|
Blood
Roses
Chapter
1: Fearful
Written
by, Toni Walker
Nothing
mattered anymore. It wasn’t even worth waking up each morning. Hope
Watson was tired of the lies. She was tired of knowing Romeo was out there
plotting his next move, selecting his next victim and making her a part of
the game.
 She
was never really certain why Romeo had picked her out of all the millions
of people in the world. Was she just that unlucky? She was beginning to
think so with this new arson spree investigation looming before her.
A
note had appeared this morning in her mailbox. It was similar to the
others. No return address. No postage. Only a letter and a piece of a torn
photo. She knew someone was tempting her... someone wanted her to take the
bait. But thus far, she had managed to stay out of it. The only person who
knew anything about her strange pen pal was Jason. She wasn’t sure if
they were from Romeo, but it reeked of his doing.
Hope
would give anything to be able to wake up and look forward to the day. She
would give anything to be able to forget Romeo.
Her
apartment was dark, much the same way it had been since Faith’s death.
There were five messages on her machine from Jason and two from Toni and
Logan. She figured she better get her butt out of bed and face the world,
but so far, she hadn’t been very successful at that.
The
walls creaked and the refrigerator hummed so loud she wanted to
permanently disable it. Every noise was a possible threat waiting to
happen. What had happened to her that she was so afraid of the world?
Another
creaking drew her attention, this time; she could swear it was the front
door. But was it friend or foe? Hope grabbed the gun from her nightstand
and hid in the shadows. She’d be damned if Romeo was going to get the
drop on her a second time.
The
footsteps came closer and closer. Every step made her skin crawl, and she
pressed herself further and further into the closet. It wasn’t until she
raised her gun and took aim that she realized the intruder was just beyond
the door. Her gun hand shook as she wiped the sweat off her brow.
“Hope,
are you in here?” It was Jason.
Her
hand sprung to her mouth in horror. She had nearly killed Jason thinking
he was Romeo. God, what had happened to her? Had she turned into a monster
just like Romeo? Her breath came in gasping heaves as the tears rushed
down her face. It couldn’t be true. The gun clattered to the floor and
Hope collapsed in a heap inside the closet. Clothes fell around her and
the metal bar holding them snapped in half.
 Jason
Arquette heard something fall over in Hope’s bedroom. It didn’t
immediately alarm him, but it seemed to spook Samantha McIver.
Neither had a clue it was Hope, herself, whom had fallen.
“What
was that noise?” Sam had accompanied Jason to the apartment at her
sister’s request. She and Hope hadn’t been all that close, but Toni
seemed to think she had something to offer her - - even if it was only to
get her to listen to her instincts and go
with her gut more often.
“Maybe
it was the damned cat.” Jason had been one of the few Sleuths who had
managed to get past Hope’s tough outer wall. Plus, her cat, Wordsworth,
had taken a shying to him the first time it laid its blue eyes on him.
The
black cat mewled and darted across the living room. Samantha
jumped back to let it pass.
“I
don’t think it’s the cat,” she said cautiously.
Jason
withdrew the gun he always carried and motioned Sam to get behind him. She
gave him a telling look that she could take care of herself, but he
wasn’t taking no for an answer. He took each step with a moment of
hesitation, and then gingerly opened the bedroom door with the nose of his
gun.
“Be
careful,” Sam whispered.
Jason
placed a finger to his lips. He wanted to get a jump on whomever was in
the room. As the door creaked open, he fanned his firearm at various
points in the room, a habit he had never broken out of after quitting the
police force.
It
wasn’t until he stepped completely into the room he realized there was
no threat.
“Hope?”
Jason holstered his weapon and was at his friends side in seconds. He
knelt down and searched for a pulse. A part of him feared Romeo had
finally gotten his slimy hands on her. But that wouldn’t happen as long
as he was alive.
Momentarily,
Jason forgot Sam was still in the building. That is, until she jumped
wildly into the room wielding a baseball bat with the word Excaliber
printed on the side. She handled the bat like a sword swinging it at the
imaginary bad guys in the room she had conjured in her head.
“Where
is he? Let me at him.”
Jason
tried not to crack a smile. Her heart was in the right place. “Sam,
there’s no threat.”
He
lifted Hope out of the closet, but not before checking to see if she had
injuries. He didn’t want to put her into more jeopardy than she was
already in with a killer on the loose who had a fascination with her.
Guardedly, he placed her on the rumpled bed sheet.
“I
think we spooked her.”
Sam
leaned down into the closet noting the haphazard piles of clothes. There
was also something glinting and gray peeking out from beneath a red
halter-top.
It
was a gun.
“Major
understatement there,” she held up the gun for him to see. “I think
Logan and Toni were right. She is in some serious need.”
“We
need to do something drastic before she goes completely over the edge. I
don’t want this Romeo thing to consume her.”
“Drastic,
huh?” she whispered, as she pulled a sheet up to Hope’s chin. “I can
do drastic.”
The
room was dark and eerily quiet. The only thing visible in the room was a
table lit by the neon movie theater marquee outside the window.
The
time was drawing near. Time to exact his revenge.
Hope
hadn’t responded to any of his letters. He really hadn’t expected her
to. That was why he had a chat with Logan earlier in the week.
The
man still thought it was his idea to have Sam become closer friends with
Hope. It was laughable, really. Logan was much easier to manipulate than
he thought, at least, where Hope Watson was concerned.
No
one knew he was Romeo, and he planned to keep it that way. He checked the
surveillance cameras he’d installed in Hope’s apartment. Things were
moving along just as he anticipated. Sam was there. But unfortunately, so
was Jason.
 Chris
grimaced and pounded his fist on the desk. Dammit! His eyes burned as he
watched the wanna be-Logan comforting Hope. He couldn’t hear what Jason
was saying, but he could imagine the sweet nothings spewing forth from his
mouth.
“Leave
her alone,” he shouted at the monitor. “She’s mine!”
Chris
found himself in a perplexing situation. He wanted Hope body and soul, in
all the ways a man could want a woman, but he also wanted her dead. She
had killed his father and taken away the only man who had ever understood
him. Good and evil warred inside of him.
His
mind changed gears as he switched to the hidden camera. It was easy to
disassociate himself like that. It was one of the main reasons no one had
ever suspected he was Romeo.
He
watched Sam McIver as she wandered around Hope’s living room. She was
exactly where he wanted her to be.
“Find
the photos,” he prompted. “Find the notes and bring her back to me.”
Romeo
didn’t want a woman who sulked in her room over the death of her twin
sister, the woman who had deceived her. Death was inevitable. He
should know. Death was a part of his life. Soon she would know the same
pain... as one by one, all her friends disappeared.
As
he switched back to the bedroom camera, he knew who his first victim would
be - - Jason Arquette!
 Toni
McIver hadn’t been as focused as she used to be. She knew why. Romeo had
escaped and she blamed herself. She wanted to catch the bastard. Maybe not
to help Hope, but to get a monster like him off the streets.
She
didn’t hate Hope, maybe just extremely dislike. She was angry that such
a newbie had slipped into the agency and gotten a prime spot on one of the
best teams.
Logan
had called her into his office, and she wondered if her dislike for Hope
was finally coming back to bite her in the butt.
“You
wanted to see me?”
He
motioned for her to sit opposite him, and she complied.
“I
have a new case and I’m splitting the teams up. For now, you’re going
to work on this alone.”
Logan
handed her a file folder. She opened it and searched the contents.
“The
General? Shouldn’t the police be handling this?” The file was filled
with photos from three crime scenes. Each burned to the ground with little
or no evidence.
“They
are, but corporate wants us to do our own investigation. So I’m pulling
you and Jason apart. Jason will partner up with Hope and you’ll be
getting a new partner who will arrive shortly.”
“New
partner? What if I don’t want a new partner?”
“Too
bad. The decision is out of my hands. The guy is coming here from the
corporate office. Before he gets here, try and get a jump on this case.
Maybe if we can solve it quickly, the corporate raider they’re sending
us will go home as quickly as he came.”
“I
still don’t understand. Why are they sending him?”
Logan
puffed on his cigar and leaned back in the worn leather chair.
“They
think the General is one of us.”
*
* * * * *
Join
Toni and her new partner as they investigate the serial arsonist, The
General, in their very own case. Case #3: Burn.
*
* * * * *
What
did you think of this Chapter?
Post
your comments in the Sleuths message
forum.
Be
informed when a new Chapter is Released.
Headquarters
| Case
Files | Personnel
|
