Sister, Dearest

It was a dark and stormy night when Detective Anna Smith got the call. A body had been discovered at the old Victorian mansion on the edge of town. Anna had always thought there was something creepy about that abandoned house, but she tried not to let her imagination get the best of her as she drove over to investigate.

When she arrived on the scene, the forensic team was already there, scouring the area for evidence. Anna was led up the creaky stairs to the master bedroom by the chief medical examiner. There on the floor was the body of a woman, lying face down in a pool of blood. She was dressed in an elegant black evening gown, now stained red.

"No ID on her yet," said the medical examiner. "But my guess is she's in her late 30s or early 40s. Hard to tell with half her face blown off by the gunshot."

Anna grimaced. An execution-style killing. This was no accident.

As she surveyed the room, a few things stood out. There were no signs of forced entry. The French doors leading out to the balcony were closed and locked from the inside. A silver candlestick lay on the floor next to the body, the carpet beneath it darkened with blood. Shards of a broken vase littered the area by the walk-in closet. Anna made careful note of everything, already forming theories about what could have taken place here.

A search of the house and grounds yielded no other bodies or suspects. But in an upstairs bedroom, they discovered a clutch purse monogrammed with the initials E.P. Inside was a driver's license identifying the victim as Evelyn Proctor, age 39. The address on the license was local, about 15 minutes away.

After leaving instructions with the forensics team to sweep the house for prints and other evidence, Anna headed out to notify Mrs. Proctor's next of kin. She wasn't looking forward to it, but it had to be done.

The Proctor home was in an upscale neighborhood on the other side of town. Anna was greeted at the door by a handsome gentleman in his early 40s who introduced himself as Geoffrey Proctor, Evelyn's husband. He looked stunned when Anna asked if she could come in, his face draining of color.

"It's about Evelyn, isn't it?" he said quietly.

Anna nodded, steeling herself before gently breaking the news that his wife was dead. Geoffrey collapsed into a chair, overcome with grief. After giving him a few moments to compose himself, Anna pressed gently with a few questions. Evelyn had left the house around 7pm for a charity function and hadn't returned. The husband claimed no knowledge of her whereabouts in the hours preceding her death.

As she was getting ready to leave, Geoffrey seemed to remember something.

"Wait!" He grabbed a framed photo off a side table - a picture of the Proctors with another couple, taken at a party. "This is Evelyn's sister, Vanessa. They're twins. Even their closest friends can barely tell them apart."

Anna felt a chill go through her. Identical twins...that would explain why the body had been so difficult to identify initially. Now she wondered if they had the right woman after all.

"Do you have contact information for Vanessa?" she asked.

Geoffrey wrote down an address on a piece of paper and passed it to Anna with a shaking hand. She didn't know what she was about to uncover, but she knew this twist changed everything about the case.

The address led Anna to a shabby little apartment on the wrong side of town. She knew as soon as she laid eyes on the disheveled woman who answered the door that this was not the same Evelyn Proctor from the photo. The resemblance was striking, but subtle differences marked this as Vanessa.

When Anna gently broke the news that Vanessa's sister was dead, the woman's reaction was curious. She seemed upset, yes, but Anna detected traces of something else...guilt? Fear? It was hard to pinpoint. Anna's cop instincts were buzzing that something was off here.

She was able to confirm that Vanessa did indeed have an alibi for the previous evening. According to her neighbor, she'd been home all night, leaving only briefly to take out the trash. The neighbor had heard shouting coming from Vanessa's apartment around 9pm and had considered calling the police. But then all went quiet so she decided not to get involved.

Anna left the apartment more confused than when she arrived. Evelyn Proctor was dead, shot execution style in a creepy old mansion across town. Her sister Vanessa seemed to be hiding something but had an alibi for the time of the murder. So where did that leave the investigation?

After a mostly sleepless night going over the details, Anna arrived at the station early the next morning to catch up on paperwork and review her notes. As she sat staring glumly into her cold cup of coffee, her partner Mitch walked in.

Mitch saw her face and shook his head in sympathy. "That Proctor case got you stumped too, huh?" He slapped a file down on her desk. "Coroner finally sent over the full autopsy report if you're interested. I'll warn you though - that .38 left a real mess."

".38?" Anna's head snapped up. "I never said what caliber the murder weapon was."

Mitch frowned. "Uh, yeah you did. When you were giving me the rundown of the case yesterday you specifically said a .38. Don't you remember?"

Anna felt her pulse quickening. "No Mitch, I didn't. The report didn't specify a caliber yet. How did you know she was killed with a .38?"

She could almost see the gears turning in her partner's head as his face went pale with realization. "Oh crap...Anna I swear, I had nothing to do with this!"

In an instant, Anna was on her feet. "Where were you Tuesday night Mitch? You told me you were working late but your timesheet says you clocked out at 6pm. What were you really up to?"

The chase was on as Mitch bolted from the office. Anna cornered him at gunpoint ten minutes later trying unsuccessfully to sneak out a service door.

As the black and whites hauled a handcuffed Mitch away, Anna realized this case was bigger than she could have imagined. Mitch had used inside information to try and throw her off the trail. But it seemed there were even darker secrets yet to uncover in the death of Evelyn Proctor. She had a hunch things were only going to get more twisted from here.

Anna drove back to the Proctors' neighborhood, her mind spinning. Why would Mitch kill Evelyn? Did he and Evelyn know each other somehow? Or was he hired by someone else to do the dirty work?

She pulled up outside the stately Proctor home once again, this time her visit unwelcome. Geoffrey answered the door in his bathrobe, his eyes bloodshot.

"Detective? What's going on?" he asked warily.

"I have a warrant to search your home," Anna replied, pushing past him into the foyer. Her backup waited on the sidewalk ready to step in if needed.

"On what grounds?" Geoffrey blustered. "You can't just come barging in here!"

Anna fixed him with an icy stare. "I can and I will. One of my detectives was just arrested for Evelyn's murder. A little too knowledgeable on the crime details for someone uninvolved, wouldn't you say?"

The color drained from Geoffrey's face. "No, no, this is absurd! I would never..." he trailed off as Anna's team began rifling through drawers, overturning sofa cushions and pulling up sections of carpet.

"Tear this place apart if you need to," Anna ordered. "I want to know what the connection is."

It didn't take long to find it. In the back of the master bedroom closet, screwed to the wall behind a shoe rack, was a small safe. The locksmith made quick work of cracking it open.

Anna's pulse quickened as she caught sight of stacks of cash inside - thousands upon thousands of dollars. Alongside the money sat Ziploc bags of white powder and pills.

"Well, well," Anna said. "Would you care to amend your statement, Mr. Proctor?"

Geoffrey sputtered helplessly. "I swear, none of that is mine! I've never seen any of it!"

"Save it," Anna snarled, cuffing his hands behind his back. "We'll see what your fingerprints have to say."

As Geoffrey was led outside and stuffed into the back of a squad car, Anna felt the puzzle pieces shifting. Evelyn and her dealer husband must have gotten mixed up in something dirty. Mitch was likely paid under the table to keep quiet. But it still didn't explain who pulled the trigger - or why.

Anna searched the house herself now, noticing signs of a struggle in the kitchen - a broken wine glass, utensils and cookware strewn across the floor. The corkboard was bare save for four thumbtack holes forming a perfect square. Something had clearly been ripped down.

She opened kitchen drawers until she found a box of thumbtacks. Testing one in each hole, she determined the paper they'd held up was approximately 8 inches square. Noting this potential evidence, she headed upstairs.

In the master bedroom, the broken vase still lay shattered on the floor near the closet. Anna carefully shifted the fragments with her pen, revealing a small flash drive taped to the underside of the base. Hidden in plain sight. Evelyn clearly had secrets of her own...

Bagging the flash drive as evidence, Anna surveyed the room again with fresh eyes, her focus zeroing in on the balcony doors. They were still closed and locked - the same as the night of the murder - but something nibbled at Anna's instincts now as she studied them.

Moving closer, she examined the double keyed deadbolts, confirming both were firmly horizontal. But the more she looked, the more she noticed imperfections in the alignment. Markings on the panels indicated they'd been recently removed and reinstalled...

"I'll need a forensics team back here to dust for prints," Anna told the officer beside her. "I have a hunch our killer came in through these doors after all."

She still didn't know why Evelyn had to die. But Anna was more determined than ever to solve this case and bring some justice to the victim trapped in the middle...

Back at the station, Anna connected the flash drive found in Evelyn's room to her computer. She held her breath as the files popped up, revealing a digital photograph folder titled "Insurance". Her brow furrowed as she clicked in and began scrolling through the images - surveilled snaps of Geoff entering seedy buildings and meeting with shadowy figures beneath overpasses, bundles of cash and baggies changing hands.

So Evelyn had suspected her husband's shady dealings and was gathering proof, likely to use as leverage in the event of a divorce. Anna shook her head sadly at the thought. Hell hath no fury like a wife scorned, after all. If Geoff had found out what Evelyn had on him, that could easily provide motive for murder - either directly by him or by hiring someone to do his dirty work.

But Anna's instincts told her there was still more to this puzzle. Too many questions remained unanswered, too many players obscured by shadow. She needed more information.

Picking up her phone, Anna arranged for a patrol car to keep eyes on Geoff around the clock. She didn't buy his denials of owning the contraband for a second, but she needed concrete confirmation of his drug trafficking links. And until the forensics team swept the Proctor house for prints and trace evidence, she had reached the limit of what physical clues could tell her there.

Which left one witness yet to be formally interviewed - Evelyn's twin, Vanessa. The woman had seemed cagey and evasive during their initial conversation at her apartment. While Vanessa supposedly had an alibi for the time of the murder, something about her still bugged Anna. She decided it was time to talk to Vanessa again, this time back at the station.

An hour later, a uniformed officer led a disheveled Vanessa into the interview room. Anna entered a few minutes afterwards with two mugs of coffee, offering one to Vanessa as she took a seat across the table.

"Sorry to drag you back down here so soon," she began gently. "I know how emotional this must still be. But some new information has come to light, and I need your help making sense of a couple things."

Vanessa fidgeted with the mug, avoiding eye contact. "I'll do my best, but I don't know what else I can tell you. I barely spoke to Evie this past year - Geoff forbade her from seeing me. He said I was a bad influence..." She trailed off, pain etched on her face.

So he'd isolated Evelyn from her twin. Another piece clicking into place in Anna's reconstruction of events. She opened the manila folder she'd brought in and slid out a photo of the secret compartment.

"Have you ever seen Evie with large sums of cash? Unexplained new possessions or vacations?" She watched Vanessa closely for microreactions as the woman shook her head, eyes widening.

"Is that...drugs? Was Evie mixed up in that stuff?"

"We believe so. Which brings me to my next question..." Anna pulled another item from the folder, this one enclosed in a evidence bag - the torn corkboard square with four thumbtack holes she'd discovered in the kitchen. "Any guesses what used to be pinned up here?"

Vanessa's face had gone milk white. For a long moment she just stared, hollow-eyed, at the innocuous square of cork. When she finally spoke, her voice trembled.

"It was a photo of us. Me and Evie at our 30th birthday party last year. The only picture she had of us together in the house..."

A tear slid down Vanessa's cheek. "Geoff must have destroyed it. He always hated that she kept that photo. Probably ripped it down when he..." She raised a hand to her mouth, stifling a sob.

Anna reached across the table and put a hand gently over Vanessa's. "When he what, Vanessa? It's okay, you can tell me anything. I promise I'm only trying to bring justice for your sister."

Vanessa took a long, shuddering breath. Her next words turned Anna's blood to ice.

"She called me that night, while I was taking out the trash. She was hysterical - I could barely understand her. Just kept saying Geoff found her pictures, he knew everything now, she was in danger..."

She dissolved into stifled sobs, face buried in her hands. Anna leaned back, pulse racing as puzzle pieces fell into place. A picture was coming together now - distant, chilling, and terrible. She had one final question for the grieving twin.

"Vanessa, what time was Evie's call? Can you remember?"

Vanessa lifted her head, mascara streaking her face. "Around 9pm. Why?"

The last piece clicked. Anna knew now without doubt who had killed Evelyn Proctor in that decaying mansion. And it was the person she least expected...

Anna left Vanessa in the interview room, asking an officer to bring her some tissues and water while she stepped out to make a phone call. Her hand shook slightly as she dialed the coroner's office and asked him to meet her at the morgue right away. She had one last look to take at Evelyn Proctor's body before making her final arrest.

At the morgue, the coroner led Anna solemnly to the refrigerated drawer holding Evelyn. As the body slid out, the harsh fluorescent light only enhanced the gruesome reality of her death.

"You said the kill shot entered behind her right ear, correct?" Anna asked.

The coroner nodded. "Went straight to the brain stem. She would've died instantly."

Anna walked slowly around the table, considering angles. "And the gunshot residue patterns on her skin?"

"Indicated the shot was fired from very close range. Just an inch or two away."

Kneeling down beside the body's right shoulder, Anna mimed holding a gun two inches from Evelyn's head. The trajectory lined up exactly.

There was no doubt about it now. Evelyn Proctor had known her killer intimately and trusted them enough to allow them to stand just behind her right shoulder while she faced away. This was no stranger murder.

Cold horror gripped Anna as the last piece of the puzzle shifted into place.

"I need you to process her thoroughly for DNA evidence again," she told the coroner, standing slowly. "Hair, skin cells, everything. I have a very bad feeling her killer left more traces than we initially realized."

A short while later, Anna stood across from Vanessa Proctor again in the interview room. She studied the woman with new eyes - the slumped shoulders, the profound grief etched permanently into her features now. Vanessa stared back warily.

"Did you review my statement?" she asked in a small voice. "Can I go now?"

Anna sat down across from her. "I'm afraid not. The investigation has taken another turn. That's why I asked you to wait here."

Vanessa's brows drew together, confusion clouding her reddened eyes. Anna steeled herself.

"Evelyn called you Tuesday night from Evergray Mansion, where her body was found. She was scared of Geoff for discovering her blackmail evidence."

Anna slid the photo of the secret compartment across the table.

"After getting off the phone, you realized she was in real danger. So you drove over there to rescue your sister from her monster of a husband."

Vanessa shuddered. "I - I don't..."

Anna held up a hand. "Let me finish. The doors were unlocked when you arrived. No sign of Geoff. You found Evie pacing in the bedroom, hysterical. She turned toward you with the gun she'd grabbed for self defense..."

The color drained from Vanessa's face as the bloodied truth dawned.

"But in her panicked state, she didn't even realize her twin was the one now standing behind her..."

A tortured sob escaped Vanessa's lips. Her confession poured out like a river breach - how she had wrestled the gun from Evelyn's grip to calm her down...how it went off in the struggle...the scream that died in her sister's throat...

"I held her as she bled out, told her I loved her," Vanessa choked. "She died thinking I was Geoff..."

She dissolved into agonized weeping as Anna looked on grimly. This case had twisted down so many dark passages, but none darker than the tragic final turn.

"I'm so sorry," she told Vanessa gently. She meant it with all her heavy heart. But justice had one last debt still to be paid. Sliding her cuffs slowly from her belt, Anna stood and recited the familiar words.

"Vanessa Proctor, you are under arrest for the murder of Evelyn Proctor..."

As she escorted the broken woman out, Anna shook her head sadly. Sometimes in this job, there were simply no happy endings to find.