Once upon a crime.
From insanity's brim
A knock on the door and you are in the public rest area.
"Since when do you knock to enter in a public place, Rizpah?"
Sef is half-sitting on the counter, some teenager 's behavior reminiscence. His deep astute gaze sets on you. He sips in his Styrofoam coffee cup, but still look over the rim of it.
"I heard they found an other little girl." You blankly bring up while sitting in front of him, on a chair. Your high-heeled shoes are removed and placed aside you, on the floor.
The pathologist nod, removing the container from under is aquiline nose.
"You were searching me to ask me more about it?"
You shakes your head,"No, no, not at all. But…" you looks around. "Circumstances helping, I just thought it will be nice to know."
You are obviously expecting something from him. The way you intensely peer at him, willingly or not, has more to say on it.
"Hum." He made, getting up and strolling the short distance between where he was sitting already and the table. He sits carefully on the chair.
"One of those day, someone will fall of those cheap chairs." He notes.
"I never got problem with them." You tease him. "I am not weighting more than 60 kilo."
"Just 70. So I am lean. Imagine Ilario. I suspect he does not realy leave all his weight down on them."
He laughs, you do as well. Then your stance stiffen somehow. You refocus on the subject that link you to Sef at the moment.
"So?"
He raises again, fidgeting about his cup. Then he turn to the coffee machine.
"Still addicted to Café Latte ?" He asks, not awaiting you to answer before pushing a loony in the slot. The syrupy smell envelop the whole room. It adds only to your anguish.
"Please, Sef." You beg."Don't spare me up on this. I prepared myself to the worst."
"But if the worst is to come, Rizpah…" He turns, getting aside you and presenting the coffee cup. "Even prepared, will you hold?"
His glance is sincerely displaying concerns.
"It is her, isn't it?" Your voice hiding badly your overwhelming emotions. Your hands are shaking, so some coffee drops spill on the table. Sef sits back, taking the rag he carry in his pocket and swabs up the puddle without a blink away from you.
"No, that is not her. Unless you tell me your daughter was not having your wonderful black hairs." He pauses, sipping on his coffee cup while you sigh and drink from your own cup.
"Christmas is coming…" you say after.
The pathologist extends a hand, patting the one you left on the table.
"They will find her back, you know. We are a family. We wont let you pass a bad Christmas."
"I know. But you are sure?"
"About this little girl not being Haley?Yes, of course. Ilario himself was shocked when he came back from the city. I called the pathologist in service there because I thought you would ask. That is the second bodies they found bearing striking resemblance with Haley, though. This one, on the other hand, was not a natural."
The news astonish you so much that you cough on the swallowing of coffee you was taking in. You neatly push back the cup after the liquid make its way back in.
"Sorry. Not a natural you say?"
Sef nods. "Someone tinted her hairs and brows in black. Her skin was too whitish as well. You know, red-haired pigmentation, green eyes. That is definitely not your Haley."
You nod at your turn. "I have a hard time to admit it, but at this particular time, it disappoints me that she isn't her."
The man looks unconcerned, not at all what you anticipated as a reaction from him. Or from anyone.
"Normal. After a month, you want to know where she is and even death is sweeter to you than not knowing at all."
Now, you are the one shocked. You gasp. He smirks before draining his warm beverage.
"I did experienced it first hand when my father went missing. I wont be the one to put that on you." He mentions.
You start to tear up.
"I remark your red eyes, you just can't hide it."
You blush and lower your chin till he put a finger underneath it.
"That is just gossips. Hearsay has to stay hearsay, no matter how it hurt. You don't make the unanimity out there because you chose to come back to work, fine. Who is meeting the agreement of everyone when they do take a difficult decision, hum?"
You take delicately his finger off from under your chin, holding it up by yourself.
"It is just because, the person that said it is so close."
"She was probably just upset and trying to tell you she is devastated by the news as well. Who is that person?"
"Ellen."
"Oh, the jealous wife. Look. I don't want to judge her, but if ever there is someone that should hold her tongue, it is her."
"She let supposed I did make Haley disappeared myself…" you retort, struggling to get it out your chest."In front of Moshe…and he lets her say."
"Now, I know Moshe personally and he is not believing a words out of it. If that can ease your guilty feeling. He just keep out of that to not have problem whit Ellen afterward."
"Awe. I didn't know it. But it was so hard to take. That and all the whispering I got when I am walking around in Tranquil."
Sef nods and then offers you more advice. "You should go out during the week you got off. Go see your own mother, perhaps? That'd be a great time to get near of her."
You bite your lower lip and manifest a bit of impatience toward that reasonable option.
"Your brother then? It must be some family of your or of your husband, just to be sure no one get you so wrong that you'll get bigger problem when you come back. You got to have less pressure or you wont get out of it with your whole head."
Your chin is placed on your palm, your elbow's on the table. You look thoughtfully on the wall to the "Little Prince" poster you placed yourself in some years ago.
"My family has a tendency to judge you by the amount of money you got in the bank and the things you have, Sef. Do you know what they asked me recently?" you questions with an aggravated tone. The co-worker shakes his head.
"They asked me if I could sale Haley furniture to my brother, since his wife is pregnant. After all, you do need money, they said. And Haley is unlikely to be back."
"Awe. That is horrible. Then go on your husband side." He concludes, patting your hand again. "You two are definitely in need of less spotlight."
"Well, at least that is not the media that is over our back." You spill out.
"Perhaps not, but at least the media has an ethic and you can have a certain control when they are going too far. You cant have that with gossips' ladies. They are simply means and more means."
"Exactly. I found one in my flower bed, digging in the snow, last Saturday."
Sef slaps his lap, bursting in laugh."Don't tell me she was searching for a concealed grave directly on your front yard."
You sadly nod. "Caith was pretty angry at her. He must have pull out all the saints of the heaven on her."
"I would have done the same. That is very callous of her part to have done that."
"Well, that was having all the air of a conspiracy."
"How so?"
"While chasing her, we went upon two other ladies of her age, watching from the hay at her progress."
"No." Sef grins."I hope you left them a chance to escape."
"Of course, we were walking behind, not running." You shyly laugh. "I fear going out of town will be a bad choice. Improvised detectives like them will get the apartment and its surrounding at their mercy."
"I disagree. You can ask Ilario to instruct his brother so your building is circled more by the patrol while you are off. Better yet. Let circulate the news that if you ever caught someone else on your propriety, they will get on the list of suspect for the kidnapping. Or legaly sued. It is your right, after all, to have a private life. The fact Haley is missing shall not deprive you of all your right. It is already hard enough to be in that situation, don't let anyone imprison you like that. You had committed no crime. "
"I did." You drop.
That provoke Sef to raise a brow. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I must have done something wrong that night so the kidnapper had been able to take Haley's off my own house."
"Rizpah…really, listen to me." He hold your hand and look intensely to you. "That is a handle on which heinous people can reach you up. If you are already feeling uncertain on where is your responsibility in it, you expose yourself to them. You like medieval, if I remember right?"
You nod bluntly.
"Well, although it is normal to feel responsible somewhere. Searching too much and attributing the whole action that unfold to a single of your mistake is like going to combat and raising in the middle of a lull in an ambush, yelling "Is there someone else left?" without having a chainmail on."
You cackle. "You think I am alright?"
"Yes, I think you are more than that. You are phenomenal. You are doing precisely what is needed to be done. That is more Caith that concern me, actually."
"I know, me as well." You reply. "He has clamed up, mostly. Like he loved Haley more than myself."
"I don’t think so, Rizpah. He is just troubled with all that is happening, I bet." He pauses, looks in his coffee cup, then at the clock. "My pause is over, I got to get back into the lab." He informs you while raising. The Styrofoam cup is thrown into the garbage bin. He walks to the door and, comically knock at it before opening it and glancing to the other side. "Drat! There is no one on the other side. Should I venture in?" He asks jokingly.
You laugh. "Wait, I am coming with you." The chair is pushed aside and you clamber on your feet. "My pause is over too."
"No, no, it left you five minutes. Take them to clear up your mind and finish that excellent coffee."
Your glance got on the leftover cup, still warm enough to be drink.
"We'll meet there. And…" He beams. "Actually, take that five minutes to call Caith. I am inviting you over for dinner tonight. Leola will be more than pleased to see both of you. You know how she is? Even if I explain to her you were taking it very bravely, she is still wondering each night when I come back home. She asked news of all of you non-stop. Mention to Caithless we wont talk about this if he doesn't want to."
You nod. "Thanks Sef, you did more in ten minutes than that Salima."
Your tone must have been aggressive of some sort, in any case, it brings the man back into the room after that he closed back the door softly.
"her job is to make you two vent out. I admit that she is somehow judgmental. For her you are no more than a mystery to master. Don't forget it. She was born and raised here so she has the partiality of a village girl."
"So do I, Sef. I mean, I am from her and been raised her."
"Yes, but you was adopted and taught about the culture you were supposedly from. That opened your mind a little more. Thanks to your dad. You never fitted in there totally. You're not white and you'll never be. At least, inside. No matter how hard you work about it."
"I am not black neither." You retort, upset. "It has nothing to do with the race."
"Rizpah, it has all to do with it! Your cultural background. If we would had lost a blond cherubic looking little girl, we would have had the media on our back because we are not finding her back after all this time. Even the two little ones we found didn't make it on the news more than an eve. You know of what I mean. Don't make me begin on that field. I can pull you out million of example that the general population of this town is rather indifferent and making it a racial things, whether you want it or not." He speaks out.
"But…" you start crying. He walks and cuddle you.
"Who said angels have all to be blonde and white?" you hear in your head.
"Sorry, it was out of my hearth. I didn't mean to hurt you up with it." Sef says."If you want, the dinner invitation could be postponed for tomorrow or later this week?"
You make a pace backward, wiping of your tears."No, that is alright, I'll phone Caith with it. I just remembered something. The last day we passed together, me and Haley, she asked me about why the angels were all blondes and whites."
The man hold on you again a brief moment and when his face come back, he got a tear as well in the corner of his eye."What did you answered to her?"
"That the other angels where more efficient working behind the curtain."
He nods and pats you on the shoulder."How did she reacted to it?"
"Hard to say, we almost ran over a teenager all dressed in black. So my attention was diverted."
"All in black, you say?Was it near your home?"
"No, no. we were going to my mother's place. Why?"
"Oh, then, forget about it. It is just that you mention it not during the interview with Ilario and I thought that this detail could have been of such importance. But since it happen in the town aside, that cant be your stalker."
Your shoes are putted back on. The coffee cup is left to rot on the table.
"My stalker…" you express, getting out the room with Sef on your heels.
"Ilario didn't speak with you about that theory?" He questions from behind you.
"Not a word." You reply, perplex.
He paces till he get aside you, his smaller stature now more evident now that you are back up in your shoes.
"Yes, he thinks that to be able to get to Haley, the person was stalking you since a while. It could be also someone you know, but of not so up closed. You have to meet with him. That could be an important break through."
"Why did he never ask about it before, at day one?" You ask, stopping and letting Sef taking some distance.
He turns back and beckons you to get closer. The span he makes with his gaze remind you quite clearly that you are no more alone with him in the safe cafeteria cocoon. You whisper your question again when you get back at his height.
"That is his first case like that, bear him, would you mind? He is terrorized by the statistic he read lately."
"Oh, that magazine I found in his office?" you say, making the connection.
"Yes. He wants to find her alive."
That revelation is encouraging and you feel like you have some weight more of your shoulders.
"We all want it, no?"
"Certainly. And the first one is Haley herself. I feel that she wont give up so easily. Your daughter as more of you and Caith than just the physical appearance." Sef tells.
"Now, back to work." He enters in the lab.
"Have you my result for the rape case?" He asks on a whole different intonation.
You smile, relieved , entering in as well and goes to the computer. "It was processing the sample while we were pausing."
Word Count=2611