I was sitting at the black cafe. I had already finished the latte and ham sandwich I had ordered. We had agreed to meet at 3PM, yet Philip still hadn’t shown up. I looked at the clock on the wall. It had just hit 4:30PM. I sighed.

  ‘He isn’t going to show up.’ I thought.

  A waitress came up to me and started to remove my plates. She asked if I wanted a refill. I gave her a small nod and mustered up a smile. I tried to text Philip again. Still nothing. I decided that if he didn’t show up before I had finished my next coffee I would simply leave.

  “Excuse me, are you Redacted?“ A deep, soft voice asked. I looked up and there he was. His long curly hair was tied up with a pink bowtie which was most certainly a look. He was smiling both with his mouth and with his blue eyes. He was wearing a black suit which clashed with his hair quite a bit (especially with the bowtie), yet he was handsome. Really handsome. I tried to speak but all I could manage was a lousy yes. He placed himself on the chair in front of me and ordered a hot chocolate. Something was off though. He acted like Philip had when I first met him but the way he spoke, walked and smiled just felt off. Especially that smile. Too many big words, not the same limp in his left leg, and not the same voice. On the other hand it had been a while and I had been quite drunk last time we met, so I shrugged it off like it was nothing.

  “I don’t like coffee.” He explained with a small smile.

  Wait hadn’t Philip had a cup of coffee when I was at his apartment a few months ago?

  ‘get yourself together’ My brain screamed. It was right. I had to say something or he would be weirded out like everyone else and leave.

  “Sorry I’m late. I had an unexpected meeting.”

  “I uhm…That’s cool. All cool.”

  ‘Really? Cool? How awkward can you be?’ Shut up brain.

  Wait, what was I doing here? Wasn’t I still at the police station? Everything froze around me once again. I felt a shiver going up through my spine. I turned around and almost fell over out of fear. A mask in the dark. A bony hand reached out. It reached my throat and grabbed it. The hand felt cold. I tried to scream but nothing came out. ‘Count to ten and blink three times’ I thought.

  One blink

  Two blinks

  Three blinks

  I was back in the cold cell. They had kept me overnight so I could ‘quote on quote’ think about ‘what I had done’. Which as far as I was concerned was nothing at all. I had no idea what time of day it was. They had at least given me food, though I hadn't really touched it though. Mashed potatoes, an undercooked chicken with a diet coke, which was the only thing I had bothered to touch. If they wanted me to cooperate this wasn’t a very good way of convincing me. I yawned and stretched out like a cat waking up from a nap. That reminded me. My cat was home alone. I hoped that I had given him enough food to last.

  Finally footsteps. Someone was coming and hopefully it was to let me out. I stood up and went to look towards the stairs, my hands closing around the cold bars keeping me away from the outside world. The steps came closer and closer. This was it. They were finally going to realize how stupid this was and they would let me out. But then I saw the one person I had hoped to avoid.

  Miss Detective Mei Cavilot.

  ‘Great. They might as well execute me now if she’s the one I have to talk with.’ I thought.

  “Morning Claire.” She said with a smile. I made a small grunt in response. She was not the person I wanted to speak with right now.

  “Must you be so hostile with me? I’m trying to help you here.”

  “If you wanted to help me you wouldn’t have locked me up here would you?”

  She laughed at my response, “This sadly wasn’t my idea.”

  “If you’re just here to mock me then get it over with.”

  “Now now dear. As much as I would love to just mock you all day, that isn’t the reason I’m here. I have news that might interest you.” She said, patting me on my head. Her smooth hand, gently making contact with my hair. I pulled away.

  “If you have news, maybe tell them instead of touching me without consent.” I wouldn’t let her be in control. Not again.

  “So commanding. But fine. Here’s the deal. Currently you are the main suspect of this case, and I am the only one who believes that you are not the murderer. Now the higher ups want to just arrest you know. Call it a day and avoid doing any work.”

  I was about to say how stupid that was. How it was unfair and that her higher ups could go fuck themselves if that was how they were going to act. But Mei cut me off before I could say anything.

  “But I have convinced them to give you one last chance. Work with me. Help me find the real killer and you will be free to go. You might even make a few bucks out of it. So…What do you say?”

  We stared at each other in silence, the air felt thick and my eyes were starting to become blurry. Help her find a murderer? Put my own life at risk? But if she was telling the truth, which I had no reason to think she wasn’t, there wasn’t any other way out by the looks of it. Once again she had complete control over the situation.

  “If this is truly the only way out…I’ll help you.”

  “Great. Let’s get you out of here shall we?”

  We were once again looking at the little farm house. Philip and I had been together for about 4 months. We had a small apartment but when we found out I was pregnant we had decided to try and find something bigger that was still within our price range (Which wasn’t much). We had been looking for about a month but I always found my way back to the little house on the farm. Raising children, surrounded by animals and the ability to go outside without any danger of cars had always been a dream of mine. A dream Philip supported, with his whole heart.

  “Let’s do it.” He suddenly said,

  “What?” I said removing my head from his soft shoulder and looked up at him. He smiled down at me.

  “Let’s buy the house, while we have the chance.”

  “But…But are you sure?” I knew he was doing this for me. I knew how much he loved the city and even though he supported my dream he would never agree with it.

  “If this is what you want then I think we should do it. Who knows when we will find another place as cheap as this one. If you feel like this is right then we should buy it before it’s too late.”

  I laughed a bit. I couldn’t believe what he was saying.

  “I’m serious.” He said. I swallowed my laughter.

  “I know, I know. It was just unexpected. But if you’re sure, let's do it. If you are willing to put up with me on a farm in the middle of nowhere that is.”

  “You’re the only one I would want to put up with on a farm in the middle of nowhere with.” He said with a smile. He leaned down, his soft lips touching mine. There were no sexual intentions behind the kiss. It was a kiss of love and that was it.

  “Are you having another vision?” A voice said. I opened my eyes. I was sitting in the outside area of a small cafe. In front of me Mei was sitting with her notebook and a pencil in hand. Coffee and bread with butter had been placed in front of us. She was still in her work clothes and I was still in the clothing I had gotten after they took my old clothes as Evidence.

  “Yeah sorry. What was going on again?” It was a genuine question since I had no idea of what had happened in the time I was zoned out.

  “I was about to tell you how this is going to work.” She said, handing me some bread. “First of all. Eat.” I took the bread from her hand, slowly. I wanted to say I wasn’t hungry but my stomach clearly disagreed, letting out a roar that made Mei struggle to keep in a laughter.

  “So.” I said with my mouth full of bread, “How is this gonna work?”

  “Don’t eat with your mouth full. It's rude.” She said, using her napkin to wipe the sticky jelly that had surrounded her mouth away.

  “Now. The way this is going to work is that first you will tell me everything you know about the victim. Afterwards you will go back to living your normal life. You’ll be mostly working alone trying to find out who the murderer is. I will be helping as much as possible but since I work with the police the murderer would suspect something if I was with you. I expect reports every time you find something as well. Do you have any questions.” She took a sip of her coffee. I stared at her blankly for a second.

  “Fuck yes I have questions. You expect me to do this alone?”

  “Not what I said.”

  “Ok, mostly alone. That’s not much better.”

  “You’ll be fine. We will be monitoring you as much as possible. Plus it’s not like you have many other options.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “That’s not a reason though.”

  “Think about it this way.” She said leaning back into her chair. “The killer will most likely expect the police to look into it. They will however not expect a complete stranger, which to their knowledge has no connection with the victim, to look after them.”

  I sighed.

  “Fine. Where do we begin?”

  “We begin at the beginning obviously. Tell me everything you know about the victim.”

  We were sitting at a fancy restaurant, me in a red dress that Philip had gotten me when we first started dating (Though it was a bit tight with children currently growing in my stomach) and Philip in a suit he had bought. We were out celebrating our purchase of a house we had chosen to name The Golden Cornfield. We had been placed at our table and…

  Wait, why did the waiter look familiar? Holy shit was that the dude? It was hard to tell considering he actually looked like a functional human being here, but I was certain it was him.

  “Bill over here.” I yelled. A man I knew all too well came over.

  "Julia hi.” He said.

  Wait a minute? HOLY SHIT! A name. I got a name. Please don’t forget this.

  “You know him?” Philip asked.

  “You must be Philip.” Bill said. “Pleassure to meet you.”

  “Me and Bill have been friends since middle school.” I explained to Philip. Philip gave Bill a smile and they shook hands,

  “Want to join us?” Philip asked. “It’s like I always say. Three is better than two.”

  Bill seemed to like the idea and pulled over a chair.

  “So what are we celebrating?” Bill asked with a smile, as he waved over a waiter.

  “Oh we just bought a house. You know the one at Redacted” Philip said after placing down an order for both of us.

  Bill pulled out an old polaroid camera.

  “It has one use left and I can’t think of a better time to use it” He said with a smile. He took the camera up, making sure it got all three of us in frame.

  “BILL, JULIA AND PHILIP FOREVER!” We all yelled with a smile followed by laughing from both us and those around us.

  A sound came from somewhere. Sounded a bit like…Relax, take it easy. Wait, was my phone ringing? I prayed I was wrong and that it was just what they chose to play at this fancy restaurant for some reason. But I knew that wasn’t the case.

  One blink.

  Two blinks.

  Three blinks.

  Sure enough when I woke up I was on my couch, my phone resting on my stomach and my cat at the end of my feet. I basically dragged my phone everywhere, waiting for any news from Mei. It had been three days since I had shared what I knew with her. No new information or visions. Until now. I knew I had to call her, but first there was another call I had to take care of. There was only one person that had a special ring tone. My dad. I looked down at my phone and sure enough. Incoming call from dad. I looked at it, not sure if I even wanted to pick up. But in the end my finger did make it to the green button and the call got accepted.

  “Hey honey. Been a while. Do you have a second?” He said, his high pitched voice sounding happy.

  “Yeah sure I have time. What’s up.” Pretty obvious lie but my dad had never been great at telling when people lied. He was a bit too trusting in that apartment unlike my mother.

  “Right to the point as always.” He laughed. “In that case I’ll also get right to the point. So Martin is turning 25 two weeks from now and we were thinking about coming to New York for a few weeks. If you want to meet up one of the days your mother would be ecstatic.”

  Fuck. This was the last thing I needed right now. My whole family coming around. Martin just had to pick New York.

  “Uhm I’m actually pretty busy for the next…Three years.” A lie so obvious that even he should be able to pick up on it.

  “Come on Claire. Everyone wants to see you. Especially Lenore. She’s missed you so much. Just at least think about it.”

  “If they wanted to see me they shouldn’t have removed all contact just because Helena asked them to. So sorry but I am busy for however long you’ll be staying. The only one I would even consider seeing for even a second is Lenore.”

  Lenore was my aunt’s adopted daughter. She had been through a lot and before I moved it had always been my job to look after her. Kinda stopped when my whole family broke contact with me though.

  “Look, your mother is sorry for what happened.”

  “If she was sorry she could’ve called me herself. Now if you will excuse me I have work tonight. Goodbye:”

  I hung up and pressed my face into the soft hair of my cat. The only creature who understood me on a deeper level.

  ‘Pull yourself together’ I thought. ‘This is a problem for future you. Right now you have more important fish to fry.’

  I got up, picked up my phone and went to the green contacts app. I scrolled down until I found M. There she was. Miss detective Cavilot as she has insisted I called her. Well I doubt she wanted me to call her both at once but that was her problem. I clicked on her profile and it started to ring.

  beep.

  beep.

  beep.

  “Hello.” Mei’s voice said through the phone. For some reason it felt nice hearing her voice again.

  “Hey, Miss Detective Mei. Just wanted to remind you that I existed.”

  "Haha, very funny. Why are you really calling.” I smiled a bit. Finally triggered her with my teasing, if only slightly.

  “I have some news. You think we could meet up?” I felt awkward asking her to meet up, despite it literally being about a murder.

  “Hmmm I’m busy most of the day. Kinda looking into a murder. Don’t tell anyone else though. It’s top secret.” I rolled my eyes even though she couldn’t see it. “How about tonight?” she asked. I shook my head (Again she couldn’t see it).

  “Can’t. I have work.”

  “Where do you work?”

  “Little bar called The Golden Cornfield. Why?”

  “Ok I’ll see you there at 7. Later.” She said, sounding pretty happy with herself.

  “Wait a minute you can’t just” beep. “Great. She hung up. Can you believe this Carl?” Carl did not answer because he was in fact still a cat. Maybe he couldn’t understand me as well as I thought.

  The clock hit 7. She could arrive any minute. I hadn’t had any visions since I learned The Dude’s and Julia’s names. Not that I complained. Gave me time to make a subject list. Not that it was a long one.

  Claire’s super cool and awesome suspect list to prove her innocence:

  Bill

  Philip

  And that was about it. I wasn’t exactly working with much. But it was better than nothing. Victor came over to me. We usually worked alone, but considering Fridays were usually busy, our boss had been so nice that he let us work two and two. But of course we would still only be paid for one person. “You waiting for someone?” He asked me. “You’ve been staring intensely at the door letting poor me do all the work.” He winked at me. Victor was a nice guy but it was very clear he was interested in me and very clear that I was not interested in him. "Whether I’m waiting for someone or not does not concern you Victor. But if you must know, yes I am waiting for someone.”

  “Well maybe good old Victor can help. I’m willing to help you out, if you help me out.” He gave me a devious smile that made me feel sick. I didn’t like it when he used that smile.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked him, giving him a big I don’t trust you look.

  “You take my night tomorrow. I have something to do. In return I’ll let you talk with your friend all night. I’ll even pay for your drinks.”

  I stared at him blankly. What could possibly be important enough that he would take all of tonight alone. But on the other hand this was a good chance for me and Mei to speak in private, something we really needed. I sighed.

  “Fine. You have yourself a deal.”

  “In that case move out of the bar. No customers behind the cashier.” I took off my work uniform and sat myself across from Victor.

  “So what can I get you?”

  “I’ll just wait till my friends gets here, thank you very much.”

  As soon as I said that, the door to the bar opened and Mei stepped in.

  “Oh great…She’s here.” I muttered. She seemed to have ditched her usual hardcore look for some more civilized clothes. Which for her was apparently a light blue, silky crop top paired with black baggy jeans. I hated to admit it but…She looked really good. I must’ve been blushing or something because as soon as I had that thought Victor decided to open his mouth again.

  “Oh I know that look. Is she your girlfriend?” He said with a small smile.

  “Who is who’s girlfriend?” Mei had decided to come over at the worst possible time.

  “No one, no one, no one. Victor is actually insane. Yeah they dropped him on his head as a baby or something.” I said, feeling the sweat finding its way down my face, parts of the sour body fluid entering my mouth.

  “I see…Anyways, weren't you supposed to be at work?” Mei said, thankfully changing the subject.

  “Well I was kind enough to take her shift so she could do…Well whatever the two of you do.” Victor said, winking at Mei. I sighed.

  “Just hand us some drinks Victor.”

  “Coming right up mam.” Victor turned around and started preparing us some drinks.

  “So…What was that all about? You two have something going or what?” Mei said with a smile, placing her chin on top of her hand.

  “Victor wishes there was something between us. He tried to ask me out three times because that is quote on quote the lucky number.”

  “So why’d you reject him?”

  “Is this really what we should be talking about? Don’t we have more important things to take care of?” I prayed that she would agree and that Victor would just for once shut his mouth.

  “Oh come on we have all night. Just at least tell me why you turned him down. Three times at that.”

  ‘Great.’ I thought. ‘She won’t just let it go.’

  “Well.” Victor said as he returned with our drinks, “It's a bit hard to go out with someone who doesn’t prefer your gender.”

  I once again felt the heat rush to my face. I shot Victor my signature You’re so fucking dead eyes and he hurried out of there. I slowly looked up at Mei. She was covering her mouth with her hand. Fucking great. Victor had ruined my one chance at freedom. I waited intensely at what she was going to say, but instead…She burst out laughing.

  “Holy Shit! You should've seen your face when he said that!” she could barely keep herself together.

  “The fuck is that supposed to mean.” I asked now red with anger instead of embarrassment.

  “Oh please. I’ve known since day one. I’m pretty good at seeing when someone is checking me out. Sorry to disappoint you but I am already taken.”

  “Shut up you.” I muttered.

  “Anyways. I doubt you called me down here just so your coworker could expose you. What happened.”

  I told her what I had learned during my last vision. Everything from them buying their house and the most important parts. Bill and Julia.

  “I see.” She said after a bit, taking a sip of her beer. "Julia, huh?"

  “Julia indeed.” I answered.

  The door opened. Two people came in. A voice I had never heard before and a voice that I knew all too well. That toothless smile, the long hair, the greasy hairy arms and the smell of fish. The feeling of his hands as he had shoved me and the disgusting feeling I had felt when I gave him my number because he had refused to leave. It all came back to me at that one moment. Mei tried to say something to me. Tried to get my attention. I simply shushed her and pointed towards the man in the white t-shirt.

  “That’s Bill.”

  ‘The person you’re trying to reach is not available. If you wish to send a voice mail, press one.’

  Third time I had called him. ‘please pick up Bill.’

  This wasn’t like this. Bill had always been there for me. But he hadn’t contacted me in days now. No call, no messages, no nothing. I prayed that nothing had happened. That Philip hadn’t hurt him…Or worse.