CHAPTER 1 – A SUITABLE EPITAPH
1156 Words
CHAPTER 1 – A SUITABLE EPITAPH
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KLAVDIYA WAS BORN ON the shore of a small lake in Russia forty years ago. The information on Leah’s iPad didn’t show it, but it was raining the day Klavdiya came into the world.
The woman got married in spring when the cherry trees were in blossom. She was eighteen at the time. She got divorced in autumn when the harsh rains washed the soil and the fallen leaves. She was only twenty-three and she had a young boy attached to her skirts.
The young woman migrated to Canada the following summer where she had already found a job in a childhood friend’s company.
She raised her son to stand on his own two feet, and when he left home to follow his path, she started looking around, ready for the hunt. Finally, it was her time and she wanted a man and the money that came with him.
She wouldn’t give any man the time of the day unless he met her expectations. He had to be well-dressed, well-behaved and with a rich portfolio.
Klavdiya died on the shore of another lake and on another continent. Her life had completed a full circle. She had come into the world restless and with a thirst to exceed the limitations of the world she’d been born to, and she died without finding her peace.
Leah sat on her haunches and looked at the battered and broken body lying at her feet in the shadow of the bush. She thought that was a suitable epitaph for that woman, after all.
She knew that she was harsh in her judgment, but what she had sensed when she touched the lifeless body made her remember a friend’s words, ‘Some people are just walking calls for trouble. Most of the time, trouble eventually answers their call.’
Leah shook her head and scolded herself. No one would ever ask for what that woman got.
She stood up and turned off the iPad in her hand. Then, she glanced at the coroner, who meticulously discarded the surgical gloves and cleaned his hands with disinfectant.
Why he would do that, it was beyond her comprehension. Yet, she had watched Dr. Connelly perform the same ritual every single time he was called at the scene of a fatal event.
The detective had known the coroner for a number of years, and the doctor’s little quirks never ceased to astound her. Right from the beginning of their acquaintance, he had stirred her curiosity, but he had also pulled at her heart.
Leah’s empathic skills were highly triggered whenever she looked at that gloomy old man.
She had found out eventually that the doc wasn’t a day over sixty, yet, whenever she thought of him, she had the feeling that she would smell an old piece of parchment. That was why she got into the habit of thinking of him as an old man.
“Any word, doc?” she asked the doctor nimbly.
Leah always asked that question. She supposed it was the force of habit. The detective was compelled to inquire even though she knew that he wouldn’t answer to her. Doctor Connelly was the only coroner in the force who never hazarded to give COD before completing the post mortem.
Leah turned to him just in time to catch his scowl and a small smile lifted the right corner of her mouth. Leah knew his reactions by heart now and could predict them with accuracy. She actually took joy in every one of them, and even found a perverse delight in yanking his chain. His answers would always make her day.
“Detective, when I have a COD, you’ll be the first informed,” he sternly replied with his hawk-like eyes trained on her.
His displeasure was evident in the tight curve of his mouth. His tone might have been stern but he also had a way of dragging his words which made the interlocutor aware of the sarcasm that dripped off his words like molasses in the water.
Yet, Leah felt warmth beneath the clipped words and bestowed him with a catlike smile. Her blue-green irises intensified the effect of her smile and made her seem eerie. The doc shuddered and brusquely turned and left the scene after he barked an order to the two men waiting on the side to take the body away.
Leah glanced at Klavdiya one last time. Now, no sensation came from the body. As the last drop of warmth had left the corpse, the lingering feelings and occasional thoughts from the victim vanished as well.
Leah pictured the victim’s body in her mind as a shell and it wasn’t for her to take care of that shell. Her role was to vindicate the victim and bring balance back into the world.
One thing was certain about Leah. She had a very strong sense of responsibility and she never shrunk her duties. Her innate sense of justice had pushed her on that difficult road to her family’s dismay.
Leah came from a long line of empaths. Some of them had stronger abilities than others, but all of them were able to sense something and read people based on those readings.
For four generations already, her family members numbered several psychologists and counsellors, and she had been expected to follow in their steps. Tradition was very important for her kin. They had hoped until the last moment and didn’t resigned until she had taken her oath as a policewoman.
Leah was aware that she had been a disappointment of sorts for her folks and yet, she knew that she would do the same thing all over again if she had had to choose once more.
She had chosen to become a detective and to keep her skills hidden. The police work was chaotic enough, and she didn’t need to add anymore suspicion and stress to her colleagues’ lives.
People wouldn’t have reacted favorably if they had heard that she knew how they felt and sometimes why they felt the way they did. People needed to take comfort in the knowledge that they could count on the privacy of their thoughts and feelings.
Leah might have been a disappointment to her family in the beginning, but they had passed over their displeasure fast enough. She knew that now, they felt a measure of contentment because at best she hadn’t chosen another line of work.
There have been cases in their clan when some of the members embraced a life of deceit and cunning. They had the necessary skills and could pull the wool over people’s eyes with ease. It wasn’t a difficult career for them to pursue after all, as all the cards were up their sleeves.
After the first three years of her career, her parents came to terms with her profession and relented in their efforts to make her change her profession. They also felt that Leah was meant to bring a sort of balance into the world and they were satisfied to see that she had a deep respect for the responsibilities they had to uphold.
- Writer
