The sun was shining high above in the sky when the car came to a halt on a secluded road.
There were trees on either side of the road which cast long shadows on it, making it look eerie due to the chilling silence all around.
The distance between the Valken family mansion and this place wasn't too great, and thanks to Rowan's steady but quick driving pace, they had reached their destination in no time.
As Nita stepped out of the car, she was glad that the trees were providing sufficient protection against the direct rays of the sun.
Scanning her surroundings, she found that just as her father had mentioned, there were no streetlights along this abandoned road since it rarely had any visitors.
As she looked around, she found long tire marks usually made when a vehicle hit its brakes too abruptly while moving at a high speed.
She began following the tire tracks as they took a turn away from the road, showcasing that the vehicle had veered off the road and into the greenery.
As she continued walking along with these tire marks, she headed past the trees that covered the sides of the road.
She had only taken about ten steps into the woods when her feet paused.
Right before her eyes was a white sedan with its front part rammed against a huge tree trunk.
Just taking a single look at the damage was sufficient for her to estimate the speed of the vehicle when the accident had taken place.
If it had been any normal human, then they would have suffered a concussion with a few broken ribs or even worse, an amputated limb.
However, the one inside the car at the time of the accident was her brother, who would have healed in no time from any of those injuries with zero chances of an amputation.
This wasn't what she was concerned about, as she knew that his healing powers were superior to even hers thanks to the inhuman strength he possessed.
"Where was the bullet shell found?" Nita turned around and asked the men who were just a few steps away from her.
Ever since they had arrived here, Nita had been silent and was simply taking in her surroundings as she made her way to her brother's accident site.
Therefore, Rowan had signaled Jodie to keep his mouth shut and let her process everything that she was witnessing.
After all, her sibling was the one who was hurt and missing so he would not let Jodie mess with her at this crucial and emotional moment.
Rowan knew how he had felt when he had first come to this place so he wished to be respectful to Nita, whose emotions would be more intense as she would be feeling far worse than he had done back then.
Therefore, the Tuskar brothers were maintaining their distance from Nita, allowing her to take in this sight and process her emotions at her own pace.
Only when she had turned to look in their direction and asked her question did the two brothers dare to breathe out loud.
"Right here." Rowan was the one to answer her question as he pointed his finger to a spot about ten feet away from the wrecked car.
Nita narrowed her eyes as she focused on that spot close to the driver's door and found a circle drawn with a white powder of some sort, which she assumed was the police's doing as a part of their investigation.
Stepping close to the circle, she bent down and squatted right next to it, taking in the sight of every single thing around it.
She did not wish to miss even a single blade of grass as if it might reveal something that could have been ignored by the police.
As she was observing everything around this spot, a certain scent wafted towards her nostrils, alerting her senses.
Her head whiplashed in the direction from which this scent had originated and there she found it.
"Brother's blood..." She muttered to herself as she would recognize that scent anywhere in the world.
Her eyes landed on a patch of grass stained with dried up droplets of blood, making the dark crimson look glaring against the otherwise vibrant green.
Vampires shared a special bond with their blood relatives, which made it easier for them to sense each other.
Therefore, getting a whiff of his scent from that spot was sufficient for her to decipher that this blood was truly his.
This also implied that her father's words were true about how Detrim had been injured.
'Silver bullet...' She reminded herself as she rose from her spot near the bullet shell and went closer to the dried-up blood.
Lowering herself to get a closer look, she fixed her dark eyes on the bloodstains and frowned as something did not seem right.
'One... two... three...' She counted the exact number of droplets she found in this spot before hurriedly scanning the area around it.
However, no matter how much she looked around, she could not find what she was looking for.
"No one tampered with this place?" She inquired, looking over her shoulders at the brothers standing behind her.
Rowan was quick to nod and Jodie followed soon after, as the Police and the Valken family guards had ensured that no one apart from the investigation team was allowed here.
Even the media was kept in the dark about the exact location of the accident site to avoid a public frenzy with people rushing here to attempt their own investigations, potentially ruining the crime scene.
This answer only deepened Nita's frown as she looked away from the two men and rose to her feet at this spot next to her brother's blood.
The spot where the bullet shell was found and where the bloodstains were located was not too far from the car.
The stains were about three feet away whereas the bullet shell was about ten feet away from the driver's car door.
This meant that the shooter was at a close range from her brother when he was shot.
'Why did brother not notice someone approaching him?' She wondered if the accident had caused him to be dazed for a while, which could have allowed the attacker to get close enough.
Even if that was the case, then why did her brother get out of the car, giving the attacker a better chance of shooting him?
There was also that anomaly about the blood she had noticed just earlier.
Apart from the blood on the grass, there were no other bloodstains around the accident site.
Did Detrim heal fast enough that there were no blood droplets apart from when he was first shot?
Since he was shot at such a close distance, the bullet must have done great damage to him.
So why were there no other bloodstains around that spot?
There wasn't even any blood splatter on the car, which was right next to the spot where the droplets were found.
Many things weren't making sense to Nita as her gaze alternated between the blood and the bullet shell.
'But I will find my answers... Soon...' She vowed as she would not stop until she found what exactly happened with her brother at this secluded part of the city.