Short, Light, Free Chapter 123: Daytime Lady Ghost (Part 2) I

The police came to my house three months later.

The police did not say much. They just arrested me as a suspect and took me to the detention center.

I kept asking why they were doing this but they paid no heed to me.

They brought me into the center without handcuffs on, perhaps because I showed no signs of attempting to escape.

In the center, I was locked up in a temporary cell.

The police did not confiscate my mobile phone, and I was kept in there for two hours before a policeman came to get me out.

I was then brought to a small room. This must be the interrogation room.

"Wait in here," the policeman said, gesturing for me to sit on the chair.

I sat down and the policeman closed the door.

It was noon time, but with the door closed, the room was almost pitch black.

Ten minutes pa.s.sed and two police officers entered the room and sat opposite from me.

"Mr. Chalk? 32 years old? Local?"

"Yes. Why have you brought me here? Have I committed a crime?" I asked.

"We're just investigating right now so don't worry. We suspect that you have something to do with a case and we would like to know if you recognize this person here," one officer said as he pulled out a photograph.

A photograph of w.a.n.g Xiaomei.

I kept quiet, but my body started shaking involuntarily.

"Your reaction is very interesting, Mr. Chalk. I suppose, she's not a stranger to you, is she?"

"I know her. What happened? Is she dead? Do you think I killed her?" I asked.

The other officer seemed to be recording the conversation down.

"I've seen many like you," one officer mused. "But it's good that you know her. Next question..."

"Wait, I've yet to finish," I interrupted.

They were taken aback by my disruption.

I pointed at w.a.n.g Xiaomei's photograph. "Isn't this w.a.n.g Xiaomei? Haven't you seen Weibo? She's popular for disguising as a lady ghost and scaring people. Anyone who's been on Weibo would've come across her. When you pulled out that photo, I got chills remembering her ghost makeup. Why are you showing this to me? Was I right? Is she really dead? That was why her last post was about not wanting to play pranks any longer... I wondered why because she was doing so well. I read on the Internet that she committed suicide, but I really didn't believe it."

The police officers exchanged glances and the one doing the recording made some alterations to his notes.

A huge rock was lifted off my shoulder. I knew there was no way for me to act unacquainted with her so that was the only way to explain my nervousness.

"Alright, next question. What were you doing on the third of June at 4 am?"

"Probably the usual, on my way to work. Why?" I asked.

"We've checked with your company and you weren't at work that day. You had someone else take over your s.h.i.+ft. How do you explain this?"

"Oh, now that you mention it, I remember that that was the day my wife called to tell me that her stomach wasn't feeling well so I went back to bring her to the nearest clinic. Acute gastroenteritis, the doctor diagnosed. After that, when she felt a little better, she went back to work, and I stayed home for the rest of the day. I have my wife and the doctor as witnesses."

"Let us have your phone's pa.s.scode. We will check the call history for details."

"Six sixes. I don't think you'll find anything there since it's already September now, and I have the habit of clearing data on my phone every month. My wife does the same as well since we only have a 16GB storage and the phones get laggy at times and clearing the data helps with the speed. I might not have the data you need on my phone, but there should be a copy on my computer."

"What's the location of the clinic you brought her to?"

"White Deer District A, the neighborhood beside mine. My wife felt much better after the consultation so she went to work as usual and I was the only one who applied for leave."

I thought back to the day my wife found the b.l.o.o.d.y plastic bag, gown, and boot lining.

I got down on my knees and came clean with her, swearing that I had gotten rid of all the evidence, only for her to instantly point out numerous loopholes.

It was then that I realized I had been so foolish. In order to conceal the loopholes in my alibi, we came up with an elaborate plan so flawless that it left me flabbergasted.

June 3 was the day I killed w.a.n.g Xiaomei, and it was June 29 when my wife found out about it.

The following day, June 30, I brought my wife to the clinic.

During the consultation, my wife had the doctor press on her tummy, causing him to start having devious thoughts. I then took the opportunity to change the timestamp on his chop from 30th to 3rd.

After stamping the chop on his hand-written medical record, my wife repeated her strategy and lured him into the ward again, giving me time to slot the record under the early June's pile and switch back the timestamp.

We tried this plan for seven times in total, in seven different clinics, before finally succeeding.

"You've lied to us, Mr. Chalk. We've discovered from our monitors that your car was fine when you left home. Please explain the damage that we observed when you drove the car back to your neighborhood on that same morning."

"That was my wife. She has only had her license for about half a year then, but I've always been the one taking her around. That day, because of her tummy ache, she came out in a cab to meet me halfway before we went down to the clinic. On the way there, however, she felt the urge to drive and I let her. She hit the curb shortly after. You can check the driving records if you don't believe me since I don't clear them. It should clearly show that I went back before we headed to the clinic. You can also see the video recording of the accident when my wife slammed onto the curb and some shrubs."

The officer further questioned, "Why didn't you visit the people hospital in the suburbs since you were outside the city?"

"Money issues. Check the driving records, it's all in there."

That was the only thing I could tweak. I just had to adjust the date of the camera before recording. On my day off, I simply recorded the staged events and slotted it on June 3. I pretended to head to work, answer a call and turn around, and stop at a blind spot outside the city to pick up my wife. 

I then let her drive and do an emergency braking somewhere near a corner, before getting down, checking the b.u.mper of the car, and pretending to argue with her over it.

Since the camera could only capture what was in front, it doesn't show the 'damage' from that 'collision'.

"We will investigate further and also ask the doctor at your clinic for a.s.surance. We only zoomed in on you because of what we found out about June 3. We will work responsibly and not let a good man go to jail or a bad man go scot-free. I hope you understand."

"What? Wait. What do you mean? I don't get it. What about June 3? What has it got to do with the girl's death? I'm confused," I lied.

"You're great at acting, aren't you? You're the sneakiest criminal I've ever encountered.

"Acting? You think I was the one who banged the car but s.h.i.+fted the blame to my wife? Check the recording! Or do you think I'm trying to get insurance money? I paid for the repair! I just wanted to save on next year's premium since the dent wasn't severe. Is that wrong?"

I knew I had to act all clueless. They would think that I'm concealing something if I acted as though I was colluding with my wife. The more I talk, the more loopholes would appear.

"Alright then, thank you, Mr. Chalk, for providing us with such useful evidence. I have a few more questions, but in the meantime, you have to wait here for at least two hours because we've invited your wife, too. She's also being interrogated and her answers are different from yours. She's already admitted that you instigated everything."

"What are you talking about?" I exclaimed with faux exasperation. "Can you tell me exactly what I've done?"

"Alright, calm down. We were just checking. Let us carry on with the questions. There's a mobile shop, Vivo, in the city. Did you, or did you not, rent an inflatable mascot costume from there for a day?"