09 : 22 : 15

23rd March 1989

Liverpool

England

“Now Ms Catherine Smith, for your information and knowledge please remember that your statement will be recorded and can be used as evidence or a definite lead in the case,” told the Inspector.

“I understand sir.” She responded. Recorder was switched on.

“What exactly happened on 21st March 1989, the day your mom Mrs. Grace Smith was killed by your brother Mr. Asher Smith who committed suicide just after the incident?”

Catherine took a deep breath. “I reached home just after 9.10pm and I heard gunshots in the living room. I tried to take a peek into it. I saw my brother Asher with a gun in his hand and my mother Grace lying dead in the floor. I slipped and fell in front of him. I tried to run away but he shot my hand.”

“Exactly?”Inspector interrupted. “Right down my left shoulder”

She continued “And I just held that place started to run away. He started to shoot everywhere like a freak!” she took a breath “and when I came back with the police he had committed suicide”

 “Can you specify the time police arrived?”

“I remember it. 10.05 pm.”

She paused for a moment and asked “Sir Can you tell me the time? I lost my watch.”

“It’s 11.45 am, Mam.” Inspector replied and continued “Where did you note the time?  That if you didn’t have a watch at that time”

Mr. Ransom Smith entered the room. He is a retd. Inspector who still helps the police with the cases. He is the head of the Smiths family.

“I noted time in our living room clock.  I have to arrange for the memorial. Can I leave?” she asked nervously seeing her father.

“You are good to go, mam”

“Thank you”

Recorder was turned off.

Catherine hugged Mr.Ransom and left the interrogation room. The Inspector handed over the recordings and the reports of the case over to him. “Thanking both of you for your cooperation and we are deeply sorry for your losses”

“Thank you, Sir,” Ransom replied.

The memorial was uneventful.

“I should’ve tried to reach the home early so that I could’ve saved mom,” Catherine told Ransom with her tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Fate has its own idea, dear,” she notices tears for the first time in her dad’s eyes.

Both went to sleep. Ransom started to listen to the statement.

“I reached home just after 9.10pm…..

Asher with a gun…..

Mother Grace lying dead……

Exactly?…..

I remember it. 10.05 pm…

Living room clock….”

He let out a deep breath. He shrunk his eyes as such he was in confusion.

He listened it again. “9 .10pm…10.05pm…..living room clock….”

Again. “9.10pm…10.05pm…living room clock…”

He stood up fast as he was sitting on a fire. He rushed to the living room like he was chased by a zombie. He took the reports with him. He watched the clock in the living room. It showed 9.22 with the seconds hand at 3 which stayed still. He realized that the clock wasn’t working for 2 weeks.

 He shouted loudly “CATHERINE! CATHERINE! COME DOWN”

He turned at the clock pointing at it and shouted “CATHERINE!!!”

He felt a sudden pain in his back. It was a bullet. Blood started to flow from it. He slowly turned back. He felt another bullet in his stomach. This time it was strong enough to make the strong 59-year-old fell down. He was in anger and was hopeless as he looked at his daughter with the gun in her hand. Her hands weren’t trembling. She held it like a sharpshooter who had no fear or hopelessness in her eyes.

“I am sorry dad. I heard you were listening to my statement and I thought you will realize that I don’t own a watch and I realized that you will be checking the living room clock I mentioned in the statement. I was extremely nervous at the interrogation and even nervous when you entered. I should’ve been more careful so that I may not be in this awkward situation of killing you.”

She placed the gun in Ransom’s head. He still can’t believe what is happening. “I am sorry to kill our Asher and Mom because Asher figured out I drugged our mom to write the will in my favor. So I had killed them both and had to set up the crime scene. It wasn’t a big issue and I shouldn’t have killed them. Maybe mom might’ve forgiven me.”She looked her dad directly in the eyes “Sorry for your loss, Dear Dad.” Another boom. Ransom’s dead. She signaled her boyfriend to come in. He came in and helped her pack the money and her stuff “So, what are we going to do about your dad?”

She sighed and replied, “I feel like a déjà vu”. He asked “What??”

She place shot him on the side of his head and watched him fall down. She placed the gun in the hands of her boyfriend and cleared her prints.

She watches both of the men for the last time which remembered the day she murdered her brother and mother. She smiled and thought “That’s a déjà vu.”