Faceless Instincts

The Mortician

Nikolai's eyes peered into mine through the screen. Marsh and father were both sitting in the dim light of the interrogation room while I sat this side clueless.

I was well aware that Nikolai had talked to someone about this. I heard the phone call and I heard him say that he will interrogate them himself. What pinched me was the fact that he didn't tell me about any of this.

My mind was boggled as to why they both were in the custody and why Nikolai chose to tell me nothing about it. He swallowed the guilt and it showed, which turned into confusion as he noticed the doubt on my face.

I cocked my head to one side and Nikolai mirrored it. Even though it was less than a month that we have known each other it felt like ages, because we knew what and how others think and how they'll react when they find something out. At this moment he knew that I knew and that he should have told me.

"Kiara?" He spoke sternly but with his glance down, "you wanted to talk to Mr Marsh right?"

I nodded, "yes." I said looking at him, "Mr Marsh was going to tell me something about Sussanne." I leaned forward.

Mr Marsh coughed, "yes... I..." He glanced at Nikolai nervously, clearly afraid of him.

"Nikolai, can you please leave them alone?"

He cocked his head, raising a brow and turning red, "you want me to leave?"

"That's what I said?"

"He's going to tell us about my mother."

I clenched my jaw and fist hurting myself all over again. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, "that is exactly why you shouldn't be there. There might be things that can hinder your mind making you react and I want this to go as smoothly as possible because I didn't prepare for this." I glared daggers at him and he shifted uncomfortably.

"I am not leaving." He whispered like a boy, "I want to know what happened. Also, I am the in-charge of them right now, I can't leave."

I rolled my eyes, "fine." I looked at Mr Marsh, "please Mr Marsh, don't pay any attention to him, and please continue."

Marsh shifted in his seat and then after a few moments he reached inside his bag, retrieving a file.

"What is that?" Nikolai asked and Marsh ignored him as he opened the file and flipped through pages.

He took out the page and held it up for me to see, "this is the copy of Sussanne's autopsy report, Mr Ashford never collected it, neither he made many efforts to know why her wife died."

"She was sick, that's how she died," Nikolai interjected.

"You would think so because your father said so, isn't it?" Marsh gained his confidence in a flash, "that's not how your mother died, I wanted to talk to people about it but they threatened my family."

Nikolai's fist clenched and I called him out, "Nikolai." He glanced at me and stepped back., "Mr Marsh, what happened?"

"I knew something was wrong when I first saw her. An autopsy revealed that she didn't die naturally, she wasn't even sick."

Nikolai brows furrowed and for some reason, my hand moved as if to stop him from doing something stupid, it became even weird when he turned to look at me and I simply shook my head.

"Here see." Mr Marsh called for our attention, "this is the itinerary."

"Of what?"

"It's more like a record, although it's not required I made one anyways, it's a record of things that were there on her body."