Doctor Demon

"Now this is just a procedure," Jina stated, putting forward the picture of a tan skinned woman with dark hair on the desk. The woman in the pictures was in her late twenties with a pleasant smile but haggard eyes.

"Who is this?" she asked.

​​

"That's my late daughter-in-law," Suki said, faking a tear. "Seo Yujin. She was so filial…"

"You old hag!" the ghost behind her cursed. "You put me through hell! Filial? You used to curse me everyday, treating me worse than a dog! You claimed that I was disobedient when I did nothing but obey you!"

Jina did not give any indication that she heard the ghost but kept her gaze on Suki, who was now bawling.

"My poor Yujin!" she cried. "My dear daughter-in-law! It was as if she and my son got married just yesterday! They were so happy together…"

"Sujin filed many domestic violence cases against you though," Jina pointed out. "Her file clearly states that she took back the case after being pressured by the family. I'm guessing her parents and your son were the ones who told her to do that."

"She was quite sensitive," Suki claimed. "A very good girl but sensitive, ya know. I only scolded her a few times and she went running to the police! There were no bruises on her body either. So how can it be domestic violence?"

"Lying bitch!" Yujin yelled. "There were many bruises on my body but your damn son wouldn't let me go to the hospital! You once chased me with a knife all because your soup was a little burnt!"

She was sobbing hard, unable to take in the frustration. The old woman would not even let her rest in peace because she returned as a hapless ghost who could only watch as her evil mother-in-law spewed nonsense.

"So you're saying that the caller is a liar?" Jina asked.

"Yes!" Suki claimed. "A big fat liar!"

"Tell us about your whereabouts this morning," Jina ordered.

"I woke up around 7 o'clock and prepared breakfast for my family," she narrated. "My son went off to work early so it was just me and my daughter-in-law. I prepared cucumber soup, toast, pancakes and omelette for the two of us. Then around 8:30 AM, I left the house to visit the school where I used to work. It's the time of the month when I visit there to pick up the pension."

"Oh, so you had breakfast before leaving?" Jina asked.

"Yes," Suki replied.

"Do you have diabetes or any other disease?"

"No!" Suki said. "I'm as healthy as a horse."

"Then how come you were choking on rice balls at the subway?" Jina questioned her, raising her eyebrows. The old woman was taken aback and cleared her throat.

"You had toast, cucumber soup, pancakes and omelette before leaving home and yet, barely an hour later, you were stuffing rice balls in your mouth," Jina said, putting the images of the CCTV camera in front of her. "The police officers who took you in also gave me these photos. This here.."

She pointed at one of the pictures where the old woman was seen eating numerous rice balls.

"And at this one," Jina said, pointing at another picture where the old woman was seen choking. "You choked on your food and fortunately, a doctor was there to save you."

Suki was now sweating. "I-I was just snacking," she claimed.

"Snacking like a pig?" Jina scoffed. "Eating so fast as if you had been starving all morning! You even choked. Either it means, you are diabetic and need constant snacks to control your sugar levels. Or, you didn't eat all morning because of some reason even though you claimed that you ate breakfast with your 'filial' daughter-in-law. What's the truth?"

"I don't know!" Suki hissed. "She must have poisoned herself and-"

"Poison?" Jina frowned. "I didn't mention any poison. How did you know your daughter-in-law was poisoned to death?"

Suki was now sweating profusely but Jina was on attack mode. Her smile was gone, replaced by a terrifying gleam.

"You prepared breakfast for your daughter-in-law, mixing poison into it," she stated. "Since the food was poisoned, you didn't eat it but already prepared rice balls for yourself so that you can eat on the train. When your daughter-in-law complained about stomach pains, you went outside under the pretext of fetching a doctor whereas in reality, you boarded a train to go to your old workplace and collect your remaining pension. You knew that the police would come after you so you took the poison vial with you, thinking that you'd discard it somewhere. Upon checking your bag, we found the vial and have already sent it to the lab to check it against the contents in your daughter-in-law's stomach."

Suki was trembling but Jina was not done with her.

"After you boarded the train, you thought you'd take the money from your pension and run away to another city. There was hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of pension money because you worked at a government school for forty years. Everything was going smoothly for you."

"Why would I kill my precious daughter-in-law?" Suki wept. "She was the love of me son's life-"

"Your daughter-in-law was from a poor background," Jina pressed. "You killed her because you wanted to get your son married to a richer family who would give you a lot of dowry. Once the case cooled down, you planned to summon your son to you and would have gotten him married to the daughter of an old acquaintance. Your call logs show several such communications made to her. If we question her, I'm sure we'll find out the truth. So might as well confess now and spare yourself the humiliation."

The old woman's hands were shaking and she was deranged. Her planning was going on perfectly! She could have easily escaped the city with the money and gotten her son married to a better family. But that one call ruined her plans!

"If you confess, I can try to push for your sentence to be reduced," Jina offered. "But if you keep lying, the punishment will be severe. You've left too many clues behind."

She took out a paper from her file and pushed it forward. Putting a pen in front of the old woman, she urged, "Sign the confession and you can reduce your sentence."

"How many years will I get?" Suki asked, feeling desperate.

"The sentence is a minimum of ten years but I can push the prosecution to give you five years in you confess," Jina shrugged. Suki thought for a while before hastily picking up the pen to sign it. She would be out after five years so it would pass by in a blink.

"Bitch!" the ghost screamed. "I lose my life and she gets only five years? This is injustice! I wanna kill her-"

The ghost was yelling and cursing but her culprit could not hear nor see her. The old woman was relieved that the punishment was not death.

Jina, however, had something more to say.

"In my experience, it's not the punishment of the murder which is worse," she said out loud. "It's the curse of the dead which can be worse than jail."

"What do you mean?" Suki hissed. Jina packed up her things and looked directly at the woman.

"You might have managed to get your jail time reduced," she began. "But your punishment is not limited to that. You better hope your daughter-in-law is truly resting because imagine what she would do if she came back from the grave. I've heard that the people who die in anger, come back as spirits to haunt their culprits and drive them insane. These five years may pass in a blink but the curse your daughter-in-law is giving you from the grave will last you at least fifty lifetimes."

Suki was not understanding what the detective said but the ghost behind her was listening with complete attention and to the latter's surprise, Jina winked at her before leaving.

Am I imagining things? Yujin wondered but did not dwell on it much. The detective had given her an idea to torment this lady into madness.

Suki was still muttering under her breath when the lights flickered above her head. At first she did not notice but the light kept on flickering, annoying her.

"Someone fix this!" she yelled but there was no one outside. Am I alone? She realized.

Smiling in glee, she slowly walked towards the door and tried to open it. To her dismay, it was locked.

"Damn cops!" she exclaimed and was returning to her seat when the chair was pulled aside by an invisible force.

"AHHH!" Suki shrieked and fell back, cowering against the wall. The chair was still for a moment before it moved on its own, being pushed and pulled aside.

The old woman rushed to the door and banged on it.

"HELP!" she yelled "HE-"

Her mouth was covered by unseen hands, pushing her back on the floor, almost throttling her. Suki's eyes widened in shock as the invisible ghost towered over her, scaring her to death.

"I'll never leave you alone!" the ghost swore. "I'll haunt your dreams every night, never letting you live in peace. You'll spend the rest of your life living under my terror!"

Suki tried to scream but her voice was muffled. No one could hear her being tortured in the interrogation room, not even the guards who were stationed right outside. They went on doing their business, guarding the door but not realizing why the old woman had gone completely silent.

After a few hours, when the police officers came to pick up the old woman, they were surprised to see that she had gone completely quiet. She obediently came with them, her mind traumatized and heart in fear. But the astonishing thing was, her once straight back was now bent. She could not stand up straight at all.

"What happened to her?" Jiwoon asked Jina as they watched the old woman being transported by the officers. She was being transferred to another jail where she would await her trial.

Jina, who saw the ghost latched onto the old woman's back, simply said, "She just couldn't take the burden of her sins."

Jiwoon was confused but Jina went back to her work, ready to yell at more rookies for mixing up the files again.