Chapter 1
A huge yellow-orange moon rose over the treetops as wisps of dark clouds passed over its glowing face. Olivia Miller and her roommate, Melissa, walked along the brick sidewalk of the Somerville, Massachusetts neighborhood near the edge of the university campus.
“Look at the moon.” Melissa’s brown eyes beamed as she gestured to the sky with the bottle of red wine she was holding.
“It looks just like a Halloween moon.” Olivia carried a plate of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies. “Perfect for tonight.”
Olivia and Melissa were dressed as crows. The young women and two of their friends had spent hours cutting and sewing to create matching costumes of black pants and black sweatshirts covered in fabric feathers with yellow beaks attached to the hoods. Pleased with how the costumes had come out, they were proud of their idea to be a “murder of crows” for the night’s pre-Halloween party.
Strolling along the tree-lined streets, the two friends passed two and three-decker apartment houses. Some of the houses were owned by families or long-time Somerville residents and others were rented by university students. The groups peacefully co-existed in this area of the city, unlike in other parts where students were often rowdy and noisy which resulted in the residents calling the police to complain.
Many of the homes had pots of colorful mums sitting side by side with carved pumpkins decorating the front porches. At the end of the month, children would take to the sidewalks disguised as ghosts and witches and vampires on the prowl for candy to fill their bags.
“I really shouldn’t be going out tonight.” The light breeze caught Olivia’s long, brown hair and swirled some strands into her face. “I have to get my applications finished and I have a paper due on Monday.”
“Those law school applications can wait,” Melissa said. “I need to get my med school apps finished, but it’s important to have some fun … and you’ve been working on that paper all week. We don’t have to stay at the party long. A couple of hours and then we can head home if we want. We shouldn’t be hermits. It’s our senior year of college. We should be able to have some fun and not just study and work all the time.”
Olivia knew that Melissa was right. Both of them had been buried in school work and Olivia was looking forward to relaxing, listening to music, and talking with friends.
“I’m glad Colleen invited us to the party,” Olivia said. “I know she lives with a couple of guys. I’ve seen them around, but I’ve never met them.”
“I hung out with Gary once or twice with a bunch of other friends,” Melissa said. “I don’t know him well at all, but he seemed fun. I’ve never met Christian though.”
The girls approached the apartment building where the party was to be held. It was a brick structure of six levels with four apartments on each floor.
Several people dressed in costumes heading out to other parties passed the young women on the side street. The breeze kicked up again and rustled the leaves around their feet as a cloud hid the moon and blocked its light.
“Are we early?” Olivia looked up at the second floor windows. There were a few lights on in Colleen’s apartment, but she couldn’t hear voices or music playing and didn’t see anyone moving around inside.
“We must be,” Melissa groaned. “I hate being first.”
Walking up the front porch steps to the landing, Melissa scanned the mailbox names looking for the button to press for the correct apartment.
“The door’s open,” Olivia said. “No need to buzz.”
Stepping into the small lobby, they climbed the staircase to the second floor apartment.
“Mel, do we even have the right night?” Olivia asked uneasily. “It’s so quiet. I can’t hear anyone inside.” She knocked on the apartment door and the pressure from her hand nudged it open a crack. A prickle of anxiety ran through Olivia’s body.
Melissa put her hand on the door and pushed it wider. “Hey? Anyone home?” She stepped into the small entryway.
Several shoes were lined up on a mat along the right side of the entry. Jackets hung from white hooks screwed into the wall above the shoes.
Olivia hesitated. She didn’t understand why, but something felt off. Under her jacket, a flash of panic skittered over her skin and she had the urge to run away. Trying to brush off the sensation, she followed Melissa into the apartment.
Three bikes leaned against the left side wall of the entryway.
“Colleen?” Melissa called. “Where is everybody?”
Walking from the entry through the dead-silent main hallway, Melissa stopped short at the living room’s arched entrance and Olivia almost collided into her back.
“Liv.” Melissa’s voice squeaked in her throat. “No, no.” The bottle of wine slipped from her hand, clunked against the wood floor, and rolled a few inches away.
“What is it?” When Olivia looked over Melissa’s shoulder, her throat constricted and she gagged. Her hands trembled so violently that she almost dropped the plate of cookies.
Melissa spun around, pushed past Olivia, and ran out of the apartment back into the second floor hall. Standing near the staircase, hunched over, breathing hard, she made a pitiful wailing sound.
Olivia took a shaky step into the living room, her eyes wide with shock.
A young man was face up on the floor in front of the couch. It was Gary.
Blood soaked through the front of the skeleton costume. His wide eyes stared unseeing at the ceiling.
Olivia shifted her gaze to the right side of the room.
Sprawled in an easy chair, Christian’s upper body hung over the arm of the seat at a weird angle. A cowboy hat had fallen from his head. Blood dripped from a gash in his throat and formed a puddle on the floor next to the chair. His arms hung loose. He was wearing a fringed suede vest over what was once a white T-shirt … now it was red. Christian’s skin was ghostly pale.
A strange metallic smell filled Olivia’s nostrils. As she stared at the blood puddle, another drop fell from Christian’s throat.
Her stomach clenched and blood roared in her ears. Olivia wanted to run, but her limbs were so weak that she couldn’t summon the enormous effort required to move them. All she could do was stand frozen and helpless in the doorway.
The room started to spin and Olivia placed one hand against the wall. Her eyes moved over the bodies, the blood. Her brain, sluggish and slow, struggled to process what was before her. She had never seen a young person dead.
The image was so unnatural that part of her brain expected the young men to sit up and laugh, the whole scene staged by them as an early Halloween stunt to frighten the guests arriving for the party.
Olivia glanced down at the plate in her hand and was struck by how stupid and trivial it was to still be holding a platter of cookies.
Melissa whimpered in the hall.
Olivia forced her feet to move and she took several slow, backward steps out of the living room. Her senses so heightened, everything seemed to be shimmering and buzzing.
Voices and footsteps could be heard on the stairwell.
Olivia sucked in a breath trying to clear her head and she turned around to face the open front door of the apartment. Her legs moved as if she was wading through quicksand.
The group of people arriving saw Melissa at the top of the landing and called to her.
Melissa cried out.
Olivia heard footsteps rushing up the stairs.
A young woman wearing a witch’s hat wrapped her arm around Melissa’s shoulders and leaned close to determine what was wrong.
Olivia didn’t recognize the tall, young man who stepped into the apartment. A dark haired woman dressed as a mouse followed behind him.
The man took one look at Olivia standing at the living room entrance and rushed forward. “Oh, hell,” he muttered when he saw Gary and Christian in the living room. He knew they were dead. No one could lose all that blood and live, but he hurried to the bodies anyway to check for pulses.
Olivia and the young woman wearing the mouse costume had been in some classes together …Ynes Clinton took tentative steps forward, glanced quickly at the carnage in the living room, turned her head away and grasped Olivia’s arm.
Olivia blinked at Ynes. “Do you have a phone?” Her throat was so constricted that her voice came out tinny and hoarse.
Ynes nodded.
Olivia managed to ask, “Can you call 911?” She had a phone in her own pocket, but her brain was so befuddled that she wasn’t thinking right. She straightened as a thought flashed through her mind. Adrenaline flooded Olivia’s body. She shoved the cookie plate into Ynes’ hands and whirled.
“Colleen!” Olivia called out as she rushed down the hall, glancing first into the kitchen and then into the bathroom.
“Olivia, no,” Ynes shouted. “The killer could be hiding in the apartment.”
Ignoring Ynes’ warning, Olivia pushed open the bedroom door on her right and looked in. “Colleen?” The room was empty.
When she turned back into the hallway, a figure stepped through the far bedroom’s door, the last room on the left of the corridor.
Olivia stopped short, her heart jumped into her throat.
The figure, dressed in black with a black ski mask over his face, hesitated for a half second, making eye contact with Olivia.
“Someone’s here,” Olivia screamed over her shoulder.
The figure wheeled and fled through the open door into the back hall of the apartment building to the rear staircase.
Olivia held back for a second, but then started after the person to see if she could get another look at him from the second level porch when he ran out the door of the building’s first floor.
As she passed the next bedroom, something caught her eye and she halted at the entrance to the room. A tube of mascara and its brush wand lay on the floor in front of a desk. Olivia stared at the tube and the tiny brush and gingerly entered the room.
“Colleen?” she whispered, afraid of what she would find. With her heart pounding, Olivia’s eyes darted around the small space. Shaking like a leaf in hurricane, she forced herself to kneel and check under the bed. Nothing.
A muffled sound came from the closet. Olivia turned to the noise, holding her breath. She stood, faced the door, and crossed the room by moving her feet a few inches at a time. Reaching for the doorknob, she pulled her hand back for a moment, then sucked in a breath, grabbed the knob, and flung the closet door wide.
A long breath escaped from her lungs.
Colleen, curled in a ball, lay trembling on the closet floor.
Olivia knelt and gently put her hands on Colleen’s arms. “Are you hurt?”
Colleen shook her head. Whimpering, she wrapped her arms around Olivia’s waist and buried her face into her shoulder. Olivia hugged the young woman and rocked her, rubbing her back.
“Can you stand?” Olivia helped Colleen to her feet. “You’re okay. You’re safe,” she murmured to the shaking girl.
Ynes peered into the room and exhaled. “Thank heavens,” she whispered when she saw Olivia and Colleen standing together just inside the closet.
Olivia helped Colleen to the bed and the two of them sat. Tears poured from Colleen’s eyes, she wheezed and ran her hands through her hair. Her whole body shook.
“I heard it. What did they do?” Colleen gasped.
Olivia and Ynes exchanged a glance.
Colleen saw what passed between them and started to wail. “No!” Her eyes danced wildly around the room and she shifted her body closer to Olivia. Her chest heaved. “Where’s Christian? Where’s Gary?” she whispered.
Olivia took Colleen’s hands in hers. She didn’t know what to say to the trembling young woman.
“The police,” Ynes said. “I hear the siren. They’re almost here.”
Chapter 2
About ten young people had entered the apartment between the time Olivia and Melissa arrived and when the police answered the emergency call. The cops were not pleased that the crime scene had been compromised by so many people going in and out of the place before they showed up. One officer ushered the young men and women out of the apartment and down to the sidewalk where he and another officer took statements and sorted out who arrived when to the apartment. A woman officer came in and took over the duty of speaking with Colleen.
Everyone milled around outside while detectives and police officers interviewed people one at a time. A tall, red haired college student with freckles scattered over his cheeks stepped away from a group of young people who had been in the apartment and approached Melissa and Olivia. The girls recognized him from campus. He introduced himself as Jack Wilson and said he was a senior at the university.
“You found the bodies?” he asked.
Olivia and Melissa nodded.
“I went into the apartment just before the cops arrived. I was hanging around out back for a while. I can’t believe this happened,” Jack said.
Jack’s words caused something to ping in Olivia’s brain. “Which way did you come in? Front or back stairs?”
“I came up the back staircase.”
Taking a step closer, Olivia asked, “Did you happen to see a guy dressed in black wearing a ski mask leave out the back way?”
Jack’s eyes widened. “Yeah. Actually, two people left the building wearing ski masks. Why?”
“You saw him?” Olivia’s voice was excited. “Wait. Two people wearing ski masks left the building?”
“One passed me on the stairs. Why? Who is he?”
Olivia said, “He was in the apartment hiding in one of the bedrooms. What happened when he passed you?”
“Is he the killer?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“The killer passed me?” Shock made the young man’s muscles tense and Jack’s speaking rate sped up. “One person in a ski mask came out while I was smoking outside the back entrance … before I went up to Gary and Christian’s. The second guy in a mask ran down the stairs when I was on the way up. I didn’t think anything of it. A few people left the building in costumes while I was outside. A couple of witches, a clown, a zombie. I figured they were just coming and going to Halloween parties.” He shook his head. “The killer wore a ski mask? I could have tackled him … if, I only knew.”
Olivia’s mind raced. Were two people working together? Were there two killers?
“Two people were wearing ski masks?” Melissa said. The muscles around her mouth quivered and she looked as if she might cry. “Two killers?”
“They didn’t seem like they were together,” Jack offered. “They left separately.”
“Did you get a look at them? Were any parts of their faces visible? Did you notice anything about them that stood out?” Olivia asked.
“Nothing, no. I don’t know. I didn’t really pay attention.” Jack’s facial expression changed to fear. “The first one, though, he looked me in the eye. Something about the look he gave me made me feel weird.” Jack ran his hand over the top of his head. “The killer went right by me? I can’t believe it.”
“Did you see a knife?” Olivia asked. “Was either guy carrying a knife?”
Jack thought for a second. “I didn’t notice a knife.”
A detective walked up to the girls and interrupted their conversation with Jack. He moved Melissa and Olivia closer to one of the squad cars. After the young women talked with the detective, they were led to the back seat of the police car and taken to headquarters where they were questioned further.
Pictures of the scene flashed through Olivia’s mind and she wondered if the images would burn into her brain forever from having to tell and retell what she found in that apartment.
The lights in the police station reflected off the stark white walls and the brightness made Olivia wish she had a pair of sunglasses. Every cell in her body seemed to emit a low-level hum like her system was on high alert. Colors and sounds cut into her eyes and ears. Scents were too sharp. Her skin was tingling like when she had a fever.
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