(Chapter 5: https://saragawde.com/chapter-5/)
Asher
“Its an inland pebble!” Asher remarked. “Its from the lake!” He turned to a gaping Liam. He looked down at the crate it had slid out of. He picked it up, tracing its exterior with his finger. “Will you look at that?” He pointed to a small hole in the middle of one of its sides. “That’s what it fell into the crate through.”
“But how’d it get there?” Liam asked, his voice small and panicked.
Asher felt someone walk up to them, and turned to see it was Avery. He smiled at her, for the first time. “Well, thank YOU for running off like that! What went wrong though?”
Avery looked away, her expression grim and disappointed almost. “My arms hurt, and I couldn’t hold up the gun anymore.” She stuttered.
“No problem. We found something much more important than those bullets’ trajectories.” He grinned at the pebble in his hand. It was about the size of a bottle cap, white and entirely covered with brown spots.
Liam folded his arms, staring at the rock suspiciously. “So what, it fell from the sky or something?”
Asher turned to him in disbelief. “No, idiot, it fell from heaven.” He snorted. “I’m kidding. It’s from the lake, which means whoever thrw or shot it was equipped with things in this area.”
“Remember that bruise on Rebecca’s left arm?” Asher asked keenly. He could feel his heart racing.
Liam nodded. “Whoever threw the rock ended up hitting her there. It explains it perfectly!”
“Are you sure a bird didn’t just drop the pebble on its flight home or something?” Avery asked, still incredulous.
“Its too big and too heavy for a bird to have carried. Just, listen to me, you two.” He stepped away from them both, walking a few steps ahead before spinning on his heels to face their disbelieving faces. “There’s only 1 person we know who could’ve done that, thrown the pebble, hit Rebecca’s wrist so accurately, and most probably from a close range?” Asher asked, his mouth open as he smiled, nodding for an answer. He watched as realization shaped Avery’s face.
“Who-” Liam began.
“The person she shot at!” Asher answered before he could complete his question. “Rebecca was shooting at this person but somehow they were able to avoid her bullets and get just enough time to disarm her, with this pebble!” He lifted the precious stone so they could see it clearly again. “The bruise on her wrist is a result of this pebble having hit her, and most probably having fallen so fortunately through that small hole in the crate’s wood, kept preserved and intact for days to come after. Its large, its heavy, but its still throwable, it provides the perfect amount of damage because that’s exactly what it was picked for. And since its from the lake, it means…” He looked back at his associates.
When he didn’t get a response, he groaned in frustration. “It means Rebecca’s attacker, the one she was trying so hard to defend herself from, is someone who lives near the lake!”
It was a few moments before the two of them truly understood the profoundness of his discovery. Liam gasped, whereas Avery just folded her arms, her eyebrows meeting when she spoke. “Ok, hold up. ‘Lives’ is a jump, how do you know this person lives near here?”
Asher cleared his throat, his fist infront of his mouth as he coughed. “I’m sorry,” He pulled at the collar of his coat. “Yes, ‘lives’ is too big of an assumption, but we do know that this person equipped near the lake, because based on what i can remember, these pebbles are only ever found near water bodies, unless our man went out over 1000km to get stocked with pebbles for a throw.”
“Ok, but this, murderer? Why didn’t they just shoot her head then?” Liam asked.
“Either because they were panicked or didn’t want to. The latter sounds more reasonable because they aimed so accurately at her wrist still.” Asher answered.
“So, you’re saying the person Rebecca was shooting at managed to throw a pebble at her, hit her wrist which ended up disarming her, and then what?” Avery asked. “Oh, and you figured out all that from a stone and a bruise?” She tilted her head, her eyerbows raised.
Man, she was a prick. “Yes.” Asher replied briskly. “Its an assumption, but i’m sticking with it until you prove otherwise. You know what, one more thing, based off of what Liam said, this person did not have anything other projectile weapon to protect themselves with.”
Avery scoffed. “This is unbelievable.” She said, walking away towards her bag. She slung it over her shoulder, before heading towards the stairs leading to the terrace door. They watched her disappear down them. “Call me when you find something worthwhile!” She said, before a door slammed and she had disappeared.
Liam smiled, raising his hand for a hi-five which Asher met in kind. Liam pat him hard on the back, despite being shorter, he seemed to know how to get to Asher’s curly head too because he ended up ruffling his hair. “Well done!” He said finally.
“Looks like my work paid off after all.” He said, gesturing towards all the tapes on the floor. Asher nodded with a smile. He closed his hand around the pebble, flicking his wrist as he checked the time on his watch. Almost 10.
“Come on.” He said, zipping past Liam towards the door.
“What happened?” Liam asked, following him before he lifted his bag off of the floor, its zip still open. He pushed it onto his knee, pushing in a roll of red tape that threatened to fall out, before he pulled the zip over.
“I’ve got an interview scheduled at 10:30.” Asher replied, looking up, past the metal railing above the staircase on the terrace.
“With who?” Liam asked.
He forgot that he hadn’t told him about it yet. Liam usually kept track of who they interviewed on cases, well, he was the one who scheduled those interviews. But this time, Asher had been the one to get into contact with this client.
“Rebecca’s sister.” Asher replied.
(Chapter 7: https://saragawde.com/chapter-7/)