Two weeks had passed, and Detective Sarah Blake found herself buried under a mountain of cold cases. The pressure was quite relentless on her shoulders. Two murder investigations, both meticulously clean, no traces of murder nor intention of the act were and had left her grasping at shadows. The absence of evidence was maddening—no fingerprints, no DNA, no witness statements. Each case seemed to dissolve into thin air, leaving her with nothing but frustration and a creeping sense of dread. The room was a labyrinth of files and empty coffee cups, the scent of stale coffee mixing with the musty aroma of old case notes. And her eyes swelled with sleeplessness and her sturdy fingers still full vigor to find the new trace.
Sarah replayed the CCTV footage for what felt like the hundredth time. The grainy, flickering images on the screen blurred together, each frame more infuriating than the last. Her eyes, red-rimmed from countless hours of scrutiny, stared unblinkingly at the screen, seeking any anomaly and any hint that could crack the cases open.
Maya, her trusted colleague, approached with a steaming cup of another coffee cup. She set it gently on Sarah’s desk, her eyes reflecting the weariness of the investigation. The dark liquid offered little comfort against the relentless barrage of unsolved cases. Maya’s gaze fell on the footage, her expression a mixture of concern and curiosity.
“Wait a minute,” Maya’s voice cut through the silence, sharp with a sudden burst of excitement. “Can you rewind that part?”
Sarah, her focus sharp as a blade, quickly rewound the footage. Maya leaned in closer, her face illuminated by the flickering light of the screen. Her eyes darted across the images with a newfound intensity.
“Look closely,” Maya urged. “Didn’t you just see a flash of light in that tree?”
Sarah’s gaze was riveted to the screen, her pulse quickening. The footage was grainy and dark, but a subtle detail emerged—a fleeting, moon-shaped flash reflected off the tree just outside the sisters'' apartment window. It was almost imperceptible, a ghostly glint that lasted only a second. Their eyes widened in unison as they grasped the potential significance of the discovery.
Maya, her eyes narrowing with realization, pointed out a crucial detail. “Wait, there were two moons,” she said, her voice tight with a dawning understanding. Rewind it again…
Sarah rewind it again and yes there were two crescent shaped reflections… Maya continued, “That means the person was wearing round-rimmed glasses.” The faint double reflection suggested that the figure was not only precise but also identifiable by their eyewear.
Sarah''s heart pounded in her chest. The once blurry and inconsequential footage now held a critical clue. “Get me all the files on Vivian Donovan and the sisters,” she commanded, her tone firm and resolute.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Maya''s eyes mirrored the urgency of the situation as she nodded and dashed off to retrieve the files. The office, usually a haven of activity and the rhythmic clatter of keyboards, now seemed to hold its breath in anticipation.
Sarah rewound the footage one last time, her gaze intense and unyielding. She watched the shadowy figure disappear into the night, a nagging sense of familiarity gnawing at her. The figure’s movements, though obscured by darkness, were eerily precise. The soft tread of its steps barely disturbed the leaves of the tree, indicating an expert’s finesse. The sleek, shadowy form and its fluid movements suggested that the figure was a woman.
As Sarah’s mind raced through the implications of this new clue, her thoughts were punctuated by the echoing name: Vivian Donovan. The threads of the case were beginning to weave together, but Sarah knew she needed more to draw a concrete conclusion.
Minutes later, Maya returned, her arms laden with a stack of files. The weight of each file seemed to echo the depth of the investigation. She laid them out before Sarah, who immediately began rifling through them with a determined efficiency. Her mind was already racing, piecing together fragments of information with sharp, analytical precision.
Sarah’s fingers danced over the documents, her eyes scanning for any detail that might connect Vivian Donovan to the recent murders. Every scrap of evidence, every minor detail, seemed to point back to Vivian, but Sarah needed to be certain. Her doubts and questions buzzed around her head like persistent flies, but she pushed them aside, focusing solely on the task at hand.
As Sarah continued to dig through the files, her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and theories. The clock ticked ominously, each second adding to the mounting tension. The night outside was dark and cold, but within the confines of Sarah’s office, the atmosphere crackled with electric anticipation.
At last she found it!!!
A very minute yet important detail in the file that seemed to lead back to the link between Vivian Donovan and the sisters. Now it was confirmed that The sisters Emily and Dorothy were together with Vivian back in high school. They used to study together. And more or less they entered school in the same year as well… but Emily had left the school a year before her graduation.
Sarah had many questions… how they were linked, were they friends? Were they enemies? Were they ever in same class? Why Emily left the school just a year before her graduation? What about Dorothy? If Vivian really is the killed how she killed them? Mark is also killed her then, it’s the same person… and then 10 years ago, too….
but all in all, This was a great discovery and a milestone achieved in the whole investigation. With the moon-shaped clue and the reflection of the glasses still fresh in her mind, Sarah was prepared to dive deeper into the labyrinthine mystery. The truth was out there, and she was determined to uncover it—no matter the cost. Don’t know it was pride or her prejudice that she was hell bent on convicting Vivian Donovan of the murder. It was her gut feeling that told her Vivian was the murderer.
And Maybe she was right…