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spaceskam · 4 years

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The Desert Three (1)

i’m so excited to finally post this! special thanks to @insidious-intent who has listened to me ramble about this and a million other things for some reason

ao3

MISSING TEENS: KATE LONG, JASMINE FREDERICK, and ROSA ORTECHO

Police Find Bodies of Missing Girls Murdered in the New Mexico Desert

Ongoing Investigation On Desert Three; Police Remain Silent On Possible Suspect

Townspeople of Roswell, NM Say They Know Who Is Responsible For Desert Three: What Do The Police Have To Say?

Sheriff Valenti Announces Possible Suspect of Desert Three Murders: A 17-Year-Old Male Student

“Mr. Valenti, please. You have to know I didn’t do this, I-I promise. I was home that night, ask my dad.”

Jim Valenti stared at Alex Manes as professionally as possible. He’d known Alex since he was born, had seen him when he took his first steps, had been the best man at his father’s wedding. He knew this boy. He knew he couldn’t have done it.

But evidence didn’t lie.

“Mr. Manes, your DNA was found near the site where the bodies were found. How do you explain that?” he asked. He watched Alex’s bottom lip quiver, slowly but surely reverting into that little boy who scraped his knee the first time he got ahold of a skateboard. Jim had watched him develop into a young man. And now he got to watch him be stripped of that.

“I don’t know! I swear I wasn’t there. I swear, I swear, I swear,” Alex insisted, voice thick with tears, “Ask my dad! I was home!”

“We questioned your father earlier this morning,” Jim told him honestly, “He said he thought you were home, but he didn’t see you so he can’t confirm.”

Alex’s eyes widened with utter fear. “He’s lying! Mr. Valenti, you know he’s lying!”

“What does he get out of lying about that, son?” he asked. He knew Jesse could be a bit cruel when it came to parenting, but having a murderer for a son only looked bad on him. There was no reason for lying.

“Because he–” Alex started, but he froze and bowed his head, “I don’t know.”

“Alex, is there something you aren’t telling me?” he asked. Alex didn’t answer the question.

“I didn’t do it. I didn’t.”

“Is there anyone who would frame you?” Jim asked. Alex took a shuttered breath, fat tears falling from his face into the table. The parent in Jim wanted to comfort him, but this was an interrogation.

“I don’t know! I-I don’t even talk to anyone, I didn’t piss anyone off,” he said, sniffling, “Well, I got in that fight with Kyle, but Kyle didn’t do it either. He’s an ass–sorry, sir–but he isn’t a murderer. But neither am I!”

“You know, sometimes we do things and we don’t remember,” Jim said, “Is it possible you blacked out?”

“No,” Alex said firmly, “I remember everything that night. I didn’t blackout. I didn’t kill those girls.”

“There’s been a lot of talk about cult imagery,” Jim said, opening the file and pushing the photos of the girls with their handprints and the oddly decorated cave, “Did that have anything to do with this? Was this an initiation thing? Look at photos, son.”

Alex reluctantly looked up, but it was followed by a wounded noise and he clamped his hands over his eyes. “I love Rosa. And I don’t even know the other two! There’s no cult shit, or-or if there is, it wasn’t me! It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me, it wasn’t me.”

“Okay,” Jim said, pulling the photos away, “Okay, I’m going to go have a talk with the other officers. We don’t have enough to keep you here, but we have too much to let you go. Maybe I can get them agree to house arrest until we find more evidence in either direction.”

Alex rubbed his eyes and nodded.

Jim felt sick as he left the room, becoming more and more conflicted with each thought. His daughter was dead and the main suspect was a boy who felt like a son. But Rosa being his daughter wasn’t public knowledge, nor could it be, so, as far as anyone knew, there wasn’t any conflict of interest.

He just had to figure this out.

Maxwell Evans never claimed to be intelligent.

“Liz,” he whispered, “Can I come in?”

Liz looked up from the counter, face dry and determined. Max had expected to see her cry. It seemed fitting that she wasn’t. She slowly made her way to unlock the door for him.

It was 11:39 PM on the night that it had been publically announced their possible suspect being Alex Manes. Max felt bad about it. Alex was always nice to him. But, at the end of the day, Isobel came first for him. Liz was a close second.

“I think we might have to postpone our road trip,” Liz said. Max exhaled softly and managed a smile for her. That nagging voice in his mind repeated that he’d killed her sister. He ignored it.

“Raincheck?”

“Yeah.”

Liz stared up at him for a moment, kind and curious eyes. She seemed to go through a couple of different thoughts before deciding to step into his space and hug him. Last week, Max would’ve cheered. Today, he just felt worse.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” he asked her.

“Not really.”

“Okay,” he said, “You can come to me if you need to talk.”

Isobel didn’t have to be there; he felt her judgment. He shouldn’t have offered that. She had told him that after killers placed themselves close to the crime. Coming to Liz was off-limits, she was too close, Max was too weak.

But Liz was hugging him and that’s all he wanted.

“Thank you. I will.”

Michael stood helplessly outside of Alex’s window. He’d hidden behind bushes until he saw Jesse Manes leave and now he was trying to work up the nerve to go talk to him.

He knew he shouldn’t talk to him. This was his fault. This was all his fault. He was the reason there was Alex’s DNA and the reason there was a crime scene to begin with. Why couldn’t he have just been smarter? He could’ve prevented this whole thing.

Michael, despite knowing it was a horrible idea, pounded against the window with his good hand. His left one still throbbed wildly, but that was okay as long as he got to see Alex’s face.

The blinds shifted slightly but didn’t move. He knocked more. The lights turned off.

“Alex, it’s me,” he hissed, “It’s Michael. Open up.”

Slowly, slowly, the blinds lifted. On the other side of the window, Alex stood looking like a ghost of himself. His eyes were bloodshot and his skin was pale, his body looking frail in his rumbled up clothing. Michael wanted to drown him in hugs.

Alex sniffled and unlocked the window, pushing it open. Michael climbed in and wrapped him up in his arms, nearly lifting him off the ground as he hugged him as tight as he could. His sniffly nose and his tiny whimpers filled Michael’s ear. All he wanted to do was tell him everything, but that wasn’t an option.

It would never be an option.

“I just heard what happened,” Michael said after he put him down. Alex stayed close, his hands gripping Michael’s shirt. “Are you okay? What did they say? How did they even suspect you or, like, arrest you? I don’t understand.” That wasn’t a lie. He didn’t understand.

When he found that Isobel had killed those girls a month prior, he just thought he’d be protecting her. He hadn’t anticipated Alex being roped into this mess. How the hell was he supposed to protect them both?

“I-It was horrible,” Alex said, moving closer and laying his head on his chest, “How’s your hand?”

“Alex, forget about that, how are you?” Alex still was focusing on his hand, so Michael placed it on his back. “Tell me what happened.”

“They came to my house in, like, the middle of the night to bring me in for questioning which was super scary. I complied and stuff, but then they arrested me under suspicion because my DNA was at the scene. They even said they had a witness,” Alex whispered. Michael shook his head involuntarily.

“A witness? How the hell?”

“I don’t know! I feel like they’re just targeting me for some reason. I didn’t do it. I don’t know how my DNA got there,” Alex cried, a new wave of tears hitting him. He raised his head to look at Michael in the eyes. “You believe me, right? I didn’t do this.”

“Alex, of course, I believe you.” I know the truth.

Alex relaxed, resting his forehead against Michael’s solemnly. It made it harder to deal with it. When Alex’s eyes opened again, he thought about dropping to his knees and confessing every sin.

“I can’t believe my dad paid my bail and is paying for my house arrest,” Alex whispered, “I’m scared.”

“It’s going to be okay. They don’t have hard evidence or a motive or anything‒they can convict you,” Michael tried. Alex gave an uneasy little smile.

“They do have a motive,” he said, petting Michael’s chest. Michael couldn’t fucking breathe. “They think I’m in a cult. The girls had matching marks and the cave nearby had imagery and… guess who looks like they’re in a cult.”

Alex laughed but Michael didn’t find it funny. He couldn’t go down for this. He couldn’t go down for something Isobel dead. But Isobel couldn’t go down for what Isobel did. What the fuck was he going to do?

“Stay, please? I don’t wanna be alone tonight,” Alex asked. Before Michael could find words, Alex leaned forward and kissed him. It was a much different kiss than the ones they’d had before. This one was seeking comfort, begging for it. As guilty as it made him feel, that was something he could do.

He kissed him and brought him to his bed and did his best to make them both forget about reality.

Jim Valenti rocked back in his chair as he displayed the evidence before him.

Staring down at the face of his dead daughter was… taxing. He’d just gotten to know her, just gotten to love her. He supposed it was his fault for not being more involved from the start. Now, how much more involved could he get?

He remembered the first time he saw a handprint like that on a body in person. It was of an elderly man, a shotgun laid a few feet away from his body. He was taught that an evil alien had killed him for no reason. When he asked about the shotgun, he didn’t get an answer.

Every other time he saw it, it was only in pictures. Until now. Now he had three. That meant there was an alien out in the wild who murdered his daughter. Why her? Of all people, why her?

Her body seemed to be the worst off out of them all. Her handprint was the most visible, the break in her neck the most violent. It almost felt like a sign to him, like they knew about him and wanted to get back at him. Was that even possible?

He flipped through pages and got to the DNA confirmation. It was a teeny, tiny strand of hair that was found by the entrance of the cave that was too short to belong to any of the girls. They’d sent it for testing and it came back as a close relative to Master Sargent Jesse Manes. The obvious next step was Alex. Well, obvious to everyone else. There had already been chatter that he was suspicious. Dark clothes, makeup, jewelry, music taste. All of it Satan worship apparently.

They held Alex for 24 hours and put a rush on the DNA confirmation. Jim wanted to make them check it again. It didn’t make sense that Alex would do this. Most of all, Alex couldn’t have put handprints on those girls… right?

“Michelle,” he called after thinking too hard about it. His wife hovered by the entrance of his office and he waved her inside. She closed the door behind herself and neared him, leaning against his desk. He stared up at her for a minute in that same admiration he felt every time he saw her. Every fuck up he ever made, she was still there. He was definitely blessed. “Do you remember Lily Manes?”

She furrowed her eyebrows and nodded slowly. “Of course I remember her. We were good friends before she left town.”

“Right,” he confirmed, “Do you remember anything… off about her or Alex? When you’d take the boys to the park or babysat for her, did you notice anything?” Michelle rolled her eyes and pushed off the desk.

“That boy is innocent. I don’t know what you think his mother did to him, but whatever it was didn’t make him a killer.”

“No, no, not that,” he said, grabbing her hand to pull her closer. He thought about pulling her onto his lap, but that felt wrong when the crime scene photos of his dead love child were displayed in front of him. “I mean, was there anything off? Not their relationship, but who she was as a person. Maybe she was sort of… intuitive?” How did he ask if she thought her friend was an alien?

“What the hell are you getting at, Jim?” she asked, taking her hand away. He sighed, shaking his head.

“Nothing, nothing,” Jim said. He needed to go to a different source. Besides, it didn’t make sese that Alex was an alien or that Lily was either. Jesse would’ve known that. The only other solution was that maybe one escaped and was getting back at the Manes family. Or, maybe Alex was befriending aliens. None of which made sense, but it had to be something.

“I don’t know what you’re getting at, but Alex is a sweet boy. He cried during The Lion King for crying out loud. He didn’t do this, you need to prove that,” she told him. Jim sighed but couldn’t be angry at her for her insistance. None of this fucking made sense.

“I know, I’m gonna figure it out. You can go back to work,” he told her. She nodded and kissed his head before leaving.

Jim waited until she was gone before sinking into his chair. He needed to go deeper than simply “realistic” options. The fact of the matter was that this wasn’t realistic to the public. He needed to change something before this got too deep.

He had to go to Jesse Manes.

“Michael. Michael, wake up.”

Alex shook the boy beside him until he drowsily dragged his eyes open. Alex hadn’t slept. This was the second night in a row Michael had snuck in to sleep beside him, but Alex hadn’t gotten but a few minutes of sleep in all that time. He was far too distracted trying to figure out how to get himself out of this situation. And he thought of something.

“Hmm?” Michael asked, trying his best to act awake. Alex dragged him to a sitting position, eyes wide with excitement.

“I thought of something,” Alex said, “You can be my alibi.”

“Huh?” he grunted. Alex lovingly stroked his hair and his chest. He knew he was asking for a lot, but he was stuck. So, maybe if he loved Michael enough, he would help him.

“The reason I don’t have an alibi and why my dad isn’t saying he saw me is because of what happened in the shed. And, and I know it’s really hard to come out like that, but you’re 17 so maybe they won’t put your name in the papers. All you have to do is say that I couldn’t have done the murders because you were with me and my dad caught us and hurt you and-and, God, I know it’s horrible and I really wouldn’t ever ask you to do this if it wasn’t important, but you’re all I have. You have evidence of what happened and I’m sure there’s… there’s still blood to prove it,” he said, never stopping the petting so Michael would never take it the wrong way.

Still, Michael seemed to wake up real fast and he was moving away from Alex.

“No,” Michael said, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes. Alex tried to keep a straight face, tried to not get his feelings hurt.

“No?” Alex clarified. Michael’s breathing seemed to get heavier by the minute.

“I don’t… I just…” Michael let out a harsh breath before looking at Alex. “You can’t just ask me to do something like that.” Alex tried not to look pathetic as he scrambled off the bed.

“I know, I know it’s big, but Michael… you’re all I’ve got. I’m going to go to prison,” Alex said. He hated himself for asking this. He hated himself for pulling this card. “Please. Please do this for me.”

Michael wouldn’t look at him.

“I-I can’t be your alibi, Alex. What if they ask me questions I can’t answer or request a DNA sample or think I helped you? What if they send me back to my foster parents? What if they arrest your fucking father and then no one is there to pay for your house arrest? There’s a million fucking reasons I can’t,” Michael said. Alex’s stomach twisted and it hurt. He gulped softly and held back tears. He cried too much.

“I need your help,” Alex said softly, “You’re my only hope.”

Michael stood with his back to Alex, seemingly rigid. Alex was trying really hard not to cry. He was at risk to lose a lot, but somehow losing Michael hurt worse. He needed someone on his side. Michael was all he had.

“Please, don’t be mad at me,” Alex whispered. He was shaking and feeling like he was two seconds away from sobbing. He needed Michael on his side. “I shouldn’t have asked. I shouldn’t, I’m sorry.”

Michael eventually turned to face him and he grabbed Alex’s neck with his good hand, making their foreheads meet in the middle. Tears rolled over Alex’s cheeks and he wanted to scream. All he wanted was an alibi. That’s all he wanted.

“I don’t want to go to prison,” he told him instead. Michael nodded, wiping his tears away.

“I know, but I can’t be your alibi. If I can help some other way, I will, but I can’t do that. I can’t tell them about that night,” Michael said. Alex nodded slowly. “I’m here for you though. If you need me to come and help you calm down every night, I can, no problem.”

“Okay,” Alex said. Michael moved his hand to Alex’s heart, rubbing his thumb in small cirles.

“I just can’t do that”

“Okay.”

Michael left soon after that, left Alex alone and pondering what to do now. He needed to do something. Sitting here and waiting to be found guilty for a crime he didn’t commit wasn’t an option. He wouldn’t be another person who spent their lives in jail for something they didn’t do.

He was going to find a way out.

“I am going to kill you both! What is wrong with you?!”

Very few times in her life had Isobel felt so full of absolute rage. Both of her brothers had their heads hung. Both of them, both of them, had gone and spoken to that she had pretty deliberately stated were off limits. Liz was off limits from the minute the murder took place; Alex was off limits the minute he got accused of the murder. Simple as that.

“You didn’t see him, Izzy. I had to be a total dick to him,” Michael said, pouty and pathetic, “He just wants me to help. And it’s my fault that I can’t.”

“And Liz’s best friend just got accused of her sisters murder. She needs someone,” Max tried. Isobel let out an incredulous laugh, putting her hands in her hair as she paced. Her heart felt like it was going to explode from stress.

“Guys, I know it sucks, but we don’t have a coice but to choose us over them,” she said slowly. They nodded like they understood, but they clearly didn’t. “They are humans. They have human consequences to what’s going on. Us, though? If we’re found out, we get all the shit in the world.”

“Okay, but me helping Liz doesn’t do anything!” Max argued.

“Yes, it does!” Isobel yelled back, “Both of you are both in such a state of fucking puppy love that you’re going to end up exploding from guilt! And I know, I know it hurts, but if we get caught, we are going to become science expeirements. People are going to fear everyone like us. We’re going to be fucking dissected and tortured and treatd like scum and I don’t want that. I know you don’t either.”

They both nodded and hung their heads still like wounded puppies. Isobel took a deep breath and tried to calm down. She’d been feeling like she was going to pop for a month because of them. All she wanted was to protect them from what happened that night. That’s what sisters did.

“Michael,” Isobel said calmly, “I know you care about him and I know this is hard. But you can’t take back what happened so we just have to stay away.”

Michael closed his eyes and swallowed hard. “Away, like, completely? Like I can’t be with him anymore?”

“If they find out that he has a secret boyfriend, you are immediately going to be put under fire. They’re going to wonder why he didn’t mention you and they’re going to question you. If they find out about the fact that Alex lied about what happened that night, then how long is it before they ask for a DNA sample? How long is it before they notice the DNA isn’t human? How long is it before they connect the deaths to us?”

She didn’t say that she was scared that they already had DNA samples. If there was a single strand of Alex’s hair, then what else did they leave? Hell, Michael was bleeding when it happened. How long was it before they realized the DNA they found was different? Not human, not animal, not plant. She would be terrified for the rest of her goddamn life.

Max reached over and grabbed Michael’s shoulder, giving him a nod of solidarity.

“We can get through this without them, man,” he said. Isobel knew it was a support move and knew that Michael clearly wanted to reject it, but he nodded.

“Good,” Isobel said softly, “Now I need a nap. My head is fucking killing me.”

Alex was just finishing up when there was a knock on his window.

Stupidly, selfishly, he thought it was Michael. He quickly moved the blinds to see Kyle Valenti of all people on the other side. He blinked a few times, wondering if he should even open the window to let him speak.

“Alex,” Kyle said, “Let me in.”

“Why?”

Kyle looked around before saying, “I know something.”

Reluctantly, Alex opened the window and Kyle climbed inside in the least graceful way ever. Alex took a step back as he fell to the floor. He stood to his feet with no comment, eyes wide to share the information he had. He qucikly shut the window behind him.

“Is anyone else home?”

“No.”

“Any the bracelet‒you already did your little techy thing on it, right?” he asked. Alex furrowed his eyebrows.

“If you mean made sure it didn’t have a microphone, then yes.”

Kyle grinned, “Fucking genius. Okay, so, here’s the deal. I broke into my dad’s office at home and may or may not have made copies of all the legal stuff he has at home.”

Alex’s eyes widened as he took the bag off his back and dumped a bunch of documents on his bed. All of it pertained to the case and it was ton of stuff that they hadn’t released to the public. Alex sat on the bed and picked a paper up, reading a transcript of his own interrogation.

“Holy…”

“And I stole my mom’s key and I know, like, the entire layout of the station. If you can help me with the tech stuff, turn off cameras, I can make copies of the rest and we can figure this out,” Kyle explained. Alex blinked hard and looked up at him. He’d never been more confused in his life.

“Why are you trying to help me?” he asked. Of all people to offer to help him and commit fucking crimes for him, he didn’t expect it to be Kyle. Yet, here he was.

“Look, I know I’ve been shitty to you the last couple years.”

“You think?”

“But I know you didn’t do this,” Kyle said sincerely, “If you go to prison, I won’t be able to make up for being a dick. So I’m gonna figure out the real killer and you’re going to help me.”

Alex licked his lips and felt a renewed excitement in his system. This felt like old times. Granted, they used to solve fake murders and this was now the real deal, but still.

“Okay. Give me a few minutes, I was just hacking into the bracelet to make sure it always detected me to be at home,” Alex told him, admittedly wanting to show off. Kyle grinned all wide again.

“Perfect. I’m gonna write out a game plan.”

Alex nodded and went back to his computer.

Alex needed help and while he would’ve liked it to have been Micahel, the sheriff's son wasn’t a bad choice.

#malex #malex fic #alex manes #michael guerin #jim valenti #isobel evans #kyle valenti #my fic #desert three

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