A Sister's Love

A dewy feeling graced her skin as she pushed the heavy, steal doors open, entering the blanket of fragrant night air. Only minutes before, she was cuddled under the warmth of her cosy electric blanket, shielded from the cold of winter until the abrupt text message interrupted her peace.

The tone of the missive was cryptic, frantic, and somehow dismissive all at once. The woman was dead, found lifelessly draped over her bed at 2AM last Sunday. Ghosted eyes and dilated pupils confirmed the truth of the matter.

Sighing but with an air of finality, she lay her brightly illustrated children’s book on her worn sofa and quickly punched in his number.

When the phone clicked on, she questioned her fiancée, “Are you absolutely sure she is dead?”

Sounding a bit dishevelled from the tone of her question, he replied in a trembling voice, “Do you need me to send the obituary to you as proof, Sapphire?”

Lowering her voice to a soothing and gentle tone, she responded through streaks of tears, “No, a quick Google search will confirm what you are telling me, My Love.”

He anxiously interrupted her ongoing inner monologue, “Oh my God! I can’t believe she went through with it. He broke into uncontrollable sobs, “She just hung herself like…”

Trying her best to conceal her own emotion-choked tone, she replied, “Suicide is always a tragedy.”

Something just wasn’t right about this, Sapphire pondered as she quickly pulled up the online funeral announcement on her tiny phone screen. Trying to sound confident as she listened to her own footsteps on the pavement, she gripped the envelope in her right hand, slowly producing it from the deep pockets within her fur coat. The letter had arrived in her mailbox yesterday from a peculiar law office in Texas.

Speaking in the clearest voice she could muster as her heart thudded with anxiety, “I’m heading out of town on Monday night.” Staring nervously at the instructions printed on the clean and smooth paper, she continued, “I’m sorry to leave you like this, My Love, but a law firm needs my help now.”

Etched with scepticism, the love of her life replied, “I’m going with you.”

*****

Illuminating the corners of the huge airbus, the overhead lights cast an eerie glow over the tightly cramped isle. Slipping her tiny hand into his, they quickly shoved past the torrent of passengers, trying to find their small economy seats.

“You are being very secretive,” he questioned

Ripping the corner from her disposable napkin, she stared into his midnight-coloured eyes, “I didn’t want to tell you, Sweetheart.”

“Tell me what,” he implored as he placed a gentle and open hand under her delicate chin.

“This isn’t a normal law assignment for me,” Sapphire confided as she lowered her voice just barely above a whisper, “It’s connected to her death.”

“What?” he exclaimed, loud enough to make a mother temporarily stop fussing over her new-born.

“I have been tasked with prosecuting her accused murderer,” Sapphire admitted as she allowed the warm, hot coffee to serenade her frayed nerves.

His black eyes took on a burning intensity as a cold rage covered his once calm voice, “We both know she was insane! Trust me. I lived with her!”

“Maybe, and I’m not looking forward to interviewing the state’s first suspect.” She shuddered as she withdrew an official beige envelope from her leather briefcase.

The questions seemed to tumble on top of one another in his mind as if they were wrinkled clothes left too long in a scorching dryer. Not one faint question, however, would surface to his tongue, and he resided himself to merely settling into the uncomfortable and ragged seat.

A tall and very thin woman took her place authoritatively in the plane’s corridor as she fumbled mysteriously in the overhead baggage compartment, muttering something unintelligible below the loud roar of the heavy engines. “You killed my sister,” she suddenly screamed from a place deep within the recesses of her core as she stopped her search, and pointed her long finger squarely at Sapphire.

His tired mind raced for some logical conclusion to this never-ending and chaotic day as he stared at the familiar figure through grief-ridden eyes. She was always there. In fact, the two were practically inseparable until the tragic filled night last week, or so her new boyfriend had reported.

Sapphire’s eyes narrowed as her hand tightened around her fiancée’s wrist for reassurance, “You are just as crazy as she was, Madame!”

“You killed her because you hated who she was,” spat the woman in a biting manner. Her once demanding body crumpled onto the plane floor as she whimpered, “I loved my sister.”

“Then why did you poison her?” questioned a masculine detective from the recesses of the plane. The statement from the once hidden authority figure shattered the despondent cries of the sister who was now rocking herself slowly.

“Because she was so perfect, and I couldn’t stand the sight of her,” screeched the guilt-ridden woman as she tore at her long, blonde curls. “She’s not really dead, though! Please tell me she’s not dead,” pleaded the manic woman through panic filled screams.

Standing up with metallic handcuffs secured in his big hands, the detective began rattling off the familiar Miranda Rights as a sardonic smile drew across Sapphire’s face.

That was much too easy, Sapphire gleefully thought. It was nothing to convince the psychotic sister that she killed her one and only real confidant. It was just as simple to make the mentally unstable victim’s death look like a suicide thought the talented attorney with a smile as she sipped the last bit of her coffee. They will never suspect me, Sapphire gleefully raptured as the tearful suspect was led to the back of the plane.