Proofreader/Editor: Itane
***
When he went back to the town and visited Mrs. Rochester’s house, the door was opened. While slowly looking around the quiet house, Jude took out his phone and asked to talk to Mrs. Rochester. Soon there was a mid-age woman on the phone, “Hello?” Her voice was full of breakdown and fear. Jude’s voice was very calm.
“Um, Mrs. Rochester? You know the cookies that you gave it to us? Was there any weird thing about it?”
[….Weird, thing? Not sure, I just made it like usual…. I was actually going to give it to Marsha’s house, but you guys came, so I gave it to you guys.]
“Is that so? Then was there a person helped you in the kitchen recently?”
[Excuse me, young detective. We are in very good terms to each other in our town. There is always a person coming for help. Marsha came, Melvin’s wife, and Mrs. Sarkozy even came too.]
“Who was the last person to come?”
[The last….? I’m not sure, all of them come by frequently….. Wait a minute. Was it Marsha or Mrs. Sarkozy….. Ahh, Mrs. Sarkozy came a night before you guys came to help me cook chicken breast. During lunch time, I went to Marsha’s house.]
“After that, do you have any other food that you made except for the cookies you baked for us?”
Over the phone, the lady repeated, “Mm…” like she’s confused. Was it because she could not tell why Jude was asking this question?
[After you guys left, I did bake some scones separately for myself, but I was fine….. But why? Do you think I put the poison in the cookies?]
“Ma’am, think carefully. The ingredients that go in the bread and cookie are similar. Was there something especially you took out while making the scones? Do you remember?”
There was a short pause. While looking through every single cabinet, Jude waited for the answer. After looking inside all of the cabinets, Jude was touching each one of the spices on the counter, there was a little bit of surprise in the voice.
[Now that I remember…. I’m on a diet right now….. so I made it without sugar. That’s right, I did that. I made it without sugar.]
His hand stopped at the sugar container. Jude smiled.
“Really? Thank you. I’ll bring you a good news soon so prepare for your diet plan. Ah, and don’t get scared of those people’s attitude towards you. That’s all their jobs. Thank you for the cookies. I’ll see you later.”
Jude ignored the voice coming from the other side, from his colleague detective or his boss, “What, Jude, what are you….!” and closed the lid happily. After looking around the sugar container, he put that in his pocket and came out from the house.
For a short time he thought about the two kinds of possibilities, either this is still a dangerous material or not anymore, and shook his head. There isn’t any testing kit, so there is one thing he could do. There was a pigeon on the ground, and Jude poured some of the white powder in the sugar container out. The pigeon started to peck on the pile of white powder, and Jude just observed the bird.
A moment later, the pigeon trembled and froze on the ground. Its legs lost its power, and the body was trembling and the eyes were rolling away. The sound of a bird in pain echoed in the air, and when the flapping wings stopped, the pigeon froze completely and didn’t move. When Jude quietly looked at the scene and lifted up his head, he was little surprised. From not too far away, a young daughter of Rice family was standing there. She looked at the pigeon’s death with her eyes wide opened.
Jude felt perplexed and thought about an excuse to tell her, but the child asked Jude with a sad face.
“Did it go to heaven?”
“Huh? Ah, yes, probably….”
“But it looked painful when it was dying……”
“Mm, it was probably in pain. But you, where is your older brother?”
“He went out with his friends, so I’m playing by myself.”
I’m not too good with children. I felt a little difficult and scratched back of my head, but Anne murmured.
“…..He said going to heaven, is a good thing…… Mr. Melvin told me….. Just like Mr. Sarkozy, Jane and Grandpa are going to a good place…….”
“Yes……. Wait, Mr. Sarkozy?”
“Yes. Mrs. Sarkozy’s husband. He passed away not so long ago. He went fishing with her but fell off the boat. They said that the water was too deep, and that it took them a long time to find his body. By that time, fish had already eaten most of the……”
Anne frowned like she thought of something horrible and soon quietly sighed. When I first met this child, she said, “It’s true! Everyone said Mrs. Sarkozy’s….” She was about to say everyone said Mrs. Sarkozy’s husband went to heaven. I nodded my head slightly, but Anne said sadly with slightly slurred words.
“……Mrs. Sarkozy, called our family to give food to a lot of times…. She frequently invited me and my Oppa, Jane and Grandpa, and Mom and Dad. I go there to eat snacks sometimes.”
“Ahh, okay.”
“Jane too, went to Mrs. Sarkozy’s house to drink tea…… I wonder where she went after she came out from there.”
That was like slowly becoming more assured. Without getting excited, Jude asked Anne quietly.
“When Jane disappeared, did you see Jane going inside Mrs. Sarkozy’s house after school?”
“Yes. She did that often.”
“Did you see her coming out?”
“No, I…. soon…. hm….. went to play with Matilda. But why? Isn’t it obvious that you come out when you go in?”
There were lots of things not obvious especially in my job, I see that a lot. I just murmured inside my head and closed my mouth, but Anne smiled brightly and raised her hand.
“Ah, Mrs. Sarkozy!”
Jude turned his body. From a step just inside the door, a lady with light brown hair with slightly gray hair quietly smiled gently and waved her hand. Because that smile was neither of sadness or happiness, Jude greeted her with an indifferent face. When he followed her eyes, there was a dead pigeon and white powder on the ground. When he looked at her again, Mrs. Sarkozy had a mysterious smile on her face and politely talked to Jude.
“-Came again, detective. Would you like some tea?”
“-I have some good tea came in recently. I was thinking of giving some to Marsha’s house.”
“…..Ah, yes.”
“It was really hard to get it. But I get really happy seeing all those black teas.”
“Ma’am.”
“I’m doing some useless collecting. I don’t even have a husband to drink it with……”
“M-a’-a-m.”
When I called her with a listless voice, a middle-aged lady with a gentle face pouring tea in a white china tea cup looked at me with a light smile.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s not what’s wrong. Let’s end this fast. I don’t feel like laughing and playing along with you even though you know everything. Here, I kindly brought a recorder. Now confess.”
“What confession.”
Jude made an “Ahhhh-“ sound and roughly messed up back of his hair. He had a face like he got a month worth of homework at once from a teacher with a nasty personality. He didn’t even look at the teacup in front of him and pulled his hair and opened his mouth like he’s annoyed.
“Let’s don’t do this. You inwardly wanted us to find out. The fact that you didn’t clean up the sugar container is like telling people you want them to notice you. You did that because you were done and ready to confess. I honestly didn’t think that the sugar container would be there. I just expected some little left over powder, but you didn’t clean it up at all. That’s obvious. So, confess. I’m tired too, and I don’t really have a special goodwill towards you. I’m really tired because I had to drive, something that I usually don’t do, because you hurt my partner."
“……Is that how it works?”
Her smile didn’t disappear. The middle-aged, petite woman who put her gray streaked hair up nicely closed her eyes, and started smelling the nice scent from the tea cup. I don’t have a noble side of me to sympathize with her hobby of enjoying teas. I looked at her a little bored, but soon the lady opened her eyes and put down the teacup. The silence continued a little bit more.
“First, I think I should thank you.”
“Thank me for what? Thanking me for catching you?”
“Yes.”
This is a fresh answer. It wasn’t like I didn’t expect it at all, but still I never had chance to hear this kind of thing from a criminal, so my body got surprised first. I had my head little bit tilted, but Mrs. Sarkozy kindly looked at Jude and continued on.
“I worried if you guys were bad detectives. I wanted you guys to find out I’m the criminal no matter what. This isn’t because of some kind of heroic sense. It’s because I’m even afraid of myself. I don’t even know how far I can go.”
“Why did you do it?”
“I lost my mother when I was little. My father who was a drug addict stabbed my mother in an alley and ran away. That was when I was nine.”
Because of the sudden story from the past, Jude quietly closed his mouth. She just rubbed the tip of the teacup and continued calmly. Her tone of voice was like she was reading a fairytale.
“No one helped me. I ran out to the big street and screamed for help, but people who looked out the windows and people who walked pass the street, no one came to help me. I don’t plan to criticize them. I don’t think they ignored me with just cold indifference. You know the famous incident long time ago, detective? Long time ago, in an apartment in New York, thirty-eight residents just looked out the window with their lights on while a woman named Genovese got murdered, and her dead body got raped. That big incident where no one reported. Mine was similar. They weren’t evil. It was more like avoiding a responsibility and dilemma. Another person will do it, what if it’s just a prank? What if I get in danger? They probably thought many similar things. I don’t think it was their fault.”
She stopped for a second and put both of her hands on her knees. The smile that was constantly kept on her face was slightly shaking.
“But that incident gave me a big trauma for sure.”
“……Ah, I see.”
“It was from then that’s when I started to feel a little weird. I began to like to play with fire when my heart was cold. When I saw a fire devour other items, I felt at peace and happy, like being addicted to drugs. Until then, I didn’t think that I was that weird. Kids play with fire all the time. But when I first imagined myself making my beloved orphanage director drink Clorox, I realized that I’m weird. It was an impulse that I couldn’t forget.”
An impulse. That’s a difficult word. Jude crossed his arms and leaned on the chair. It is not recommended to stay in crouched position while listening to a story that’s going to be long.
Her story continued.
“While I was growing up, that impulse got stronger. And as I got older, I had lots of chances to interact with toxins. Even if it’s a dangerous toxin, if you try a little bit hard, you can find out where to get it. The knowledge is exposed in pretty dangerous ways. I absorbed information quickly and got totally hooked on ways of dying.”
In her quiet calm voice, there was a flame that I can’t tell what color it was. But I was sure that it wasn’t a normal light, but the lady’s action was very controlled.
“There are many killing methods. Shooting with a gun, slashing with a knife, and recently what Alvin Johns did, torturing. Hanging, beheading, and countless more. Humans know countless ways to wipe out their own kind. But amongst those. The thing I got most hooked on, was poisoning. There are many kinds of poisons. Mixing ways, concentration, and differently manufactured poisons give all different varieties of symptoms. Slowly or quickly. Everything was able to happen by my own hand.”
“For your impulse, is that why you put your hands on Rice Family and Mrs. Rochester?”
Just like somebody who’s seeing something moving in the hand, Mrs. Sarkozy who was looking at her hands with her eyes wide opened, raised her head at Jude’s question and smiled. It wasn’t only a bright smile, but there was some good emotion in it.
“Even though I lived in a quiet place, the impulse did not let go of me. I think you know where the start of the first impulse was.”
“Ah, it’s your husband.”
He said it insincerely, and her smile got a little lighter. Her eyes were fixed into many frames on the country style wallpaper that had the couple’s pictures in it. A man who’s smiling brightly, and a woman smiling brightly next to him. There was no doubt of happiness in those memories. She smiled.
“I was happy. Roy did so well to me. He didn’t know my impulse until his death…… He treated me like a flower in a greenhouse. But I couldn’t stop myself from spreading poison in my husband’s lunch. It felt like a magma looking for a place to explode. I felt like I would be destroyed if I held it in longer. I wasn’t in my right mind.”
“Aha. Like a drug.”
“Yes, like a drug. I send my husband away like that, but instead of being sad, I felt that impulse was smiling at how it found a place to be released. From then on, the magma came out without stopping. I was able to hold it in for a short time, but that impulse came back again. Thanks to my husband who worked in manufacturing, there were many toxins in the house I could use. Of course there are some things I personally collected myself. The cards in my hand was overflowing, and I couldn’t stand not showing my cards to people.”
“So, is that why you called the Grandpa and Jane like usual and put poison in their foods?”
The lady put her head down little bit and nodded. Her face was little dark, but there was no trace of regret or fear. She closed her eyes and murmured some kind of a prayer and carefully drank the hot tea and opened her mouth towards Jude.
“I’m not planning to think it was right to kill those two neighbors. That’s why I left my evidence like that too. When I went to Mrs. Rochester’s house to switch the sugar with the arsenic sugar, I wasn’t planning to get that back. I thought I would get caught if Mrs. Rochester died. I didn't think they won't able to catch the killer before the whole town was dead. Since I can’t press down my impulse anymore, I didn’t even know what I’m going to do myself. I knew if I had a chance to put poison in the water supply, I would do it without any hesitation. And I knew I would lay my hands on people who are close to me first like Roy. I was afraid of that.”
“You are saying you love them, but you need to kill them?”
“Detective. That can’t be pressed down. I’m going to do this until I die. I know that better than anybody else. If people I can kill exist near me, I will start with easy targets. Like people who trust me and don’t suspect me. It’s not because I hate them. It’s like an instinct to me. It’s like an addiction to gambling. You can never stop. That’s why I wanted you to find me.”
“…...Because of the way you told me this, you look way nicer than someone I know. This is a very tricky situation.”
He sighed insincerely and looked at Mrs. Sarkozy who had her hand on her chest. Her desperate face was very new to him.
“So, where did you hide the bodies?”
“It’s at the basement freezer. It’s usually used for storing big pieces of meat, but it was a perfect place to hide the body in plastic wrap. I don’t think it have started to rot that badly.”
“Ok, nice job.”
Click, Jude pressed the stop button on the recorder. Mrs. Sarkozy didn’t look that different than when she first started to tell the story and calmly lifted up the cooled down china teacup. Unlike her calm face, her hand was little shaking. Is it because she feels the futility that everything has ended, or because she confessed and felt complicated. Or because of something else?
Jude felt that something was weird. He put the recorder in his pocket and tilted his head.
“Do you have more thing to say?”
“…..Detective, I’m sorry.”
“Huh? What are you talking about? Why suddenly?”
“I held you with my unnecessary long story. I even made a ruckus trying to give you some tea.”
Well, I don’t care because it’s better to have confession long and detail? And I didn’t even touch the tea? –Jude was trying to say that, but felt something was strange and frowned. There is no use of apologizing for something that’s not worth to apologize. She’s apologizing because she did something that she had to apologize for.
“……Ma’am, perhaps……. Somebody else…..”
“I’m sorry. But it was the last chance that I can fancily lit up my impulse. It was like a last small festival before I get caught by you… I won’t ask you to understand, but I had to drag some time.”
Jude stood up hastily. While putting his hand on both the handcuff and gun, Jude asked with a little annoyed face.
“Who is it?”
“It’s no use if you go right now. I know well that Marsha’s tea time is around five since I lived as her neighbor for over ten years. Always around that time, she boils peppermint tea and leaves it until it cools down a little bit, and she has a habit of drinking it a little fast. So…… I asked a part-timer who works in their house to walk the dog. I told him that my cup changed with hers while eating a meal last time, so without telling her to switch the cups. I asked him to put this cup on her table, and since I have her cup. A cup with aconite poison…. I got Marsha’s cup from him and came back…. It’s the cup I’m using right now. It’s probably too late. The effect takes at once. Faster like Marsha who drinks fast.”
Jude stared at that calm look and sighed deeply.
“Why did you confess? You said you were afraid of killing beloved ones.”
“I’m sorry. But I wanted to finish this and get caught. More than a human….. the thing that controlled me strongly was that impulse.”
“Was that a secondary problem….. Haaa, Goodness. I’m gonna get beat up by the chief again if he finds out.”
“I’m sorry, detective. With Marsha being last, soon…..!”
When the lady suddenly opened her mouth wide, Jude didn’t realized the situation right away. But when her pupils were unstable and her teacup fell from her hand and broke, Jude quickly approached to her. Her breath was hitched. Her body on the chair was trembling. He tried to make her lie down, the arm he touched was frozen. There wasn’t even a scream.
“Ma’am, what’s wrong suddenly, Ma’am! Are you sick?”
“No, wa…… why…. Why….. this…… I……. to Marsha….!”
She looked extremely in pain, but she didn’t die right away. Jude’s wrist that quickly took out and dialed 911, he was strongly grabbed by a floundering hand. At the sound of breath coming out there were clear words coming out occasionally, so Jude paid close attention to it.
“…….That………..that…..that person….. That person, that, that, per, son, did……!”
When he understood the words, there was some kind of a small spark that flashed in his head. Jude became blank like there was a sudden lightening in the middle of the night, and that made him able to see the bright surroundings with his eyes.
Until the sound of ambulance from far away rang, Jude held the lady’s shaking hand without a word.
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Sorry guys~ it took a while with this one. This part is long because I didn't want to cut in middle of it!
And "Murder of Kitty Genovese" actually happened. It's called "Genovese Syndrome" or bystander effect when people don't do anything because they think other people will do it. Pretty scary.
Enjoy!
(Oppa - younger girl calling older boys)
Continue to Part 13
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