The Woman Who Asked Different Questions
1056 Words
The morgue was colder than Evelyn remembered.
Not because of the temperature.
Because nothing ever changed.
The same pale walls.
The same humming fluorescent lights.
The same smell of antiseptic that settled into your clothes long after you left.
Marcus waited outside Examination Room Three.
His tie hung loose around his neck.
He looked like a man who hadn’t slept.
“You came.”
“You said a body disappeared.”
“It did, hope you weren’t followed”
“No, I was careful, I always am”
He held the door open.
Inside…
The steel gurney was empty.
A white sheet lay folded neatly at the foot of the bed.
Nothing else.
“No blood?” Evelyn asked.
Marcus shook his head.
“No struggle?”
“No.”
“Security cameras?”
“They went offline.”
“For how long?”
Marcus hesitated.
She noticed.
“How long?”
“…Twenty-seven minutes.”
Neither of them spoke.
The silence answered more than words could.
Evelyn walked around the room slowly.
She wasn’t looking for the obvious.
She never had.
Her fingers brushed the edge of the gurney.
Dust.
Very little.
Meaning it had been cleaned recently.
Too recently.
She crouched.
One wheel carried a faint streak of blue paint.
Fresh.
She looked toward the doorway.
The frame had the same colour.
The gurney hadn’t been rolled out carefully.
It had struck the door on the way out.
Whoever took the body…
Had been in a hurry.
“Who signed him in?” she asked.
Marcus handed over a clipboard.
She scanned the page.
Time of arrival.
Name.
Case number.
Everything looked ordinary.
Until the final signature.
She frowned.
“This handwriting…”
Marcus looked at her.
“What about it?”
“It isn’t nervous.”
“What?”
She tapped the paper.
“People fake signatures all the time.”
Marcus folded his arms.
“And?”
“They usually hesitate.”
She pointed to the final stroke.
“This person didn’t.”
“You can tell that?”
“No.”
She looked up.
“I can tell they weren’t pretending to be someone else.”
Marcus blinked.
“Then whose signature is it?”
Evelyn turned the clipboard around.
At the bottom of the page…
The signature belonged to a doctor who had died…
years ago.
“I don’t understand, if the doctor died years ago, how is his signature here”?! Marcus asked
“Practice”!!!! They both said together.
“It must have taken, weeks or months of practice to get the signature perfectly done” Evelyn said
“But why take the body though”?!!
“It wasn’t suicide”!!! They screamed.
“They’re trying to hide something, maybe bruises, maybe cuts, maybe gunshot marks, but it most definitely wasn’t suicide” Evelyn said
⸻
Across the city…
Aiden finally left the hospital against medical advice.
The sky had darkened again.
Rain threatened from heavy clouds.
Julian walked beside him in silence.
Neither trusted the other enough for conversation.
“You don’t have to follow me,” Aiden said.
“I’m not.”
“You’ve been behind me for three blocks.”
“I’m walking.”
“To my apartment?”
Julian smiled.
“I was hoping you’d notice.”
Aiden stopped.
People flowed around them on the busy pavement.
“What do you actually want from me?”
“The truth.”
“I don’t have it.”
“I believe you.”
That answer caught Aiden off guard.
“You… believe me?”
Julian nodded.
“I think you’re lying.”
Aiden’s expression hardened again.
Julian continued.
“But I don’t think you’re lying to me.”
He stepped closer.
“I think you’re lying to yourself.”
For a moment…
The city disappeared.
Only those words remained.
Before Aiden could respond…
A woman crossed the street.
Dark coat.
Hair tied back.
Purpose in every step.
She wasn’t looking at traffic.
She was looking at them.
Julian noticed her first.
“Friend of yours?”
“No.”
Aiden followed his gaze.
“I’ve never seen her.”
The woman stopped a few feet away.
Her eyes settled on Aiden.
Not curious.
Not sympathetic.
Calculating.
She spoke only one sentence.
“You shouldn’t have left the hospital.”
Aiden frowned.
“Do I know you?”
“No.”
“Then how did you know where I’d be?”
“I didn’t.”
She glanced at Julian.
“I followed him.” She pointed at Julian.
Julian’s eyebrows lifted.
“I would’ve noticed.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t.”
A beat of silence.
Then she reached into her coat.
Aiden instinctively stepped back.
Julian tensed.
Instead of a weapon…
She produced a folded newspaper.
She opened it.
The headline covered the front page.
LAST SURVIVOR SPEAKS TO POLICE AGAIN
She folded it shut.
“They’re making sure everyone knows where you are.”
Aiden looked from the newspaper to her.
“Who are you?”
She held his gaze.
“My name is Evelyn Hart.”
Nothing.
Julian recognized it.
Good.
“I don’t work for the police anymore.”
Julian spoke first.
“I know that so why are you following me, trying to use me to get to him?”
Evelyn didn’t answer immediately.
Instead…
She looked directly at Aiden.
“When was the last time you slept through the night?”
His heart skipped.
“Excuse me?”
“You wake up at the same time every night, don’t you?”
Aiden’s face lost colour.
Julian stared at him.
Evelyn continued.
“You’ve convinced yourself they’re nightmares.”
She took one slow step forward.
“They’re not.”
Aiden whispered,
“…How do you know that?”
For the first time…
A flicker of sadness crossed Evelyn’s face.
“Because my brother woke up at exactly the same time.”
The air seemed to leave the street.
Cars still passed.
People still talked.
But around the three of them…
Everything became unnaturally still.
Then…
A phone vibrated.
Not one.
Three.
Aiden’s.
Julian’s.
Evelyn’s.
All at the same time.
Unknown Number.
Slowly…
Each of them answered.
No one spoke.
The same calm voice greeted all three.
“You’re together sooner than expected.”
The call ended.
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