19th December 2019

"With any luck, we can find the writer of the letter or any fingerprints." I said hopefully to Linda.

"How are we going to find the writer of the letter when it's typed?" Linda asked, looking worried.

I simply smiled, "That's why there are fingerprints, or any samples. We'll find something, I'm sure. Hopefully the writer isn't smart enough." I said, rereading the contents of the letter. However wrote this knew where Emily was.

Detective Bella, I know you're looking for Emily. Ask the Mayor's wife about her birth mother, all is not as it seems. Everyone's got a secret to hide.

I scanned the paper for any fingerprints, blood samples or even saliva but there was nothing. The person who delivered this letter was smart. The only lead in this letter was to ask Ann Brooks about Emily.

"Linda, we need to go to the Mayor's house with this letter. I need to ask Ann Brook some questions, this letter shows that she knows something about Emily's birth mother."

"I thought Ann Brooks was Emily's biological mother. So how..." , Linda seemed really confused, I couldn't blame her. I was also dumbfounded when I heard it.

"It's a really long story, I will tell you on the way. Let's go, we have a long day ahead of us."

The roads were becoming worse each day, even though the Snow Patrol men came to remove the snow every day. The official police car was luckily strong enough to withstand the snowy conditions.

"I'm speechless, no one told me this. So Emily's real mother is dead, everyone really has a secret to hide." Linda said.

I nodded and hoped there weren't any more big secrets the Brooks' were keeping from the silent town of Winchester.

*****

"All I know about Emily's birth mother is that she died in a house fire, and soon after the mayor and I fell in love." Ann Brooks answered. She seemed bothered that we knew about Emily's true origin.

"Hmm, I wonder why the letter would direct us to you, Mrs. Brooks." I looked at her and watched for her reaction, but she had none. If anything, she looked sad.

"I have no idea, Detective Bella. We have a lot of enemies in this town and they would want to implicate us, especially me. Lots of people think I killed Emily's mother, and I think she was starting to believe it as well. But the truth is, I didn't know the mayor personally until after his first wife's death." She sniffed and wiped her eyes, was she crying?

"I know I and Emily weren't the best of friends, but I want her to be found. She's still my daughter."

I looked over at Linda, who seemed to pity the woman. But I wasn't really believing her story, Ann Brooks wasn't saying something.

"Could I check her room again? I might have overlooked something the last time."

Ann Brooks sniffed and nodded her head. Linda began to comfort her, which made me slightly uncomfortable. We couldn't have detectives bring overly sympathetic, that could misguide them on the true story.

I had also hoped to see Emily's younger sister, I wanted to know how she was doing and she also seemed to know what was really going on in the house.

Emily's room still looked the same, neat and clean. I had declared the place a possible crime scene, so no one could alter anything. I searched more thoroughly than I had done before, but there was nothing.

I turned sadly towards the door, and that's when I noticed a crumpled piece of paper lying at the bottom of the window. It was nearly completely hidden by the curtain.

I quickly put on my gloves and unfolded the paper.

Home's not comfortable anymore. The secrets are surprising me, why did they do this to me? I think going away is the best option, make them think I was kidnapped. Maybe then, they would confess. I could go to Susan or John, they would comfort me.
Emily.

I quickly went down to see Linda talking to Mrs Brooks.

"Mrs Brooks, I saw this in your daughter's room. This tells me a lot of things."

Mrs Brooks looked at me quizzically as she took the letter from me, read it and looked at me, "What does she mean by secrets? The only secret was her true mother, people were influencing her to believe I killed her mother. I didn't do it, I didn't." She said, as she broke down in tears.

"It's okay, Mrs. Brooks. We'll find your daughter, and understand everything that's going on."

*****

"Linda, we need to really understand this letter. The mayor's family is keeping secrets, other secrets. Also, if that note is true, we need to find Susan and the John in the letter."

"Bella, what if the John in the letter is the same John we know, John Burrows?" Linda asked. That was a good possibility.

"Then we need to find him, if Emily mentioned him in her letter then he has a role to play in her life. We also need to find Claire Burrows." This case was becoming interesting and tiring at the same time.

This was the kind of case I had been looking for in five years but with it turning up now, my plans to go to Africa with Jack this Christmas had been cancelled.

So many suspects at the same time, yet no proof to even get a warrant of arrest for anyone of them. It was already two days to Christmas, and I was doing everything to keep my promise to that little girl.

"But why will Emily write a note and then print it out? That seems odd." Linda said, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Maybe, she wanted to send the letter to someone. Or..." The other possibility was alarming.

"Or she didn't write any letter. Someone forged a letter to drag us to believe that she wasn't kidnapped, but she ran away?" Linda explained, like she had been thinking about it for a while.

"Linda, I see your point. If that's the case, the person we're dealing with is really smart."

Linda smiled, "The really smart criminals tend to make dumb mistakes that get them caught." She said, using her hands to make a quote on 'smart'.

I really hoped so, Emily needed to be found fast.

*****

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