Double Sided

Detective Sean Maguire stands atop his apartment building peering over the edge at the

busy Dublin traffic below. It would be so easy for him to just end it all, join his wife and

daughter wherever they were now. If there even was a place. Sighing, he takes a step back

dragging his hands over his face. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t leave knowing whoever killed

his family was still out there, and he wouldn’t be able to rest if he knew he could’ve brought this

man to justice.

The detective takes the stairs down to the lobby and across the street to his office. After

hours of going over all the evidence he still had nothing. Not one lead nor clue as to how the

killer entered the house without a trace or sound or why he wasn’t murdered along with them.

That’s the part that disturbed and confused him the most. Why not kill him? Why kill his family

and leave him sleeping at his desk in the dining room? It didn’t make any sense. Maybe someone

wanted to hurt him more than death. Maybe they wanted to make him suffer. But who? All the

cases he’d ever worked on and solved had never ended with any bad blood. At least not to his

knowledge. Feeling defeated and tired with grief Mr. Maguire heads home for the night. After

grabbing a bottle of Brandy from the liquor store he takes a seat in his bedroom across from the

bed where he’d found his beloved wife dead in, and pours him self a glass.

The bed feels damp as Sean awakes with a pounding headache. He doesn’t remember

getting into bed but considering the bottle beside him is half empty its no surprise. Opening his
eyes to the harsh sunlight streaming through the window he turns his head and screams. A body

lays next to him soaked with blood, dead. He scrambles away and falls to floor. Detective

Maguire has seen his fair share of dead bodies but waking up next to one was not something he

was preprepared for. Shaking, he try’s to regain somewhat of his composure and moves closer to

the bed to get a better look. The deceased appeared to be a man in his late 30s with a deep slash

across his neck. There were no further injuries visible or sign of any struggle. Feeling ill from his

hangover and the scene before him, Sean takes a step back and slumps into a chair, scared,

worried and confused. “How could this happen” again he thought to himself, was this the same

man who killed Molly and Jane? If so why, what did I do to this person to make them hate me

this much? There was one thing that Sean had come to terms with while staring at the mysterious

mans pale, lifeless face. He couldn’t tell anyone about this until he knew more about what had

happened, unless he wanted to wind up being the accused. Especially after his family’s death, it

didn’t make for a good image. It was up to him. He puts on some gloves and searches the body.

After looking through every pocket in his jacket and jeans all he finds is a key card cover in

blood. It was for the same hospital where his wife worked as a nurse. At first he almost feels

hopeful but as he goes to wipe the blood off the card he finds that is has seeped under the

laminate making all other valuable information unreadable. He takes another look at the body, it

couldn’t sit there for much longer. In the end he decides to roll the body onto a tarp, being careful

as not to ruin any other possible evidence and drags him into his bathtub filled with ice that he

fills with ice.

A cup of coffee and 20 minutes later Sean walks through the hospital doors to the front

desk. The receptionist who was a friend of molly’s and gives him a sad smile “ hi Sean, how’re
you doing?” He sighs and tries to smile in return “ Im doing better, it's been tough but I'm

starting to get back into my routine. how about you Dianne?” Dianne looks down shaking her

head “ its been hard on on all of the staff, I still cant really believe she’s gone… its good to here

your doing better though detective, what can I do for you today?” she asks “ i’m looking for a

man who works here, he has black curly hair, about 6 feet tall, around my age. Anyone you can

think of who would match that description?” He asks. She thinks on it it for a moment “ I’ve

seen a couple guys that work here with black hair but they're quite young, Im not familiar with

the staff in the other departments either sorry. If you don’t mind my asking, is this apart of an

investigation?” the detective nods “ its more research than investigation. Do you think I could

maybe have a look through your staff directory files, see if I can find a match?” Sean asked

sincerely. “why of course you can, saves me from having to go through those treacherous files.”

She leads him to the filing room and he wastes no time getting to work. After 2 hours he finally

finds what he’s looking for. Jodie Byrnes pathologist, St. James hospital. Current living address:

1485 Shrewbury Lane, Dublin. He quickly jots down the information and returns the file making

sure to thank Molly on the way out.

Mr. Maguire stops at home quickly to grab his car and 30 minutes later he sits outside

Jodie Byrnes house. From the street the wealthy house appears empty. It's not a family home and

it appears to only have one resident. He waits in his car making sure no one is watching before

he slips out and goes up to the door. Mail sits on the doorstep and the door to his expectations is

locked. Luckily a simple locked door is no match for the detective and he’s in within a couple

minutes. He steps into an open space living room and kitchen with expensive furnishing and
limited nick knacks. Before heading to the second floor he checks all the rooms downstairs but

only discovers 2 closets, a bathroom, laundry room and garage.

Finding nothing of interest he head upstairs and finds 2 doors. The one on his right is

open to a bedroom and master bathroom but the one to his left is curiously pad locked. He steps

closer to inspect the door on the left and its lock. “Why padlock a door in your own home?” he

mumbled to himself. It didn’t make any sense. Puzzling over it he tries the lock to see if maybe

it’ll open. Unfortunately Mr. Brynes is no idiot, the lock doesn't budge. Letting out an

exasperated groan detective Maguire sets off to find the key. Just as he’s about to go downstairs,

he spots an open drawer in the bedroom across the hall. Bingo. He rushes to see what’s inside but

to his dismay only finds socks. Frustration and anger take over and he begins throwing all the

socks out of the drawer until something shiny at the bottom catches his eye. A key. “ha!” He yells

grabbing the key and rushing to the paddock. It opens with a click and Sean takes in a deep

breath before opening the door. The air immediately leaves him as he sees whats before him.

Inside the cluttered room, taped in the centre of the back wall is a picture of himself surrounded

by smaller shots, newspaper scrapes and notes. His eyes search the giant wall and a chill seeps

into his spine. It was all evidence. Moments he cant remember living, actions he has no

recollection of slap him back in the face. This was not the detective Sean Maguire he thought

himself to be. This was another version of himself. A different side. Clearly a much more

disturbed and unfathomable side.

and daughters murder, cases from years ago he never solved, and the dead man in his bed. Jodie

Byrnes the pathologist. He’d been onto Sean this whole time. Somehow this man found

something that interested him enough to begin an investigation of his own. It must have been one

of the Autopsies he preformed. He must have found something. Even in Seans own head there

was only one place it all lead back to. Him. All the sudden his breaths become laboured and

everything feels like it's closing in on him. He stumbles from the room, down the stairs and out

into the night, gasping for air with tears in his eyes. Somehow he drives to his apartment feeling

nothing and everything all at once. The world is a blur as he makes his way up the stairs to the

roof of his apartment and he doesn’t know what he’s doing until he opens the door and steps out

into the cold night air.

Once again detective Sean Maguire finds himself standing on the edge of the roof, peering down

at the street below. But this time he doesn't step back.