Chapter 12
Sophie was reluctant to leave, but she could not convince James to let her stay. She finally accepted his compensation and bought a flight ticket abroad.
Meanwhile, James was shocked by the time of death printed on Colette’s death certificate, which stated she had died 16 days ago. But he saw her a week ago!
He vocalized his questions. The stunned staff member at the morgue quickly explained, “Mr. Zeller, the report is created by the most authoritative coroner in our department. His reports are never wrong.”
When James finally left the police department, each step he took felt hollow. In disbelief, he thought it was impossible to live with a dead person for a whole week.
However, he thought of the unusual rate at which the corpse decomposed on the day he found it. That gave him a new idea. Perhaps, that body was not Colette’s. Or maybe she was dead, but for some reason, she was stuck in this world for a little bit longer.
The idea reminded him of the odd occurrences over the past two weeks. 16 days ago, Colette spammed him with calls, claiming an emergency. But he came home to see Colette seated on the couch, looking fine.
He recalled the calendar on the wall with only seven pages. He stopped receiving messages from Colette since the last day on the calendar.
Besides, he recounted the day he accidentally shoved her onto the ground. When he frantically pulled her up from the floor, her skin felt cold to the touch. She had no pulse.
All the clues pointed to the second possibility.
Something struck him. As he frantically gathered evidence for the incident, he realized that everyone’s memories of Colette from the past week seemed to have been mysteriously erased.
Before Sophie boarded her flight, James approached her to ask about Colette. She responded, Colette? I only met her once. The second time was the day we found her body.”
Then Sophie added, “James, I love you. Can’t you give me another chance?”
James continued to question the guests at Sophie’s birthday party, assuming they would remember Colette from the pool incident.
Alas, those he approached asked him about his engagement to Sophie. At the mention of Colette, all they said was, “Oh, that girl from your house? I haven’t heard of her in a long time. She wasn’t at the birthday party either.”
Even the staff member who assisted Colette in closing her accounts–the one whom James had tasked his assistant to interrogate–stated that he had met Colette in person 22 days ago.
James efforts went to waste, and he dragged himself home. As he stared at the familiar surroundings, he wondered about the discrepancy between his memories and everyone’s memories of Colette.
Why was he the only one who remembered seeing Colette in the past seven days?
He grabbed his phone and was reminded that Colette’s phone was still in his possession. The discovery cheered him up immensely. What if her phone held clues?
He hurried into the study and retrieved her phone from the drawer. The screen lit up with a screensaver of her smiling face. It felt like ages ago.
Her passcode remained the same–his birthday. He unlocked the phone with ease and tapped into the call and text history. He saw nothing but his number.
The latest conversation was from nine days ago the day he promised to have dinner with her. He regretted standing her up due to work. He never thought the day would be farewell.
He remembered that he had not picked up any of her calls. Yet, he saw that he picked up her calls twice–16 days ago and nine days ago.
Sophie was the only person who had access to his phone in the past two days.
Chapter 13
