perfect."

"Well, you look nothing close to it."

"You helped me out, thanks."

"You weren't even fighting those mean girls back! What have you turned into, Nina!"

She was just silent, her head bowed down.

"You push us all away because we're friends with Wes? You break up with your boyfriend and you break up with us too?"

She gave a brief bitter laugh.

"It's deeper than that... You know it..."

"Because of what happened to her? You still blame us?"

She looked at him, pain in her eyes.

"We are all to blame."

****

The lights were on.

She was obviously home... Alone.

No one would come visit her.

The night was silent.

It was a perfect night to kill her.

He had the entire night.

He would kill her slowly...

Strategically...

Perfectly...

Unlike Audrey, this killing would be perfect.

For Audrey, it was rushed and he was shaking and anxious. He had feared Mrs. Yang would come from work and find him or that Wesley would bump into them. He had planned on cutting Audrey's tongue out but he was too scared he'd be caught because time was not on his side. So instead of cutting out her tongue, he had just slit her throat and shot her three times.

What an easy death he made it for her!

But tonight, time was on his side.

He would start by drugging her.

Then cut out her tongue like he did the frog. He would cut it slowly as she felt the pain in every part of her body but she would be too weakened by the drugs to fight him. He would watch as the blood oozed out from her mouth.

Done with cutting out her tongue, he would suffocate her with the colorless polythene bag and watch the life fade out of her...

To finish her off completely, he would then slice her throat and lastly shoot her three times...

For the three of them.

One.

Two.

Three.

To mark her, he would draw "the cross with a tail at the bottom" sign on her head.

It was going to be a busy fun night.

He knocked on the door, glancing from side to side making sure no one saw him. His hands were dipped in the pockets of his big coat. The coat that carried his important equipment.

The door flew open and he smiled at her sweetly.

She was a bit surprised to see him.

She was clearly not expecting him but her sad sorrowful eyes lit up when she saw him.

"Son!" she hugged him.

"Mrs. Yang!"

She smiled sweetly.

"Welcome, my child."

****