Distance Away (IV)

09:11 P.M.

San Miguel's Hospital. 

June 21st, the year 2018. Thursday. 

Earlier when Zoey, Abbey, Matthew, and Mina got out of the hospital. 

Sammy realized she could sneak inside the emergency room now. She ran over there while her heels click-clacking through the marble tiles. Zoey, Abbey, and Katrina looked over at Matthew and saw that Mina's gone. She halted right in front of the emergency doors and she greeted the doctors who came out from there. 

Sammy opened the door rapidly and took a step inside. She saw the nurses scrambling in and about the traumatic patients that came late at night. 

She saw one patient lying down on the bed with a metal rod stuck in his knee. There was an elderly patient who was suffering from a stroke. Different nurses were shouting, doctors were ordering instructions. 

Sammy looked in and about on different sides. She saw the station where a nurse was talking to a surgeon who was wearing a blue cap and uniform. She ran over there and paused as she overheard the conversation with the surgeon and the nurse.

Sammy asked where the body of Margo Monteverde was to a nurse behind the counter. 

"Where is the patient here named Margo Monteverde, who died earlier?" Sammy asked. 

"Any relationship with the deceased person? We are still waiting for her guardian to come here," the nurse inquired, looking over the clipboard. 

Sammy swallowed and lied. "I am her mother-in-law. I came here to claim her body." 

The nurse nodded, with no emotions crossing her face, and she asked her name. 

"My name is Sammy Carbonel Santos," Sammy mumbled. She tapped her toes up and down impatiently. The nurse finished writing something, and she left the station. She motioned Sammy to follow her to the metal doors with beaming lights inside. It was on the left side of the emergency room. 

Sammy bit her lip as the nurse knocked and opened the metal doors. It screeched through the floor. She greeted the forensic doctor first before signaling to Sammy to go inside. 

Sammy stepped cautiously inside the morgue, and a frigid air enveloped her arms. She shivered a bit as she bowed down to the forensic doctor, who was wearing a surgical mask and gloves.

The nurse went outside rapidly and closed the metal doors. Sammy took a quick look at the confinements of the morgue. She saw three different bodies on the steel and rigorous bed without comforters. A rectangular stone that served as pillows for their heads. Their lifeless bodies draped with ivory blankets. 

The room has only one small window on the far left corner of the room that shone through the adjacent table on it. They have set the air conditioner lower than usual. They froze the bodies, cold enough to touch. For sure, the forensic team will be here shortly. 

"I was doing an autopsy for the three bodies. I am Doctor Cruz," the doctor introduced. He approached her a little as Sammy took a last glance at the bodies. Their feet were parallel and no sign of breathing.

The forensic doctor reached out his hand and introduced himself as Doctor Cruz. Sammy shook his hands and smiled a little. She stared at the three different bodies and wondered where Margo's body was.

"Are you looking for the body of Margo Monteverde, the popular actress?" Doctor Cruz approached the middle bed. Sammy sighed as she glanced over and realized the porcelain white feet were Margo's. Sammy walked through the left side of the bed and the doctor removed the blanket from her lifeless body. 

She inhaled an enormous amount of air. Tears were emerging from her eyes. 

Sammy put her hand over her mouth as she confirmed Margo's dead body. She swallowed constantly, looking down. The forensic doctor covered the naked lower part of her body. The forensic doctor sighed and looked over at Sammy. 

"Margo Monteverde was popular this year. I wished her condolences. Her soul must rest in peace," the doctor mumbled.  Sammy shifted her eyes from the floor to Margo's body. 

"She died because of the inscribed letter on her wrist that damaged her deep nerves. She can't survive it. There was nothing we could do because they had brought her here with a lot of lost blood from her system. If it weren't for that inscription on her wrist. She may be alive right now," the doctor explained. He bowed his head down. Sammy averted her eyes from Margo and to the doctor. 

"Letter? What letter is it that was on her wrist that made her die?" Sammy asked as the tears trickled down her eyes. The doctor pursed his lips and raised the left arm of Margo. It was freezing to the doctor's heated hands, and Sammy observed the letter. 

"X?" Sammy asked, and tilted her head to one side. The tears stopped falling out of her eyes as that letter puzzled her. 

"Her wound penetrated the left lumbar region of her body. It yielded so deep that it damaged the inferior part of her stomach," he elaborated. He showed the inscribed letter on Margo's wrist. 

"The force wielded could be someone that was in a rage with her. Any known person who can do this to her?" the doctor asked her and Sammy looked at him. Sammy shook her head and didn't know who it was that murdered her. 

"She's murdered, ma'am Sammy. And as you're the mother-in-law, take part in Margo's case tomorrow. 

"I will leave you, ma'am Sammy, for you to talk with your daughter-in-law for a few minutes. Say what you want to say to her," the doctor concluded and got out of the morgue while Sammy felt her body gone weak. She scrutinized how beautiful Margo was, and her lips had gone pale now. The bluish and purplish streak of the veins evolved. 

Sammy couldn't control the tears from coming. 

She approached Margo's right side and looked at her arms. She touched the frosted right arm of Margo and adhered to the wound. Nothing with an X initial of their name came to her mind except her son's name. But it was impossible for Xian to do this to her ex-girlfriend and she knew her son wouldn't kill her. 

The deep wound had been a messy reddish line earlier, and the blood inside was now bluish. 

Sammy sighed and got her cell phone out. She captured the deep wound that has the inscription on the letter and she hesitated to call the number. She decided she needed to call her and dialed her number. 

Sammy put her cell phone to her ear and said, "You need to see this, Aubrey. I need you to come over here." 

Sammy stared at Margo's face and she sighed as she lay down her arm again back on the bed. She took a step back as the one she called answered back with a yes. She hung up, looking back at Margo's dead body.

… 

"What did you just say? You saw a person wearing a black hoodie?" Matthew asked it first, before Marcus could say anything. Katrina also widened her eyes. She remembered someone wearing the same outfit on the day after she had a scandal with Carmela. 

She tilted her head to one side as she recalled it. That someone was watching her house from afar, or her. Fear crept out on her spine, sending down that chilling sensation she never imagined. 

She looked up at Mina as he said something about a red-haired girl. 

"Yes. And I saw it was a red-haired girl wearing an oversized one," Mina concluded. It made Marcus and Matthew steal glances at each other.

"Her hair was short, so I didn't realize that a girl wore that outfit. I thought it was a guy," Mina murmured. It left the six of them hanging on their thoughts as the loud noise turned into a mellow rock one inside the bar. 

"I didn't catch her name. She looked familiar," Mina mumbled. He thought of that red-haired girl and where he had seen her. Nothing came to his mind. Katrina butted in the rumbling noise that was overpowering the whole ambiance. 

"I saw someone wearing the same thing outside of my house. After the day I got into a scandal with Carmela," Katrina confessed. They all looked at her with doubt. Matthew licked his bottom lip out of exasperation. His prime suspect was really her, and he wanted it to be set aside in his mind. 

Marcus turned to her and asked, "You saw what?" 

Zoey and Abbey both look puzzled about what they were talking about. They just listened to what Katrina will have to say. 

"I saw a person wearing an oversized black hoodie, the same one as Mina indicated. But, it was outside of our house, and I didn't catch his face. I don't know whether it was a red-haired girl or anyone else we didn't know," Katrina explained as they all stared at her. Marcus huffed the air and was so baffled about what was happening through them. 

"It was so confusing," Marcus whispered to himself. Is it the same person now?