Maria stood, watching as people walked slowly to the casket. Some of them held a single flower, while some held a bouquet. Maria followed behind them with her bouquet of flowers she had bought on her way here. It was the least she could do to pay her respects. Placing the flowers gently, Maria took one final looks at the shiny black casket and made a U turn back to where she stood. She could see Catherine crying profusely. A man had his hand wrapped around her, a sullen expression plastered on his face. Maria guessed that it was her husband. It made her wonder why she hadn't seen him up until now. Everyone stood I silence, watching as they lowered the casket deep into the ground. 'Damn, she was so young' Maria thought with a sad expression on her face. After the casket had been put in to the ground, a lot of people came over to where Catherine and Harold stood to give their condolences. Maria watched as a couple came by. The woman gave Catherine a rub on the back as she wiped her tears filled eyes. After minutes of waiting, the crowd around Catherine and her husband finally dispersed, giving Maria the opportunity to finally walk up to meet them.
"Mrs Winston." Maria said as she pulled her into a tight embrace.
Catherine withdrew herself from the hug and looked at her husband.
"This is my husband, Harold." She said to Maria.
"I'm detective Maria, nice to meet you sir."
Maria said as they shook hands.
Harold nodded without uttering a single word. His demeanor and facial expression gave Maria the hint that he wasn't ready for small talk. Taking the hint, Maria turned her attention back to Catherine.
"I am so sorry for what happened Mrs Winston." She said, her face filled with compassion.
"Thank you Maria." Catherine replied as she tried to muster a smile.
They both hugged each other one last time before saying their good byes...
"Sandra, you need to come down stairs, someone wants to talk to you."
"I'm not going down stairs mom." Sandra said, not tearing her eyes away from her desktop screen.
Mrs Wilson sighed, watching her daughter clicked away on her game pad. She just couldn't understand how kids these days can spend the whole day playing video games. Sandra usually plays a lot of video games. after Nancy's disappearance, Sandra shut herself up in her room and immersed herself in video games all day and night. It got even worse when she blatantly refused to attend school. Mrs Wilson tried her best to convince her daughter to go but Sandra wouldn't budge. She had made up her mind and nothing was going to make her change her decision. "When Nancy comes back, then I'll consider going back to school." Sandra would always say, like a child who had just lost their favorite teddy bear and refused to sleep without it.
Mrs Wilson raked her hands through her red hair, she was getting visibly frustrated at her daughter.
"I'm not in the mood for your antics Sandra. The detective needs to speak to you. It's important and I need you to get your ass down there, now."
Sandra didn't flinch. She kept her focus on the screen, not even stealing a glance at her mom.
"And so what of its important? Nothing matters anymore."
Mrs Wilson rested her head on the door board and crossed her arms.
"The detective needs to ask you questions that could help them look for Nancy."
Sandra's ears perked up as she stopped pressing her game pad and looked at her mom. 'bingo'
"So you finally looked at me. Are you ready to go down stairs now?"
Sandra looked like she was trying to decide whether or not to go down stairs. She looked at her screen and looked back at her mom. Mrs Wilson stood there, waiting for her decision. She hoped that she would go down stairs so that they wouldn't have to drag this out any longer. Sandra stood up and walked to the door. Mrs Wilson breathed out a sigh of relief as she moved over to the side to let her pass. She followed behind and they walked down the stairs to the living room. Oliver sat comfortably on the green fluffy sofa, flipping the pages of his note pad. Sandra paused as she got to the bottom of the stairs. Her eyes were fixed intently on him. Mrs Wilson tilted her head as she gave her daughter a puzzled look.
"What's the matter sandra?"
Sandra twitched a little like she had just been broken out of a trance.
"N-nothing." Sandra said, stammering a bit as she talked.
They both walked towards were Oliver sat. Their presence broke his focus, making him turn his attention to them.
"I'm sorry for making you wait so long detective Oliver." Oliver shook his head and smiled.
"It's fine Mrs Wilson. We can start now, if you're ready."
Sandra sat down on the sofa beside Oliver and Mrs Wilson sat down on the sofa opposite them.
"Sandra?"
she nodded.
"Alright, I'll be asking you a few questions. Are you ready?"
Sandra nodded again. Oliver looked at his note pad and back at Sandra. Her face flushed as Oliver looked at her.
"Is everything okay? Your face looks a bit red."
"I-Im fine. L-let's start."
Sandra could feel her mom's gaze piercing through her but she refused to look at her. She kept her gaze fixed on Oliver.
"Okay, Did Nancy tell you anything before she left on her trip to the beach house?"
Sandra's face slowly changed into a frown and then to a melancholic look.
"When Nancy came to me saying that Amelia had invited her to the beach house, I immediately became skeptical about it. I mean, it didn't made any sense. Amelia was known for bullying people like us. Why would she suddenly invite Nancy to her beach house." Sandra let out a small breath before talking again.
"I immediately disagreed with Nancy's decision. I told her repeatedly that it was a bad idea. It was quite obvious that Amelia only invited her to use her as some 'maid'."
Sandra pursed her lips together.
"She was excited to go. Anything I said meant nothing to her. We even had a little argument the night before she left."
Her lips became shaky and tears gathered her eyes. "I'm pretty sure they bullied her a lot while she was there. I just wish we hadn't argued before she left. If I could turn back time, I would apologize to her, not minding if I was right."
The tears had finally streamed down her cheeks. Mrs Wilson had a sullen look on her face as she looked at her daughter. She walked over to where Sande sat and put her hands around her. Oliver wrote down some useful points and looked back up at the crying girl. 'my suspicions have finally been confirmed' Oliver thought. After Maria's talk with Amelia, it was evident that she was hiding something. Oliver had originally thought that Nancy had been bullied by Amelia and her friends. Everything was finally adding which made Oliver feel relieved a bit.
"I'm sorry about that. I'll stop here. If you have any other information that you think would be useful to us, please let us know."
Sandra wiped her teary eyes and nodded.
"Thank you for your time." Oliver said as he stood up from the sofa and made his way out to the front door. '2:15' Oliver thought as he looked at his watch. 'good, I still have time to finish up with the paper work before I head home.' he hopped in to his car and drove off.
Maria shifted her gaze from her desk to the office door which had opened.
"Chief Bradley. What brings you here?"
"I just stopped by to check up on you and Oli- where's Oliver?" he said as he stared at Oliver's desk which was empty.
"Oh, he had an interview with the Wilsons today. He should be back soon, that is if it doesn't take too long." "Oh yes, he did tell me about the interview yesterday." Maria leaned back on her chair and crossed her hands across her chest.
"You don't usually come here except you need something or you have something for us." Maria said as she raised an eyebrow at him. Chief Bradley let out a chuckle.
"Well, you got me. I actually need to give you and Oliver something " he said as he pulled out a flash drive from the pocket of his blue jeans.
"What's that?" Maria asked, giving him a puzzled look. "Remember how you were curious about whether or not there were cameras at the beach house?"
Maria nodded.
"Well, there are and I was able to get footage from Mr Winston."
Maria's eyes lit up like she had just found a treasure chest full of gold, diamonds and precious stones. "Check it out and see if it can be of any help to your search." Chief Bradley said as he handed the flash drive to Maria.
"Did you watch the footage Chief?" chief Bradley shook his head.
"I got a lot of things to do. I couldn't spare enough time to check it out." He said, waving a hand in front of him.
Maria stared at the flash drive I'm her hands, eager to check out its contents.
" check it out and relay what you saw to me, alright?" Maria nodded. Chief Bradley left the office, closing the door softly. Maria immediately scampered for her PC and placed it on her desk. She booted it up, waiting patiently for the system to fully load before inserting the flash drive. She picked up the mouse moving it the file that said 'beach house CCTV footage'. she clicked on different video files appeared on the screen. Each video was named and arranged in order:
Video footage 1- kitchen
Video footage 2- guest room i
Video footage 3- guest room ii
Video footage 4- guestroom iii
Video footage 5- living room
Maria clicked on the first video and watched it intently. Nothing notable seemed to be happened. She closed it and clicked on the next video. The footage showed a bedroom with two people lying together on the bed. At 3:50am, the person lying on the right side of the bed, got up and left the room. After 20 minutes, the other person got up and left the room. Maria closed the video and decided to clicked on the folder titled 'living room' she decided to watch the rest later seeing as the search for Nancy was priority now she clicked on the video and the image of a living room popped up on the screen. The image showed a girl lying down on a sofa. After a minutes and nothing had happened, Maria decided to fast forward the video. She moved her mouse to the double arrow icon and clicked on it. The video began to move faster. Maria watched carefully, not wanting to miss any detail. At 5:15am, Maria could see a boy come down the stairs. He walked towards the girl and stood in front of her. After a few seconds he got on top of her. Maria couldn't really make out what he was doing but she had an idea. They both began to struggle on the chair. Maria could only watch, disgusted by the boys action. The next thing that happened was beyond Maria's expectation. Her mouth dropped open as her eyes widened. She could feel all the blood drain from her face. She slammed her laptop shut and took out the flash drive. Her hands were shaking so much that the flash drive fell onto her desk. 'what the hell was that. No, no, no that can't be real' Maria mind was in great turmoil. 'No one can see this!' Maria snatched the flash drive from her desk and threw it in her bag. Her breath hastened as the video played in her head over and over again. 'What do I do?' she thought. Maria slumped back on her chair helpless.