Melisa and Julia startled when they heard the door bell rung again.
"Were you the one ringing the bell before?" Melisa asked Julia in a lower tone.
"No" Julia replied quickly but lowly.
"Who is it then?" Melisa wondered.
"I don't know" said Julia. Both the woman kept staring at the door, not sure if they are willing to open it or not.
"Open the door…" Julia instructed Melisa which was more like an order.
"What? Why?" Melisa panicked.
"Don't you want to know who is on the gate?" Julia asked Melisa.
"So, you open it" Melisa suggested.
"Yeah… sure… but it's your house" Julia rebuked.
The door bell kept ringing but neither of the women moved any muscle. There was silence for few seconds. Both the woman thought that the person on the door ringing the bell has left but it came as a shock to both of them when someone started knocking on the door
"Mrs. Simon!!!" the man knocking the door called out to Melisa. "Mrs. Simon… Open the gate, Mrs. Simon"
"You know him?" Julia asked.
"No… I don't" Melisa answered quickly.
"But he is calling your name" said Julia.
"Whatever… I am not opening the gate" Melisa screamed with frustration.
"It's Detective Harry, please open the gate, I know you are here" Harry shouted from behind the door.
"POLICE!!! What is police doing here?" Julia distressed that Harry came for her.
"How should I know? May be they came for you" Melisa said.
"But how did they know I am here" Julia worried.
"What does that mean? Were they after you? Did they come here looking for you?" Melisa asked baffled by whole situation.
"May be…" Julia replied.
"Oh my God!!! What should we do now? You bring this catastrophe on me. What should I do now?" Melisa panicked.
"I will tell you… what should you do? You should open this bloody gate" Julia yelled on Melisa.
"But…" Melisa tried to say something but Julia interrupted.
"No buts… open the gate… I will go hiding" Julia said in a forceful manner.
Melisa waited for Julia to hide for opening the gate and meanwhile Harry kept knocking the door. She opened the door and found Harry.
"Where were you?" Harry asked.
"I was in the bathroom… sorry" Melisa lied.
"I have been here pressing bell and knocking on the door for such a long time" Harry asked again.
"I am sorry… I was using ear pods"
"Didn't you just tell me that you were using bathroom"
"I was washing clothes while listening to the music. Is there any problem Detective?"
"Yes, I wish to speak to you. Can we talk?"
"Sure, please come in"
Harry and Melisa went inside the house and Melisa offered him water.
"I am here due to a case"
"What case?" Melisa became curious by hearing that.
"Arson case of psychiatric hospital" Melisa was taken aback by hearing it. She didn't imagine that she would be answering for that incident after so many years of silence of that day.
"Would you like some tea or coffee?" Melisa asked.
"Coffee Please" Harry requested.
"I shall bring it to you. Please feel comfortable"
Melisa went into the kitchen to prepare coffee. As she was preparing coffee, Julia came beside her but Melisa was deep in her thoughts. She did not realize Julia entering the kitchen or maybe she did not bother her presence. Her mind was somewhere else and so was her soul
"You look like ghost" Julia noticed that Melisa was not doing well.
"I have been ghost until you came knocking on my door" Melisa replied with sarcasm.
"Is he here because of me? And for the record, I did not come knocking on the door… I just came in" Julia asked.
"He is not here because of you" Melisa informed Julia still not peeking in her direction.
"So why is he here?" Julia wondered.
"Because of me" This time Melisa did looked at her on replying and she replied with frustration.
"Why?" Julia asked again.
"He is waiting for me. You better be careful" Melisa said while leaving with Coffee cup.
"Wait…" Julia tried to stop her but Melisa was already gone.
"Here is your coffee" Melisa passed the Coffee cup to Harry.
"Thank you" Harry said while accepting the coffee cup.
"What do you remember about the fire?" Harry asked.
"Everything… I… I was working there and then that fire changed everything"
"You were trapped in it, right"
"Yes, trapped but saved"
"I read the report… it says you bore some injuries which might not be from fire" That question made Melisa flinched.
"Yes… as the building caught fire…. Whole place starting coming down… I got hurt then" Melisa replied.
"Are you sure? Because the doctor who examined you after the fire here said that you might had some kind of struggle or something which caused those injuries"
"It was fire Detective… It was fire…"
"Okay… what happened exactly? They say in here that there was some foul play but culprit was not caught"
"One of the patients with some severe issues escaped from his chamber and somehow he started the fire" Melisa answered.
"But why?" Harry wondered.
"You do realize we are talking about a patient in psychiatric hospital… your question is self-explanatory regarding that context" explained Melisa.
"What happened to that patient?" asked Harry.
"She died in that fire"
"Did you say she?"
"Yes, why?"
"Because the patient described in here is clearly he"
"He… she… does it matter"
"But you just said you remember everything"
"I remember the fire, not the lunatic who caused it"
"I can understand"
"No you don't"
"No I don't… I am sorry…"
"Do you remember your colleague Dr. Chris Parker?"
"Biblically…."
"Do you remember anything about his accident?"
"No, I don't know anything about that… we lost touch after the fire…"
"Can I ask something out of mind? It's not exactly related to this case…"
"Okay… sure"
"What were you doing in a psychiatric hospital?"
"I am sorry I don't get it…"
"You are Physicist. What was your job in that place?"
"I was working under some project"
"Can you tell me more?"
"No, sorry… I am just… I can't… confidential stuff…"
"That's okay…"
"Did Dr. Chris have any enemy?"
"How may I know? We were just colleagues"
"What about his wife? What do you know about her?"
"Nothing… I know nothing about her"
"You never met…"
"No... Never"
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Do you have enemy?"
Melisa found that question bit out of order. She wondered why Detective was asking such questions.
"No"
"Or someone is threatening you?"
"I don't understand your question"
Harry kept pressing on Melisa being threatened anyhow and that made Melisa scared given the circumstances from before. Does he know something or was he the one behind that parcel incident were the questions spooning in her mind.
"Do you? Do you really don't understand my question?" Harry asked again with witty look.
"No… I don't…. I don't understand…" Melisa stutters.
"Well, when you were inside making coffee, I found the parcel you hid under the table… I don't think it is natural to have something like this with you as a hobby or habit" Harry explained his reason o asking and pressing on that particular question so much.
"It was just a practical joke by a friend" Melisa tried to ignore the subject Harry was pondering about.
"Well, this joke doesn't seem practical to me at all. Are you sure you are not hiding anything? Because this seems like a threat"
"Just a weird joke… No one threatening anyone"
"Maybe you are right but your life might possess a danger"
"What kind of danger?"
"I think Mrs. Julia Parker might be after you for some reason after taking life of Jackson" Harry told Melisa.
"Jackson? John Riley's son?" asked Melisa.
"You know him?"
"Well the hospital belonged to him and he use to come down once a while with his father… so I met him few times"
"Were Julia and Jackson close?"
"No… I don't think so and why would they? What do you mean by taking life?"
"Julia Parker killed Jackson"
"What? Why?"
"We don't know about that till now but she has escaped. We are searching for her and I believe it has to do something which happened in past. So you need to be very careful"
"I don't understand. Why would Julia kill Jackson Riley?"
"No the understatement must be in the fact that Jackson was imposing as her son. That's the most interesting question"
"Imposing as her son!!!! Why?"
"I don't know. Maybe that too has something to do with her daughter attacking him and then her mother"
"I am sorry what that was"
"The lost daughter of Parker's family. The one who vanished when she was little. Nowadays she is busy creating havoc in the town"
"A daughter… of Parker's!!!!"
"Yes Chris Parker's daughter"
"I think you are mistaken Detective... But Chris never had any child…." told Melisa.
"Huh…" escaped from Harry's mouth.