AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Morgan's ears pricked up at their words, an icy shiver running down her spine. Another drowning? Could there be a connection? She strained to listen, trying to catch any further information or clues, but the men moved on to another topic, leaving her with more questions than answers.
It felt like fate that she’d overheard this conversation, and Morgan steeled her resolve. She pushed everything that happened with Derik—about her father, the FBI, all of it—aside.
Maybe it was nothing, but she had to follow every lead.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Rather than go home, Morgan went straight to the office.
Wincing at the harsh glow of her computer screen, Morgan navigated her way through the database, searching for any information related to the drowning she had heard about at the bar. As the search results populated, her heart raced in anticipation. This could be it - the connection she needed to finally catch the killer that had been haunting her dreams.
Morgan's fingers flew across the keyboard as she delved deeper into the database. Sweat beaded on her furrowed brow, her mind racing with the possibilities of what she might uncover. As the search results loaded on the screen, she leaned in closer, scanning each line of text for any relevant information.
"Got it," she muttered under her breath, her eyes locking onto a case file that matched her lead. Kelly French, just twenty-one years old, had drowned while training at an upscale scuba academy in Dallas called Scuba Life. The instructor present during the incident was a man named Harry Richmond.
"Harry Richmond," Morgan whispered, committing the name to memory. She clicked on his profile and studied his photo, taking note of his dark hair and piercing blue eyes. There was something unsettling about him, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"Faulty equipment and negligence, huh?" She frowned, reading through the case summary. The investigation had concluded that Harry's carelessness led to Kelly's untimely death, and the subsequent lawsuit forced the scuba school into bankruptcy.
Morgan leaned back in her chair, exhaling deeply as the gravity of the situation bore down on her. Was this Harry Richmond somehow connected to the current string of murders? Or was she grasping at straws, desperate for any lead that might help her put an end to the nightmare that had consumed her?
Her tiredness hit her. She had come straight here from the bar, and it was late. After all the drama with Derik, too, her body was now betraying her, and she could feel her eyelids growing heavy.
Come on, there has to be something here,she thought, her frustration mounting as she searched for any shred of evidence to support her theory, before she lost her will to keep going without a blink of sleep. She could feel the weight of the victims' unavenged souls pressing down on her, urging her to find the truth and bring their killer to justice.
Morgan's eyes flicked across the computer screen, her heart pounding with a mix of excitement and dread as she scrolled through the online forum. A post caught her attention, written by someone claiming to be a former student at Scuba Life. They had their suspicions about Harry Richmond, believing he intentionally drowned Kelly French.
"Harry was obsessed with Kelly,"the anonymous poster wrote."I saw him watching her all the time, like a predator stalking his prey. When she died, it just felt off. I can't shake the feeling that he had something to do with it."
Determined to find answers, Morgan pushed through her tiredness and dove deeper into the FBI database, searching for any information related to Harry or the case involving Kelly French. She found the trial records, confirming that it was only ever about negligence - no murder charges were ever laid. The company went under, but Harry never spent time in prison.
"Unbelievable," she muttered, frustration seeping into her voice.How could they let him go?
She leaned back in her chair, staring blankly at the screen as she processed the information. Her gut told her there was more to Harry than met the eye, but with no concrete evidence linking him to the murders, she couldn't act on her instincts alone.
But as she leaned back, she felt the weight of the day press down on her, even heavier than before. Morgan’s eyelids fluttered shut, and before she knew it, darkness…
***
Morgan’s eyes popped open to sunlight filtering through her blinds. She awoke with a start, her office materializing around her. She blinked as she recalled last night’s events—Derik, the bar, then coming here…
Harry Richmond!
Recalling the suspect she’d been looking into, Morgan sat upright and turned her computer back on. It loaded right to where she was last night. Fuelled by adrenaline, Morgan's fingers danced over the keyboard as she entered Harry Richmond's name into a search engine. The first few results were articles about the old scuba diving accident and the ensuing trial, but her eyes widened at a new thread on an online forum with his name in it.
"Harry Richmond - Connected to Recent Murders?"the title read. Curiosity piqued, she clicked on the link and began scrolling through the comments.
"Seems like he's got a thing for drowning girls,"one user wrote."Wouldn't be surprised if he's involved."
"His obsession with Kelly French always gave me the creeps,"another commented.
Morgan leaned back in her chair, her heart pounding in her chest. She wasn't alone in her suspicions, and that only fueled her determination to uncover the truth. Yet, she needed more than speculation - she needed evidence. And a second opinion on all this wouldn't hurt either.
Her mind wandered back to Derik yesterday. As much as she loathed to admit it, she'd finally felt like, for the first time, he was being honest with her. Maybe Derik wasn't her enemy after all, and maybe he really was just trying to do the right thing.
Either way, if he was still her official partner on this case, she needed to see him.
She stood up from her desk, her legs aching from hours of sitting, and made her way through the maze of cubicles to Derik's office. To her dismay, his chair was empty, and there was no sign of him anywhere.
