Shirtless

"Dr Harris!"

Priscilla frowned and turned to see who had called her just outside the hospital. She wasn't used to such things so she was extra cautious. Two men were rushing towards her as she was about to scan her ID.

"Dr Harris," the thinner one said breathlessly and held up his badge, "I'm detective Mark and this is my partner Ashton. We want to ask you a few questions."

Priscilla glanced at Mark and then at Ashton before nodding, "you want to ask me questions here? We could go in."

She was vaguely aware of why they were here after all Donald had told her about Clair's dead boyfriend a week ago. She was even surprised when the police didn't come looking for her a day or two after.

Mark shook his head. "It will be quick. We want to ask you a few questions about Dr Dwayne."

Priscilla nodded to urge him on.

The detective explained the case to her and why they think that Donald is a suspect. Priscilla had a calm look through it all and only nodded at intervals to show that she was indeed paying attention to what they said.

"As you know Dr Donald had errr…" Mark wasn't sure how to put the following words together to not sound weird coming from him. He racked his brain and settled for the one he thought more appropriate. "He has an uncanny behaviour of picking up a lot of women. The matter with Clair especially having her boyfriend murdered just after Dr Dwayne threatened to have him killed makes him a suspect."

"What are your questions, detective?" Priscilla was getting impatient with the long explanation, "I'm a busy woman."

"You've been friends with him for a while and we want to know if he has shown any violent tendencies anytime he fails to get a woman he wants." Mark asked.

"No. he just picks on another woman. Next question?" Priscilla said without thinking much.

"Are you sure?" Ashton asked with a raised eyebrow. They had done their own sniffing around the hospital in the past one week and they discovered that the good doctor had an affinity for getting into a sour mood more often than not and most of this mood swings often comes from a failed attempt to get a woman into bed.

Most of the gossips pointed their fingers at Dr Harris while most of the workers—especially the cleaners—claimed it had to do with some of the nurses. According to the information they were able to gather, the doctor had been seen taking out most of the female hospital staff members more often than not.

Of course among the employees no one would admit that they were at the receiving end. The general conclusion they arrived at was that Dr Dwayne might have a violent tendency in him which further strengthened their suspicions.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Priscilla shot a look at Ashton making him lower his eyes. "If you have anything you want to say then say it to my face!"

"Alright," Ashton straightened his body. Mark shook his head and made to interrupt his colleague but Priscilla shot him a glare and he swallowed his words. "I think you're covering for Dr Dwayne given the colourful history that exists between the both of you."

"Colourful history? Can you elaborate on that?"

Mark nudged Ashton but he just ignored the subtle hint to stop his stunt. "We know that you two were a bit of an item back in college days. You were in a relationship."

Priscilla tilted her head a bit and smiled. That smile was eerie and dangerous. It carried a hint of killing intent that made Mark swallow hard. "That and you digging into my private life makes me want to do some nasty things to you.

"I'm warning you to stay away from me from now on!"

She left them after giving them death glares one at a time. Mark would have been furious at his friend but he held himself in. he only quietly asked, "Why did you bring that up?"

Ashton shrugged, "I wanted to test her reaction and from what I see I think I was right. She knows something."

"Let's leave."

….

Priscilla entered the hospital building shortly after. She didn't have much to do here today. She only dropped by to check on most of the patient she had been working with especially the patient with cerebral atrophy.

She was doing much better than a week ago. She ran some tests and wrote some prescription before leaving. She had to drop by the military HQ—her new place of work.

She had frequented the HQ for the past one week mostly because she enjoyed the company of the soldiers and their fun way of doing things. She loved watching their training sessions.

She arrived at the military HQ at 10:35a.m. She went over to the training centre. Richard had given her the schedule last week telling her which training centre they'll be at on each day for the entire month.

She went towards section 17. On her way she just glanced at the wall silently. Somehow she knew that Maya was watching her closely just like she was watching every single room in the military HQ. she shook her head and walked on. She passed by a few soldiers with toned abs and body glistening with sweat.

She realised that she hadn't seen Richard take off his shirt to train. Other team members would do it but not him. He made sure that his shirt was always on no matter how sweaty he was. Somehow she felt like she really wanted to see his body without a shirt…

She snapped out of her thoughts and pushed the door open. The others turned to face her for a brief period before looking away. Her presence had been accepted already so they didn't mind too much. She smiled at a few soldiers she was familiar with. Pauline was practicing with the Punch Thrower.

She punched repeatedly sending the small pointer on the screen rotating several angles. She looked to the right and saw Richard with his shirt on as usual. She waved at him and he offered a smile.