The temperature felt even lower in the only interrogation room at the police station. The white walls with a cyan blue stripe at the bottom made Amélie think of a refrigerator with the lights off. 

With a soft sigh, she sat at the wide metal table, facing away from the rectangular smoked glass window. If this were a real interrogation, other detectives—perhaps even the captain—, would be watching them through that glass.

The clock on the wall to her left ticked almost imperceptibly, like in a hypnosis session. Amélie pressed one of the buttons under the table as Hector instructed, turning on the lamp hanging above the center of the metal surface.

Hector sat in the reclining chair across from her, his shoulders resting on the backrest. The muscles on his face seemed more relaxed since she told Dr. Go that she also wanted to see him in the interrogation room for the supposed chat. It was as if a weight had lifted from his shoulders.

“Okay, Zhou. I'll answer your questionnaire… but…” He leaned over the table with his arms on the metal, his gaze fixed on hers. “In return, could you explain to me why Winnie seems to hate me?”

One of the doctor's eyebrows arched slightly.

“You really don't remember?”

A crease formed between the detective's eyebrows.

“Remember what? Are we already talking about the day I was at the real estate agency? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to remember.”

“I'm talking about Winnie not getting on with you. ” Amélie leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs under the table. “Let's go back a few years. What were you like in high school, Detective Brown?”

“Why do I feel like I'm talking to my therapist?”

Amélie felt like laughing because at that moment she really was analyzing him as if he were a patient. So she kept her gaze locked onto his, waiting for a serious response to her question.

Hector pondered silently. Only a few minutes had passed while they stared at each other, but under the piercing gaze of the doctor, he felt like he had been there for hours—in a torturous session to make him confess to a crime. He cleared his throat, feeling a cold drop of sweat run down his temples.

Although he felt intimidated by the sagacity in those whiskey-colored eyes, he had to admit: the short eyelids over the penetrating gaze gave the woman a sexy air in any situation. And once again, he wondered what had happened in the encounter between Na-moo and her to make him so grumpy on the doctor's first day at work.

It was hard to imagine a bad date with a woman like her… Though, Na-moo didn't seem to look at his colleague with the same humor as before. Maybe something had happened between them at the get-together, something that Hector might have missed, just like the lunch between his partner and Dr. Go because he was focused on Winnie.

He sighed heavily.

“You could say that my school days were good for me. I was always popular with the ladies, and that's why I don't understand what's wrong with Winnie. Does she like guys like Na-moo, tall and with a saintly face? Damn it” Hector pouted. “I should have grown another five or seven centimeters, at least!”

Amélie couldn't hold back her laughter. She wouldn't say that looking at Na-moo made women think he looked like a saint… in fact, the harmony between his angular and beautiful face and his sculpted body had the opposite effect at first sight…

The hairs on her arm bristled when she bumped into the cold worktop. She cleared her throat and opened the agenda she was carrying, feeling her cheeks flush.

Ugh, a terrible time to wander with improper thoughts. Focus, Zhou. Focus, she mumbled quietly to herself before turning her attention back to Hector.

“Did you get good grades?” She couldn't broach the subject directly; Winnie would kill her if she told Hector that Winnie didn't like him precisely because she did. Or, as Winnie preferred to deceive herself, because she was once a silly teenager who liked him.

Every story had two sides, and Amélie always avoided judging at first sight or based on what others told her. She liked to draw her own conclusions. She knew Winnie's feelings and needed to hear Hector's version of the shared history between them in the past.

“Me? No.” Hector leaned his elbow on the table with a mournful sigh. “I almost flunked. If it weren't for a generous girl, I wouldn't have even graduated.”

“Was she your girlfriend?”

“The girl? No, no. I think she felt sorry for me, or thought I was a dumb loser, so she did my homework.”

“Did you exploit her? Did you bully her?”

“What? Why would I do that to a girl? And such a nice one?! No, never! She offered to help me, so I wouldn't fail, and I accepted, that's all.” Hector retorted in outrage. “Some people teased her because of her weight, but I never thought that was cool. Damn it, I dumped so many girls because of that, because they spoke badly of her when they saw she was helping me!”

“Why do you think that girl did that? Why do you think she helped you?”

“I think she felt sorry for me because her IQ was higher than mine, so she wanted to make me like studying. But I didn't have free time after school, you know how it is, right?” the detective moved his right eye in a lecherous wink.

Although he didn't mention the “occupation” that took up his time after school, Amélie knew exactly what it was. Winnie had told her.

“I was a busy guy, and she did my homework without asking for anything in return, so I needed to thank her in some way, thus I dealt with the people who bullied her. Discreetly, of course.”

“Did you ever tell her about the ‘discreet’ help?”

“No… as I said, she was a nice girl. Very kind. She’d be upset if she knew I was threatening people to stop bullying her.”

Amélie tilted her head to the side and gazed deeply at him. The man swallowed hard, pulling at his shirt collar, his eyes moving quickly in an attempt to avoid meeting the doctor's gaze again. And despite his elusive behavior, Hector seemed to be telling the truth about his past. That was his version of events. Contrary to what Winnie thought, he never saw her help as an abuse of kindness or as a way to mock her.

If Amélie revealed that Dr. Winnie Brown used to be in love with him, Hector would collapse on the floor.

“Winnie didn't see you for the first time at Mints Bar.”

“No?”

“You went to school together.”

“No way!”

“That nice and kind girl you mentioned, the one who helped you not fail and go out to enjoy your flings, was Winnie. Dr. Winnie Brown. And my friend has a different version of this story. Quite different, in fact,” she emphasized.

“What?!” His eyes bulged so much they seemed ready to leap onto the metal surface. “You're not joking about this, are you?”

“No. You never associated the name with the person?”

“To be honest, I never knew her name. Everyone called her ‘chubby’, and I only knew the initials on the locker she used. WB.” Hector ran his long fingers through his hair, flabbergasted. “I called her ‘B’… I knew the ‘B’ stood for Brown, but there were at least seven Browns in the same year as me back then!”

“Well, I wasn't going to tell you this, but Winnie believes you used her. Now that you know why my friend is giving you the cold shoulder, can we get back to the Harrison case?”

“Of course… Goddamned!... What do I do to clear things up with her? I feel bad for not recognizing her right away, like… a total jerk! Winnie has always been beautiful, even if people couldn't see it. Back then, I never tried to get close romantically because I believed that in the judgments of that smart girl I was a dumb loser worth pitying.”

Amélie clasped her hands together and let out a long sigh. She wanted to help him, but she couldn't do more than she already had; she had revealed enough. Besides, time was passing, and they needed to focus on the work they had to do.

“Okay, Detective Brown. I need you to stay focused on me. Forget about Winnie for now; I'm sure you'll find a way to approach the subject when you meet her again.”

He took a deep breath, rubbing his hands on his forehead. The perplexed expression remained on his features as he answered Amélie's questions. His body was in the small interrogation room, but his mind seemed to float back to Winnie of the past and the present.

And when Amélie realized that she wouldn't get anything else out of Hector, she dismissed him and took the phone from her skirt pocket. She searched for her friend's number without thinking twice.

As soon as Winnie's tired voice greeted her, Amélie closed her eyes. Maybe she wouldn't have time to talk to Dr. Go after that call, as she might be the next body treated by the doctor in the morgue.