Letters to Isabella

thirty six.

Ross' POV

"Jane Doe?" I repeated in question. I watched as her eyebrows came to a raise and then slowly dropped back down to where they originally were. "Ah." I said with a click of my tongue as she guided me into the darkened room. "You're protecting yourself."

The mysterious 'Jane' closed the door carefully behind herself and switched on a dim light that filled the corner of the empty room with a pool of warm yellow lighting. "Take a seat." She murmured, gesturing to an empty chair I was stood relatively close to. I did as I was instructed to do and waited as she too, took a seat in front of me, laying the palms of her hands out flat on her lap as she gazed absentmindedly into my dark brown eyes. "Are you sure you want to know what happened to Mr Morris?"

I nodded slowly. "Of course."

I felt like a little boy at Summer camp when everyone would gather around the dimly lit campfire telling each other about their paranormal experiences or some twisted urban legend about the history of the cabins we would be residing in for the night — but this was reality and in a matter of minutes I'd have the fate of Mr Morris' life in my hands. It wasn't some made up story or some kind of sick prank. Mr Morris was dead and I was about to find out why.

The nurse, who I could now only refer to as Jane, reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of ten cigarettes. She placed one between her teeth and held a spare one out to me with one eyebrow raised. I shook my head slowly and swatted my hand as a motion for her to remove the cigarette from my sight. "I don't smoke." I explained, to which she rolled her eyes and pulled it away, lighting hers up within seconds and throwing the rest of the packet back into her pocket.

I found it slightly unnerving and unprofessional for a nurse to be smoking in front of a visitor and to even have the audacity to offer me one, but I decided to let her continue with her explanation; after all, she was the only hope I had of finding out any sort of information.

"To be blunt," she began, inhaling a deep puff of nicotine into her lungs. "that Morris guy was nothing short of an asshole."

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. First the fake name, then the smoking and now the use of curse words? What kind of nurse spoke or acted like this? Not one I'd ever come across before that's for sure.

"He had everything coming to him, Ross." Jane muttered, digging her cigarette into the armrest of her chair. "Anyone who disagrees with that might as well be dead in the ditch with him."

I raised my eyebrows slowly and in turn so did she. "Dead in a ditch with him?" I repeated, to which she nervously stood up and began to walk cautiously around the empty room we were stuck in. "Why would you say something like that unless..." I paused and stared directly at her. "unless you know exactly where he is."

She lit up another cigarette and slumped herself up against the wall, shaking her head slowly as she crumbled to the ground below her. "Shit." She whispered, shakily holding the quick burning cigarette to her chapped lips. "I told him I wouldn't be able to do this."

I stared at her. "Him?" I asked. I suddenly felt incredibly suspicious. What could she possibly be hiding? "Who the hell is him?"

She began to shake her head violently back and forth. "I didn't mean to say that I —"

"Don't lie to me Jane." I murmured, stepping closer to her. She began to quiver even more as I drew myself nearer to her, carefully bending down to meet her gaze. "Where is he?"