Circe Isle Andino is one of the most decorated professional surfer. Surfing is her life. During the day, she spent hours and hours riding the waves, and at night she lay contented on her bed sleeping peacefully.
There's nothing she want more in her...
Thirty minutes submerged in water with no oxygen. No one could survive that.
"Your name..." Tumingin sa akin ang babae. "You're Ashley, right?"
Lumiwanag ang mukha niya. "Yes. You remember me."
"Of course I remember you. In fact, I wanted to see you."
"Really?" she breathed.
"Yes." Binitawan siya ng kapatid ko at lumapit ako sa babae. She stepped toward me as if she were about to fall into my arms. "To do this."
She really did fall. Not just in my arms but on the floor.
Hawak ang namumulang pisngi na gulat na nag-angat siya ng tingin sa akin. "I've never hurt a woman in my life. But I don't consider you a woman. I don't even consider you a human."
"C-Coal... what? W-Why?"
"Ang sabi mo dalawa lang sila. Si Julius at si Rebecca. You said they separated you with the other woman. Lahat kayo kamo pinilit na papasukin sa isa sa mga container van. Then you also said that they're dragging a woman inside a steel casket. Kung inilalagay nila ang babae na nakita mo sa casket, sinong nagpasok at nag lock sa inyo sa mga container van? Pumasok kayo ng kusa? Who locked you in if they have their hands full?" Hindi ko siya hinayaang makapagsalita nang makita kong bumuka ang mga labi niya. "You also talk like you can hear everything that happened. Pero nasa loob ka ng container van. There's no way you could hear everything. It's only hard to answer questions when you have the intention of lying. And from the start you were lying."
"That's... that's not true!"
"You know, your plan could have been perfect. I have to give it to you. You used everything that you can. You didn't held back and you poured all elements that you could muster into your game. You brought my ex-girlfriend Lorraine into this as a diversion and to isolate me and Circe. You made certain that if we look for Rebecca we would really find someone with that identity. You even made sure to look like her. And then there's Julius. Your partner who didn't know that you would be using him. He's money-motivated and you used it to convince him to your plans without him knowing that you will use it against him. Dahil kapag nagkahulihan, siya ang unang ituturo ng mga babaeng biktima niya. Circe would be just one of his victims. He could rat you out but even if he described you, he would only be describing Rebecca. Poor Rebecca who doesn't know anything. Kahit may alibi pa siya kung nasaan siya, the fact that she's being mentioned, will raise a lot of questions."
Lumapit sa kinaroroonan namin si Nevan na may dalang ziploc bag. It has a wig inside and pieces of prosthetics. I watched as different emotions flashed on her face.
