A Tale of a Guardian

Hosanna stares at her best friend through the two-way mirror. Now that she is in real clothes, she doesn’t look so crazy. She looks like Delilah, the closest person Hosanna has ever had to a sister, in an interrogation room over her partner’s death.
               
When Zac called Hosanna with the news of the fire, she broke down almost as bad as when she lost her parents. Joshua and Delilah were the only family she had, and they were gone, just like everyone else.  So when Zac called her back an hour later, she was elated to hear that Delilah’s body wasn’t in the house.  However the feeling only lasted the few minutes it took Zac to tell her that she was needed on site to investigate. She tried to refuse, not trusting that she could handle a harsher truth than an accidental electrical short, but Zac persisted.

Deep down Hosanna knew he was right. She would never take the word of another detective in something so critical. She had to do it herself. So she went to house, or what was left of it. She stared at Joshua’s remains until her heart became numb to it and then got to work.

She walked the front of the house pushing away the memories of dinner parties and all night chats in the kitchen until she reached the dinning room. A layer of waxy film covered the walls as the bed dangled on the dinning table. The back window was shattered, and Hosanna could see blood on the floor around the scattered glass. She motions to an officer to take a sample before turning to Fire Captain Zac Prudhomme.

Zac explained that the cause of the fire was still under investigation, but it appeared intentional. The fire originated from the attic directing the most significant damage to the master bedroom, especially around the bed. Along with a suggested target, Zac informed her that an accelerant was found on Joshua’s remains. He had already shipped a sample to the lab for verification along with a piece of the fallen ceiling.

As Hosanna examined the newly determined crime scene, she blocked out all her personal attachments. She wasn’t Hosanna Blair here; she was Detective Blair, the youngest female to earn that title in all the surrounding counties.

After slapping on some gloves, she inspected the remains. The damage from the fire was extensive making it easier to not see Joshua’s face under char. She prodded for any other hidden injuries but stopped when she felt the consistency of the body. It was drier than a normal fire victim, more like a husk instead of skin. She shook her head to not think about the many causes to the abnormality just yet and motioned for the M.E. to bag the body up.

The evidence against Delilah was circumstantial at best until the blood from the floor confirmed her in the house. Hosanna fought for another explanation, but when she saw Delilah enter the station in her singed pajamas, she knew Delilah was somehow involved. In that moment, Hosanna’s heart broke with the determination to find Joshua’s killer left to carry her.

She enters the interrogation room with false confidence turning Delilah into just another suspect ready to be plucked for information. She stands in front of the empty chair towering over the imagined perp drawing out the silence.

Delilah lifts her head with tears staining her cheeks and sees Hosanna through a water haze.

“He’s gone.” She cries out burying her head into her crossed arms on the hard metal table.

Hosanna stands frozen in shock as she watches her best friend finally break down.