“Selina!” Hebe shouted, but before she could dash after her friend Aaron was already out before her.

Hebe glanced at Evan and hurried after Aaron and Selina.
 
“Selina wait!” Aaron called after her.

Selina came to a stop by the end of the building and turned around slowly.

“You want to apologize?” Selina asked.

“I tried telling you…” Aaron continued, “I didn’t want it to end up this way.”

Selina turned her face away from him. She felt frustrated with herself and still needed some time to calm down from what had happened earlier.   

“Forget it,” Selina said.

“Selina!” Jiro’s voice came as he hurried over.

Selina turned to look at him as he stopped slightly behind Aaron.

“You’re not hurt are you?” Jiro asked. “Is your ankle still ok?”

“I just want to be left alone,” Selina said then glanced at Aaron.

“I’ll take you back,” Hebe said coming forward.

The ride back to her apartment seemed to take hours, but actually only took 10 minutes. When Selina got out of the car she turned around to see that Hebe had gotten out also.

“You don’t have to walk me in,” Selina told.

Hebe walked forward and pushed Selina toward her apartment door. As they got inside with the door shut behind them they stood in the kitchen for a while.

“Are you ok?” Hebe’s soft voice floated in Selina’s ear.

“I’m alright,” Selina replied.

Hebe suddenly slapped her shoulder, “You had no idea how scared I was! Why didn’t you call me when you saw him?”

Selina stared at her scared friend and couldn’t help, but smile. She wanted to say because she didn’t realize Aaron wasn’t Aaron until she reached the cabin, but it wouldn’t have comforted Hebe in anyway.

“I’m back now,” Selina said, “I’m invincible and you’re not so story ends there ok?”

Tears suddenly sprang up in Hebe’s eyes surprising Selina.

“No!” Hebe raised her voice. “Don’t you take what happened lightly!”

“I think you’re just scaring yourself,” Selina told trying to lighten the atmosphere. “It’s not like a camel was chasing you.”

“Don’t you know that place?! Don’t you wonder why he brought you there?! Are you stupid Selina?!” Hebe screamed. “You shouldn’t act like nothing’s wrong when everything is!”

Selina felt stunned at Hebe’s words. Hebe had never spoken to her like that before even though they’d had arguments before. Hebe was the type of person that rarely raised their voices.

Selina decided she should quit joking around, “Then what are you talking about? What place?”

Hebe took a deep breath as a sob came to her, “You didn’t want to know anything about it then so you ignored what they said, but I was there. I heard it.”

“Heard what?” Selina asked.

“That place…Xuan was murdered at the creek by the cabin,” Hebe finally said as another sob escaped through her. “I was scared you might end up like her. Selina…”

Selina felt stunned as she stared at her friend. Xuan…was murdered there? Was that why it had given her the creeps? Selina could had started shaking then, but figured it was more important to comfort Hebe who had been so fearful for her.

“It’s ok,” Selina said hugging her friend, “I came out alright.”

Selina held Hebe for a long time as Hebe poured out her tears. Hebe didn’t leave Selina’s apartment until it was nearly dawn. Selina had wanted to get some sleep, but didn’t feel like it. She sat on the sofa thinking to herself. Evan seemed strange. Why had he asked her about Xuan? How did he know of the place? Selina decided she would dig out some information about Evan first after she completed her recent case. But before heading to Prescon Selina wanted to see Jiro, he would definitely have something she wanted to know. 

===

Aaron glared at Evan as Evan sat down in front of the TV calmly as if nothing had happened at all. Realizing that Evan had spooked Selina angered Aaron even more.

“Where were you?” Aaron asked. “Where did you go?”

“No where. I already told you,” Evan said as if Aaron had asked him a hundred times.

“Are you going to tell me? Or should I take you to the doctor?” Aaron threatened.

Evan turned to Aaron with an angry frown on his face, “I didn’t do anything! I just took her to the cabin! What’s wrong with that?!”

“You what?!” Aaron shouted.

“You heard me!” Evan said raising his voice. “I wanted to go there so I took her there!”

“What’d you do to Selina?” asked Aaron. “What did you do?!”

“What do you have to do with her?!” Evan shouted. “If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have taken her there!”

“What?” Aaron asked surprised and lost.

What did Evan mean if it wasn’t for him? What did he do to Evan that was so wrong?

“I hate you,” Evan said then hurried up the stairs.

“Evan! Evan!” Aaron shouted after him.

Aaron rubbed his head. What in the world was with Evan? What did he do to Selina?

===

Selina stopped in the middle of the hallway to stare at that same picture again, the man that had investigated Xuan’s murder. All of a sudden she felt as if she wanted to talk to him personally.

“Excuse me,” Selina stopped a man that was walking down the hallway, “do you, by any chance, know this person? Or know his phone number?”

“Oh the chief?” he said. “He’s not here anymore, but you can talk to his son. His son has taken after him, they’re both very impressive cops.”

“Son?” Selina repeated.

“Wang Dong Cheng, he’s in that room right over there,” the man said.

Selina nodded toward the man then thanked him. Jiro? Jiro was the son of that cheif that had investigated Xuan’s death? Selina laughed to herself. How small could the world be? It was too ironic that she knew the son of the chief. Selina stared at Jiro’s door. It would be easier to talk to him than she thought it would be.

Without knocking Selina opened the door to find Jiro sitting inside looking over some papers.

“I was about to call you,” he said. “Come in.”

Selina closed the door after her and sat down on the chair in front of his desk.

“I have that number you were asking for,” Jiro said, “I forgot to call you back because some stuff came up.”

Selina took the small piece of paper from him and tucked it into her pocket. She remained silent until she was sure that there was nothing else to say between them. When the air suddenly became dry Selina turned her head up from the ground.

“I heard some interesting things,” Selina said.

Jiro raised his eyebrow.

“So your father was in charge of that case 10 years back,” Selina told.

Jiro waited for her to go on.

“Impressive cops?” Selina snorted. “Why wasn’t he able to find the killer? Did he not have any leads back then? Was it that hard to solve a murder case 10 years ago?”

“What are you talking about?” Jiro asked.

Selina rolled her eyes. She felt impatient with police officers. They were slow witted and did not understand anything well. How much cases were left unsolved? How many people in the whole world were crying over the dead?

“Get me the file,” Selina said. “It doesn’t matter to me if your father wasn’t able to do it. I’ll do it myself. Get me the file.”

“What file?” Jiro questioned wondering what had gotten into Selina.

“My twin’s murder case. Get me every single piece of paper related to it. I want to look at it,” Selina ordered roughly.

“I don’t think I…” Jiro began.

“Just get them damnit! I want to look at those darn papers! I want to look at that damn case!” Selina shouted as she suddenly got up from her chair angrily.

Glancing at her Jiro got up from his chair and left the office. Selina felt her anger flaming through her. Why did Xuan have to die like that? When will Selina be able to visit Xuan’s grave in peace? If no one was to solve the case Selina would take it on by herself. She had been too ignorant and heartbroken back then. But 10 years have gone by since her twin’s death and Selina did not feel at peace with herself. Since stepping upon the land where her twin had been killed Selina was beginning to feel more restless than she ever had. Thanks to Evan Selina was a step closer to finding the killer and once she did she wanted to pound him.  

The door opened and Jiro returned 25 minutes later. He gently placed a thick manila folder in front of her. Selina did not gaze up at him as he did so.

“I’m not sure if you should be seeing them,” Jiro told, “but if you really want to…you should be ready for it.”

Sitting down on the chair Selina could even feel her hands shake as she opened the folder. In front of her were the many pictures of the cabin and the woods surrounding it. The thick trees she had run past stood in the pictures. The body of water she had thought was a lake was actually the creek Xuan had been found by. Selina clenched her teeth as she looked through the photographs. After a minute Selina’s eyes slowly landed upon Xuan. Xuan’s eyes were peacefully shut and Selina recognized the red marks from where she had been strangled marked her neck. Blood covered the ground around her.

Would Selina have looked like that if she had gone? Tears burned her eyes painfully. Her poor twin…Xuan had died so awfully. Xuan had suffered so much before passing on. Selina gulped as she set the pictures down and glanced down at the documents right in front of her eyes.

“I’m taking this with me,” Selina suddenly stood up.

“I don’t think you can,” Jiro said staring at her solemn face.

“I’ll do this myself,” Selina told. “We were never friends, but plain acquaintances. You can stop bugging in my business now and I won’t ask you for anything anymore.”

Taking the folder with her Selina opened the door and walked out. She stared at the road as she held onto the manila folder tightly. She didn’t want to head to Prescon just yet. She needed to rid herself of some feelings.

Returning to her apartment Selina hugged herself on her bed as she let out the relentless tears that did not want to leave her. It had been 8 years since she’d stopped crying, but coming upon Xuan again Selina couldn’t help it. It was no use anymore telling herself that if she had never asked Xuan to go Xuan would never had died. Anymore thoughts were useless and wouldn’t do any good for the soul. Hebe who had been so scared for her and her parents who had mourned so much over Xuan’s death. They weren’t burdens, but more than worries to Selina. She wanted to let her parents lead peaceful lives after she solved the case and she wanted Hebe to be happy for her. All Selina could do now was to wait and search some more until she was sure she found the culprit.

During late evening Selina headed over to Prescon. She didn’t really need to go there, but being in her office at her own desk made her feel good. Selina grabbed her phone and dialed the Chang’s number.

“Hi, this is Selina Ren. I’m an investigative reporter for Prescon,” Selina started, “this is regarding the death of Chang Wei Hu. If it’s alright I would like to come over there and personally question your family.”