COVER THE TRACKS

It was midnight in the city of Miami, but the city was still awake. The police force was all over the city. Mr. Paul’s wife had organized a search party to look for her husband. There were police helicopters moving around the city, shining their blinding lights on the roofs and doors of every house in search of the doctor. The city was in a serious lockdown, and no one was allowed to go out after reaching home.

Ashley drove into her garage after a long drive and stepped out of her car, massaging her sore neck, and yawning in exhaustion as she stretched her hands in the air. She sauntered to her front door and opened her handbag, looking for her house keys. She touched the keys and grasped them, but she also saw a broken phone on the floor.

She narrowed her eyes at the phone and looked around before squatting to pick it up. She flipped the phone, glancing at it.

"Hmm, who must have thrown away such an expensive phone?" She muttered to herself and tapped the screen of the phone, but it was already broken. She wanted to throw it away, but she felt strange, so she decided to keep it in her back pocket, thinking it might belong to one of her maids.

She shoved the key into the lock and opened it. She stepped into her dark house. Her lights were always on, but for the first time they were off. She reached for the light switch and turned it on, brightening the house.

"Home sweet home." She muttered, smiling endlessly.

"Huh? Why is my house usually silent? Where the hell is Spike?" she thought and started walking toward the stairs.

"Spike! Spike! Come here, boy, mummy is homme." She said, dragging the word home as she started stepping majestically down the stairs with her eyes wondering around.

"Spike! Are you sick?" she muttered, resting her hand on the handrail as she walked up the stairs. She reached the end of the stairs. She was about to head to Spike’s room when her phone started ringing in her handbag. She rolled her eyes before taking out her phone. She picked it up without looking at the caller.

"Hello." She said in a sexy tone.

"It’s me, Dave," he said.

"I don’t want to talk to you right now. I need to get some sleep." She said, attempting to hang up.

"Wait... Queen, I have something very important to tell you." He said.

"Go on." She said, tapping her right foot on the floor.

"I don’t know what's wrong with Melody. I have been trying to reach out to her all morning." He said.

"Why are you telling me all this? Am I, her babysitter?" she asked in a harsh tone.

"No, you aren’t but... the c-clients have been calling me non-stop since the morning that she never showed up." He said in a nervous tone. Ashley felt a million fireworks explode in her head.

"She what? She never showed up. How dare her?!?" she screamed loudly.

"You need to calm down, queen. I will find her. I am going to her house tomorrow morning." He assured

"No need to do that; she is with me; I will handle it myself." She assured, scrunching her face in anger.

"What do you mean..." she hung up on him and aggressively shoved her phone into her handbag, walking heavily down the hallway with rage in her eyes as her heels made clacking sounds against the floor.

"Melody! You little bitch! Where are you?!!" She yelled at the top of her lungs with her voice echoing throughout the house.

*****

Chris quietly parked his car in front of the graveyard after dodging a lot of cops, who were interrogating everyone. Jake refused to come with him at the last minute, saying that he was tired. Chris sneaked out of the car and peered around the quiet graveyard. He felt like he was being watched because of the horns and sirens that were sounding all over the city.

He looked sideways, breathing quickly as he opened the boot of the car and fixed his eyes on the dead body of the doctor. He had put him in a black plastic bag. He inhaled and exhaled loudly before taking out the body and dropping it on the ground close to the car. He looked into the boot and took out the shovel he had brought.

"I need to do this quickly if I don’t want to get caught." He said and ran into the graveyard with the shovel. He looked around the field for an empty spot to bury the doctor. He pushed the shovel into the sand and started digging as fast as he could.

He paused and wiped off the sweat that had formed on his forehead as he was digging. He sighed as he realized he still had a long way to go. He had the sound of a rustle behind him. He turned around to see where the sound was coming from. It was followed by the sound of a camera.

"Who is there?" He yelled, frightened. His voice was echoing throughout the place. It sent shivers down his spine that he might wake up some spirits. He heard the sound of footsteps, but it felt like the person was running away from him. He thought he saw a silhouette. He gulped and continued with the shovel quivering in his grip.

"Melody, open the fucking door now!" Ashley declared, standing in front of Melody’s room with her hands folded across her chest, but she felt like she was talking to herself. She grabbed the doorknob and pushed the door open. Her jaw dropped to the ground as she fixed her eyes on the empty room. Her eyes landed on the wall clock. It was late, and Melody wasn’t at home.

"Whoa, she is gone. Where the hell did, she go this late?" Ashley mumbled, blinking her eyes in disbelief. She rested her ear and started hearing hitting sounds. She groaned, running her hand through her hair as she made her way out of the room.

She trailed the sound to the room where Melody had locked Spike. As soon as she opened the door...