Chapter 1: In police custody

Myra stared into nothing trying to recall what happened the night before. She impatiently tapped the table with her finger nail. Investigator Anand stared at her patiently.

“Do you recall now? What happened?” He asked her. She shook her head.

“It’s not like I’ve forgotten, yes we got into a big fight, yes it caused a lot of damage… but did I kill him? No i did not it didn’t go that far”

“What were some of the damages the fight caused” he asked her as he got ready to take notes.

“His…” she stopped and stared at him. “I need to talk to my lawyer, I’ll only talk when my lawyer gets here”

“Young lady… I’m getting your testimony down so I can proceed with the investi…”

“My lawyer asked me not to give anymore information till he gets here, I’ve told you all I know”

“I can see you enjoy being kept here, your lawyer is taking ages, look, I can help you… I can help you out of this mess only if you’ll cooperate with me” he tried to assure her.

Myra stared at him in disdain. She didn’t trust him, she didn’t trust anyone at this point. She was being accused of murder and all odds were against her. Those accusing her had strong evidence and those for her were beginning to suspect her. As she was led back to her cell she dropped her head in shame. She immediately buried herself in the corner and sighed as the guard locked the cell. She looked at her cell mate who was silently seated, staring into thin air. She rushed to the cell door and started to hit it violently. “You can’t hold me here! It’s against my rights… let me out of here immediately” she increases the tempo of her banging till her cell mate goes to push her from the door.

“You’re driving me crazy with the noise!”

Myra glares at her “If you enjoy being here, I don’t…”

“… and you think banging on the door is going to bring you justice?” She questions Myra. Myra retreats to her corner her cell mate goes to sit beside her. There’s a deafening silence between them. “What if no one comes for me?” Myra queried.

Her cell mate smiles “what’s your name?”

“I’m Myra, you?”

“I’m Nina” Myra looks up at her and smiles back.

“Nina, you seem like a nice person, why are you here?” Nina scoffs and gets up. She begins to pace the cell.

“Being nice doesn’t mean anything darling, even the devil is nice” she responds and Myra begins to get uncomfortable.

“Did you kill anyone?” Myra manages to say.

Nina shakes her head “I wish I did… I don’t know why I’m being kept here, I already confessed that I was guilty I can’t wait to be taken straight to jail”

Myra begins to quiver. She was being locked up for something she didn’t do with someone who was proud of whatever crime they had committed. Oh no she thought, she was not ruthless enough for wherever she was headed if no one came to her rescue.

“One thing I’ve learnt is that, the wrong company company can unmake you” Nina said interrupting her thoughts. Myra scoffed, who doesn’t know that? She thought. “Another thing I learnt is that wrong company doesn’t always mean, people who sell drugs, or people who commit murder or whatever…”

She settles at a corner opposite Myra. “Wrong company can be those you think are angels, you know… sometimes the devil wears white”

Myra started to analyze what she was saying, she was right, the devil does wear white sometimes, sometimes he comes like he’s the light. Was that not what Cody did to her? Did he not sell her a lie? Son of a bitch now she wished she had killed him. Was she not going to jail anyway? She looked up at Nina “What did you do? You seem proud of it” she carefully analyzed Nina’s appearance. She looked like a woman in her late 30’s, she was a bit plump with a beautiful tanned skin. Her eyes looked like someone who had seen enough if you know that means. She seems to have accepted her fate. However she Myra was not ready to accept anything she wanted out that very moment, she could be fined for damage to property but apart from that she wasn’t guilty of anything else.

Nina sighed. “Arson, I committed arson”

Myra looked up in surprise, “arson? Why?… did anybody die?”

“Unfortunately nobody died… so unfortunate”

Myra started to scrutinize Nina, she had a motherly figure and had a motherly aura around her, what could lead her to take such extreme measures and not even feel any kind of remorse. Now she was getting scared.

“Whose property went up in flames?” Myra asked again her curiosity had piqued at this moment.

“My husband, he’s not qualified to be called ex husband yet, but we were in the middle of a messy divorce” Nina answered coldly.

“Did you have children?” Myra quizzed and Nina nodded.

“My twins Claire and Clinton”

“You tried to kill the father of your children?” Myra exclaimed.

“You make it sound bad when you put it like that… that man deserves death, even worse than death”

Nina yelled.

“But the children what happens to them if he died?” Myra asked in a startled tone.

“They have me” Nina answered.

“But you’re here now”

“I admit I didn’t think things through, but he already gained custody of the children, he won the case he maintained the building and what was I left with? Nothing… Because of some stupid prenup I was left with a car, and nothing and some other wasted property he made me out to be the crazy one, he used my medical report against me and took my children away”

Myra stared at her, judging from the behavior she had put up in the past five minutes, she sure wasn’t mentally stable. She could agree with the justice system on this one.

“So your husband how come he didn’t die?” Myra asked.

“He wasn’t home, the children were at grandma’s because he was bringing his bitch over, when I found out I figured that was the best time to strike, but guess what, he had sneaked out to see another bitch and this poor bitch sustained injuries, well I can’t say she didn’t deserve it though” she stated bitterly.

“Is he pressing charges?”

“Of course he is, I got him where it hurts the most” Nina grinned.

“It looks like you had a good reason” Myra stated, she wanted to reserve the rest of her sanity. This lady was causing her unrest.

Nina begins to pace the cell again.

“I’m worried about Claire and Clinton, I hope they’re okay”

“Maybe you should’ve thought of them before doing all that” Myra responded.

Nina glared at her sending chills down her spine.

“They were taking them away from me anyway” she retorted.

“Why? The court barely takes children away from their mothers” Myra answered.

“My husband used my health records against me and various past events” Nina explained.

“Past events like?”

“Like when I tried to kill him the first time” she answered.

“You’ve tried to kill him before?”

“You wouldn’t understand, love made me like this, if someone ever told me I was going to end up like this I wouldn’t have believed it. But love makes you crazy”

“Love” Myra echoed.

“Love has turned me into a criminal” a tear dropped from Nina’s eyes and she quickly wipes it. “If I had snapped out of it I wouldn’t have ended up like this… but I have no regrets”

“Those fairy tales have lied to us, love isn’t what we thought it was supposed to be, now I’m being accused of murder” Myra agonized.

“Love brought you here too?” Nina quizzed. Myra nodded in agreement.

“Love sent me here too, the problem with mine is, I didn’t murder my boyfriend they say he’s dead and I don’t know how that happened” Myra lamented.

“Myra, did you two have a good relationship before the event occurred?”

“Yes we did… our relationship had always been good till that fateful night” Myra recounted.

“Which fateful night” It was Nina’s turn to get curious.

“The night of the fight… I hate to remember it” Myra said her mood getting heavier. Clinking of the cell door distracted them. They both turned to see a man in his early forties standing behind the door. Myra’s face lit up.

“Lawyer Benson!” She exclaimed as she scampered to the door.

“Poor you, how long have you been here?” Lawyer Benson sympathized.

“The whole day, they’re going to make me lose my job!” Myra wailed.

Lawyer Benson sighs. “Don’t worry we’ll get you out of here and we can worry about the rest later”

Myra smiled happily, then she immediately turns to look at Nina, who only nods and remains in her position.

The police walked in and opened up the door, Myra stepped out then gets another glimpse of Nina. What was she to tell her? See you later? See you soon? She didn’t want to come back there but she wasn’t done listening to Nina’s story or perhaps she could attend her court hearing and get the full story for herself. She was lost in thoughts as she followed her lawyer and police out. At this point she wasn’t even thinking about herself, what could make a person so bitter? Not once did she even try to murder Cody though he had done a lot of nonsense that called for it.

Once they were in the investigating room she sat down with a thud beside her lawyer. Investigator Anand stared at them and stifled a smile.

“Mr. Anand you know that you cannot keep me or my client here any longer, it’s against the constitution” Mr. Anand nodded in agreement.

“She’s being granted bail but no one has stepped in at the moment…” Anand started to explain.

“I’ll bail her” Anand nodded in agreement

“Fair enough we’d need to go through the procedure then”

Myra’s heart dropped had everyone abandoned her? Where was everyone? She sighed.