CSI: Asia-Chp Finale

CHAPTER FINALE: CASE CLOSED

“S-E-R-E-N-I-T-Y, Serenity! Hah! Another triple and double-letter word! Guess I’m gonna win this time!”

“Not fair! I haven’t got enough vowels!”

The CSI members were playing Scrabble with Justin watching at the side as the point keeper. The case was finally over and Lionel was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Cliff, Gary, Cliff and the other members of the basketball team. He will be sent to a juvenile home and will remain there until he was old enough to be sent into prison to serve the rest of his life sentence. It was a bad mistake for Judith, Jonathan and Elaine to challenge the Human Library Rachel because as Justin calculated, she was leading and fast. She had the upper hand in the game and the other players were getting pretty frustrated.

“Yes! I got a word…M-O-N-S-T-E-R, Monster!” Elaine exclaimed and gestured Justin to count the marks. “So, Jude, tell me again, how exactly did you break into Lionel’s house to get that picture?”

“I didn’t exactly break into his house. I simply used the old card-in-the-slot trick and went in,” Judith said as she stared feverishly at her piece to see what word she could make. “It was a piece of cake, no biggie. Ah, I got a word…T-I-G-E-R and add an A in here which makes R-A-G-E! Yeah, baby! I’m going for the gold!”

“And Rach,” Elaine turned towards Rachel who was taking a sip from her ‘I’m No. #1’ mug. “I didn’t know that you actually were together with Jude in suspecting Lionel being the culprit!”

“Just doing my job as a Human Library,” Rachel replied. “Whatever you have discovered in the end is not entirely my business.”

“Searching someone’s house without a warrant and withholding evidence is against protocol, Jude,” Jonathan warned as he made a word Y-U-L-E-T-I-D-E on the Scrabble board. “You’re lucky I don’t demerit you or something. You too, Rach, for withholding evidence and knowledge about the case.”

“Come on, chill out, Mark David!” Judith waved his warning away, resulting to a venomous look from her head of the crime lab. “You wanna get a clue to solve the mystery, you gotta go down to the edge, man! Lighten up a little, won’t you? Besides, I did have a warrant, but it so happens that no one was at home, so there.”

“Hey, guys!” Rebecca, who wasn’t in the recreational room playing the Scrabble game, came barging into the room looking very excited indeed. “Hey, you guys remember our old friend from high school Wilkins Lim?”

“Do I?!” Elaine exclaimed, turning sharply at her. “He was the bomb in high school, and he was our ol’ Jude’s puppy love here! What about him?”

“He just inherited his grandpa’s fortune and first thing he did was fulfill his life-long dream: opening a casino! It’s called ‘Viva Kuala Lumpur’ and it has just opened tonight! We’re all invited to go!”

“Yayy! I can play Cho-Dai-Dee (a Hong Kong kind of gambling game)!!” Elaine cheered and got up with a thrice, rushing out of the recreational room with Rebecca. Justin followed suite; he didn’t mind a little gambling or two.

“Hey, not fair! I was about to win this game!” Rachel protested at first, then stared at the Scrabble board for a while before calling, “Hey, guys! Wait for me!”

That leaves Judith and Jonathan all alone in the recreational room. Judith chuckled and put away the Scrabble board and its letters. Jonathan asked curiously, “Aren’t you going to go too? I thought you’re an outlaw and wouldn’t miss gambling for the world.”

“Let’s just say I’m an outlaw who has limits,” Judith replied.

“So, uh…how did you guess that Lionel was gay?”

“Anyone who had fallen in love more than 5 times in a row would easily notice if someone else is in love, whether he’s gay or straight. And I say it through experience, if you know what I mean.”

“Then…uh…how did you know that he would, you know, want to commit suicide after he completed his revenge over all the basketball members?”

“Coz that’s what I did when I lost my 3rd boyfriend to a car accident.” Judith replied nonchalantly. “I guess I’m actually seeing a little bit of myself in him.”

“You…You what??” Jonathan was shocked. “You actually…You actually committed suicide?! I thought you said that…”

“I know—that it’s not worth it and that committing suicide is one of the stupidest things to do. Well, I didn’t know it until I actually did it. I was there in the ambulance when he said his last words and died. I was so devastated that I couldn’t think straight. I took my mother’s headache pills and stuffed them all into my gut,” Judith replied as she slipped the Scrabble box into the shelf. “And my mother had to rush me to the hospital to get my stomach pumped. Thank goodness that didn’t happen during my last worse off relationship, huh?”

“You’re not still sore about us in college, are you?” Jonathan asked, his face showing a slightly worried look.

“Of course not. Why would I?” Judith replied, her voice obviously sounding a little hurt.
“Because a person who was in love once could tell whether someone is hurt about past relationships, that’s why.”

“Look,” Judith turned abruptly towards Jonathan. “That was back in college, OK? I was the one who had that silly crush on you and I was the one to call off the relationship, remember? My mother didn’t like you, and you sure didn’t find favour in my dad’s eyes, and after calling off the relationship, I realized that there’s nothing worth for me to hold on to the old feelings anymore, alright? Sure, maybe all my feelings and sacrifices to be with you and all the sweet nothings we talk about in the phone and all that has been flushed down the toilet, but life must go on, right? It’s no biggie.”

“Hey, I know I kinda made a bad impression on your folks back then,” Jonathan tried to speak for himself, “but that time I was nervous. Guys always feel nervous when they’re asked by their girlfriends to meet the parents. I am still a little sore about it too, and I’m sorry that our relationship was a little bit blur since then…”

“Blur? It wasn’t blur, it was practically non-existing! We meet in college everyday, talk about nothing but your stupid anime and all, and then we just go home! My mom was right—you’re too young for me and you’re not in the right mind to ask me out on a date or something! Normal people would! Not you though! You just sit around marveling at your Genzomaden Saiyuki and your Gundam Wing and your Evangelion and all that! Hey, I like anime too, but that doesn’t mean I should be hanging on it 24/7! That is not normal, OK? Sometimes I myself wonder how I was able to tolerate you! Love is blind!”

“Sunimase, OK? Sunimase! I’m really, really sorry about all this. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I still remember the day you confessed your feelings to me during the Leadership Conference at Sunway Lagoon back then…I am flattered, really, I am. I just can’t help myself. I needed time to adjust to this new kind of relationship you’ve offered me and…I guess I screwed up, huh?”

“Big time,” Judith replied, folding her arms and turning her back at him.

“Well…would it be OK if we go and grab some supper then at Hard Rock Café? Just the two of us?” Jonathan asked hopefully.

“Nah, it’s not worth it. Our relationship is not worth the trouble anymore.”

“Come on, don’t be sentimental here. Please? As friends?”

Judith turned around and saw Jonathan holding out his hand with a hopeful look on his face. Judith finally sighed and said, “Oh, alright. But just as a friend. No more than that, you got me?”

“Absolutely,” Jonathan grinned.

So, after turning off the lights of the recreational room, the couple—now friends—walked out of the crime lab and out of the building to enjoy their supper.