"I'm tired of hiding and want to be free. To locate her body, find the two things missing from me."
"The back of our head kind of looks funny. It's like the top of a pencil," Edward mused idly.
Ed gritted his teeth at the airy way the remark was said," Why are you doing this?"
"Because," his other half chirped," it's fun and it's good for you."
"How is it good for me to be tortured?" he demanded," To be driven insane?"
Edward smiled at the beaten down man in front of him. He looked so tired, so mentally drained that it was hard to fight back a laugh,"I'm trying to show you who you are. How have you not realized that yet?"
He shook his head in disappointment,"Though, to be honest, I'm surprised you haven't figured out this riddle yet. Should I have made it easier?"
"You could start by using proper grammar," Ed shot back bitterly," A period at the end of a sentence is...," his eyes widened as he scanned the paper once more.
"FIND THE TWO THINGS MISSING FROM ME"
"M, period, E, period," he whispered," Oh, God. M.E... medical examiner."
He whipped around to face the imagined being," You didn't!"
Edward grinned," I did."
It was another mad dash to the morgue, this time literally. It was well into the evening now, the precinct was much quiet with officers making their nightly rounds about the city and all other staff members home for the night. The room was empty, much to his relief as he spotted a drawer with a tag attached to the handle. A green question mark taunted him as the slip of paper swayed in the slight breeze from the vents. He pocketed the tag and pulled open the metal door prior to sliding out the large metal tray that held Miss Kringle's body. He sighed in relief and ran a shaky hand through his hair, it was over, he had found her. His respite was short-lived, however, as the door to the morgue began to open. He barely had enough time to slide the body back inside and slam the door shut.
"Ed?"
He gasped, one part in surprise and another in horror, "Oh..."
"What are you doing?" the dark haired woman inquired.
"Dr. Thompkins, hello," Ed rushed out," Uh, I'm just... double-checking notes for a Jane Doe case I'm working."
The Medical Examiner nodded,"Do you need help?"
"No! No, no, no. She's all gone," Edward rolled his eyes," Or she's... I'm sorry, I'm... I'm all done with checking my notes."
"Uh, what notes?" Leslie asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It's all up here," Ed replied with a small laugh," Do you realize that by assigning simple mnemonic devices to case files, you can produce recall capacity equal to that of photographic or even eidetic memory?"
"Ed," the woman sighed," what's going on?"
"Okay," Ed said with a nervous chuckle," Um, truth be told, uh... I was hoping to run into you here. Alone. It's-"
To his surprise, the doctor cut him off," It's about your friend, isn't it? Kylie? That was her name, right?"
Ed nodded, unsure of where this conversation was heading and Dr. Tompkins continued," I'm really sorry about what happened to her. She was a sweet girl, she didn't deserve to go out like that. She wasn't like everyone thought she was."
Sixteen
Start from the beginning
