Intense Cold

大寒 [7] / [13]

"We couldn't find you for over a day. I thought at first you had attended a New Year's party or something, but then I made the connection that perhaps you might have had an accident. So I figured I'd check the hospital."

“New year?”

He spoke vacantly. The year had changed so much already. She saw that he was about to try and get out of bed, so she held up her hand to stop him.

"No, you stay in bed and rest. The doctor said your palm injury, thankfully, was not very severe. But they need to remain bandaged for awhile. And you cannot be discharged for some time either since you were poisoned. And when the doctors release you, I'll come pick you up and take you home. You don't need to come into the office.”

Alexander shut his mouth again. He remembered the extreme nausea he felt when he saw the mummy. It was obvious that Sarah poisoned his wine, he thought.

“Was someone trying to kill you? The marks on your palms are clearly from self-defense. You were trying to protect yourself from a sharp object, probably a knife?”

she asked.

“It was.”

“Oh, my goodness.”

She stared at him.

“We should start investigating this as an attempted murder case,”

and she added, “When you feel up to aiding in the investigation.”

Alexander closed his eyes, thinking. He felt his hair standing on end with terror at the thought of that lunatic woman roaming the streets, combing the city for new victims. At any rate, the investigation could begin with his first statement.

“I'm ready when you are,”

he said.

Cynthia nodded and took out a portable recorder from her handbag.

"I don't want to make you give your statement more than once, so I think recording what you say would be helpful and prevent you from having to state this again and again unnecessarily. Do you agree to be recorded?"

“Agree,”

he said.

Cynthia turned on the device, and started to record as he started to explain what happened. Alexander walked Cynthia through whole sequence of events, from when he first met Sarah to that last, horrifying day, making sure to cut out that bit about them having sex. He just didn't want Cynthia to know about his reckless behavior for some reason.

So he made it seem as if he visited Sarah's home by chance and happened to sleep over, as a friend, to save him the trouble of going home after a night of drinking. But he did tell her in detail about the man's half decayed body in the bed, the knife Sarah held, and the terrible symptoms that afflicted him exactly in the moment Sarah tried to stab him with the knife . . .

He told her everything he could remember to the best of his ability. He still felt nauseated while he said all this. Cynthia saw his face getting paler and paler, so she stopped him from speaking further, calling the doctor right away.