NINE

~EVE~

Zachariah and Mark both ran out of the room as I followed, despite Zachariah demanding that I stay put. Whatever the reason that had them bothered, surely it was something big, and indeed it was.

“Are you done? Should we leave?” Raghul swiftly asked the moment I approached him.

“Not yet,” I say before moving away from there and heading to the table where Mark, Zachariah, and a lady were sitting. I don’t quite get who she is; opposite her were two girls, but I didn’t care.

There were worried looks written on all of their faces as the lady who was seated asked, “What are we going to do now? This is serious.”

I inched closer to see what exactly was displayed on the table. If humans mattered to me so much, then I would have gasped. I felt something, at least for the deceased, seeing all that was on the table.

“Are you saying Rachel had a boyfriend who was doing all of these to her?” Zachariah asked in a calm tone as the grils who were seated nodded. My eyes went to the name tags of one of them who had started to cry, Ruby.

“So you two are Ruby and Janet?” I said to them as if I were glad they had been caught, and I was met with a heavy stare.

“Who wants to know?” Janet says, as she doesn’t shy away from me. They both really look bratty; no wonder they are jealous of Rachel.

“Sweetheart, your name tag already says it, so you fools are the ones who told Rachel that she was ugly,” I stated, wanting to take matters into my own hands at this point, forgetting my one and only rule, which was not to meddle in any human business, but here I was.

The girls faces squeezed as if they had forgotten they were supposed to pretend to be crying. “See ma’am.” Janet pressed, and a gasp did escape from my mouth as I held my chest. “Ma’am,” I repeated as if I wasn’t five hundred years old, but the way it sounded made me feel old.

Well, the scores are now even, given that they came at me really hard, and it hit me alright.

“Excuse us if we are trying to worry about our very riend who betrayed us,” Ruby stated, and I almost could puke at her face right now. “Betrayed you two? It didn’t seem like she was the betrayer; you idiots told her she was ugly, fat, and needed to shed some weight; she wasn’t worthy of being on the cheerleading team despite her landing being perfect. I love things like that, but you two disgust me,” I mentioned as guilt spread across their faces.

Check mate!

"Ruby, this is all your fault!” Janet accused.

“How is it my fault? It was your idea to tell her she was fat,” Ruby retorted, and the two got on with fighting off each other with their hands.

“So you two did bully Rachel?” The lady seated said as we all switched directions to her, I smiled, feeling super proud that I had done a good deed today. It does seem fulfilling, I must say.

“This is quite... Jack!” Zachariah called out for the detective who had just walked in. Jeremiah seemed to be around his late twenties; he was muscularly built and bald.

“Zachariah,” Jerimiah shook Zachariah’s hand, and then Mark kissed the forehead of the lady seated, “how did it go with your case?”

“We are making progress; at least I have something to show so we won’t have to close the case like the chief demanded. What about yours?” Zachariah asked back.

Jeremiah shook his head repeatedly as he mentioned, “Not good man, five friends just drown themselves like that? It makes no sense at all; when we examined their body, we found this on their wrist.” Jeremiah opened his file as immediate cold shudders ran through my spine.

My hands began to shiver as I tried to control it, my eyes narrowly looking at the Inyoka tattoo marked on them. It made no sense; nothing made sense at all. What is happening? Who is doing all this, because surely it isn’t me at all?

“We found the same thing on my victim’s wrist as well; you think maybe this is all like a setup of some kind, like a gang?” Zachariah questioned.

“I wouldn’t know; I did look into numerous gangs around our area, and none of them have any of this symbol. I think we might as well just let it be for now. If I get any new updates, I will let you know,” Jeremiah said as he turned to leave, bumping into me in the process. “Hello, Miss Eve, long time no see.”

I knew he looked familiar; his old ass wouldn’t leave me always wanting to be accused of something.

“Causing any trouble of late? I mean, if you are here, then you must have done something again,” Jeremiah stated with a smug look plastered on his face.

“Detective, so happy to see that you haven’t been taken off from your job, and oh, I am simply here to help with the case, nothing more,” I say calmly. “I will be heading home now.” I tried to leave, and he grabbed my arm.

“Sorry, I have forgotten that you hate being touched.” Jeremiah took his hand off as he stared at me. He walked closer to me as I held myself as my blood began to boil. “Anywhere... I will still get you; just wait and watch,” he whispered before walking away.

I breathed out heavily as I looked back at the table, where five searching eyes were all watching me.

“Quite the troublemaker, so you always do frequent our station; why haven’t we noticed you?” Mark asked, and he gave a laugh.

“Miss Eve, go back and sit down; I am not done with you yet,” Zachariah said with a commanding tone.

“No,” I replied, folding my arms. “I have given you everything that you need to know; do with it what you must.”

“But we aren’t done talking; we still have that.” Zachariah paused as his speech was being interfered with by a man pushing in a cart filled with different case files.

“You have got new gifts from all your fans again, Zachariah. I call first for everything, that is, if you have refused to keep it again,” Mark said as a large basket filled with different accessories was placed on Zachariah’s desk along with fan letters, as Mark claimed.

“Can you please take them all out? I don’t need any of them,” Zachariah requested.

“Why do you like this Zachariah? This is why you have no girlfriend at your age; those ladies simply want to get to know you and appreciate you for doing your best for our community. There is nothing wrong with that,” Mark said as he tried to convince Zachariah to accept the gift.

“We are deviating from the task at hand, Mark; we need to focus. Can you make yourself busy and look into the whereabouts of Rachel’s boyfriend?”

“We told her to stay away from him, but she didn’t listen. Rachel only came to tell us he was threatening to sell her nudes; we warned her seriously,” Ruby revealed.

My decision to leave again changed as I heard this. Rachel's life really must have been screwed up at such a young age.