Before the 8:00 evening news started, Graslina sat on the floor with a plate of fruit as usual. The reporter soon started to report the amazing amount of news as always. She started to take the most comfortable position with her plate in one hand.
The next day, she found out that she had missed more than twenty calls on her phone. She had a feeling that she had slept past way her time to go to work, and yes she did, she fell asleep on the floor and wasn’t able to hear the alarm. Since she was late, her boss picked her in charge of a new case that came in just an hour ago. After the boss left, she looked at the bunch of papers. The only thing the paper pulled out was Graslina’s long, deep sigh. She knew it by the sense that this will be a very hard case, but she didn’t know exactly why. It was just her conclusion drawn from her seven years of being a detective herself. Graslina thought the first thing is to meet the submitter because he or she was always the first one to know about the case.
“Hello, this is Graslina from the police officer. Are you the person who submitted the case on 7:14?” Then, she heard a woman’s voice over the phone.
“Yes, I think it was around that time,” She replied. Graslina had little difficulty finding the submitter. The submitter was a normal-looking woman with glasses. Even though she looked rich, her hand was shaking, and her face was swollen red.
Graslina’s view
This is the information that I gained in today morning.
“I heard that your son died around 6:52. Is it true?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have any suspects?”
“Yes.”
“Who is it?” The woman looked painful when she was answering this question.
“It’s hard to say, but it’s his brother...” Then, she showed the pictures of the two twins to Graslina. Graslina almost dropped her pen because in that picture, his boyfriend James was gazing at her. But she tried to act normal as she saw nothing. Still, she wasn’t able to hide her shaking fingers.
“Do you have anything wrong?” The woman asked.
“No, no., I’m fine. Did you contact him?”
“Well… not actually. Even if he weren’t the one, he wouldn’t answer me. He has a bad memory about me.”
“Can you tell me a bit more about his bad memory?”
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but actually, I had a divorce when my children were little. I had a lot of property, and I don’t want to say why but I preferred Little brother more than him, so I gave almost my property to him. After his graduation, he never met me. I don’t even know where he is right now.”
After I met her, I wasn’t able to concentrate well back on the case for a few hours. It was no doubt that all the pictures had the resembling two people but always one in better outfits and appearance. But because I know I’m not allowed to have any empathy or to be on the bias when I’m solving the case, so I decided to write down everything I know about suspects in a detective diary.
I remembered my first day in 12th grade when he and I first met. Our school was small, but it was our first time being in the same class. It may seem a bit weird, but we fall in love when we just first saw each other. We had similar hobbies and applied to the same university. James was a sweet boy. He had a talent for studying and memorizing stuff, but he had short-term memory loss, only on special occasions. He told me the reason is because of the trauma he had when he was young.
James’s View
Recently, I was too busy. Promotions are right ahead, and I know if I work a little bit more, I can make my goal at the right time. Sometimes during my work, thinking of Graslina interrupts my concentration, and I feel sorry for my dear Graslina. I do however feel getting colder these days. It’s not like before, and I feel something is missing. But what I found to fill my missing part was to become busier on my work. Also, I changed my cell phone a week ago, and Graslina still doesn’t know. I guess she thinks I’m not answering her because I’m busy.
At today’s lunchtime, Graslina came to me. Here, most of the officers and detectives are rather in their offices or out for cases. I was surprised when I saw Graslina has called me. I still don’t know how she figured out my number. I didn’t answer her, but I guess she had found my office and waited there until I came down for lunch. We had an awkward time. She asked me a bunch of questions, and I answered her as I don’t know her. Yes, I was shocked when I heard about my brother’s death. She asked me where I was in the morning. I tried my best to answer her. All the stuff that I did became a panorama and grazed over my head, but only one part was missing in my memory. I think she was not here to inform me about my brother but to interrogate me.
Graslina’s View
After I met James, I was totally confused. After lunchtime, I tried to find Malfoy who is a co-detective to talk about this case. Even though he is an indifferent department, I once had counsel for solutions to my worries, and it actually worked out great. Besides, having two people is better than just one person. The problem was, I couldn’t find him anywhere after lunch. I think I saw him in the morning but I don’t know why everyone says he’s gone. Saying about Malfoy, I have a memory of him as well.
Malfoy’s View
I was a new student at Melbury Highschool. When I first came, I saw Graslina sitting in the second row from the back. I wanted to sit next to her, but there was already a boy sitting next to her. Throughout the semester, I found out that he was her boyfriend. I wasn’t very interested in being a police officer, but I applied to that major to have the same major as her. Yes, I liked her, but I agreed with myself that I went there because I didn’t know where to go. Apart from that, around two weeks before, she came to me to talk about her problems and worries. She told me that she could not contact well with her boyfriend as well as before. She looked sad when she talked about how her relationship with her boyfriend that is getting colder. I was furious when I heard that because I felt I was losing against James. I was at a loss for words when I saw Graslina not willing to let go of her boyfriend even though I think James doesn’t have a heart left for her. I knew that this was my time to confess my love to her. I let go of everything and reminded myself not to be so offended when she doesn’t work except for me. Yes, I did make my confession, but the only thing that returned was her bitter rejection. Even though I knew it was all because of James, I also wanted her to be happy, so I just let her be whatever she wants.
Graslina’s View
I hope James is not the one who killed his brother. I believe he wouldn’t do such a thing. But the evidence points to only one person, James, and I’m scared. Even though I’m at home and it’s way past my bedtime, I can’t let go of this worry. The next day around 4:00 P.M. I took him to the hypnotist. The thing was, kept waking up. The only thing I saw was James murmuring “I didn’t do” for the rest of his sleep.
The truth always hides behind the doubt. Even if it seems that uncertainty doesn’t change the whole story, I know that little carelessness can lead one person’s life into a different story. It was way past midnight, but I sat up in my chair. I didn’t have time to sleep. I turned on my phone and searched all the pictures I took with James. Then I finally remembered one thing; James loses his memory at a specific time… when somebody talks about his brother or family. So, he was not making up his lost memory purposely, just because he didn’t have an alibi. It didn’t make a big difference, but I was able to sleep that night. When the sun comes out, I will go straight to Malfoy.
Malfoy’s View
Today in the early morning Graslina came to my home. She seemed like she wants some help from me, but I said I was busy. One thing I told her was about the bad relationship between the two twins. I was surprised when she already knew the information. I explained to her that I’d known this information since I was in 12th grade. I once went to James’s house for a project, and I asked him about his resemblance to his after I saw his family picture. After that, he didn’t talk to me for a while. I encouraged her to believe that James is a criminal.
Graslina’s View
Today at lunchtime, I went to the submitter’s neighbor to search for more clues, and to secure a witness, because when I went again to James’s mother (who is the submitter), she didn’t know anything further about James nor his brother. The only thing I gained from her neighbor was that James was with the other girl recently. Some said James and some said his brother. I believe it wasn’t James because even though I am not sure he still lives near our office, he doesn’t like his mom meaning he doesn’t want to be in the same village.
After lunchtime, I met Malfoy. Since I am a professional detective, I used a recorder to record the conversations.
“Malfoy, do you think James is the criminal?"
“Yes. As I said before, he hates his brother.”
“On that day in the morning when James’s brother died, did you see James’s brother?”
“No.” Suddenly, I thought of the news I saw on the day before the case was submitted. The news was about twins making crimes and putting the guilt on their brother.
“Was James’s brother with the girl?”
“No. he was not”
“How can you know that he wasn’t with anyone when you didn’t see him in the first place?”
I finally went back to my office and started writing down all the stuff that I’d discovered. And I concluded that James’s brother was dead because of Malfoy. Why? It is a long reason and let me explain it. Malfoy’s only enemy was James. Malfoy was mad that James doesn’t care about his girlfriend, or me. When he was passing by, he met James’s brother with his girlfriend. However, Malfoy thought he was James. That’s why Malfoy killed him; he wasn’t able to press down all the anger that suddenly drove him crazy. Maybe his first intention was not murder, but an accident might have happened. After he was murdered, Malfoy knew that he killed the wrong person. However, since Malfoy knew the bad relationship between the twins, he put all the guilt on James.
Tomorrow Morning
Graslina was sitting at her desk, drinking coffee. Then, she saw her boyfriend coming in.
“I don’t know what to say. Thank you so much, and please forgive me for all the stuff that I did before. I am so sorry.” It was the first thing that he said.
“I understand. I felt relieved when I found out that you weren’t a criminal. It was the first case that I felt so happy for solving even though I lived my whole life as a detective. Because of this case, I was finally promoted! Well, from now on, you have to listen to me.”
“Yes, whatever you say.”
“Now, I want you to clean up my room, bring me some more coffee, and…”
“And?”
“And say that you love me."
"I love you- with all of my heart.”
Writer: Chelsie Song
