WELCOME TO TIRJUAN!

Jenn stared at the bogusly cheerful faded words on the signboard. A wave of nostalgia washed through her as she studied her surroundings. Softly Jenn whispered to herself, “I’m back.”

The sky was still dark when she arrived. The silence around her was peaceful and calming as she walked along an empty street with her shadow stretching in front of her. At this hour of the day, no one was up yet, so she was free to roam around town.

The town was dimly illuminated by street lights. A light, gentle breeze caressed her cheek as if to welcome her arrival. Absentmindedly, she had strolled to the centre of the town – Eiry’s Garden. This park got its name from one the oldest residents in town, Eiry Haste. It was filled with various types of trees and flowers that Eiry had planted.

Glancing around the park, Jenn wondered if Eiry was still around. She would have been more than a hundred years old by now. The park seemed to be in good shape, so someone was still taking care of it.

Moving towards a wooden bench, Jenn heard someone humming a tune from somewhere near her. The melodious tune floated peacefully in the fresh crisp morning air, sounding ever so gay and lively in this timeless little garden.

Jenn glanced around and saw an old woman standing near a rose bush.

Eiry.

Jenn watched her humming softly to her roses. It seemed like Eiry was still in decent condition for her age. Then suddenly the humming stopped. As if sensing someone watching her, Eiry turned her head and spotted Jenn.

They exchanged polite smiles and nods. Then Eiry slowly moved towards Jenn. Seeing this, Jenn stepped forward in attempt to help her, but Eiry stopped her. “I’m still capable of walking, you know,” Eiry said in an age-defying voice. It was quite a surprise to hear such a solid voice coming from her smallish frail figure. She sat down on the wooden bench and patted on the seat next to her.

“Well, I can see that age has not withered you.” Jenn laughed softly and sat down beside her.

“Time has been kind to me,” Eiry agreed in a smiling voice. “So tell me, Jennifer, where have you been all these years?”

Jenn widened her eyes at the old lady, genuinely surprised. Eiry remembered her. “I have been studying abroad in Australia,” she lied, sticking to her cover story.

Eiry arched a delicate eyebrow, nodding. “I see. How about your parents? Are they well?”

At the mention of her parents, her heart dropped. This was the reason she hadn’t wished to return. People always asked too many questions. Plastering a smile on her face, she tried to maintain a normal façade. “They are enjoying life, travelling around the world. I’ve barely seen them in the past few years.” Her answer was simple. After all, the less detail she gave, the higher the chance that her lie would hold up.

“Hmm …” Eiry stared at her, her expression filled with sympathy. She took Jenn’s hand in hers and patted it affectionately. “You must be missing them very much, then. It’s a good thing that you understand them and feel happy for them. Some young people these days are just too self-centred. Good for you, young lady.” A smile flicked the corners of her wrinkled old mouth. “I suppose so.” Jenn returned the smile politely, feeling her chest tighten.

They continued chatting for a few minutes before Jenn excused herself. It seemed that Eiry was still as warm and loving as she was four years ago. She was a nice old woman. For all Jenn knew, she was probably the only one in the town who still smiled at every person she saw. Jenn remembered how much she had looked up to her before she left Tirjuan. Well, Eiry did make a good role model at the time, even now.

As Jenn continued to stroll along the street, she saw the sun appearing on the eastern horizon, rising perpendicular to it. It was getting warmer now, and the town was coming awake. It amazed her how fast time had flown by. Soon people started filling the streets as she walked by the houses and shops in town.

The place had not changed much. She inhaled the fresh morning air, cherishing this moment. After this, she would have to view this town and its people through the eyes of a special agent. She had to keep reminding herself that she came here to investigate about a serial killer, not to make herself cosy and comfortable with her past. It actually surprised her that she was being so sentimental right now. It was so unlike her to let nostalgia get to her, she thought as she walked on, taking in every single detail of the town.

She halted as a familiar-looking building came into view. Memories flooded her mind, hitting like a ton of bricks. Coming back here was harder than she’d thought it would be. Slowly she walked towards the church. She stopped at the doorway and saw a reverend praying in front of the altar. It was Reverend Ed. She would recognise him anywhere.

She stood there watching until he finished his prayer. When he turned around and saw her, he gave her a warm smile, but it lacked familiarity. Jenn guessed that unlike Eiry, Reverend Ed didn’t recognise her.

“May I help you, young lady?” He spoke with a voice filled with tenderness.

She gave him a pleasant smile. “Reverend Ed, how are you?”

His eyes instantly filled with recognition. “Jennifer?” Disbelief coloured his voice. “Jennifer Cole?”

She nodded, entering the church. “Good to see you again, Reverend. You haven’t changed much.”

Reverend Ed laughed heartily. “I wish I could say the same about you,” he said, taking in her new whole look. “How have you been over these years?”

“Great,” she lied smoothly. “The people there are quite friendly. I had no trouble fitting in. School is fine too. I’ll be graduating next year.”

“Good for you.” He smiled, nodding in approval. “Are you coming back after graduation?”

“Uh …” She pretended to frown, filling her eyes with the right amount of hesitation. “I actually signed a contract with a company over there. I’ll be on probation as soon as I graduate.”

His face fell slightly at her reply. Then he composed himself and gave her a pat on the shoulder. “It’s okay. Don’t feel bad about it. Be happy that you have a bright future ahead of you. Psychology is, after all, what you’re cut out for.”

Jenn gave him a tight-lipped smile. “Yes, I should be,” she said in an unconvinced manner. She felt guilty for lying to him, but she had no other choice.

Then she let out a breath and put on a pretend smile as she changed the topic. “What about you, Reverend? How are you doing over the past few years? In fact, how is everyone?” She planned to use this as a start to do some digging for the case, just to see if the citizens knew much about the murders that were taking place in town.

The reverend clearly got her hint and decided to go along with the topic. “I’m doing fine. Everyone else is okay too, but we have all been missing you. The church hasn’t been the same without you around. Nick and the others rarely come over now. At first, we were really shocked that you left so suddenly. But then when we got your letter, it explained everything. You needed to register yourself for school on such short notice, so we understand.” He gave her a reassuring smile.

Her lips parted as she tried to ask for more details, but their conversation was interrupted by the sound of her cell phone ringing. “I’m sorry.” She gave him an apologetic smile as she fished out her vibrating cell phone. Taking a glance at the caller ID, she could barely suppress her grimace. It was Ben – again.

The reverend saw her expression and apparently took that as his cue to leave. “I’ll let you answer your phone.” With that, he began to head to his office. “Do visit again soon. God bless you always,” he said with a smile before disappearing from sight.

Jenn muttered a goodbye to him and stepped out of the church before answering the call. “This better be good, Warner.” Annoyance seeped through her calm tone.

“Hey, chill,” Ben said in a light manner, apparently detecting the irritation in her voice. Then his tone turned hesitant. “Did I interrupt something? You usually don’t sound this annoyed. I’m … sorry if I did, though.”

She released a quiet sigh as she tried to recompose herself. “Whatever. Why do you keep calling me? Don’t you have a case to solve?” she asked, sounding colder than she’d intended to.

Ben was silent for a moment before he let out a sheepish chuckle under his breath. “I’m on stake-out duty. There’s nothing going right now, so I figured I’d give you a call. Nice of you to ask,” he added in a joking manner.

She rolled her eyes at his comment. “Well?”

“Hmm?”

She sighed again. “What do you need?”

“Oh, right,” he mumbled to himself, hesitating for a moment before speaking again. “Okay, just give me a few seconds and hear me out. I really need to get this out. Then he quickly added, “Please?”

Jenn immediately knew what he was referring to, and she exhaled a sharp breath. Seriously, he was still bugging her about this? She groaned inwardly. And here she thought that he called to consult her on something about his case. “What part of ‘We’re done’ do you not understand?” she muttered monotonously. “You wanted to cut things off between us. You did, and I’ve accepted it. Now it’s over, and there’s nothing to talk about anymore. So move on, will you?” She then hung up on him.

Clutching the cell phone tightly in her hand, Jenn grinded her teeth together in frustration. She did not need this right now. She truly could not understand his stubbornness. They had been broken up for almost half a year now, and he was the one who had cheated on her. He had even laughed at her for being so attached. And now he was acting as if none of that had ever happened. She scoffed at the thought. What kind of sick joke was this?

Taking a few deep breaths, Jenn pulled herself back to the present. No, she thought to herself, she was not going to lose control of herself right now. She was a special agent who should be focusing on her case at hand. She should be more professional. No more emotional distresses. Shoulders squared, she strode away from the church to begin her investigation.

First things first, she needed a place to stay. She hailed a taxi and asked the cabby to take her to the nearest hotel in town. She contemplated the idea of renting a suite, considering that she might be working with many case files later and would need a huge space to keep her files and map out a work board. And suddenly she wondered if she would even be able to find a decent suite in this small town.

It turned out that she was thinking too much. The hotel she found was quaint yet accommodating, and the suite she rented was very much to her liking. It consisted of two bedrooms and a shared bathroom, a small office, kitchen, and a living area furnished with two couches, a coffee table, and a television.

Walking into the master bedroom, she set her backpack on the bed and unpacked. Meanwhile, she started planning her next move. Should she visit the local police department first? Or should she do some digging around the town to form her own baseline about the murders?

Jenn had finished unpacking and moved on to putting up her work board while she debated what her next move was. She went into the office, and conveniently there was a huge note board on the wall. In the middle of the room was a small conference table surrounded by six chairs. Pleased, she brought in the case files and started pinning up the victims’ photos and their profiles, linking each of them to her respective time and location of death.

Jenn studied their places of death, but there was no apparent link between each location where the murders took place. They were just abandoned warehouses and cabins in secluded areas of the town. So as she had observed last night, perhaps the killer would stick to his pattern and make his next kill someplace similar. According to the killer’s time pattern, the next murder would take place exactly one month later. Thirty days should be enough for her to solve this mystery, right? Well, either way, she would have to make it work.

She heaved a deep sigh when she realised that she still needed to come up with a suspect list of her own since the list of suspects provided by the local police consisted of almost half of the citizens of Tirjuan. No wonder they didn’t get anywhere with the investigation.

When she took a second look at the crime scenes marked on the town map, she noticed that each location was actually quite close to the other. They were mostly focused in the south part of the town, which was where she was staying right now. Well, that made it a whole lot easier.

The reason she was so sure that the killer was nearby was because from his style of murder, she could see that he was smart, and she knew that he knew it too. So most likely the killer would attempt a double bluff to make the police assume that he would do his magic somewhere far away from home. Hence the long list of suspects. Plus, he needed to keep a close eye on the investigations, so he had to stay close to the police department, which was in this area too. Good – she just narrowed down her pool of suspects.

In the end, Jenn decided that it was better for her to do her homework first before going to the local PD. It briefly occurred to her that some of the cops here might be crooked, given the fact that this had been an ongoing investigation for more than three years now. Perhaps the killer had someone in the department feeding him information about the case or the agents in charge were just that slow. Either way, she needed to teach them about real police work.