Foretold

#13

I wake up to find myself in her bed. She's asleep. She looks so beautiful, without make up. I notice her dark circles. I don't know when we fell asleep. We must have been really tired. I get up and head to the washroom. Usually, she's the one who wakes me up, not this time. Usually I sleep on the couch, not the bed.

I smile to myself while brushing my teeth. I take a shower and change into a fresh pair of clothes. I owned a rack in her cupboard. I'm making my hair when she rushes into the bathroom in her pajamas and screams, "Why didn't you wake me up?!"
I laugh. "Now you know how it feels to be me!" She kicks me out to take a shower. I smile and pet Jim. I tie my shoelaces as she gets ready and we rush out. I drive her car to the police station. We talk as I drive.

"This Liliana Shaw. We need to find out more about her." She said.
"We will. James Houton is coming to the station today. We'll talk to him. " I said. We walk in the station to find Kaitlyn on her desk, talking to Hitesh. "Hey, guys. Glad you're on time. This Liliana Shaw. She looks like a great person." Kaitlyn said, nodding us over to her computer. She had a page opened. It was Liliana's blog. "She donated lots of her earnings for social work. And she looks genuinely happy with the kids. Look at this." Kaitlyn said clicking on a video.

Liliana was surrounded with children and she was laughing. The kids looked like they belonged to poor families. Many people donate stuff for the needy, they wanted to be in the good books of their fans. But either Liliana was a really good actress, or she really cared for the kids. She didn't flinch even once when the kids in their dirty clothes came and hugged her, unlike all other famous celebrities would. And it was effortless, she was genuinely happy.

That's when he entered the office. He was a blond, with strong muscles. His eyes were blue, but tired. He hadn't shaved in days. He was wearing a neat t-shirt with a jacket and jeans. He was handsome, handsome enough for even the guys to stare at him, wondering what he had that they didn't. He walked over to Kaitlyn's desk, smiled at Kaitlyn and shook her hand. "Hi, I'm James Houton. I was called regarding my girlfriend."

"Oh, Mr. Houton. Go over to that desk. Caroline and Marcus will talk to you." Kaitlyn gave him a weak smile. Oh, I hated to do this. I can work miracles at crime scenes, but talking to the loved ones about the deceased, just wasn't my cup of tea. The face they make when they hear the news. It was just too hard. But we had to do it. We followed James to Caroline's desk. The three of us took a seat. I looked at Caroline and she nodded at me. She knew I couldn't do this.

"Mr. Houton... I'm sorry for your loss... Ms. Shaw is no more." Caroline ripped the bandaid. James didn't react. I was shocked but he didn't. He looked down to the desk and didn't say anything. He didn't start crying. He looked up at Caroline, and I could see he was holding his tears back. He really loved her.

"How did it happen, officer?" He asked Caroline.
"We found her yesterday in the morning. At the river bank. We think it is a murder. We wonder if you can help us with it." Caroline said.
"What do you want my help with, officer? She was a lovely girl. Never did wrong to anybody. I was going to propose to her next week. Fate decided that it'll never happen. I don't know what excuse I'll give to my son. I don't know what to say when he'll ask where his mother is." He said.

"I'm sorry for your loss Mr. Houton. But can you help us? Did she have any enemies? Where was she that morning? When did you last see her?" Caroline said, in a professional tone. I knew it was affecting her. She felt sorry for James, just like I did. But this profession taught us to be uncaring. Never let emotions come in between.

"She was in film business, officer. Of course she had many who were jealous of her. She never mentioned anybody. I saw her two days ago at night. She was stressed. She kissed Ben on the forehead and said she needed to go for a walk and will be back soon. She never came back." James replied.

"Thank you Mr. Houton. And if you ever need help, we're here. We think you should go for grief healing. Along with your son. Contact us if you need it. And we'll call you if we need anything else. The body will be sent to you after post mortem." Caroline said.
"Okay. Thank you. I'll take your leave." He shook her hand and walked away.

The second he walked out, Caroline looked at me and sighed. "He's such a nice man, Mark. I don't know what kind of a monster is doing this."
"It'll be okay, Carly. Don't worry." I said. The rest of the day was pretty boring. We didn't find any new leads about Liliana. The mobile we found had been formatted. We couldn't recover any fingerprints from it.

I walked out with Caroline at 6 pm. As we got in the car, I asked her, "You counsel him everyday right? And these drawings, they appear only on the day the murder happens?"
"Yes. I checked his drawing book the day before Liliana died. It was clean."
"That means he draws it after you see him everyday. You see him in the morning or afternoon. Then he sleeps on sedatives. So he probably draws at night." I said.

"Probably." She said.
"We need to find a way to sneak into the asylum. Without Madison and the other doctors knowing." I said.
"But how?"
"We'll figure that out."
I drop her outside her door and park her car. I take my bike out of her garage. I used to drive my bike to her house when we were supposed to drive to the station in her car. Sometimes I'd drive my car to her house. Those days we'd drive to the station in my car.

"Goodnight, Mark." She smiles.
I smile at her and say, "Goodnight, Carly. Take care."
I drive to my house and get inside. I change into something comfortable. I'm really tired. I check my email and drift off to sleep.

    ***

I wake up to my ringtone. I pick the call up half asleep.
"Hello? Marcus Washington speaking." I said in a sleepy voice.
"Mark, it's me. Caroline." I hear her voice.
"Hey, Carly. All okay?" I ask, sitting up.
"It's Brian. See me at my house in 10." She says.
"Again? I thought he was getting better." I said.
"I don't know. Just see me in 10." She sighs.
"Okay. I'll be there." I cut the call.