My Undercover Life

Episode 42

Chapter 41 recap: Lily goes to Monroe High to see Ian, and learns about his past. (How he and his sister was adopted – and how his grandparents still blame them for their parent’s death). We found out the killer most likely entered the girl’s bathroom using the window to capture Ashleigh. While Demitri is calmly trying to explain to Ian the situation, Lily’s old phone goes off with the killer’s message. Bradlee was revealed to be taken as well. They have until Friday to figure out who the killer is before both Ashleigh and Bradlee dies.

Characters in this chapter you may/may not have forgotten:

Dennis – Lily’s ex boyfriend that cheated on her with his roommate. Has known Lily since he was young.

Annemarie – In band with Megan, and is her friend. Was the first person Lily befriended at school. Her dad is a forensic scientist.

Asher – Dyed silver hair with green eyes. Gay. And is Annemarie and Megan’s friend.
Al – Another FBI agent. On the same team as Demitri and Skylar.

“Are you planning on staying home again?”
Dropping my spoon, I looked up to see Megan dressed in her uniform with a half eaten apple in her right hand. I sighed, leaning my body against the kitchen counter. “There’s no point in going to school right now.”

She frowned, pulling her lips into a thin line. “Lily, how long are you going to keep this up for? You can’t just let your effort go to waste like this—”

“—I’m not letting my effort go to waste!” I shouted at her. “I’m staying at home so I can figure out where the hell the killer took Bradlee and Ashleigh.”

“But it’s been three days—”
“—don’t you think I already know that? It’s not like I’m sitting around, doing nothing about it.”

“I didn’t say you were, Lily.”
“I know,” I said as I ran a hand through my hair. “I just—I just don’t know what to do. Demitri and Skylar aren’t saying anything, and Hunter’s been texting me non-stop trying to figure out where Bradlee ran off to. It’s bad enough with Ian running around twenty-four-seven acting like a psychopath trying to find his sister, but now I have Bradlee’s family breathing down my neck thinking I know where he is.”

Her eyebrows scrunched down, taking a bite of her apple. “Why?” she asked around a mouthful of fruit. Swallowing she said, “If anything they should be questioning Hunter. He was the last person to see Bradlee before he went back to see you—”

“—wait a minute.” I paused, moving towards her. “Did you just say Bradlee was going to see me?”
“Yeah. I thought you already knew that?” she asked, tilting her head.

“What? No, I didn’t,” I said, shaking my head. “When we were at the pet shop, I told him to go back with you guys . . . I saw with my own eyes that he did.”

“He did come back with us,” she answered, turning her back away from me, as she threw her apple away. “But”—She faced me again—”As soon as we got back to Woodway, he pulled Hunter aside, before signing something to him. I didn’t want to intrude, so I left. It wasn’t until later on that Hunter told me, Bradlee left to go see you.”

I gulped, feeling my pulse rising in my chest. “S-so the reason why Bradlee was taken in the first place was because of me?” I blinked, staring at the ground. H-how could I ever face him again after this? How could I—

“Of course it wasn’t!” I jolted upwards at the sound of her voice. She grabbed my shoulders, and looked me in the eye. “Lily, it was just a string of bad luck. It’s not like you kidnapped him yourself.”

“I might as well have! He disappeared because of me! He’s being tortured because of me! He could be d—”

“—snap out of it, Lily!” Megan shouted, as she began shaking my shoulders. “Bradlee isn’t dead, you hear me? Remember, we still have time before he does anything drastic to them.”
“Like that’s any better, Megan! We only have one more day before he kills them! Don’t you f—–g get it? If we don’t find them, it’sover. And, as of yesterday we still have nothing.”
“Nothing?” She raised an eyebrow, dropping her arms. “What about that video you guys looked at on Monday?”

“I’m not sure . . .” I told her truthfully. “Demitri shut it off when Asher came back from the bathroom.”

“I thought you guys were looking at it after you came home, though? Didn’t your mom—”
“—she did, but we stopped the video right afterwards. If she knew that two more people went missing because of the serial killer, she would never let me continue looking for them again. And, I need to look for Bradlee.”
“But that was Monday. Didn’t Demitri or Skylar go over it with you the next day?”
“That’s the thing! They’re not really telling me anything. It’s like they disappeared off the face of the—”

“—who disappeared?” Dennis asked, slowly sliding his feet across the marble floor. I rolled my eyes at his presence, ignoring the lack of clothing he had on.
“No one.”

“It didn’t sound like no one by the sound of it.” He smirked, leaning his body against the fridge.

“Well, it is,” I bit back, crossing my arms. “Don’t you have somewhere you need to be, beside lazing around here all day?”
He looked at me blankly, his once brilliant green eyes, dull. “I could say the same for you. You haven’t exactly been proactive either.”
“Excuse me?” I asked, stepping towards him. “I’ll have you know I’m looking for a—”

“—looking for a slip for that um, science project she has due on Friday!” Megan interrupted. “Isn’t that right, Lil?” she asked, twisting her neck around to look at me.
“Um . . . yeah. I totally forgot about that project,” I said, scratching the tip of my finger.
Dennis’ eyes narrowed into slits, as I felt his burning glare on me. “Sure, you did.”
“I did!”

“Right.” He snorted. “Are you sure you weren’t going to say killer?”
My eyes widened. “How did—”

“—you might want to keep your voices down next time,” he said, lowering his voice as he came closer towards me. “Since this place is so big, your voices do travel throughout the house, you know.”

“Whatever,” I grumbled at the floor. Looking up at him, I pushed out my lip. “Just please don’t say anything to my mom.”

He grinned, as he swept his brown locks to the side. “Don’t worry, babe—”

“—wow.” Megan snickered into her hands. “You’re still calling her babe?” she asked with a roll of her eyes. “Didn’t you forget you have a new babe now?”
“Ryann and I are onlyfriends. How many times do I have to tell you—”

“—until you admit you cheated on my best friend, jerkward.”

“Jerkward?” He laughed, throwing his head back. “Is that the best you can do?”

“At least I’m not avoiding my mistakes, unlike someone I know,” she shot
back, purposely not looking at him.

“How the f–k am I avoiding—” he started to say, before I cut him off.

“Megan, don’t you need to go to school already? It’s almost time.”

“Oh s–t.” Her pupils enlarged, seeing the time displayed on the kitchen stove. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me it’s already this late?” she asked, right before dashing her way towards the living room. I could vaguely hear her voice as she called my mother’s name, before her voice completely disappeared.

“She’s really not that smart is she?” Feeling his hot breath on the back of my neck, I whipped around to see his chest in front of my face. I swallowed loudly, as my gaze lowered down to see his familiar defined abs. Hearing a soft chuckle, I looked up to see his lips stretched out into a large smirk. Blushing red, I turned my head away from him—shielding his body from my eyes.

“Dennis. Just please leave.”
“Fine.” He sighed. “Even I can take a hint.”
Blowing out a puff of air, I twisted my neck around to thank him. My breath caught in my throat when his forest green eyes peered at me, an array of emotions flashing through them. An endless depth of sorrow, regret, and pain reflected off them, pleading—and hoping. “Please be careful, Lily,” he whispered suddenly—his voice soft and caring. “I know what I did was f—-d up,” he finally admitted, “but that doesn’t mean I care about you any less. I-I just wish you’ll forgive me.”

When I didn’t say anything in return—too stunned to say anything—he nodded swiftly, taking my silence as his answer. The corners of his lips pulled up into a half-attempted smile as he left the kitchen, leaving me alone in my thoughts.

Letting out a loud, frustrated groan, I closed my eyes falling back against the counter. Great. Just f—–g great. One little apology and I’m already putty in his hands.

“Lily!” Falling off the couch, my hands covered my cheeks in a protective manner. Seeing the familiar lock of hair, and FBI uniform, I looked up to see Skylar making his way towards me. My brows scrunched down when I saw the little bounce in his steps. “We found it!” he exclaimed, the happiest I’ve heard him yet. “We finally found the address!”

“Whose address?” I asked, getting up. “And where the hell have you guys been? And why haven’t you been answering any of my text messages—”

“—we’ll explain that all in the car,” Skylar said, hooking his hand around my wrist. “Just, hurry!”

I pulled back, halting our steps. “Why?”
“Lily, seriously,” he said, as I heard a little groan escape his mouth. “Just be quiet and get in the car. Demitri’s waiting for us.”
I frowned. “Not until you tell me why you haven’t been answering my calls.”
“Fine,” he concluded after a second. “Remember the video we showed you on Monday? Well, we were able to uncode the license plate from the blurry image we captured on screen the other day. We only kept our distance because we didn’t want you getting your hopes up only to be let down if we couldn’t find the address. But after working on it for 48 hours, we were able to track the address of the vehicle—”

My heart skipped a beat. “Wait a minute . . . does that mean . . .”

The tiniest curve of a grin showed up on his face. “It does. Now hurry so we can finally capture this criminal once and for all and save your friends.”

“Are you sure this is the address?”
Skylar looked down at the screen in his hand, and then at the well-furnished mansion decorated with Christmas ornaments, before glancing back down at the GPA.

“Positive.”
“Alright.” I nodded. “What’s the game plan?”

“Since we don’t have a warrant yet, we can’t exactly charge the door down. We’re gonna need you to ring the doorbell.”
My face paled at the thought of going out there alone. Do they want me to die or something? “But—”

“Don’t worry, we’re not sending you out there alone,” he said before I could say anything else. “Al will be with you.”
“Why Al?” I questioned.

“Demitri and I have to stay here to be your eyes and ears. Which reminds me,” he started to say before his voice drifted off to a stop. Turning his body around, he began searching through the glove compartment. Producing a small device, he dropped the offered item in my hand. “Wear that, so it’ll record everything. Try to get him or her to admit to something—anything that we can use against them in court.”

“But what if the person has a weapon?” I asked, but did as he instructed, hooking it on the pocket of my coat.

“That’s why Al’s going with you,” Demitri jumped in. “It’s his specialty. Plus, didn’t you say you were trained in Jiu Jitsu?”
“Yes, but that’s hand-to-hand combat. Not weapon-to-hand combat.”

“Whatever the case is, Al will be there. He’ll protect you if anything goes wrong. We also have agents set up around the perimeter for backup as well.”

“Fine,” I said sliding the back door open. “But if I get hurt, it’s on you guys.”
“Like we’ll ever let you get hurt,” Demitri said in all seriousness. “Just follow Al, and everything will be fine.”

“Whatever you say.” Jumping out of the van, I slammed the door shut, before looking around for Al. When I saw the FBI agent dressed in normal clothing across the street, I headed towards his direction before I gave him a small smile in greeting.

“You ready to do this?” he asked, his face stoic.
“Ready.” Don’t worry Bradlee—I’m coming to save you.

“Good.” He gave me a curt nod. “Just follow my lead, and stay behind me.”
“Okay.”

Following carefully behind him, we made our way past a jolly-ol’ Santa, holding out candy canes, and some of Santa’s reindeers including Rudolph with his red nose lit up. Is this seriously the house of a serial killer? It looks more decorative than any other house on this block . . .
“Don’t let anything fool you,” Al said, reading my mind. “The normal ones are always hiding something.”

I nodded, letting him knock on the front door. Chewing on my bottom lip, I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, and my adrenaline running. My muscle are frozen in place, as I tried to slow my breathing down. Gripping the sleeves of my coat, I tried calming myself down, breathing through my nose. This is it. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for. To finally see the face behind the mask. To finally know who the serial killer is.

As the door slowly opened, my pulse quicken in anticipation. Once, he fully revealed himself, a bright, cheerful old man, struggling to hold himself up with a cane stared back at me. I gazed at him in confusion. Who the hell is he?
“Hi there!” he chirped. “Can I help you with something?”

“Ah yes,” Al was quick to response. “My daughter and I just moved around the neighborhood, and we’re a bit lost, you see.”
“Oh dear.” He gasped. “What are you guys having trouble with? I’ll be happy to help you out in anyway I can.”

“Well, Avery here—” Al began to say, letting his voice cut off on purpose. Stepping aside, he urged me to reveal myself. I leaned my head around Al’s tall frame, letting the older man get a closer look at me. He took a step forward, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose. His eyes squinted closed, trying to observe me.
“Avery?” He let my name roll of his tongue. “Your face looks vaguely familiar.”
“R-really,” I managed to get out, feeling the blood leave my skin. “H-how?”
“I’m not sure.” He tipped his chin thoughtfully, his dark brown eyes studying me. “I think.” He closed his eyes, tilting his head up in thought. “I think I saw you in my daughter’s room.”

“In your daughter’s room?”
His eyes snapped open, before a wide smile appeared on his face. “That’s it!” He pointed at me. “I saw your picture in my daughter’s room before. She simply adores you! Her name’s Annemarie! Annemarie Rice.”
“Annemarie—”

“—wait a minute.” He gave me a strange look. “Why is your name Avery?”
“Huh?”
“On the picture. It was written with my daughter’s handwriting that your name was Lily.”

My eyes enlarged. No f—–g way . . .