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“My time around him was… unpleasant to say the least.” The voicemail ended with a click. Kylie turned to me, her stone eyes unreadable. 

“Thoughts?” she asked. I was not sure how to respond to that. As a detective, obviously, I needed to keep a sense of professionalism- no room to get emotionally involved in my cases- but it can still be a bit jarring. 

“I mean, we just heard the last thing that Mary said to anyone before her death.” Kylie rubbed her temple, obviously irritated. 

“I meant, about the context of this voicemail. Obviously, this adds a new suspect to this case. We need to find out about this ‘him’. And the place to start is by questioning Riley .” Riley was one of the victim’s best friends. The other main relation, in this case, was the victim’s boyfriend Kiyo. When we were initially questioning him, he seemed traumatized. Of course, we had to assume he could be faking this; however, after a long questioning period, our suspicion of him had substantially decreased. He was still a suspect, but his emotions seemed sincere. It didn’t seem like the victim had ever talked to Kiyo about this unnamed man. But obviously, Riley knew all about it. 

“Mrs. Ennie, please calm down.” We had just arrived at Riley ’s house, when her frantic mother ran outside, grabbing onto Kylie’s jacket, and sobbing into it. “It’s Riley! She’s gone! She won’t answer her phone and she’s been out since dawn!” Kylie gently grasped Mrs.Ennie’s shoulders. “Ma’am, please. Have you called the police to file a missing person report?” Gasping slightly, Mrs. Ennie shook her head. “Alright. Mack, please phone the police. Mrs. Ennie, will you and your husband come with me? I have a few questions to ask you two concerning Mary and your daughter.” Mary being the victim. I quickly called an officer who was working with us on this case and followed Kylie inside.

Mrs.Ennie took a deep breath. “She said,” she sniffled, “she said she was going to go see Mary.” 

“Her grave?” I asked. Mrs. Ennie nodded. 

“What if the killer was waiting there to finish the job? Please, whoever you still suspect go and find them and look for Riely” Kylie turned to me. “I have an idea of who it is. Come on, let’s go.” 

As we drove, the car was filled with a determined silence. We knew the location of one suspect. Kiyo. He was our last lead. We pulled up to his house. It was eerily silent as we opened the unlocked door. 

“Backup is on the way, yeah?” I whispered to Kylie. She nodded silently, taking off her shoes to reduce the noise she made when climbing the stairs. I tentatively followed. As we got upstairs, a putrid stench wafted through the air. Kylie grimaced, but we quickly reached Kiyo’s room, which was seemingly the source of the smell. I hesitated, but Kylie threw open the door. We were greeted by the muffled screams of Riley, which instantly drew Kiyo’s attention. It was a horrifying sight. Kiyo turned to face us slowly, scalpel in hand. I heard a click and turned to my right where Kylie had cocked her gun. 

“Drop it,” she said, slowly walking towards him. Kiyo looked down at his hands, which were slightly crusted with blood, and the small scalpel. He dropped it, hands shaking. 

“Ah,, ah,, wait,” he said, quietly. Kylie lowered her gun a bit. 

“Mack, go and untie Riley.” She said. Kiyo’s quivering eyes followed me, but he didn’t say anything or try to stop me. 

“What… happened here?” Kiyo was smiling slightly. 

“It was an accident. I…. made a mistake. But I need to fix it!” he said. As I helped Riley up, I saw what had been placed on the long table. There was Mary’s body, covered in strange symbols. 

“What do you mean?” Kylie asked him. He did not answer. We heard a banging at the door, and the backup officers burst in. Kylie pointed quickly and before I knew it Kiyo was halfway down the stairs, being read his rights. I looked over at the body again and saw that Kylie had picked up a book that had been lying on the table and was reading through it with her gloved hands. We were the only ones left in the room- Riley had gone with some EMTs. Kylie sighed and put the book down. 

“It seems that Kiyo did kill Mary. Not on purpose but nevertheless… he wanted to bring her back with… black magic I suppose.” 

“And that’s why he ...”

“... kidnapped Riley, yes,” she finished for me. She handed me the book and I silently flipped through the pages. The ritual depicted a human sacrifice right next to the dead body for the exchange of life force. It seemed ridiculous to me, but Kiyo must have been desperate. 

“Strangely,” Kylie said, picking up a framed photo, “I feel bad for him. I believe it was an accident. I do think he cared for her.” she put down the photo which depicted Kiyo and Mary eating ice cream together. “Well in any case, now we know who Mary was describing in her call.  Come on Mack. We still have work to do.” Kylie grasped my hand, and we walked out of the room together, as I tried not to look back.