Killer. Detective. Patient.

Scarlett's POV:

I stood between life and death. Beyond me stood the tall light monsters. My head was dizzy, filled with so many images that were fuzzy, and something slimy oozed out of my hands. That's Funny, I thought. I don't remember anything. Not even my name. 

That's when I heard the sirens. The only familiar sound I heard in the last ten minutes. It is the police! They are coming! I heard my own voice in my head as a distant echo. And suddenly, the reds and blues and yellows beyond me coalesced into focus. They were not light monsters. They were buildings and skyscrapers, shining mightily under the moon's celestial light. 

I smiled. It was a full moon. A lucky day to die. Staring at the dark abyss that stretched infinitely beyond me, I tipped ahead, ready to fall. Ready to fall into the open arms of death. 

Blaze's POV:

"GET ME BACKUP NOW!!!!" I barked into my earpiece and ran as fast as I could. The lifts were out of order and I rolled my eyes. This was beginning to sound like a Hollywood film to me. 

One hour. That's all I had left to capture the culprit. 

I half ran, half tumbled up the staircase. Sunny Towers. Of course she'll choose this location. The building was under maintenance for the past month and had about a hundred floors. Perspiration trickled down my forehead to my collarbone as my legs began to throb just as I crossed the 80th floor. Still. It was about time they started to scream in pain. 

81. I counted in my head as my teammate, Harry, from HQ briefed me on the case. 

"She's an alcoholic. Age, unknown." He spoke as though reading from a catalogue.

85.

"Killed her husband with a dagger, sliced his throat clean and then fled."

89.

"A Grandma in the neighborhood reported the incident."  

90.

That's when my legs gave away and I slid to a stop on the landing of the 90th floor. A small shiver ran down my spine. And I knew what it meant. 

"No, no, this sounds too easy." I said to no one in particular. Biting my lips, I closed my eyes to think. And then it occurred to me as I started to run up again, ignoring the painful screams of my leg muscles. I need to workout more, seriously!

"Remind me how you tracked her location again?" I asked. 

100, finally.

I elbowed the door open to the rooftop and when I saw that curling waterfall of auburn hair which I could recognize from anywhere in the world, I froze. For the first time in my 5 year, record-breaking career as a police officer, I forgot to breathe. 

"She called the police herself, reporting that her husband's bleeding. And that he's unconscious. I simply tracked down her mobile phone." I ignored what my teammate blabbered as I took slow cautious steps towards her.

"I know, I know, now you will ask who called first. It was the Grandma of course."

She was standing on the rooftop ledge, wearing the black turtleneck I had gifted her on her birthday.

"How can you be so sure that she's the killer?" I whispered back, my heart, ready to pop out of my chest.

"Well, duh! She called only after she had escaped the crime scene. It's obvious why she did that! To get a 30 minutes headstart!"

I felt as though somebody had tied bricks to my feet as I neared her.

Step by step.

Inch by inch. 

"She isn't the killer! Direct the Task Force to the Grandma's location! NOW!!!" I barked just as I saw the auburn hair disappear down…

That one second was the longest second of my life. I felt as though time had stopped. The blue veins of my hand popped out as I stretched my arm to grab her waist, pulling her behind, as we both fell back. 

She was weeping. Her hands covered in blood, cupped my cheeks as she cried. 

"Blaze? You there?" My earpiece quivered and I ignored it as if it were background noise.

I engulfed her and let her bury her head into my chest. My heart finally beating again. 

"BLAZE????"

"SHUT UP!!!" I barked back. 

"What's happening?" I rolled my eyes. Of course he won't shut up. 

"Why isn't she the killer?" I had never known a man more stubborn than this guy. 

" 'Cause I'm Scarlett's husband!" Even as I said those words, I knew how absurd they sounded. But it was the truth.

"HUUUuuuuh???" My earpiece crackled making me roll my eyes for the umpteenth time. 

Grandma's POV:

"I'll pay you triple the amount if you complete the task." I had nodded for him to continue. It was winter. My grandson's favourite season. And my heart was cold from his memories.

"They call you the Queen of Hypnosis don't they?" I had nodded again. That title had set my mind on fire. And I had wondered. I had wondered that between the ice in my heart and the fire in my mind, which would win?

"Well, then, prove it." I had liked how that man talked. His tone robotic, his broad shoulders held high. He was so strong, and yet, standing in front of me, he looked nothing but the opposite. He depended on me. That's what made him weak. "You see this woman." He pointed to the young lady who was fast asleep on the entrance steps of my doorway. "You hypnotize her. Hypnotize her and make her kill the man who lives next door. He's my friend. He has shares in my late father's property. I need to remove him out of the picture, you know what I mean? Make this woman commit suicide down Sunny Towers. So no one finds out our plan. Do that, and I'll reward you generously. " I had felt great pity for the woman. She was pretty. Her auburn hair reminding me of autumn. Autumn was my favorite season. That's when Cosmos flowers bloomed. I always told my grandson that he was a Cosmos flower. For, he was a slow learner. When other flowers would ripe in spring, he would ripe in autumn. "You'll mesmerize her such that all she remembers is to call the police and then kill herself. But that's not all, even before she makes the call, you'll make a call to the police as a first hand witness of the crime…" He had explained and I had kept nodding. 

As I now sit inside the interrogation room with that weak man sitting in front of me, I knew I should have felt weaker. For he was a police officer. Aren't they supposed to be as dangerous as the criminal themselves? 

"Hello, Mrs. James. I'm Officer Blaze." He spoke clearly, his voice edged with sheer dominance. And then he smirked, "I see you are shivering." He slid a cup of hot coffee towards me, across the table between us. "Here, it will help." He smiled wickedly. The dim lightening of the interrogation room casted eerie shadows on his rigid face, bringing out all the angles and planes that I hadn't noticed before. I chugged down the coffee in one go and then said what I had been meaning to say since this man arrived in the interrogation room.

"I request a change in my interrogator!" And as I saw his eyes widen in surprise, I suppressed the urge to smile. That's right young man, you are done for!

Scarlett's POV:

Never in my entire life had I felt so scared at the sight of blood as I felt right now. I'm a doctor you see, so technically, I'm not supposed to be afraid of blood. But what I felt more afraid of was my husband's thoughtful gaze on me. We were sitting in the interrogation room. A wooden table was the only thing between us. And yet, I felt so far away from him. 

"Mrs. Blaze." Although he spoke formally, but the name still felt queer on his tongue. How many times would he say that to her. Dear Mrs. Blaze, would you be so kind to give your hubby a hug, he had a bad day today. Mrs. Blaze, would you like tea, your hubby made it just for you! He would only say it like that to tease her. But today, as it echoed in the interrogation room, it made a me squirm for the first time.

"Blaze, I, I'm not a killer! I didn't do it and you know it!" I tried to reason with him. He pinched his nose the way he did whenever he was stressed out. I didn't blame him. He had just found out that his own friend was murdered, and perhaps the killer was his own wife. 

"I know, Scarlett." He whispered so only I could hear. "But you were caught on the CCTV footage in front of the Carter's house! My love, even the blood on your hands, it's evidence against you." I tried to speak but he shook his head, "Listen, I believe you okay. And I'll always believe you, but before a friend and a husband, I'm a police officer. And a police officer only takes that which he sees to be true. Evidence. I need you to give me a statement that proves your innocence! Or at least helps me prove it!" 

I sighed, "I was sitting in the staff room in the hospital. A child had died while I was conducting his surgery. My mind was boggled up so I didn't notice then. But now I remember. There was this woman, she came to me. She was old. She whispered something, and then I fainted. When I woke up, you were holding me in your arms on the rooftop." 

Blaze's face was expressionless as he listened. Then, he passed a picture to me, "Is it her?" He asked and I nodded without a beat. There was something about the old lady's apple-shaped face, a familiarity that even the cockles embellishing her skin didn't hide. It was a pretty memorable face. And then, like a lightening slashing through ink blue sky, it dawned upon me and I grabbed my husband's arm just as he was about to leave. 

Blaze's POV: 

If one day could be marked as worst, today was that day. What could be worst than having to interrogate your own wife for the murder if your own friend? When our team leader suggested that somebody else be her interrogator, as I was too emotionally involved, I had refused. And now, as I stepped out of her interrogation room, my chest felt even heavier than it did when I saw Scarlett jumping off the roof. My wife wasn't an alcoholic. That much I could prove. But proving that she wasn't a killer was the real challenge. 

"Harry, I need you to check the Grandma's family background. See if she had a grandson named Neo." I knew the child. He was my friend's son. I came to stand beside the computer Harry was bent over, his orange cat-eye spectacles sliding down, close to the tip of his nose. I suppressed my urge to roll my eyes, "And would you please change that RIDICULOUS frame!" 

He tactfully ignored my remark and typed off his computer, "BINGO! She does in fact have a grandson named Neo!"

"You mean 'had'!" I corrected. It was a shock when Scarlett told me he had died.

Harry squinted his eyes on the computer screen and then nodded, "Yep, the kid died in a surgery done by-"

"My wife." I completed after him, declaring the obvious. 

"But if she was taking a revenge, how did she, oh wait," I pitied his keypad then, as he forced the keys like that, "She is a hypnotist. A pretty famous one too…" 

What he babbled next I didn't hear as I went straight towards the Grandma's interrogation room. Staring through the observation mirror, I noticed how she was shivering as if frightened. "I can't believe she can be the killer." The low-ranking officer, standing guard outside the room, remarked. 

"I can." I said to no one in particular, "Look at her. She looks like an ordinary old woman shivering from cold, but how come only the upper half of her body is quivering. She's not even paralyzed from waist down, and yet her legs are set firm, almost as if she were pretending." One of the reasons why I was promoted to the Cold Crimes Division was my quick judgement on people's body language. You can't even blink an eye in front of me without me noticing it. And that was something I took great pride in. So when I went inside the interrogation room with a cup of steaming hot coffee in my hand, I couldn't have imagined that I would ever hear the old lady say those words that she said. Changing your interrogator? Are you kidding me? But what she said next was like a punch to my face. A punch even quick reflexes like mine couldn't deflect.

"I will not let a killer interrogate me!" She spoke in a soothing, velvety voice that sliced through you savagely. 

"Excuse me?" I asked. "What prove do you have for such an obnoxious claim?" That was when she asked for me to play the CCTV camera recording outside her house. Anger got the best of me so I did as she told. And just like that, even the last chunks of earth beneath my feet slid away like quicksand. 

There I stood, giving killing orders for my own friend, asking my own wife to be framed for murder, devising a plan to get her to commit suicide. It was true Carter had shares in my late father's property. But Carter was like a brother to me. I would never think of doing that to him; I would never think of doing that to my wife! And finally, I understood how it felt to be hypnotized. It was suffocating…

I stood up and came outside that instant, my team leader giving me a shocked look. I didn't blame him, I wasn't much likable at the Police Station as it was. I punched the nearest wall I could find, and ignored the cracking scratch that it left on my knuckles. A shiver ran down my spine and like a sudden revelation, it dawned upon me. 

"Wait, I can prove I was hypnotized…" I told my team leader despite his protests, "Give me the tablet, here, now look, I mean, listen to how I'm speaking. Is that how I normally speak? And look at how I'm telling her all my plan? If I were the criminal, I would never trust her with that information. But that's not all. I just remembered…" I walked to my desk and pulled out a file from the drawers, "Neo…" I said, skimming through it. I handed my team leader the file pointing at it, "Look here, Neo once called the Police to report that he was getting hit by his Carter. But I had dismissed the report because he took back the complain the next day saying it was only a prank. Carter even sent in a note of apology…" 

"I don't get what you-" Even though I knew he hated it, but I interrupted him anyways. 

"Look, I was biased because this was Carter, he would never do that to Neo. But the Grandma's grandson might actually be getting physically abused. Those days I was too busy dealing with what I thought were MORE IMPORTANT CRIMES…" I purposefully spoke louder than necessary and it worked.

For the Grandma, back in the interrogation room, suddenly screamed, "IT WASN'T A MISTAKE YOU IMBECILE! MY GRANDSON GOT HIS RIBS BROKEN BECAUSE OF YOU! AND THEN YOUR WIFE KILLED HIM!" Tears trickled down her eyes as she intertwined her fingers in her curly silver hair, yanking forcefully at them, "SO I MADE HER KILL THAT MONSTER I CALLED MY SON-IN-LAW! THAT MONSTER WHO WOULD HIT MY POOR COSMOS FLOWER!" She shouted a series of profanities while the guards went in to handcuff her.

I didn't notice when Scarlett came out of her interrogation room and hugged me. "Congratulations honey, you solved a case in just 2 hours. That's a new record there." But looking at the Grandma's condition, all my happiness of solving the case slowly melted away. For sometimes, we Police Officers, we Doctors, we Guardians of our own children, make unforgivable mistakes. 

And standing in that Police Station, staring at the Grandma, all I thought was this: I too am a criminal. For my biased judgement gave birth to a killer. 

Scarlett's POV: 

When Neo had died, I had held his plump hands and cried for hours. Then I had ran to the staff room. If only I knew that was when my doom had truly begun. A senior doctor who had checked the report had confirmed that Neo had died due to my negligence. Perhaps that's the reason why I still remember standing between life and death on the rooftop ledge of Sunny Towers. That's the only thing I vividly remember. That and the look at the Grandma's face when she gazed at me, screaming, "KILLER, KILLER, KILLER!!!" 

Yet, I wasn't as brave as Blaze to admit it openly. So when I heard him whisper, "I'm the killer..." I could only say it in my mind, No, I'm the killer. I'm the killer of my patient!