Forty-eight hours later...
Victoria's body was found lifeless in her apartment two days later. Her skin had turned pale, and her weight swung sideways from where she hanged. The emergency response unit arrived at the scene, thirty minutes after they had received a phone call from someone who reported the incident. The victim's body was hanging from the ceiling fan holder beneath the roof of the living room apartment. According to the investigations; the local police received a phone call from a woman named Grace, who claimed to be a friend of the dead victim. She had come to look for her at the apartment where the victim was living. According to her statement; Victoria had gone missing for approximately two days, she hadn't been returning her calls, and neither was she at her apartment earlier before the day she was found dead in her apartment. Grace explained that they were supposed to meet and discuss a pressing matter concerning a current predicament she was facing. However; the police summoned her to the station to find out if there was any relation as to what might've been the cause of the victim's sudden tragic decision to end her life.
When Sunny heard the news about the death of his niece, he broke down in tears and was overly sad. He was left discombobulated, he couldn't fathom how that could've happened, he knew for a fact that Victoria was always a cheerful and happy soul, she wasn't the suicidal type. Why would she commit suicide? These thoughts rummage through his head as he mourned her death. He decided to get to the bottom of it and do some investigations personally, he had requested the statement of the eye witness that found her body whom he heard was also a close friend of the victim. He decided to meet with the person for further investigation.
Grace was in her mid-thirties, she sat quietly in the interrogation room nervously fidgeting with her fingers. A fluffy-looking man in a uniform walked in, and she immediately recognized him. He was the person Victoria had been referring to when she said she had a relative at the police bureau.
"Hello." Sunny spoke "I'm the chief inspector of police, Sunny Williams. I...."
"Yes, I know who you are" Grace cuts in. "Vicky told me about you," she said.
"This isn't right..." she cried out and shifted from her seat closer to the table standing between her and the inspector. Sunny watched her closely. "They told me she committed suicide, but that doesn't make any sense. I've known Victoria since childhood, my friend would not have done that. I would have known about it." She continued while crying.
Sunny gently watched her, He brought out a handkerchief and gave it to her to wipe her tears.
"Thank you," she said
"Mrs...hmmm" he stuttered
"Grace. It's Grace" she added
"Well, Mrs. Grace. It hasn't been officially concluded as suicide yet. However; if there's anything you might know that could shed light on our investigations, please do well to share with" he paused. He brought out a handwritten note from an evidence bag and then continued.
"This was the suicide note we found at the apartment where she passed, we compared the handwriting to one of hers and it almost matched. I would like you to go through the letter and tell me if there's anything odd that you find about the information.
Does anything seem unusual to you in what was written" He asked politely as he handed the note to her.
Grace glanced through the note and read it;
If anyone reads this, it means I am no more.
I feel certain that I am going mad again.
I feel I can't go through another of those terrible times.
If I do, I shan't recover this time.
I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do.
I have been given the greatest possible happiness; the company of my good friends, which you all have been to me in every way that friends could be. I don't think a person could've been happier 'til these terrible thoughts came upon me. I can't fight any longer.
I just want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to my friends and family. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. But nobody can save me from me this time. Everything has gone from me to the certainty of goodness.
I can't go on living this life any longer.
To my friends and family, I hope you all understand my decision to come to an end like this.
To my friends and family. V.
Grace raised her eyebrow. Sunny watched her movement closely "what is it?" He asked.
"I'm not sure, but... this handwritten note, it's.." she paused
"It's what? Please do well to tell me exactly what you think. It might be of great help in our investigations" Sunny added.
"Okay. You see the thing is; Vicky has never been much of a writer, she hated writing. She would always nag about having to do so much paperwork at work. But from what I can see in this note, although, it might look like Victoria's handwriting, I find the intent of this note unusual to Victoria's." She explained
"So you're saying, there's a slight possibility that she didn't write that note?" Sunny responded.
"I'm not sure. But I can't say that Victoria would go through the stress of writing a very detailed note like this in a very delicate state, it would have been too much stress for her."
"She wouldn't have kept it as detailed as this" she added
"When last did you speak to her?" Sunny asked
"That was about two days ago. We were supposed to meet up at my apartment, but she said she had something to discuss with me as regards her fiancé. He was supposed to be back in the country for the wedding next month, but when I spoke to her on phone, she told me he was coming back earlier than expected, and that made her nervous. She was worried about her fiancé finding out about what happened with her boss. Then..." she paused
"Wait a minute! Come to think of it, her boss!" She said abruptly
"You think he might have something to do about her death?" Sunny said
"She was furious with him. I remember she also mentioned that she was going to confront him later about what he did to her, and she wanted to submit her resignation letter m. And then, she also said she had something on him, she was going to make him pay for what he did to her but she didn't tell me what exactly it was that she had on him." She explained
According to Grace's statement; Sunny was beginning to put the pieces together, but he knew something was not right. Victoria was getting married in a month, why would she commit suicide out of the blue? He suspected Senator Atkins to be involved somehow, if Victoria had gone to confront the senator just like Grace had assumed, that meant he must've killed her somehow and made it look like suicide, although; there hadn't been any evidence to prove that he did assault her in the first place. He blamed himself for her death, he felt he didn't do well enough for her when she came to him for help and promised her he was going to bring the perpetrator to justice. He had been forced to drop the case because there wasn't enough evidence to even warrant the arrest of the senator. He called himself a coward. He felt his foolishness made him act like a dog on a leash, and that must've been the reason why Victoria went to confront the senator in the first place because he couldn't help her and now she's dead because of his cowardice. The closer he gets to any piece of information that might involve the senator, the further he gets away from finding any evidence that he has committed a crime. Gradually his guilt about the death of Victoria had somehow managed to fuel his anger and hatred toward the senator, and that hatred slowly became an obsession. Yet, he was obsessed with taking the senator down for his crimes as he would say.