Inner And Outer Demons

|41|

Tris's POV

"Can you close the window Tobias? It's fourteen degrees outside." I say looking over at him as he hangs his hand out the open window. We're driving to the crime scene, and it feels surreal to be back to work how we used to be.

Tobias chuckles, but retreats his hand and closes the window. "Sorry. I've just missed this."

I smile softly his way, as he glances over at me shortly with a slight grin on his lips.

"I know," I nod, and reach over to squeeze his hand. "But that doesn't mean I have to freeze my ass off before we get there."

Tobias laughs, and it's a welcome sight to see him this happy. He's back where he belongs.

The house we arrive at seems like one right off of a movie set, or in some hidden community in California. This house stands taller than all the others on the block, and passing past an open golden gate we know this house is anything but the typical home. Once inside the insanely larger house, stepping into the foyer, Tobias and I pause for a moment as we take in everything. Wealth screams from every inch of every room we see.

Marbled tables here, gold trimmings there. Furniture that without a doubt is worth more than I make in a year.

"Liam and Jennifer Harper," An officer approaches us and taking our eyes off of the fanciness of the outrageous house we get back to the reason we're even in this house to begin with. "Married, late thirties."

"Found earlier this morning by their housekeeper." He explains as he leads us through the first room to get to the living room.

The living room is smaller than the other room, but not by much. Books line the tall bookshelves and there's several windows looking out at their garden. But other details of the room fall flat the moment our eyes land on Mr. and Mrs. Harper.

Mr. Harper sits bound to a chair, his wrists and ankles tied to the arms and legs of the wooden chair by twine. His head hangs downward leaving us unable to see his face, but we can see all of the blood on him and the carpet surrounding.

"He was tortured?" I ask as I swallow a lump growing in my throat.

"Looking that way. Stab wounds to the lower extremities, and finally a clean slice along the jugular." Nita walks in the room from the side door, beginning to take off her latex gloves. "The stab wounds allowed him to bleed out slow as they managed not to hit an artery. And when they got what they needed from him, they finished him quick."

"Them?" Tobias speaks up and the officer looks to him.

"There had to be more than one perpetrator, one to handle Mr. Harper here and one to deal with Mrs. Harper."

"Where is she by the way?" I ask, not spotting a woman's body anywhere in this room. A knocked over chair, but no body.

"Out there." The officer points and Nita follows us out.

We crunch through fallen snow as we walk through the dead garden. But the moment we stepped out, we already spotted the trail of red streaking through the pure white snow.

"Looks like she tried to escape, but she was stabbed in her femoral artery before crawling out here."

"Meaning even if she had made it to help, it would have been too late for her anyway?" I ask and Nita nods.

"She was already bleeding out, but one of the perps followed after her and put the final stab wound in her back here." Nita says pointing to a wound that soaked through her flouncy blouse.

Heading back inside, Tobias asks a question as we stomp the snow from our shoes. "What did these folks do? They could obviously afford this house and all the crap in it, what did they do for work?"

"They sold high class jewelry."

It adds up now. These people weren't just randomly killed, that was clear from the time put into their torture.

"Robbery?"

"That's what we can't figure out," The officer answers, and I raise an eyebrow. "nothing in the house looks ransacked. It's only that one room they pulled them into, that one looks like they rummaged through pretty good."

"Then there must've been something in that room with them."

Tobias head back to the living room we found the body in as I stick in the foyer with the officer.

"You said the housekeeper found them," I say and he nods. "Do you know if anyone else had keys to the house?"

"We spoke to Ms. Ramirez, the housekeeper who has worked for the Harpers for nearly seven years. And she said only herself and the gardener had access. Other than that, one of the Harper's would've had to let someone in."

"Any sign of a break in?" I question.

The officer shakes his head, "We checked every floor, every window and door. No sign of entry."

I nod. "So whoever was here, they must've been let in."

"Unfortunately so."

I shake my head as I rejoin Tobias in the living room. He's searching through things thrown all over the floor and on the walls.

"Get anything?" I ask him and with a sigh, he responds with a simple no.

"You?" He inquires and I release a sigh of my own.

"It looks like the Harpers let in their own murderers."

A/N: Hey all! Short chapter, I know.🙈 Hopefully the next one will be longer. But I wanted to get the next case started, hope even though it's a short one that you liked it alright.