CHAPTER 4:

Zaria’s Insects

Zero liked bugs. A lot. She would never be afraid to pick one up. On the other side, Zaria was the complete opposite. She didn’t even want them in the same vicinity as her. She would scream if she found one on her arms. And probably pass out if it was anywhere near her face. 

Zaria stood perfectly still—something she hasn’t done in a while—staring at the crushed bug on her apartment floor. ‘Zero always said bugs were super misunderstood.’ She thought, ‘I kinda feel like that. Or, maybe I’m the squished one now.’ Zaria didn’t know how that happened: Whether it be how she’s now considered the squished bug, or how the bug got squished in the first place. Her phone suddenly started playing a nice tune, it then turned very loud and annoying—repeating the exact same sentence. She grabbed it and picked up the call. “Hello?” “Ready to get started back on that case? I’ll be there in five.” It was D.A. Alexander’s voice. Zaria looked down at her pajamas and bare feet before saying, “Yep! The doors open!” as she quickly rushed to her bathroom; grabbing a pile of clothes on the way and tossing her phone. She threw her hair into two ponytails with two of her locs loose in the front.

Surprisingly, she managed to get dressed in her usual chaotic outfit and brush her teeth in that short period of time. She finally heard a knock on her door. She spit out her toothpaste and rushed to greet D.A. Alexander at the door. 

She doesn’t know why he was here other than for the case. I mean, the Chief could have come. But maybe he was solving that serial killer case, Zaria thought. Though, wouldn’t that mean the District Attorney should be on the case as well? Why was he wasting time being here? He barged through the door and started yelling. “Shaw! Come on.” She was in the kitchen trying to grab a snack before leaving. “Dude, chill.” She grabbed some crackers from her cabinet and fruit punch from her fridge. “Okay let's go Alex.” She said, rushing past him and jumping into his car. Alexander sighed before grabbing her keys that were hanging on the door handle and closing the door. 

“Here.” He threw her keys in her lap and buckled his seatbelt. As he started pulling off, Zaria finally realized that those were her keys that he threw at her. “Oh! I forgot about these!” She turned to Alexander and smiled, “Thanks!” He scoffed and didn’t say ‘you're welcome’ which annoyed Zaria. She wasn’t known for having manners but she always expected people to say ‘you’re welcome’ back. “Wait—how did you know where I lived?” Zaria asked, but quickly caught herself, knowing exactly how he knew where she lived. 

After a couple of minutes driving, Alexander finally said something. “Forensics came.” “Really!? Yes! Now we can sleep tonight.” Zaria joked, though no one knew when she was joking or not. “Doesn’t mean you solved the case yet.” He said, like he was happy that she didn’t. “Well, first step to finding out who killed her, we gotta find out what killed her. Basic rules in figuring out a murder mystery.” Zaria kicked her feet up onto the dashboard. She didn’t even have her seatbelt on.“You—you know what? I’m not even going to try with you.” His hands grip at the wheel even harder. He started speeding up the car and Zaria shrugged her shoulders. 

Zaria saw many things they were passing by that she usually didn’t see when going to her own apartment. A grocery store, a hospital, many fast food places, and gas stations. Elle lived in a lively place, there were so many people out today. 

When they arrived, Alexander slammed on the breaks which made Zaria fall forward a bit. “Hey! Not cool Alex.” She muttered, opening his car door and tumbling out. The smallest snicker came out of his mouth but he quickly turned back on his serious face. He looked at the passenger seat and rolled his eyes. He opened his car door, grabbed his badge, his keys, and Zaria’s keys that were on a lanyard. “Come on. Jax already told me everything yesterday after you guys left.” “Jax?” “The Chief…?” Zaria’s mouth widened as she understood, picked herself off of the ground and started following Alexander into Elle Summer’s mansion. 

Standing at the door was Zaria’s favorite bodyguard, Clay. Though, he did not consider her his favorite. “Sup Clay, we’re back!” Zaria fake punched his arm while Clay stayed still, not paying Zaria any mind. “We need to get inside Clay, so could you please move? The people I’ve been waiting for are inside.” Clay looked down at Zaria once and still stood his ground. “Mrs.Summer doesn’t want you back here. You clearly made her uncomfortable.” “She’s uncomfortable because she’s hiding something; Clearly.” Alexander surprisingly snapped back. “Plus, Zaria is the lead for this case. Whether you or I like it or not.” Alexander pulls a small paper from his pocket. It was a warrant. “Plus, we’re allowed to be here. So be kind as to move.” Clay, against his better judgement, stepped to the side. Staring Zaria down. If looks could kill, Zaria would have been dead a long time ago. 

‘Weird. I should have realized something was off.’ Zaria thought, looking at the forensics team in the center of the house. Why was forensics checking around the house? Shouldn’t they be around where Sandra died if they believed she died there? That means something’s off. “I should have realized that I wouldn’t have been getting anywhere today.” Zaria said snarky out loud. The head of the forensics team turned to her, clipboard in hand. “D.A. Alexander. Didn’t expect to see you here.” She said, bowing her head lightly. Alexander replied, “Good morning, Dr.Ivory. My press conference got cancelled and I’m just making sure this one knows what she’s doing. So what did you get from this scene?” Dr.Ivory started flipping through the pages of her clipboard. “Technically we didn’t get anything.” She said, finally landing on a page. “There’s only one positive blood sample. From the back of the victim’s head.” She announced, patting the back of her head with her gloved hand. “That…stuff coming from her mouth? Not blood. But we haven’t been able to tell what it really is yet. Plus, processing the cause of death takes a while. The blood has a high percentage of a match to the dried blood on the table but it will take a while to be unquestionably.” Zaria smiled, realizing her fake blood theory was right. “Also, ‘bout the cause of death? Not sure yet but an expert thinks it's something internally. Hitting her head on that table wouldn’t have been enough to kill her instantly.” Dr.Ivory skipped through a few more pages before speaking again. “We are looking around to see if anything could match the stuff found on her mouth and clothes.” “It's pen ink.” Zaria said, inviting herself into the conversation. Dr.Ivory and Alexander turned to her, confused looks on their faces. “What?” “It’s pen ink. Does Sandra have an office? I bet an accountant would have an office.” Zaria started looking around until Dr.Ivory pointed to the right of the huge hallway. In a rush, Zaria started speedwalking and the two hesitantly followed. 

“Zaria, not everyone is as crazy as you and can figure that out so fast. Care to explain?” Alexander demanded, finally catching up to a determined Zaria. “Yesterday, I said the blood looked like…liquidly and not ‘blood-like.’ I compared it to pen ink and cranberry juice or syrup.” Zaria explained, stopping at a door that said Accounting. “Elle said that no one brings cranberry-anything into her house, and since Sandra is an accountant I assumed it was pen ink. Plus, the smell of it. It smelled like chemicals or something from a lab. That’s usually what pens smell like. But, the scent was stronger. So it wasn’t normal pen ink.” She opened the door to expose a room. A desk in the middle, filled with papers, a bathroom to the left of where they were standing, lamps, computers, and more. “Plus, I’ve had many pens spill on me before. I have a weird habit of biting the top. Sometimes I forget they aren’t like my usual pens.” 

Stepping inside was like stepping into a cemetery at night. It was freezing, the temperature meter at 68. Some books were on the floor but they look deliberately placed. And in Zaria fashion, ignoring the elephant in the room, the big red stains on the desk in the middle. Zaria walked over and saw a broken ink pen. “You guys didn’t think to check in here?” Zaria said, surprised she found this first. “Look, we are just here to see how she died. Not where.” “She didn’t die in this room though. She died in the kitchen.” Zaria mentioned, her hands trailing where there was red ink. “A witness said they saw Sandra walking to the kitchen, already having this pen ink on her. So meaning, she wasn't dragged or anything but she walked there willingly. Then later meeting her demise. Maybe she was trying to clean up the ink splatters.” “But that still doesn't explain how she died in that short period of time. The time that she walked to the kitchen, with Thorn already in the kitchen. Issac saw Thorn come out with blood on her. But the body wasn’t touched at all.” “It wasn’t blood, remember? We now know that red stuff could be ink.” Zaria replied, bringing her—now covered in red ink—hands to her face. “Maybe they ran into each other? Oh! Maybe there was something in the ink.” Dr.Ivory said, and Zaria nodded. “A possibility.”  “Doesn’t explain how she died though. No witnesses except a lady who lied about seeing Sandra. I think we will get her in custody.” D.A. Alexander finally spoke, pulling out his phone and dialing some numbers. “Listen, we can figure out how she died in a couple of weeks.” “Weeks? How many?” Zaria said, her voice now worried. “Six to eight.” Zaria looked shocked how long it would take. “That’s really long, that’s more than a month. I was asked to figure this out before it goes cold. Since everyone else is super-duper busy. If it takes that long, the case will run for months.” Dr.Ivory shrugs. “Sorry, nothing we can do about it.” 

‘Samera asked me on this case because she believed the police would take too long to figure it out. If how she died takes more than a month, how are we going to find a pattern to who is responsible? If anyones responsible?’ Zaria thought, and she shook the idea out of her head. And it was replaced by a super dangerous one. Zaria took a deep breath before calmly asking for Elle Summer. 

Elle finally arrived in the room. Shocked to see Zaria here but she quickly hid her discomfort. “What do you need from me?” She said, her voice on edge. She was way more on edge in Sandra’s office than in the kitchen yesterday. “Did Sandra have a habit of biting her pens?” Zaria asked, and Elle nodded. “I think I’ve seen her do it by accident once. But she usually bites the end, but sometimes she forgets and ends up biting the actual pen point.”  Zaria chuckled to herself before picking up the pen that still had a bit of ink left in it. And senselessly, held the pen above her face. Letting the ink drip into her mouth. 

Dr.Ivory, Elle, and Alexander stared at Zaria intensely. ‘It burns. It tastes like battery acid and regret.’ Zaria thought. Everyone’s mouths spread apart and eyes wide open. “Zaria what the f—” Before Alexander could finish, Zaria started running. She ran as fast as she could to the kitchen, passing by Issac doing his daily cleaning routine. Just like Sandra. She ran into the kitchen, lightly falling but picking herself back up. She looked in the fridge, then looked at the paper towels that were on the counter. Something clicked in her head before she ran out of the kitchen and outside of the house. Worried, Alexander followed. Making Elle and Dr.Ivory stay back. “I’ll handle it!” He said before running out with Zaria. 

For a woman in her twenties, she was running really fast. Despite her now sweating, not just from running but from whatever she just took in that pen. Her muscles started getting weaker but that didn’t stop her from running all the way to the hospital down the street. The hospital she passed while driving with Alexander. Rushing through the emergency doors, she yelled—by accident—to the receptionist. “Hello! Hi! Good morning! I think something’s wrong with me, not in general, but like I ate something and I believe it is super dangerous!” The receptionist, visibly scared, started asking Zaria basic questions about why she would think that. Before she could, she could feel her body giving out. Like she was being paralyzed, she quickly went back. The last thing she heard before passing out was the scream on the receptionist and many footsteps rushing towards her.