Striking Blue

6. BLOOD COVERED...

My mother was on the road when she realized that she had forgotten to leave the blood-covered phone in the flat where she found it. "THERE IS NO WAY I AM CARRYING AROUND SOME MURDERER'S PHONE WITH A STRANGERS BLOOD ON IT!" she shuddered. So, she ever so casually threw the phone by the side of the road so that it slides down into the mud.

The sister saw my mother drop something. She picked up the phone and screamed my mother's name. But she had already drifted off to a distance from which it was impossible for her to hear the sister's voice. That's when the sister noticed that it was covered in blood, the phone.

Determined to find the owner of the phone, she set out towards the nearest cyber intelligence lab. Her eyes were dry, she hadn't cried a whole lot for her dead sister. Not as much as the day she was told that her sister had cancer.

"THE GIRL WAS 15." the receptionist explained. "SHE WAS OF REMARKABLE BEAUTY, YOU KNOW....HER GOLDEN HAIR, SHARP CHEEKBONES....BEFORE, YOU KNOW, HER HAIR STARTED FALLING AND HER EYES TURNED DARK." she continued. I zoned out. Wait. Dark eyes?

My mother got into the cab and showed the driver the address. Immediately, jolting to a start, she was off on a journey, turning out to be more and more like one of her daughter's mystery novels.

The rain first started in drizzles but was now beginning to feel like a storm to the sister. Drenched, her feet felt even heavier on the road. She looked down at the phone. The blood was washing away in the rain. And as it had the power to heal almost anything, she was envious of the rain. This was somehow a part of her sister's mystery, she had a hunch. Parts, are the only thing, she reminded herself, that could make a whole.

The windows of the clinic were strained with rain. Nothing was adding up. The patient now suddenly has dark eyes, there is no address and I still couldn't figure out how she was related to my best friend.

My mother got off at the address in front of a big house. It was an old fashioned house, grey till the top and a single window below an orange roof. With all the courage left in her, my mother rang the doorbell.

The sister ran into the cyber lab, pushing her wet hair away from her eyes. Removing the phone out to the front, she sat down on one of the computer systems and turned it on.

Striking blue eyes. That was one thing that the girl had in common with my best friend. Even the shade of blue was the exact same. Strange, it was as if the colors were a little too similar. My brows crinkled as I looked at the picture of the girl on my phone. The color was perfect, too perfect...almost as perfect as....fake.

An average aged man opened the door to my mother. Jerked out of her reverie, she spoke "I AM SORRY TO BE ASKING THIS, BUT DID SOMEONE FROM THIS HOUSE DIE RECENTLY?"

Taken aback, the man fumbled "NO!" My mother sighed. "BUT..." the man began again.

***********************************************************************************

The sister had rechecked the address five times at least by now. "THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT!" she mumbled. The address of the owner of the blood-covered phone was...in our apartment. The killer was someone we knew?

"NO PRECISION. WHERE IN OUR APARTMENT, IT ISN'T SHOWING." she sighed. "MAYBE IF I GOT THE DEVICE CLOSER TO OUR APARTMENT...MAYBE I'LL TRY FROM MY HOUSE COMPUTER. " the sister noted down the name of the software and began, once again, her journey through the rain.

"THE EYES?" the receptionist sighed. "SHE HAD BLUE EYES. BUT IT DULLED TO A DARK COLOR ONCE SHE WAS ON HER NEW TREATMENT."

"NEW TREATMENT?" I edged.

"YEAH, TEN CANCER PATIENTS FROM ALL OVER THE STATE WERE SELECTED FOR THIS TRIAL. THEY WERE GETTING BETTER YOU KNOW...SHE WAS GETTING BETTER." there were tears in the receptionist's eyes.

"DO YOU HAVE THE LIST OF TEN NAMES, IF YOU DON'T MIND ME ASKING?" I spit.

"UM...THEY WERE NOT ALL FROM THIS CLINIC. THEY WERE GETTING TREATED BY A DOCTOR WHO FOLLOWED A NEW METHOD, DISCOVERED BY HIS SISTER, LATE NOBEL LAUREATE." she continued. "OH. THAT ONE IS A SAD STORY." the receptionist shook her head.

"BUT WHAT?" My mother urged the man.

"BUT MY DAUGHTER WENT MISSING YESTERDAY." he completed.

"OH. I'M SORRY. WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?" she tried to sound casual.

"UM...RIGHT WHEN..."

My mother's phone rang that very moment. It was my father. She reasoned with herself, he's a doctor...he can take care of himself at the very least, at cut the call.

"RIGHT WHEN...?" my mother edged.

"RIGHT WHEN WENT FOR HER CHEMOTHERAPY SESSION." he said. "SHE WAS IN A SPECIAL TRIAL BY THE WELL KNOWN DOCTOR WHO IS THE BROTHER OF THE NOBEL LAUREATE, UM HIS NAME..."