Part Five of The Wake

Tina LaRue steeled herself. The next few minutes were bound to be tough. Everyone was so focused on Cicely; they hadn't even noticed her slip inside.

"Then, the real killer gets away."

Despite the circumstances, she almost laughed. Even Cicely was silent for a moment. Marcus gaped, Jake seemed like he might throw up any moment, Peter stared like he'd seen a ghost, and Melissa looked like a trapped deer.

Marcus whirled on her. "What do you mean? What do you know?"

"I know something upset Cassandra that night. She asked Jake to drive her home. His car wouldn't start, so he took yours."

Jake swayed in his seat. Melissa let out a little shriek. "Jake - not Andrew?!"

Marcus raised his voice, just a little. "He doesn't remember anything. I don't believe he put Cassandra in the driver's seat. She must have tried to crawl out after him."

"I was... driving? That night?" Jake's voice squeaked.

Tina didn't want him to suffer, so she continued quickly. "I knew about Jake at the time, but a few other things bothered me."

Peter's voice shook. "What things?"

"Little questions I couldn't answer. I became a detective because of those questions. I kept looking into her death whenever I had the chance. Finally, I put the pieces together. Jake went off the road, but he and Cassandra weren't badly hurt. Until someone else came along. Someone so jealous he wanted to kill Cassandra for refusing to be his." Tina paused, studying their faces, waiting until he was just about to break. "Isn't that right... Peter?"

"You can't prove anything. Besides, she could have had internal injuries..." Peter hesitated, then turned to run.

Tina had him down before he reached the door. "You have the right to remain silent..."

THE END

By Ray who has been obsessed with books, writing, publishing, and everything related to them for as long as he can remember. His first book, a collection of poetry, was self-published in a high school graphic arts class, to the great bemusement of the teacher. Formerly a professional genealogist and currently working as editor of an upcoming blog, he hopes to develop a working strategy for overcoming the limitations the publishing industry currently imposes on writers and their careers and publish much more of his work.