My life in one book ❤ It was here that I met you~ 🌸🍦

They were there

It was 3 am when Mary heard the gun shot from her neighbours across the street.

She was up that night pulling an all nighters to finish off a project due the Friday before Christmas break and had not expect the noise to jolt her out of the cloudy haze she was in from restless nights. Her neighbours, Mark and Christine, were a childless young couple. Christine often came over to Mary's for a drink or two after her shift at the bank. She often stumbled into Mary's tired and weary, her blonde hair pulled into a loose ponytail with strands hanging in the front as if she had purposely pulled them out to create the 'messy' kind of look. She was always the one for a late night gossip and always left after having a bit too much to drink. Her and Mary were nothing alike Mary being the uptight sensible one and Christine being the wild and carefree one. Nevertheless, Mary found herself fond of Christines late night drinks at hers as the two ladies bonded over the latest Hollywood gossip, until last week when Christine died from a car accident. The last thing Mary expected at three am was a gun shot from their place. Mary perched her hand over her window still, the coolness of the metal caressing her skin. She pressed her ear against the cool glass listening to any voices from across the street or any vehicles driving away, anything that indicated that her mind was not going completely crazy. She was however disappointed to only be met with silence that occupied the night. The streetlights had been on but it didn't do much to help Mary's eyes navigate the house across. Tired and ready to retreat to bed, she filed the noise away as something her mind made up as compensation for its overuse. After all, this was her fifth night in a row of broken sleep and the effects of it had started to catch up to her. She thought nothing more of it until a knock came from her front door the following morning, and that's how she ended up across from detective Darrel.

Darrel was a first year out detective, having done his training under detective Harry. He had inspected the area this morning with Harry who had claimed the incident had been a suicide. Despite this claim Darrel was still suspicious of the evidence not adding up and decided to interview the neighbour, Mary Carper. Mary was still in her red silk nightdress when she opened the door. It was clear that she had just woken up from the way her brown uncombed hair stuck outwards and her eyes squinted as if the light outside was too bright for her. She stood there as if in a summer haze, dazzled by the red and blue lights flashing across the streets. Her eyes dragged from the lights to the man standing in front of her and widened slightly as Darrel introduced himself. She stood up taller, straighten her nightdress out and cleared her throat.

"Detective Darrel.." she dragged out his name slowly as if trying to conquer up the next sentence.

"Just Darrel is fine, may I come in to ask you a few questions?"

Not trusting herself to speak, Mary meekly nodded and lead Darrel into the living room. She sat him in her brand new beige leather lounge chair which she had brought on a whim while out looking for a new coffee table.

"Tea or coffee?" Mary offered.

"Tea would be nice, thank you"

Mary nodded and walked to the adjacent kitchen humming to herself.

She brought out two cups of tea shortly after and handed one to Darrel who had set up his phone on the glass coffee table, ready to record their conversation. Mary sat on the opposite chair and recounted the events of last night. When she finished, Darrel scribbled something down quickly onto his notepad before looking back up at her.

"So your saying you heard a gun shot and didn't call the authorities or go out to check out the situation?"

Mary bit her lips, knowing that this looked bad on her behalf.

"I'm saying, it was three am and I was tired. I can show you my work if you'd like the evidence but I'm afraid that's all I can offer you."

Darrel considered this. From research, he knew Mark's late wife Christine and Mary had been close friends until her death but despite hearing the death of her late friend's husband Mary didn't seem to be visibly upset nor reacted distrubed by the news. Darrel offered a reassuring smile and shook his head

"Not necessary, however, I would like to know more about your friend Mrs Archer."

Mary who had looked taken back by his request and change of subject, twirled her the ends of her hair around her fingers.

"Christine, bless her soul, was a close friend of mine. She'd often come over every Friday for late night drinks and gossip, except for the Friday a week before-"

"Her accident?"

Marry shook her head as if she was trying to clear a memory and mumbled incoherent sentences under her breath.

"No, no the Monday before the accident, Christine was over, said she was taking shelter from her husband Mark.."

"Shelter?" Now it was Darrel's turn to be taken back.

"Yeah, Mark was a drug addict, an alcoholic and a god damn abuser.

You know what? I'm surprised Mark didn't drink himself to death. He probably pulled the trigger after