5. The Truth

24^th July 2027

A few days later:

The last few days have been really hectic. I couldn’t pull myself together, the powerful lawyer I am. So I did the one thing I thought right. I took a break. I told Trust and co. I might be absent for a while, at least a week. They agreed without any delay. It’s not been a whole week yet, but I still feel like I have to go back to work. I can’t let the past haunt me forever, even if I was one of the cause of her death. I have to move on, just like everyone else. Even Ben decided to move on, for Jos’s sake.

Ben moved on a little differently. He still visits Jos’s grave every day, telling here all about his daily chores that his done. Today he cut tomatoes for the first time, how they shaped, etc.

How I happened to know all this? Simple. Every time I went to visit Jos, not visit actually, apologise. Every time I went to apologise, I would find him there, sitting. Sometimes I try listening to what he says, and end up listening to bits, and then I leave them alone, to each other’s company. I try coming at a different timing, but I always end up finding him present. I don’t know how long he actually stays there, but I can say he stays for a very long time. So I decided to postpone my apology for the time being.

So how did Ben move on? Well, that’s quite different. He removed every traces of Jos in the mansion. Any pictures or reminders, they are all gone now. Her room is locked up. And last, the mansion is now completely under Ben. That entire share Jos had, it’s rightfully his now.

As I enter the building, I’m greeted by a wave of hands trying to grab a little bit of me. They give me sympathetic stares and tell me how sorry they are, and how much it breaks there heart to see me devastated. I smile and take it all in. I have heard that a lot for quite a while now. The ones who hate me for being famous are now sending me there condolence stares. I try my best not to let my blood start boiling.

Don’t get angry. Don’t. It will only be worthless.

Silently, I break away from the crowd and enter the elevator. If I had thought that entering my office once and for all would stop all these sympathy feigning’s, I was very much wrong. Even after I settled down. People came to me with coffee or snacks, telling me to cheer up. It didn’t stop. It continued until I had a handful of snacks and coffee. I could even sell them.

Cheer up? Me? Huh, right. It’s them who should be cheering up now, not me.

I should have felt a source of gratitude towards them. My colleagues, they are doing so much for me. I should be thankful, but I can’t bring myself to. It’s not that they feel really sorry for me. It’s something else. And it wasn’t long when I came to know what it was.

“Hey Roselyn! How are you feeling?” Says Wanda, one of my colleagues. I smile at her with pursed lips as I make my way into the snack room, trying to get a proper cup of coffee to my liking. She stands near the coffee machine, a coffee mug in her hand. She sees me standing and understands what am here for. Quietly, she passes me the mug.

“Oh no! You made that one for yourself.” She shakes her head and says, “It’s okay. I can get myself another.”

Silently, I take the mug from her extended hands.

Okay. Now what’s hidden under your sleeve?

Just when am about to leave, she starts up a conversation. “I’m sorry for your lose. Must have been terrible losing a friend.”

I nod. I take another step, but she continues, stopping me in my tracks. “It must be harder for her family, especially her fiancée. What is his name again?” She’s waiting for a reply. Just give her one.

“Ben.”

“Oh Ben, yeah. Nice name. Anyone might fall for him with just the name. Ha ha!” She laughs but I don’t. “He’s single now, isn’t he?”

I nod. Now I know what she has under her sleeve.

“If you don’t mind, could you send a good word about me to him? Huh?” The smile I have been placing on for politeness sake disappears. I purse my lips into a thin line.

“Thank you for the coffee.” I say, leaving the mug on the table and walking away.

Tell me I was rude. Go ahead and just do it. But also tell me, what would you have done if you were in my shoes? Would your response be any different? I was being cold, I know. But that’s nothing new about me. I have been cold to people before, back in high school. But they deserved it. Just like Wanda, they were annoying and got on my nerves. So I guess I did the right thing.

I’m back in my office, but I don’t feel like am alone. Somewhere out there, I feel like I’m being watched. I feel pairs of eyes behind my neck.

Is she watching me? Is she right behind me? Don’t be ridiculous. But, why does it feel like there is someone behind me?

Slowly but surely, I turn my head backwards, trying to get a glimpse of the back of my office.

Just when my chin touches my shoulder, the phone rings and I almost jump out of my skin.

“Jesus Christ!” I mutter and slowly pick up the phone.

Ben.

“Hey Ben what’s up?” I ask, running my fingers through my hairs. Ben’s voice is husky and noiseless. He’s still like that. “Ummm… What about you? Are you busy right now?”

I look at my surroundings. I have been absent for a week but I don’t have a single file in my desk that indicates I have work. I’m as useless as can be. “Not exactly. Why, is something the matter?”

A long silence follows. For a while I think he hung up, but then his voice comes from the other side, urgent and teary. “Rose. I think… I think you need to come here right now. It’s urgent. Call Kate too. Something’s not right. Please some quickly. Please.”

I have never heard Ben so frightened and hurt before. The alarm in his voice is all that takes for me to be jumping out of my chair and running out of the building with my belongings, but not without the goose bumps spreading over my body.

                                                          ***

                                      

                                                     

When I arrive at the mansion, the things I find there is not what I actually expected. To be honest, deep down I thought something like this would be there, but I was hoping it not to be. But I guess it was all useless.

All around the parking lot, police cars stand with their red lights and sirens on alert. Police men of various sizes make their way in and out of the house, doing this work and that. My heart hammers in my chest.

What the hell happened here? What’s going on?

From the other side, Kate gets down from a cab and comes running to me. “Rose! Rose what’s going on?”

I shake my head. “I have no idea. We have to get in. Let’s go.”

Together, we rush inside the house, only to find more crowds of people inside. Unlike Kate, I straighten myself and make myself as presentable as possible. I’m a lawyer, and I must act like one, no matter the problem. We scan the crowd in search of Ben but he’s nowhere to be seen.

“Let’s go upstairs.” Kate suggests, and we sprint all the way up there.

Once we reach the landing, we see a terrified Ben, along with Jos’s parents. The police inspector asks them questions we still can’t hear, since we are a decent distance apart. Kate runs to Ben. As much as I want to run to him too, I don’t. My dignity gets the better of me.

I’m sure it’s something to do with Jos. But what could it be?

“Ben! What’s going on?” Kate asks, once we both reach him. Ben says nothing but just shakes his head. The inspector turns to us, “And you are?”

Kate says nothing. Now is my time. “My name is Rosalyn Arahoz. And I’m a lawyer.”

Even if am not a prosecutor, I am glad they let me in the investigation. The inspector leads me forward, motioning me into Jos room, the place she committed suicide. Or at least I’m thinking. Why am I having second thoughts now?

The inspector hands me a plastic bag, inside which sits a bloody blade.

What the hell?

As much as I want to ask him what all this is about, I can’t find my voice to do so. My blood has already run cold and I can barely move a muscle.

At last, the inspector finally releases the words that have been eating me. “Mr Sinklare found this on the room where Ms Airam committed suicide. It seemed like it was hidden from view, since he found it hidden behind the closet.”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. For a lawyer, I am supposed to go through all evidence confidently. But this is completely a different case. These are evidence related to the death of my friend, I can’t literally act confident.

The inspector searches my face for some reaction, but doesn’t get any. So he continues.

Which I wish he hadn’t.

“It seems like this case is just more than a suicide case Ms Arahoz. I’m afraid this might not end up being a suicide case. My belief says, it’s a murder case. Ms Arahoz, I think Ms Airam was murdered, and framed for suicide.