Three days passed, it was now Tuesday.
Darren wandered out of the entrance double-doors of the Royal Cornwall Hospital and took in a swig of fresh air.
'It's good to finally be outside.' Darren thought to himself. He hadn't been outside since he had been placed into the hospital. He had a look at the surrounding car park, it was packed.
'Strange how an area which is so close to Veilham can have pretty much the opposite population.' In Veilham seeing people was common but not regular. Darren hated that, he wished there were more places to socialise, but the mayor (Thomas Robe) refused to implement such sites. He had only been elected as leader a few years ago and the general populace loved him, he made it so that they didn't have to deal with other people and could just live as sad loners for the rest of their lives.
Then he noticed Carmen's car, it's red, stood out from the sea of grey and silver.
She was sitting in the driver's seat, staring at her phone. Carmen looked up and caught Darren staring at her. Their eyes met for a brief second before she looked back down at her phone. Typical Carmen. She always acted like she didn't care.
Reaching her car, he lent down to the half-open window. "Didn't think you'd actually come."
"Didn't think you'd actually get discharged," she replied flatly, sliding her phone into the glove compartment. "You look like shit, Darren."
"Thanks.." He replied circling around the car to the passenger side and climbed in. The interior smelled faintly of cigarettes and vanilla perfume.
"So where we going?" Darren asked, glancing at her.
"Where do you think? Don't get too excited. "Can't wait," he muttered, resting his head against the seat.
For a while, neither of them spoke. The only sound was the hum of the engine and the environment zipping past. But something about the road didn't feel right. The further they drove, the fewer signs there were.
Suddenly, the voice on the radio changed. No longer was it a man addressing the upcoming forecast. It was now an odd voice, sounding as if his words had been flipped upside down. Then... The radio cut out.
Carmen glanced down at the console. "That's weird-"
And Darren saw it. A figure standing on the side of the road. Topper hat. Purple suit. Hand moving in a waving gesture.
"Who the fuck is that."
"What- Who are you talking about?" Having fixed the console, Carmen looked back up from the console.
"That guy was waving at us."
"Ok.." Carmen looked over to him, "It is normal for people to wave at others."
"I know that it's just.." Darren turned and looked out of the back window, attempting to see that man again. "There was something very wrong about him. Why wave at us, why on a main road, and why was he smiling so eerily. It just doesn't make sense to me."
Carmen sighs, "Well it makes sense to me." And continues driving down the long road to Veilham.
Arriving, they both exit the vehicle and Carmen checks her phone for the time.
"Shit,"
"Wha-" Darren replies, yawning.
Carmen begins to run.
"Wait.. Where are you going?" Darren says, rubbing his eyes.
"To work." She shouts back at him before disappearing around a corner.
'Huh.. She left before locking her car.' Pondering this, Darren wandered through the empty streets, headed for the pub.
Carmen raced towards the department, she was going to miss the debriefing. They had a suspect for the Dennis Huett case.
'Finally,' she thought. 'That fucker is finally gonna rot in a cell for the rest of his life.'
She climbed the stairs and then entered the debriefing room.
It was packed.
"So nice of you to join us Sawyer." Wilfred Hans spoke as if he liked the fact that she was late, just so he had something to get angry about. "We were just discussing some minor things about the case, you didn't even need to show up." He said sarcastically as an annoyed smile grew on Carmen's face.
"Oh and where is Tomohiro? You seen him around lately, or does he not hang out with you anymore after you beat up two innocent men?"
"Innocent?!" Carmen blurted out the word without thinking first. "Those men were anything but."
"Sit, Detective Sawyer. Enough of this nonsense."
Giving up, she pushed past the other snickering officers and found a seat.
As the whispers in the briefing room subsided, Commissioner Matthew Song cleared his throat and began, "As I was just saying, we have found foreign DNA within the victim's remains. The sample, which was identified as female, was found inside the deceased's trachea and lower lung cavity, which is consistent with saliva inhalation just before death.
'It was a woman.' Carmen thought, a shocked look crossed her face.
He stopped and looked down at the paper he's holding.
"Our forensic analysts have verified that this was not an isolated incident; the DNA pattern points to intimate physical contact, most likely a kiss, just prior to death. This alone does not prove that the suspect was responsible for the murder, but it does show that the victim and an unnamed woman had a close relationship." He paused, took a deep breath and continued. "We ran the sample through our database and it matched up with a woman named Martha Fisher. She has been arrested once before when she was forty for a hit and run on an eleven year old child..."I believe this warrants further investigation. She currently resides in Wolverhampton. I'll be sending a few of you to go and question her."
Ryan looked across the rows of officers and directly into Carmen's eyes. She mouthed, 'What', in response and he quickly looked away, reverting his attention back to the Commissioner.
"I will notify those chosen to go and question her in a few days, make sure to reply immediately once you see the message in case you cannot go... Thank you everyone, you are all dismissed."
'Mark didn't show, I should probably go see him. I mean.. I haven't seen him since The Pale Mare.' Carmen rose from her seat.
"Just remember, Carmen," a voice came from behind her. She turned to see one of the senior officers watching her closely. "Mark's on ever-thinning ice. Don't forget what we told you to do."
Carmen turned around and nodded, "Ok." And then walked out the debriefing room doors.
Mark rose out of bed and checked the time.
'13:31'
He had missed the debriefing, well he didn't care because they were all wrong anyway. Only he knows what happened to Tom.. Tom. Why did he leave, what purpose could he possibly have in the afterlife that is so important he needs to leave.
He rose out of bed, not taking any time getting changed out of his red and black pyjama bottoms with white stripes and made himself breakfast. Cornflakes. He then sat down at his table.
As he ate he pondered, 'It's been three days, why hasn't Elias gone to the police yet about what happened at Frontal Parks. Something wasn't right about that man, the way he just smiles and waves. Does he even care about justice and doing the right thing or is he just a PI for the money?'
Mark finished his cereal and washed the bowl.
'Why am I not in jail, Elias knows he beat up that girl and now he has seen him break another's arm.' These thoughts continued circling around Mark's head until he heard a knock at his door.
'Who was that?' He thought.
'Was it Elias, the police.. Ryan?!'
Faces of people he didn't want to see floated around his room, he could see them climbing the walls and drifting across the floor.
It was Carmen. Mark sighed a sigh of relief.
"Hi Carmen, haven't seen you in a minute. How have you been?"
"Alright.." Carmen said, confused at Mark's choice of clothing. "Jail isn't actually that bad.. Do you plan to put a shirt on? Or am I going to have to stare at your tits while we talk?"
Mark looked down at himself, "Oh shit.. Sorry I just got out of bed if you couldn't tell.." He smiled awkwardly and she returned an awkward smile.
Mark put a blue and black striped shirt on and continued, "Anyway, back to what you were saying. Jail being nice huh? Doesn't that make you wonder. Do criminals truly get what they deserve or does their life really just stay the same.. Bar the fact that they can't commit those crimes to civilians anymore because of the.. You know.. Giant concrete walls."
Carmen took a seat at Mark's table, "You talk a lot."
"I'm sorry, I haven't seen you in a while." Mark said, sitting across the table from her. "To be honest, I've messed up.. multiple times."
"What do you mean.. Messed up." Carmen says, crossing her legs.
"Ahhh, I've just messed up Carmen." A tear rolls down his cheek. "I don't know what to do."
"Mark what the fuck are you doing.. Do you want me to hug you?" She said, laughing.
"Ok.. Ok fuck you." Mark replied, wiping the tear from his chin. "I was just being open with you." He looked her in the eye... And they both burst into laughter.
"I know what you've done Mark?" She said, continuing to laugh.
"What?"
Something was off.
His room disappeared.
They were suspended in complete darkness. She's still laughing.
"Hey Carmen?" He spoke without a voice.
No response.
He looked to his right and saw himself and Carmen, it was as if he was looking into a mirror. However when he stood up his mind twisted. There were more and they were in perfect lines so he couldn't see them while he was sitting down. These clones spanned as far as his eyes could see into the black void. There were hundreds, no.. Thousands of them.
'It's just a symptom.' Mark thought to himself, closing his eyes. "You can't scare me like this you FUCKERS."
"Woah, woah.. What?" Carmen's voice sounded through the darkness.Reality snapped back in with the sound of her voice, the light, the room, the smell of soggy cereal everything reassembled around him at once.
"Are you ok?" She asked, leaning in to get a closer look at his face.
He stared deep into her eyes, "Yeah... I guess. Sorry about that I just.."
"It's fine, didn't bother me in the slightest." Carmen replied.
"So, how was work?" Mark asked, switching the subject.
An hour passed and Carmen had explained everything she had been informed on at the debriefing.
As Mark heard more his expression turned increasingly sour. He now knew more about Tom and it just made him sick.
"And.. That is about all." Carmen finished and stood up from the chair. "Thank you all for listening." She said, bowing as if she had just finished performing a play.
"Wait..." Mark said. "Who are they sending up to Wolverhampton?"
She turned back around to him. "They haven't said yet, whoever they pick is gonna get a message anyway." Turning back around to face the door she said, "I wouldn't get your hopes up." And with that she left his room.
Mark stood up from his chair and walked over to his door and opened it, watching Carmen walk slowly away. He felt sad. He felt a small ache watching her walk away.
But the rain wasn't falling.. And that was something. Maybe even enough.
Carmen got into her crimson red rover 800 series and drove off.
Mark hadn't driven his car in a while, it just always sat there, collecting dust. Maybe his car represents his lazed unwillingness to get out of bed. He thought as he jumped back onto his bed and closed his eyes.
'How could the Veilham police be so blind? I mean ok.. They figured out that the body had DNA from a person within it, but how the fuck have they still not figured out it was Tom.' Mark pondered this as he turned over in bed. 'There has to be something else at play here, those 'things' have to have something to do with all of this.' He sighed.
'Man.. my life is so messed up right now.' He thought to himself. 'Alice.. I'm sorry.'
It was now five o'clock and Carmen's phone buzzed as she stood outside the tobacco shop in the rain, not caring to put a hood up.
Opening her phone she was met with, "You have been selected to go and Investigate Martha Fisher. To accompany you we have chosen: John Schmidt, Martin Jerome and because of your side task given to you by the commissioner, Mark Tomohiro. We will expect you all to report to the commissioner's office by 9:30 tomorrow. There we will instruct you further on how to carry out the investigation." Rubbing the raindrops off the phone she thought, 'I wonder if Mark got sent the message too since he's only going so I can keep an eye on him... Oh.. Thank fuck. At least Ryan isn't going.' She reacted a bit over the top for a second and instantly regretted it after she noticed the tobacco shop clerk staring at her funnily through the shop window. She waved at him, smiled and walked away, attempting to light her cigarette in the oncoming downpour. The confused clerk went back to counting his cash.
Carmen didn't mind the rain. It soothed her in ways other things couldn't. It was like cold needles on her skin, washing away whatever the day had carved into her.