The Alexandru Chronicles: The Beginning (22 page)

“What's your problem with sports cars?”

“
I don't have a problem with sports cars.”

“
Really..., because not too long ago, you called mine and your sister's a piece shit.”

“
Okay..., I hate bumping my head on the low ceilings and I always have to work out every muscle in my body, just to get in and out of the car...To me, those kinds of cars, our torture mechanisms...they should be against the law...”

“
Last time I looked, Amelia's car wasn't that hard to get into.”

“
Well..., I have to admit, that it's a lot easier to get into than most sports cars that I've had the displeasure of being in...Yet, the real reason that I don't like it, is that I believe that a car shouldn't cost more than my rent...Hell, the clothes that I own cost less than Amelia's car; combined.”

Shaking his head, he smiled. “Gen..., that's just stupid on all levels.”

“I don't think so...”

“
Yea, you wouldn't.”

“
Okay...Well, let me ask you a question...What's more stupid...Putting yourself in debt for one of these sports cars, because, not to state the obvious, but yours is truly a fixer repair daily piece of shit; don't deny it?”

“
I'm not deny anything...”

Continuing, Genevieve says, “Or buying a car that's affordable, reliable, has good gas mileage and won't have me running to a mechanic, every time the stupid AC doesn't work or the car starts making really fucked up noises every time I turn the wheel.”

“My Mustang has a lot of faults, that's one thing I'll admit..., but don't you be dissing the steering; it has great steering...”

Genevieve scoffed. “Yea...sure, I suppose every car makes that gasping, screeching, sound when you turn the wheel; my mistake, I should listen to my car more often...Oh...wait.., I do...” she smiled sarcastically at him.

“Gen..., sometimes you can be a real bitch.”

With that same sarcastic smile on her face, Genevieve looked back at the road. She noticed out of the corner of her eye, how Kyle disgruntledly shrugged down into his seat. 

For the remainder of that drive, her and Kyle didn't say a word.

It didn't take long for them to get over to the U of A – surprising since it took a person about twenty minutes or more to just battle the Tucson traffic. Yet, as it was, Genevieve was surprised to find herself pulling into the U of A; in no time at all.  The moment she pulled up and over to the
drop off zone space,
she was met by this disconcerting sensation. In the past, her visits to the campus, had been to solely see her sister, not to investigate a murder; this would be her first homicide at this campus.

Once she had parked in the
drop off zone
area, her and Kyle hastily made their way to the tapped off area. As they approached the crime scene, she quickly fished her identification out of her pocket and flashed it to the police officer behind the crime scene tape.

Once they had been permitted to enter, both her and Kyle headed in the direction of the crime scene.

It hadn't taken Genevieve long to smell that familiar stench of blood. It first made it's presence known by wafting itself from their crime scene over to her car; she had thought the stench smelled potent then. Yet, it had taken crossing that tape, for the stench to become more pungent.

The moment Genevieve laid eyes on their crime scene, she noticed the blood splatter on the banana yellow Charger's glistening paint job. This whole crime scene was a grotesquely, pungent, blood bath; there was so much blood, that the car had patches of blood on it's roof, hood, doors, and splatters on the windows.

The one thing that shouldn't have baffled Genevieve, yet did, was how that Charger hadn't been towed. Considering that it was not even parked in the no parking zone, but on the grass, she would have thought the campus officials would have had a problem with it being there – then again, maybe they did and that was the reason for the body being found.

The body wasn't still present, for it had already been taken away to the morgue.

So, all there was, was this blood. This horrible nauseous sight and smell, that had Genevieve's stomach instinctively lurching—no matter how long she was a homicide detective, both the sight and smell of blood would always bother her.

“
Our victim's name is Nathan Mark.”

“
Nathan...Mark...?”

“
Yea..., anyway, he's a basketball player and quite a ladies man. At least that's what the rumor is around this campus.”

“
Are there any witnesses?”

“
Nope...He does have a girlfriend, though.”

“
A girlfriend? He's a ladies man, and he has a girlfriend?”

“
Yea, that didn't make any sense to me either, but she is the one that found him and she claims that she's his girlfriend.”

“
One of them.” Genevieve mumbled under her breathe.

Sighing, she turned to head over to the girlfriend. It was then, that she noticed out of the corner of her eye, her sister standing off to the side, with a congregating group of students.

Adverting her stride over to her sister, she said over her shoulder, “You handle the girlfriend...” not even waiting for a reply, she hurried toward her sister.

“
Jewel...”

The moment Jewel heard her sister's voice, she was instantly yanked out of her trance to the strong authoritative woman that now stood in front of her.

“Gen..., what are you doing here?” almost instantaneously Jewel regretted asking this question; from the crime scene tape and the officers, it was none too obvious – her sister was working.

Smiling, Genevieve said, “I'm working...Don't you have class?”

“Ah...” almost instantly she noticed how nervous Jewel became. “I was just heading there.”

Taking her sister gently by the arm, Genevieve led her away from a few nosy girls, that were trying to listen in on their conversation. Once they were a safe distance away, she said, “Jewel..., did you see anything last night...?”

“No...I didn't work, last night...”

“
Oh...So, you got a new job?”

“
Yea..., QB should be pretty ecstatic about that.”

Sighing, Genevieve said, “Jewel...You shouldn't let what I say about Amelia affect your relationship with her...A lot of what I say is just me spouting off and giving her a hard time...” when all Jewel did was stoically stare a her, she said, “I know, that most of the time she's difficult to get along with, but she really does love you...And, while it may not seem like it, now..., she wants the best for you...”

“Right...” nervously looking past Genevieve, Jewel said, “I have to get to class.”

It was as she was watching her sister depart, that her partner walked up. “Okay, I talked to the girlfriend...According to her, she didn't see him last night...” noticing the perplexed look on Genevieve's face, he said, “Gen..., are you okay?”

“Yea...did you get directions to our victim's dorm room?”

“
Yep...the supposed girlfriend told me what dormitory his room was located in.”

XXX

By the time they got to the dormitory and upstairs to their victim's dorm room, Genevieve was already regretting the fact that she had given up on using that treadclimber that she had gotten for Christmas two Christmases ago. 

Well, at least using it for it's true purpose. She had mostly found a use for it, by draping either her damp clothes over it or using it as a nice coat rack. 

She hadn't even a chance to catch her breathe or massage the painful stitch in her side, before her and her partner were starting their search for any clues that might help them in their investigation.

As she picked through the papers on Nathan's desk and her partner went through his closet, it was Kyle, suddenly saying, “Ah...” that had her abruptly halting in her search.

“You find something?”

“
Yep...” turning to look at him, she saw him holding a little black book. While he flipped through it, he said, “This guy sure had a full calendar...I'm positive that if it was me, I would have either flunked out of college or this amount of action would have eventually killed me.”

“
If your mother hadn't for flunking...” Genevieve smiled sweetly at him.

Snickering, he laughed. Yet, it was when he got to the last entry of the book, that his laugh died in his throat and was abruptly replaced with a frown. “Um..., Gen...” looking up at her, he said, “You might want to look at this.”

Kyle gingerly handed the book of conquest to his partner, who puzzlingly stared down at the page that he had been looking at.

It took Genevieve's brain a few seconds to comprehend what she was actually seeing.

Yet, even afterwords, she was still having a hard time processing that last entry.

XXX

As Jewel made her way back to her dorm room, she couldn't help thinking about what had happened to Nathan.

All of her classes had been canceled due to his death. And there were so many people who were devastated over what had happened to him – the majority were, of course, young women.

Really Jewel hadn't known what to feel for Nathan, she hadn't known him that well and to be honest she hadn't paid much attention to him. He was just another college kid, that she wouldn't see after graduation.

Yet, still, the shock of how brutal his death was, was enough to snap any free spirited dreamer out of her imagination. She spent so much time in her head, that she really hadn't left room to think of whether or not there were monsters lurking in the dark.

When Jewel finally got to her dorm room, she was so lost in her thoughts, that she was very much surprised to see her sister leaning against her door.

“
Gen..., what are you doing here?!” pulling her key out, she unlocked her door.

“
We need to talk.”

Before she could even say anything, Genevieve, opening the door, rushed her inside.

After closing the door securely behind her, Genevieve turned to look at Jewel and her dorm room. For those few brief moments all she could do was look around the room. It was nice, considering how cramped it was. The single dorm room, had always reminded Genevieve of a shoe box; not very cozy for anyone that was claustrophobic—no wonder Amelia rarely came to visit Jewel, she didn't like tight, confined, places.

Once Genevieve had scanned the room and the pictures on the wall of her and Amelia – none of their brother in-law, that was no big surprise—her gaze returned to Jewel. 

It had been those brief seconds of contemplation, that had given Genevieve enough time, to not just clear her head, but calm herself down. 

“
Look, I know that it's none of my business, but were you sleeping with Nathan Mark?”

While, she didn't want to pry too much into her little sister's personal life, she had to ask her this question. 

It had been a total shock to see her sister's name in Mr. Mark's little black book of conquests.

Nathan Mark had definitely been a busy boy, and, possibly whoever he was busy with last, might be his killer.

Jewel was so surprised by this question, that she had no time to feel that typical emotion over her privacy being invaded; instead all she could do was take a step back.

When the surprise gradually wore off, and she was able to think again, all she could do was stare at her sister, trying to figure out why she would ask such a question. Yet, once she was over the shock, completely, she realized that Genevieve wouldn't ask, unless there was a really good reason behind it – she wasn't Amelia, who just pried for the sheer enjoyment of it.

“Nathan and I...were not having sex...Why?”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Genevieve said, “We found your name in his little black book.” 

While Genevieve was relieved to know that her sister was not sleeping with her murdered victim, she now found herself even more curious on what was happening in Jewel's personal life. Yet, she knew that Jewel's personality was very standoffish; she rarely complained about anything and kept her emotions buried deep inside herself.

The whole time that Genevieve had been standing there across from her sister, pondering, she had been observing Jewel. Yet, it was this slight fluttering of something upon Jewel's desk, that had her attention, suddenly, adverted away.

Silently going over to the desk, she looked down at the scattered books, papers, and etc, that was situated upon the desk.

As she moved these things around on her sister's desk, it was then that she came across the drawing that had caught her attention.

The moment she picked up this drawing, and stared down at it, she was blown away by the detail – she honestly thought she was staring down at an actual person.  

Yet, she had never seen anyone, with the exception of Cirpian, who looked this exotically handsome. Both this man and Cirpian had the looks of men that had just jumped off the covers of romance novels.