Bringing the truth out (1)

There was a stretch of confusing silence as everybody exchanged gazes and simultaneously also looked at Jia for answers at being suddenly called to arrive at Dahua movie theater. Yin Xiaoling, Wang Lei and Dai Fengge were also brought out of their custody to gather with everyone, with the latter throwing daggers at Ma Zhilan.

Mingshen was at the very corner, silently observing Jia.

"Um, Superintendent Song, what are we waiting for?" Ma Wenyan took the cue and asked first.

"I am sorry…!"

Dai Meihui arrived, carrying Yun in her arms and breathless of her short sprint till the theater. "Yun was alone and I didn't want to bother my neighbor again…"

"It's okay, Mrs. Dai. Xiyang will look after Yun for you," Jia smiled.

"Bro Xiyang!" He flailed his arms towards him.

"Haha, we meet again," Xiyang cheerfully grinned. "How are you, buddy? Oh, yes! I am sure you will be excited to make a new friend today."

He tilted his head. "A new friend?"

"Yes!"

He took him from Dai Meihui and walked outside where Juan was already playing with another officer.

Dai Meihui's gaze fell on her husband and Yin Xiaoling and looked away with indifference.

"Meihui! You are here for my bail, right? Do it quickly so that I can get out of the detention!" Dai Fengge confidently exclaimed, albeit with pain shooting up in his nose.

Huojin grimaced. "She is not here for your bail, Mr. Dai. After what you did, there is no question of you escaping trial anyway."

"Im-Impossible! Meihui, what is going on! Help me out of here!"

She stood at a distance, not sparing a single glance at him.

"You…!"

Jia warned. "Enough, Mr. Dai. Keep your anger in check. I made everybody gather here so that I can close the case of Mrs. Dai Yaling's death."

"Close?" He gritted his teeth, pointing accusingly at Ma Zhilan. "The case will only close with the death of this old hag who killed my mother!"

Ma Wenyan glared at him. "Will you stop your nonsense already? Don't paint this accident as something which it is not."

"Actually, it is," Jia spoke this time.

His eyes slightly widened, incredulous. "It is? I don't understand."

Ma Yanyu frowned. "Yeah, what is this all about?"

"Let me start from the beginning. Mrs. Dai died here while the movie was at its peak dark action sequence. Upon forensic investigation, we found that she died of an asthma attack triggered by an allergic reaction to animal fur."

Jia climbed steps towards the last row and sat on the deceased Dai Yaling's seat.

She spoke louder so that the people at the bottom could hear her.

"We learned that Miss. Ma, who was seated on her left," she pointed at the left seat, "had come into contact with the stray dogs in her area and that was most definitely the cause. The fur particles found in Mrs. Dai's respiratory tract matched too. But then we learned that Miss. Wu Yue, who sat in the front row," she then pointed at the front seat, one row below, "also owned a cat, and there were traces of tiny cat fur too in Mrs. Dai's body."

She continued. "The interval break got over and she breathed in the tiny fur strands, which took effect sometime later. Naturally, the first thing after feeling breathlessness and danger, she would have reached out to grab her inhaler from her handbag. Unfortunately, Miss. Yin had thrown it away out of animosity, thus Mrs. Dai couldn't prevent her attack from becoming fatal. Is everybody with me till here?"

She saw them nodding their heads albeit with tension bringing creases on their faces.

"At first, we concluded that this was a simple but unfortunate accident. But the case took a twist when we came across Miss. Wu's drug addiction and that she had previously met Mrs. Dai and Miss. Yin with her grandmother in the mall. We added two and two together and thought that Mrs. Dai would have somehow discovered her addiction.

Miss. Wu would be afraid of this threat she posed. Maybe she also wanted revenge for all the harassment against her grandmother. Then probably, Miss. Wu joined hands with Miss. Yin to kill Mrs. Dai, who both had their own motivations and reason for hating her."

Yin Xiaoling uncomfortably shifted.

Jia studied everybody's expressions and went on. "It was a smart plan. It's easy for fur particles to disperse in the air and inadvertently harm an allergic person, especially if you are physically very close to them. The person in question can also claim that they weren't aware of the victim's allergy and how would one know anything about a stranger anyway? That's why they cannot be held responsible for an unintentional accident."

Dai Meihui nodded. "That's true."

"Yes. But the thing I didn't understand in this case from the beginning was that how was it possible that Mrs. Dai didn't raise any alarm at all? Allergic reactions, an asthma attack is quite notorious. It's not possible for a patient to simply bear that excruciating pain without causing a commotion at all. But we have Miss. Ma, Miss. Wu's testimonies and from the other people in the audience too. None of them heard a sound but that was because she was forced to not make any sound."

Jia smiled. "That's the only thing that makes sense, and it made even more sense to me when I recalled a piece of information from a woman during the interrogation. I dismissed it at that time, feeling it was unimportant but that twinkling star was really the answer to my question."

She dropped a message to Huojin, and he replied with a thumbs up. Seconds later, the door opened and he brought inside a woman.

The eccentric woman who seemingly was praying to a higher entity during the interrogation, entered.

"Ah this darkness…" she looked around with a daze. "I can still smell the scent of malice from here as if it just happened yesterday. Dark is so black. Dark is so convenient because it blankets the ugliness and secrets of our hearts with such perfection…Darkness is an art in itself."

Everybody was left confused with her random philosophical babblings.

Jia coughed, breaking her from her reverie. "Miss. Huang. Thank you for coming here on a short notice-"

"Time transcends beyond the adjectives of short and long, my dear. Time flows the way it always has…It's ethereal. It's eternal. Short and long, good and bad are just our human perception…" she closed her eyes, apparently slipping into another trance.

"Miss. Huang. *Ahem*. Can you please tell me once again what it was that you noticed in the theater that day?"

She gently opened her eyes with a smile. "A star twinkling in the last row. It looked so beautiful because it reminded me of the mesmerizing night sky adorned with the glittering stars."

Ma Wenyan was totally confused. "There cannot really be…a real star in the theater."

Jia replied to clarify his doubts. "It wasn't a star in the literal sense. What she means is that she saw something shining around Mrs. Dai's seat."

She stepped down, everybody feeling their hearts thump in their chest.

"And that something was…" she raised a certain someone's hand, showing it to everybody. "This watch."

She glanced at the man who looked as white as a ghost. "Right Mr. Dai Fengge?"