Destiny's POV:
I was awakened by a phone call, I reached for my phone on the bedside table, I swiped right on the screen and said "This better be good." I said to the other person on the line
"Destiny, we've got a murder victim and we badly need your help. We need you back in the force." the voice said hastily, it snapped me from my sleep
"Brian, you know I can't do this anymore. I'm happy to be in my own field of expertise."
"I know man, but damn, we need your expertise with these psychos! We need help, from the looks of this victim, we're looking into a possible psychotic killing, we can't do this without you man. Please, I beg you to reconsider."
"Brian, that's final. I'm better off here at the mental institution. I have the time to help you though with other things, just not coming back to the force." I said firmly,
I heard Brian sighed in defeat on the other line, a moment of silence before he finally says "Man, thank you for agreeing to help, I'll settle for that. Now can you come down, I'm at Willow Street, in the scene of the crime."
"Give me 20 minutes man."
"Alright, I'll see you." and then the line clicked off,
Brian is my best friend since childhood, we've went through life together, even joined the police force together, we were assigned to the murder and homicide division, but last year, I decided to leave the force as a Forensic Psychiatrist and be a 'Normal' Psychiatrist if you can call it that.
I got up from bed and put on my shirt, pants and jacket, before slipping on my sneakers. I drove to Willow Street, getting myself ready for the gruesome scene that I was about to see, after 10 minutes of driving, I've reached the street and saw the scene of the crime, Patrol Cars everywhere and a police cordon already in place. I went over the cordon, Police recognized me and smiled, waving the new members of the force to let me in, I saw Brian standing near the body, looking at the victim and trying to make sense out of this senseless act. I walked towards him, he glanced at me and I've seen the sign of relief on his face upon seeing me, he took a few steps towards me and said
"Hey, thank you for doing this for me."
"Anytime man, you don't really have to thank me."
I smiled at him as we walked towards the body, I stood in front of the body and looked at the gruesome state of the victim, I laughed at the quirky artwork the killer left, I found that humorous and amusing, although I have the feeling it is inappropriate to be even amused,
I started to ask Brian "So what's his background?"
I said curiously, still looking over the gruesome state of the victim's body and again that quirky artwork left by the killer.
"He's married with a kid, had always been a womanizer, his wife is aware of his infidelity, just very recently his wife had caught him cheating again."
"What a douche, I guess he deserves this."
I said obviously annoyed
"Bro, no matter if he deserved it, there's a law we should all follow, nobody deserves to be brutally murdered and chopped to death regardless of the severity of what they've done Destiny, you know that."
"Easy bro, I was just saying, douchebags like him had it coming."
I looked at the body again, this time looking more closely at the victim, something inside of me tells me I know who this guy is from somewhere, I just couldn't quite figure out who he is, I put it off and continued to speak with Brian who is obviously perplexed about this incident
"Bro, we're going to get to the bottom of this, for the meantime, I need some records pulled, his background and such, aside from the identified infidelity angle, are there any other angles we're looking at?"
"All right I'll have them pulled for you."
"Now, can we at least get coffee, you owe me a cup for dragging me along this time of the night."
"Sure, let me just fix a couple of things and we'll be on our way."
"Alright, I'll wait outside."
I started walking back to my car, pondering about the victim and the circumstances surrounding this murder, my mind started to connect some of the initial details that were given to me, the victim looked familiar to me but I wasn't quite sure where I'd met or seen him.
I was broken out of my reverie when Brian approached and started to speak
"Hey, sorry I took a long time, you ready bro?" I snapped out of my thoughts and I smiled at him and nodded
"Yeah you're good bro." we both got into the car and fastened our seat belts, I drove us to the nearest coffee shop, the whole duration of the drive was unusually silent,
Brian took notice and said "You seem to be very silent today, what's the matter bro?"
"Huh?" I said confused then I realized that I have been silent and my mind wandered off to Eve, seeing her yesterday was not something I expected
"Sorry Bro, I'm all right, you don't need to be worried about me, I've seen Eve yesterday and she's not in good shape."
"Eve? Our college's queen bee? Eve Jimenez the girl you liked and humiliated you in front of her friends? That Eve?"
"Yes, that Eve." I answered
"Wow, it's been too long, what do you mean she's not in good shape?"
"You remember Shane?" I asked Brian
"Yeah, Eve's Best Friend, what does she have to do with Eve not being in good shape?"
"Well, I saw Eve yesterday, crying outside the asylum I work for, I approached her not really expecting it was her, I was stunned too, I asked who she was visiting and apparently, Shane is one of our patients in the institution, it was noticeable that Eve was deeply affected by what happened to Shane."
"And?" Brian responded
"She does not remember who I am, I took her out to dinner last night."
"What?!"
"I took her out to dinner." I repeated myself, Brian answered
"I heard you the first time man, what the fuck were you thinking?! That's Eve Jimenez, the girl who crushed your heart to pieces and humiliated you, God I can't believe you bro!"
he said in defeat "Brian, I need to do this, you know I have my own motives."
"Yes and it's immature." he huffed and I could not help but laugh at his reaction and
"Oh that's right, laugh!"
"Hey, settle down buddy, I'm not going to put myself in trouble, trust me Brian."
he shrugged and kept silent for a few moments until we've reached a diner, we found a spot to park on and we got down from the car. We both walked towards the diner's entrance in silence and I hated the silence between us we found a seat and ordered coffee, Brian stared at me for a few moments before finally breaking the silence between us
"Look, I'm just concerned and I don't think it's good for you to be around her, what if you get hurt and humiliated again?"
"Brian, I'm sure she's already changed for the better and besides, I'm going to be careful, I refuse to be led on and to be gullible, I'm not that person anymore."
"Okay, you're all grown up, I understand, no matter what happens though, I'll be here for you bro."
He shook his head and laughed, I pulled over a parking spot and we walked towards the door, we sat down at a booth, the wait staff stood smiling at us both and said
"You boys had a rough night huh?"
Brian and I nodded "So what can I get you boys?" she waited for our orders,
Brian looked over at me and smiled "I'll have the Bacon and Eggs Platter and a cup of coffee."
"I'll have Chocolate Chip Pancakes and a cup of coffee please."
I smiled at her and she did too
"Anything else boys?"
"That's everything." Brian answered I nodded in agreement, she smiled and sashayed back to the kitchen
"So, how did the dinner go?"
"It was good, she's still lovely and approachable. In fact when we were having dinner a random guy from another table bought us a platter of dimsum, she was the usual accommodating woman that she is. For some odd reason, she couldn't remember who I was and seeing her cry, honestly made my heart break to pieces."
"So that brought familiar feelings? Did it?"
"Brian, you know these feelings never went away, I love Eve, always have and always will. Enough about this, what do you know about this victim so far?"
I changed the topic, wanting to escape the grilling I ought to get from Brian,
"Well, aside from the guy being a womanizer, he's a big shot App Developer, you ever heard of the LightsOn App Developer?" He asks me and proceeded to whip his phone out, he shows me this App on his phone
"That is one of his works."
"Ok cool, what does it do?" I stared at the app, touching buttons and stuff
"It actually filters your messages, it hides and locks messages that are meant for your access only, you can access the messages by answering a secret question you set up and drawing a lock pattern or typing a secured password. Get this, additional features that require payment are Text Message feature enhancements such as associating a word you type to a specific phone number, say you type the word Babe, even if you're sending it to someone else, as long as it was not the assigned phone number you won't be able to send that message, it also allows you to schedule a specific canned message to be sent to numbers you assign."
"Oh my God, that sounds like a womanizer's 'Command Center'. Clever."
I laughed at the thought
"I know, that was my first thought." we both laughed, the wait staff emerged from the counter with our cups of coffee
"Here you go boys." she said setting down our cups of coffee on our table.
Brian and I thanked her and we both sipped coffee, Brian continued talking
"This app is the most downloaded from the App store, proving that there are a lot of cheaters out there."
he laughed once again at the thought and I chuckled as well
"Explain why you have the app?" eyebrows raised towards him
"Oh hell no, not what you think Bro, I use it for work, so that I do not accidentally send sensitive information to anyone, so that Carrie can just browse through my phone and I do not have to worry about information leaking." He smiled sheepishly
A few more moments and I saw the waitress emerging from the counter again this time with our food, I smiled at her, thankful as I am beginning to feel my stomach rumbling from hunger.
She offered a smile as she sexily walked towards our table, Brian followed my eyes and smiled, he shook his head at me and I said
"What?!"
"Nothing, it's just funny to see these women literally stripping in front of you and you don't even have the time to notice them or to be more precise, your heart is still locked on Eve."
I smiled sheepishly
"Eve is my greatest love as much as she is my greatest failure, I don't understand it either but I'm just drawn to her, try as I may, I can't seem to quit her."
Brian shook his head once more "Always the poetic one." the waitress set down our plates
"Enjoy your meal boys." she said and walked away to let us enjoy our meal.
Brian and I started to dig in, both silent and enjoying the food we ordered, my mind suddenly played a flashback of last night's dinner, I froze when I realized I knew why this murder victim was familiar.