Hey

Breathe in and out was the wind sending Jay as he rushed his way to his office. The detective wasn’t running, he was just keeping his usual pace. Conventionally feeling his pocket making sure his key was there- “OH, I’M SO SORRY”, said a woman on a red dress who just bumped into him randomly and spilled her red drink on the detective’s shirt.

Jay paused his pace to see the stain for a glimpse, “don’t worry about it”, he replied with a straight face before he went to resume his walk to the office. As he turned his face back from the woman, the woman grabbed his arm, “why are you going that way? You don’t seem like a criminal”, the woman wondered as he seemed familiar to her. “Oh wait, no, you’re a detective right? You’re not going to arrest me aren’t you?” the woman leaned on Jay begging him to forgive her. Jay glazed at her for just 2 seconds, not really caring while trying to get her grip off him.

“Hey, I really don’t want to go back inside, so please don’t look me up”, asked the woman. The detective, still, didn’t even care about it trying to get her away from him by saying “oh it seems like you’re a criminal”. Which then the woman hastily replied to “no no no, it was just some questioning, I wasn’t involve at all, just some stupid cold case from three years ago, I don’t know why’d they bring that up anyway”. Now, she took his attention, Jay gazed at her for a full 4 seconds before he pulled a smile all over his face.

“Ah yes, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you before, yes”, Jay finally took a grip of himself. “Oh you saw me back there? Oh I’m so embarrassed, but just so you know, I have a clear alibi so I’m definitely not going back there”, stated the woman.

Effortlessly smiling like never before the detective continued “well how are you going to make up for this stain? It seems like it’s going to stay for eternity”. The woman is even more worried now. Before a word got to slipped out of her mouth, Jay offered “treat me to a dinner then”.

It frightened the woman a bit, but “cool, give me your number”, as she passed him her phone. Jay put his number and passed the phone back. The woman shortly gave his number a call. It seemed as a creature inside Jay’s pocket is ringing, and so she ended the call. “Let’s keep in touch here then okay” as she waved him goodbye and finally leaving.

He stared at her as the woman's taking a leave. After a good 4 seconds, his smile was finally wearing off again, now he kept his normal walk pace back to the office.

…

A day went by, he’s now on another trip to his office. A felt of relieve as he’s getting closer to his chair, not having to walk again for at least until lunch break. He was just sitting down when his partner, Casey pulled him back up from his chair, “there you are, let’s go”. Jay got confused, “what’s on?”, without hesitant, he followed his partner knowing that something’s on. “A murder was on”, Casey told him as they rushed into their car. “Who’s the victim?”, Jay tried to get a lead. Casey sighed, “you’ll see”.

…

They were now at the crime scene when Jay saw something familiar, “oh wait, I know her”. Casey was surprised, “h-how?” Jay rushed to get close to the murder subject, “it’s her! The woman who spilled her red drinks on me yesterday.” Casey stared at him, “and you killed her cause of that?” Jay stared back at his partner, “don’t joke around like that.” Casey made a sorry hand gesture and pretended to zip his own mouth.

By the look of the victim’s neck, it seemed as the woman was strangled to death. Her dress was in a complete red condition as yesterday. It seemed like the murder was an accident or the murderer just intentionally left her body in the place, considering that the body was just laying in the back of a parking space of a mall.

By procedure, Jay went to ask his partner “How about the-“

“Nothing’s left, he must’ve delete it”, the partner replied knowing that they’re talking about the CCTV’s footages.

“He?” Jay asked him back.

“It just seemed like anyone who would do this is just strong enough to strangle the girl to death,” Casey replied quickly.

…

Everyone stayed home at night, so was Jay. Unread emails were stacking, it’s not that Jay wasn’t checking on them regularly, he just wouldn’t bother checking on them if it’s not something urgent. Jay stopped scrolling, an email subject with a simple “hey” on it with a video attachment from an unfamiliar account caught his attention. He clicked on it, there was a video, he clicked on it.

A voice of a woman struggling, “stop, please”, the woman seemed familiar… It was the girl in red.. He stopped the video. What had he just witnessed?

…

Another day at the office, he still didn’t comprehend how the video got into his hand, and wondered if he should tell anyone, even his partner about it.

“you alright?” his partner spotted Jay’s blank eyes and wondered if anything’s up.

“yeah, yeah, yeah” Jay was getting back into his senses.

“about the case yesterday” Casey took Jay’s attention.

“what about it?” Jay quickly replied.

“it’s probably just the woman’s ex-husband, so let’s not think about it” Casey stated.

“wait, but, nevermind” Jay stopped as he suddenly remember of what happened yesterday. As Casey was leaving, Jay pulled him back "what about dinner? my house? tonight?"

….

Jay and Cas were walking to the dining table, they were planning to cook something from Jay's fridge. Not even 2 minutes have passed and It’s like everyone knows what’s going on.

Casey pointed a gun at Jay, and so was Jay pointing one at Casey.

No one spoke a single word.

One shot was fired.

One of them survived.

Jay suspected Casey as the murderer from the start.

…

Another day went by.

Jay got another “hey” email.

A murderer’s still on the loose.

Got any clue?