For 10 minutes of my life... I stopped thinking. I stopped worrying, I stopped over analysing, I just stopped everything. How could a man so brave, and imperfect be taken right before my eyes? It was absurd. Monstrous. I was ashamed.

"Allora... I'm so sorry." That's all Dr Betah could say as she came into my dad's ward. I bit my lip and nodded. I had an irrational fear of crying in front of people but I guess that was just me.
"If there is any way-"
"Find Martha." I spat the words out before Betah could finish.
"Martha? Why? What has she-"
"Look at him." I didn't need to say anything else. I was furious.
"How can you stand there, saying you're sorry without even realising the murderer was right beneath your feet? Walking these antiseptic smelling halls? Acting as a friend the whole time? What the hell happened?"

"I'm- I don't know." Her words had been take from her. Robbed, more like.
"We have to find her. I want to find her. Now." I was adamant and compelling.
"Of course." Dr Betah put a determined expression on her face and turned on her heels. As she was leaving she told me to, "Meet me in the car park in 15 minutes." She knew I wanted to spend time with father. And so I did.

"This shouldn't have happened to you." I took the first step,
"It shouldn't have happened to any of us; the fire, the investigation, the injuries... the death. This is not your fault. That stupid idiot was envious and look where her envy has led everyone.. Don't you worry, she'll be caught and she'll pay for her crimes. I won't let her run away too far... I'm merely giving her a head start. Maybe you'd be proud of me... maybe not. But I'm proud at how long you fought. You fought until all your enquiries were fulfilled and no longer. As you always said you were the 'White Wizard' that had to 'fulfill his duty.' I hope your safe now... safe from humans and harm. I always knew you believed in a God and now you can join him and see His Kingdom for yourself. I hope you have a safe journey. I'll pray to you soon."
With tears sweeping across his forehead, I kissed him gently and thereafter departed to the car park. There I saw Dr Betah stand next to her blue Audi in the staff reserved parking space.
"Ready?" She tried to make the situation easier by pretending I hadn't seen my father for the last time.
"Ready." I replied. We got in the car and drove.

***

I spent half an hour of that drive in mourning and to collect my thoughts. It didn't even occur to me that it was impossible to know where Martha was but Dr Betah seemed to know the way. Her face retook it's usual frown and pierced lips while wrinkles lined her cheekbones and forehead. Her hands were firmly gripped onto the steering wheel and she was almost leaning forward with anticipation. Her musky grey hair was up in a tight bun and she wore her usual white lab coat.
"Dr Betah... how do you know where you are going?" I don't recall what stage I removed myself from my thoughts.
"Each Doctor and Nurse must be able to find each other in an emergency. What better way is there than 'Find Friends' on the good old iPhone?
I was astounded to find she actually was using the so called app. Her phone was in a cup holder and she was occasionally monitoring the movements of the orange dot labelled Martha.
"She's close." I blatantly observed.
"Yes she is." We took a sharp right into a village and a slight left past an old farm. After this was countryside for a near 20 minutes. I looked at the phone and found we were closing in on the dot fast.

"Is she slowing down?" I deciphered,
"Yes, I think she is." Dr Betah gave a slight boost on the accelerate. We turned down a rock strewn road toward another old farm. This one, however, was inhabited because there were two cars on the drive and lights on in the windows. It was a grand barn conversion with 3 stories and brick coloured red. The Windows had green shutters on them and the driveway consisted of badly done concrete slabs. The house was 5 land rovers next-to-each-other-wide and there was a double garage in front of the cars.

Dr Betah got out of the car and hurried towards the third parked vehicle. I followed slowly because the front door was opening. Martha's car flew open and she almost jumped out, pistol at the ready.
"Really? A gun? Come on!" I scoffed at the unrealism of the situation. What were we, in a film or something? But then I realised some people did have defense methods. And Martha was one of those people.
"Don't even think about it." She warned Dr Betah and turned the gun on her. As quick as a slap she swiped and knocked the gun out of her hands. With her other hand that was hidden, she signaled me to phone the police. I rummaged through my bag and drew out my phone.
"Allora, get in the car." Dr Betah was surprisingly calm and she said this without moving eye contact from Martha. The person who opened the front door advanced slowly and weapon less towards Martha.
"Martha, what is going on?" The man said in a low rumble.
"I've done something. Something I'm not proud of." She maybe a killer... but at least she was honest.
"Is this your husband, Martha? I've never met your family before." Dr Betah smiled.
"Leave my family out of this." She blocked her husband as if to defend him. I suddenly remembered to call the police and unobviously dialled the number. I put the voice on speaker but at a low volume so it didn't look like I was making the call.
"Emergency services, what do you enquire?" A female voice spoke from a script.
"Police." I said calmly.
"What is the issue?" The female voice said distractedly,
"A wanted criminal has been caught." I said in more of a hurry.
"And your location?"
"We're-"

"Hey!" The door swung open and a boy slightly than I was stopped my sentence. Without a word he flung it to the back seat and grabbed my arm.
"Ahh. Allora. I was wondering where you were." Martha seemed amused at my appearance.
"How could you? How could you kill him?" It was foolish of me to only come up with this.
"I've already told you... it was envy." Martha's son looked slightly surprised at this response. She sighed and dropped her hands.
"I suppose it's story time." Once again, she began her side of the story.

"Once I found out your father was married to a woman he hadn't known as long as me I felt hurt. It was envy... but more of pain. He was too kind to me and I took it for granted. It was foolish of me. I waited and lay low as to make sure he'd forget about me. I tried to start a new life myself and so I got a new job and found a new husband. We were perfect for each other. He trusted and supported me and I returned the feelings. It was after we got married I told him what had happened. He too was hurt and slightly envious as he had the right to be... but none the less he wanted to help me. He wanted to see me smile again. 16 years later from that day, after I gave birth to Jakon here, I snuck into your house while everyone was out and turned on all the switches. Simple."
"Wait.." I put my hand up to pronounce my confusion,
"We had an alarm... how can switches start a fire and WHEN DID YOU KNOW WHEN WE WERE OUT?"

Martha smiled that two faced smile.
"The alarm was easy to deactivate. You just take the batteries out of it. Oh, and by the way it was a very low probability that your parents worked at home and I knew that you would be at school. You have very hard working, intelligent parents. There was no way they worked at home. A switch is easy to cause a fire. You look at it and think 'oh I forgot to turn it off' and you turn it off... but you miss one. Something like... the straighteners, the electric blanket... everything in your room to make you a suspect."
"What is wrong with you?" I was dumbfounded at her selfishness.
"Life, Allora, is a gift. We take advantage of it." She took her child's hand.
"Thanks for the visit. We'll see you around." She got in her car with her husband and nudged her child into the back. They drove away from us down the rock strewn path and escaped once again.

That was until 5 police cars roared out of the main road and blocked their exit. 3 of them got out of the car and raised their weapons at the opposition's car. They demanded that everyone got out and surrendered. Martha very wisely didn't hesitate and raised her arms with discontent. Her son, Jakon was looking fiercely at me as he too raised his arms with surrender. Martha's husband however, simply stood there without any remark. The trio were hastily pushed into the car and the doors were locked behind them. 2 policemen guarded the car while the third came to speak to Dr Betah and I.

"Thank you for capturing them. Martha and her husband have been wanted for quite a long time now. 5 years in prison will do them well, I assure you." The policeman turned directly to me and said, "We are sorry for your loss. The government have informed us that they will be paying for your mother's medical treatment and both of your support. They will also pay for your education as your mother has limited ability." He nodded with regard and returned to his companions.
"Now what?" I turned towards Dr Betah who was looking relieved.
"Now... we go home."
"But my mother's in hospital?" I didn't know for how much longer she was required to remain there.
"I forgot to tell you that it was only for two more weeks. After that... you can return home with her." 

I had forgotten what happiness had felt like.