Chapter 23: Interrogation (1)

Inside the theater near the big screen, Huojin and Jia started the interrogation of the other people who were a part of the audience for the movie, sitting in different rows. But they met all sorts of peculiar people who had a lot to express about some fascinating conspiracies instead of providing any useful information regarding the case.

"Oh my that's such a tragedy! Who could have imagined a death to occur in the middle of the movie?"

"Who even has the time to look at anybody else during the movie?" One man frowned.

"This is so spooky. She died and didn't even make a sound!"

One woman shuddered. "I-Is this theater haunted? No, I am sure that particular seat must be haunted!"

"Is that why the management is shutting down this theater next month? They are definitely holding some shady secrets. Inspector, I think you should interrogate the bosses. They must belong to a dangerous cult!" One woman seriously nodded.

Huojin cleared his throat. "That won't be necessary, Mam. Neither this theater is haunted nor a cult-"

"I saw it!" Another eccentric woman suddenly exclaimed and lowered her pitch just as fast. "The last row…I saw the sliver of light which will guide you to all the answers. The twinkling star where the dead woman sat. It was a sign given by God that it was time for her to become a star herself…" she closed her eyes as if praying to some higher entity.

Huojin choked hard with the metaphor.

"This place must definitely be attracting ghosts and demons. It's always so dark here!"

Jia maintained her smile. She steered the questions in the direction she expected for some answers, but she got nothing useful.

Huojin wiped his forehead as they walked away."I am starting to believe that some cult might really be involved. How come almost everybody were…so strange?"

Jia helplessly chuckled. "Guess it's the adrenaline of emotions after watching the movie. I heard it was some kind of a thriller so everybody's emotions must be high. But I hope the next people we will interrogate aren't like that because they were the closest to Mrs. Dai."

The person exactly opposite Dai Yaling's seat on the front row below was a young woman named Wu Yue who said had come on a movie date with her boyfriend, Wang Lei. The seats beside them were empty.

Jia started first with the young couple separately, who seemed shaken with the incident. Wu Yue looked to be about twenty-two or twenty-three with her hair tied in a ponytail and wearing loose, casual clothes. Wang Lei seemed to be of around the same age as her and who right now, looked deeply concerned about his girlfriend's stress.

"I apologize that we have to ask you some questions. I know that you are quite in a state of shock with a sudden death here. But the sooner we get our answers, the sooner the situation will be clear and you will be allowed to go home. I hope you understand our situation," Jia tried to placate them.

Wang Lei helplessly nodded. "I am fine but I am just worried about Yue…"

He patted her hands reassuringly. "We can go home after this, Yue."

"I really don't want to be here anymore, Lei…I feel sick," Wu Yue was close to bursting into tears. She removed her glasses and wiped her eyes again. "Did you see how she was…"

"Just some questions and we are done, I promise."

Jia genuinely appreciated the young man's cooperation.

Wu Yue finally relented with his convincing, and Huojin took this chance. "Miss. Wu. Just to confirm, your seat was right in front of Mrs. Dai Yaling's, am I correct?"

She sniffled. "Yes, that's right…"

"Okay. According to the medical examiners who have done a preliminary check, Mrs. Dai had an allergic reaction with pet dander that caused an asthma attack. It was painful and she suffered extreme difficulty in breathing. We figure she must have definitely struggled for help, so we want to know if you felt anything wrong or heard some noises from your back?"

Wu Yue nodded tearfully to which Jia felt slightly taken aback.

"Can you tell us more about it?"

"Well, Lei and I were watching the movie like everybody else. Then at one point I felt an itch in my eyes so I took my glasses off when I felt a kick on my seat from the back and something grazing against my ankle. I was startled and the glasses slipped from my hands."

"Was this around half an hour ago?"

She blinked. "No. It was a little after the interval."

Jia paused.

But Mingshen said the death occurred around forty minutes ago.

"Naturally, I was annoyed and I turned back to tell the person to quiet down. But I saw a woman seemingly moving awkwardly and making some weird hand positions I think…? She didn't look so comfortable."

Jia asked, "You think? Are you not sure?"

Wu Yue hesitated. "Not really…My glasses were on the floor and when I take them off, it usually takes some time for my sight to adjust to see the nearby things clearly again. Plus it was dark in the theater so it affected my clarity even further."

"I see. What did you do then?"

"I couldn't clearly see what was happening, but I felt that she looked sick. So I asked if she was okay. She said that it was nothing much and felt only slightly breathless. But she assured me that she was fine…It was actually difficult to hear her because it was a little loud in the theater. There was a thrilling scene in the movie at that time. But I managed to confirm that she was okay."

She trembled, thinking back on it. "I-I really didn't think that it was so serious…and she said the same too…So, I-I…"

Jia smiled and gently said, "It's okay, Miss. Wu. Nobody is blaming you so please rest assured. We just want to gather what happened."

Wang Lei hugged her shoulders too. "Yes, yes, Yue. You don't have to feel guilty."

After a pause, Huojin asked him, "Did you notice this confusion too?"

He shook his head. "I didn't. When Yue's glasses fell, I switched on my phone's flashlight and started searching for it on the floor. I found it and I think…some hairpins were there as well…"

"Oh yes," Wu Yue said, "I remember. I think it was the hair pins that grazed against my ankle. When Lei told me he found some hair pins on the floor, I thought it might belong to the woman from the back. We decided to give it back to her after the movie was over."

Wang Lei nodded. "Yeah the pins were quite at an odd place near our seats. It was hard moving the phone at that angle. I couldn't quite grab them."

"Apart from seeing the hairpins, you didn't hear the sound of a bag falling?"

She thought about it but disagreed. "No. As I said, it was loud in the theater, so I didn't hear any such sound."

"Did you see what her son was doing when she was sick? The man beside her."

Wu Yue blinked. "A man? Who?"

"Mr. Dai Fengge. He is her son. He was on the seat to her right."

Wu Yue furrowed her brows and seemed as if she was trying to recall something. "My sight was a bit unclear, but I am pretty sure that the left - I mean that's my left - the woman's right side seat was…I guess there was the silhouette of a little boy? I am not sure if I saw an adult seated."

Jia and Huojin slightly widened their eyes. "Her son wasn't there when you turned around?"

Wu Yue took an extra moment to think. "Yeah. I think from the corner of my eyes, I saw a woman on the seat next to the chair where the boy was, but there was no man to the immediate right side of the woman."

That puzzled Jia.

Where was Dai Fengge when his mother got an asthma attack?

Huojin asked, "Is that everything you remember?"

Wang Lei nodded and so did Wu Yue.

Jia enquired. "Are you sure about the timing? That you saw Mrs. Dai in a precarious condition a little after the interval and not during the end of the movie?"

"Yeah," She sniffled and asked, "Now can we please leave? To be honest, I recently lost my grandma. We were very close…So this death and all this investigation is really making me uncomfortable…"

Wang Lei sadly smiled. "She is right. Actually, I brought her to this movie to take her mind off her grandmother's demise and cheer her up a little. But then this happened…"

Jia and Huojin gave them a solemn nod. "Our deepest condolences. May your grandmother's soul rest in peace. You can go now. But we might need your help with some more answers in the future, so we hope you will cooperate."

"We will."

After they left, Huojin was quick to point out. "So there was some time in between where Dai Fengge wasn't in his seat and took off outside the theater."

Jia touched her chin in thought. "Yeah...But how is it that he still didn't notice that anything was wrong when he returned to his seat? And how come the timing doesn't add up?"

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