Dream Confirmation Bias

IV

Detective Inspector Damien D'Silva sat down heavily on his chair.

He was well reputed in the force for having an exceptionally steady hand. However, today his hands were shaking. And so was the piece of paper he held.

The death of a relative was always difficult. But this was his very own daughter...

Only a month ago she had seemed so full of life, hugging him. She had just received a contract from a construction firm as an architect for a new skyscraper. As he remembered, it had been a much touted project, and his daughter had been one of the lucky few to get on board.

The fact that she had died trying to save a person's life made it doubly a reason for him to be proud. He would have done the same.

But he felt no pride. He felt only anger.

The primary autopsy report showed a fractured skull. An iron bar had passed clean through her head. She was unrecognisable, and he refused to see her body in the morgue. He wanted to remember her as the beautiful angel she once was.

The reason he felt anger was the young man his daughter had sacrificed herself to save.

Joshua Anderson.

The stupid piece of shit had been standing underneath the under- construction building, without a hardhat. His daughter had noticed an iron bar coming towards him from overhead. She had pushed him out of the way, only to get impaled herself.

When he had brought Joshua in for questioning afterwards, he had said:
"I noticed the rod coming to hit me. I wanted it to hit me. There's nothing I can do if your daughter was stupid enough to push me out of the way."

D'Silva had flared up internally at this, but he had asked as a last question, through gritted teeth, "Son, are you suicidal?"

To which Joshua had replied, "No, just rather bored," without a trace of emotion.

He had just finished writing up the report on the death of his daughter. This was the piece of paper he had been holding in his hands.

***

A week or so after his daughter's funeral, D'Silva was going over his daughter's file when he suddenly remembered something.

He logged into his computer and checked the tab under accidental deaths on the database.

After going through a few of them he suddenly realised something:

In most of the cases, Joshua Anderson had been listed under 'primary witness'.

After going through the details of such files (there were 12 of them, an outrageous number), D'Silva determined that in most of the cases, Joshua was the one to be saved from a terrible accident, and that the one trying to save him had died.

D'Silva had a bad feeling that that was not the last he had seen of Joshua. And he was right.