Mercy Abbott - The Kiss of Death

The Red Hydrangea Killer (Part-2)

Two months ago-

It was a fine summer morning and Mercy was walking towards her class. In the distance up ahead she saw Amy- her class mate sitting on a bench in the park. She looked rather sad. Mercy walked up to her and said-

"Amy? Don't you have your classes now?"

Amy was crying but she quickly wiped her tears as Mercy approached her.

"Uh...no..I don't feel like going..", replied Amy.

"Why? What's the matter?", Mercy asked as she sat down beside her.

"Nothing... Just a little headache...", replied Amy.

Mercy knew she was hiding something, she could see her swollen eyes and her pretty face had lost all it's charm. But she noticed something more, there were black marks on her left arm.

"You don't look too well Amy... anything I can do to help?", she asked.

"Uh! I better get back to my room... thanks anyways...", Amy replied and walked towards her hostel room.

Mercy thought that she was being rude, she was always rude to her from the beginning. Amy would pass comments at her during classes and share rumours about her. Mercy ignored her always- but something was different today. Amy was upset. Mercy felt as though a thick cloud of sadness and despair was raining upon her. But she had denied her help, so she decided to forget about it and walked towards her class.

Later that evening, around half past four, Mercy was in her room when she heard a lot of commotion outside, she peered through her window and saw people rushing towards the other part of the hostel where Amy's room was. Mercy went out to look. As she reached Amy's room she saw a huge crowd gathering there, something had happened. The dean and the warden were talking to the police. An ambulance had just arrived. Mercy pushed through the crowd and stood at Amy's door. What she saw turned her stomach. There was blood everywhere, Amy's body lay on the bed, her throat slashed and a pile of flowers lay right beside her. Mercy screamed at the horrible sight and she started to feel dizzy, her freinds tried to console her.

She ran outside and kneeled down on the lawn and started to weep.

"Who would do such a horrible thing to her? She had just talked to her only a few hours ago. Why her? Why?"

A young police officer saw her state and walked up to her.

"You all right Miss?", he asked

Mercy didn't reply and kept sobbing.

"My name's detective inspector Lester and if it's all right with you I'd like to ask you a few routine questions..." said Lester.

Mercy took a good look at Lester. He was a fit young man probably 30-ish , carried himself well and had a kind face.

"Will you catch whoever did this to her and make 'em pay?" , Mercy asked with fire in her eyes.

"Well that's why we are here Miss... it's our job..", replied Lester kneeling down.

"Simply asking questions won't do you any good ... you need to do something quick, the killer mustn't escape...", said Mercy wiping her tears.

"I'm sure we will do our best Miss...now if you could just answer a few questions...starting with your name..." said Lester taking out his notebook.

"Amy was a calssmate of mine and besides that I knew very little of her... I had a brief chat with her only a few hours ago and she looked really sad, something was bothering her...I hope you catch the guy who did this to her..." replied Mercy

"How do you know it's a guy?", asked Lester.

"The flowers on her bed, the sheer brutality of the crime, the bruises on her arms and the fact that she was upset earlier and was trying to hide her tears... I think there's a high probability that she was in a bad relationship...no, it's not a woman ... it must be her lover- a man, someone who could had easy access to the place ....by the way have they recovered the weapon?" , replied Mercy calming herself.

Lester was amazed.

"Um..no...not yet.. ", replied Lester.

"Don't waste your time, the killer took it with him...I hope you hurry and find him soon,... I have a bad feeling he's gonna strike again....Oh! and the name's Mercy...Mercy Abbott - I'm a postgradaute student of Criminology here....Find him officer before I get to him..." said Mercy and walked away.

"What a woman!" , Lester said to himself as he stood up and dusted off the dirt from his trousers.

Later that night Mercy was lying on her bed after dinner. Something had changed inside Mercy's heart after the incident. She felt a deep sense of resentment in her heart towards the killer and she could only imagine how horrible Amy's death had been. Even though Amy was never too nice with her endless bickering and pompous attitude, Mercy always felt sorry for her. She always thought that Amy must have had a troubled childhood which led to her being a bully as she grew up.

A drop of tear rolled down her cheek as the image of the bloody corpse came to her mind. She felt like doing something to help the police in catching the killer. But she was just a student, what could she do? She had this uneasy feeling that this is just the star and that it must be the work of a serial killer. But she didn't know how she came to this conclusion. Was it a woman's intuition or her subconscious calculating the probabilities? She had no idea what it was but she knew that she wouldn't be the same anymore.

"Those blood soaked flowers....where have I seen them before?", she thought hard but couldn't recall.

Nevertheless she knew that she had to get to the bottom of this murder mystery and that she had to begin by knowing about the victim's life...

It was half past ten at night and it seemed as if everyone was asleep in her hostel. It was so eerily quiet that all she could hear was the ticking of the clock on her wall. Mercy tried to fall asleep but she couldn't. The ticking of the clock and the beating of her heart started to synchronise, her brain was racing, searching for more facts and details. Everytime she tried to close her eyes, the image of the bloody corpse of Amy would flash before her eyes.

Unable to sleep she got up and walked towards the window in her room.She raised the curtain and looked at the darkness outside. Besides a few dim light posts scattered around the campus, there was nothing but a blanket of a thick fog engulfing all the trees and bushes. About 800 metres ahead was the hostel where Amy's room was. A chill ran down her spine as she stared at the place, so she shut the curtain immediately and went back to her bed.

"Hydrangea!!", a voice echoed in her head as she sat on her bed thinking.

"Those were the same Hydrangea flowers that Amy was showing off to her friends in the canteen the other day... I was sitting on the other table and I overheard her saying that her boyfriend used to send her those flowers every weekend... she said that he was madly in love with her...", thought Mercy.

She didn't bother to hear the rest of the conversation and walked out of there. Somehow she knew that the presence of those bloody flowers beside her corpse was connected to Amy's love life. She wished she had known Amy a little bit more. Somewhere deep in her heart she wanted to avenge her death.

The clock struck 12! Mercy suddenly realised that she had been thinking about this for almost two hours now. She thought it was best to get some rest for now and look for answers tomorrow. After all she couldn't do much with a tired body and an exhausted mind. So she had a glass of water and forced herself to sleep, trying hard not to think too much about the incident.

Fifteen minutes later, she was starting to fall asleep. Her eyelids were getting heavier and the endless noises in her head were growing faint.

*Thud*

Mercy woke up to a sudden faint noise in her room. Something fell on her floor. The room was dark except for the faint moonlight from the window. She looked around in the dark and reached for the light switch on the table lamp beside her bed. She turned the light on-

*Meow*

Mercy was shocked to see a black cat on the floor licking itself nonchalantly.

"Damn!", Mercy whispered."Bobo... what are you doing in my room in the middle of the night?"

Bobo was the cat of the cafe owner right across the street. He liked to spend most of his time in the hostel and everyone liked to pet him for his cute fluffy looks. He felt worshipped around here and so he came and went whenever he pleased.

Mercy noticed that she had left her window half open and that's how the cat must have entered. He had knocked on Mercy's handbag which was on the table and that was the sound she heard.He jumped on Mercy's bed and demanded affection by purring and rubbing his head on her hand. Mercy's heart melted. But she got up and picked up her bag that had fallen on the ground. Her notebook had fallen out alongwith a piece of paper.

She picked up the piece of paper- she knew it was not hers. She opened it - something was written on it. She took it near the table lamp and read it-

"Today's the day I shall be free... "

Mercy's eyes opened wide as she kept reading- it was a letter- the last words of Amy.