“I am here. Sorry for being late. I had an emergency meeting,” Missy apologized to her group of friends. “You are a busy woman,” Lynn stated from the end of the table. “We understand.” It was a gathering of eight friends with the friendship of twenty years. These group of friends had seen success, failure, love, wedding, birth, divorce and death. Their friendship was strong that Missy couldn’t help but feel glad to be a part of it. Everyone had different priorities and responsibilities but everyone attended the gathering twice a year. “So what did I miss?” Missy asked Cole. “Nothing much really,” Cole replied.
“There was some sort of suggestion earlier on.” “Really? What did all of you talk about?” “Somebody, who I won’t name suggested those who are single in the group should date each other,” Cole broke into a smile as he said that. “Must be Hali’s or Mike’s idea,” Missy guessed. Cole nodded. “Just because it worked for them, doesn’t mean it will work for others.” “Are you sure now?” Cole winked at Missy. “Yes.
” There had been times when many thought Missy and Cole would end up together. Since their teenage years, they were close and even as an adult, Cole was on Missy’s speed dial. Should she be in trouble, she would reach out to Cole. In fact they spent a little bit more time together especially during weekends without the rest of their friends. Perhaps they wanted to be together as they never thought of dating others. Maybe they were just scared. “I have a favour to ask you,” Missy said in order to change the topic. “What?” “My colleague gave me a ride here as my car is in the workshop,” Missy explained. “Can you give me a ride home?” “Yeah, sure but,” Cole checked his watch and continued, “We will have to leave in ten minutes.” “Ten minutes? I have not eaten,” Missy pointed out. “The food here is to die for, so I heard.”
“If you want, I can take you home,” Gerard volunteered as he was eavesdropping. “No, that’s okay,” Missy shook her head. “I am sure we will come here again.” Exactly ten minutes later, Missy got in Cole’s car which smelled like jasmine. There were many memories in his car ranging from the first time he drove, the first time she drove and the many late nights spent in the car. Her stomach growled when Cole reversed his car and he laughed at that sound. “I’ll take you someplace nice to eat,” Cole started.
“But you said you needed to be home. I can just cook something at home.” “I lied to get out of there,” Cole confessed. “We will go for dinner now.” They talked about work and family on the way to the restaurant Cole picked out. The road was oddly quiet perhaps because it was a weekday. They were close to reaching the restaurant when Cole spotted a police patrol car. It drove up next to them for two seconds before the siren came on, followed by the policeman instructing him to stop the car. “Get out of the car with your hands up,” the police called out as he approached the vehicle. Cole got out slowly and stopped when the police said, “Not you. The woman next to you.” Missy was confused but she followed what was told. She got out with her hands up. A policewoman walked towards her with her gun pointed at Missy. She searched Missy and it didn’t take long for her to feel the cold metal being tightened around her wrist.
“You are under arrest for murder,” the policewoman informed her before whisking her away into the car. “I didn’t murder anyone. You have the wrong person,” Missy stated, fear in her eyes. Cole looked shocked. “Cole, this is a mistake.”
Missy couldn’t remember much from the arrest. She knew she didn’t commit any murder because she wasn’t capable of doing so. When she was brought into a small and empty interrogation room, she was going to explain that the police caught the wrong person. When she was about to do so, the young police showed her a CCTV footage of her attacking another woman. “That is not me,” she said again.
“You have the wrong person.” “That is what you keep saying,” he said. “Watch it again. It is you. You killed that woman. She has children waiting for her at home.” Although it was a violent crime, Missy had her eyes fixed on the footage for more than five times. It was then she saw it. “This woman isn’t me because in this footage she has a new tattoo based on the swelling around it.” “You could have removed it or cover it up,” the police argued.
“I can’t have tattoos because I am allergic to its ink,” Missy stated. “I can give you my past tattoo artist and he can verify this.” Within less than two hours, Missy was released and the actual murderer was caught. They met for a brief moment and Missy was shocked to see someone who looked like her. Oddly enough, they had the same name and even the same date of birth. Carina Lim bears different messages through her fiction. These messages could be useful in life. She can be contacted at mermaidgal03@ yahoo.com
