Free Clouded Rainbow by Jonathan Sturak

work, he reverted to good old fashioned ink on paper instead of a sometimes-unreliable Personal Digital Assistant. As he walked to Lois’ side, his first request was not to look at her unconsciousness body, but her personal belongings retrieved with her lifeless frame. Nurse Ann’s quick steps, however, were tough to persuade as he followed the nurse to the woman they knew only as Jane Doe.
    “She arrived in the E.R. last night badly injured from the crash on the bridge. It was about ten o’clock. The interesting thing is we don’t know who she is. No identification. She was pulled out of the water. Must have been thrown over the bridge from impact,” Nurse Ann explained as the detective gravitated to her side.
    Her last words made her quiver, as startling flashes of speculative terror on the bridge filled her mind. Det. Cleveland remained detached and aloof. He jotted some keywords down in his notepad, “E.R. ten o’clock” and “No identification.” He underlined the latter because it was a troublesome fact of the case. He momentarily pondered his ability to solve the case, but images of his many detective awards quickly reassured him.
    If I can solve a missing child’s case, surely I can figure out who this woman is and where she belongs , he reasoned.
    Confidence was the number one asset any good detective needed and Det. Cleveland was full of it, but in a pure, respectful way—never to the point of pretentiousness.
    “What was the subject wearing when you brought her in?” Det. Cleveland asked.
    “Just what was left of her black dress. We have it with her personal items…” Nurse Ann responded, but ended the sentence short. She tried to think if Jane Doe had arrived with anything as most unknown patients were admitted with at least some identifiable items—usually enough to jumpstart a pursuing officer. However, she realized this sleeping woman entered the hospital with nothing—as if she were from an unknown world.
    Nurse Ann finished her sentence, “…actually that’s all we have for her. She had nothing else on her.”
    Det. Cleveland lifted his pen, as he had nothing to write down. He hoped the dainty nurse would’ve said that Jane Doe arrived with a purse filled with unique perfume, a movie ticket stub, or even a dry cleaning receipt. Unfortunately, she didn’t mention any such items that could possibly have shed light on the dark situation. Det. Cleveland tried to turn the bad news around and use the lack of clues as a clue itself.
    “Hmm, must have been at a party…or nice restaurant for dinner. She probably was with a date,” he deduced aloud.
    Det. Cleveland took another moment to formulate his thoughts. “A fancy dress would certainly not have pockets, which therefore only allowed a handbag for her personal belongings,” he added.
    With the jarring accident on the bridge, who knew where the small item was in the rubbish or even the water? The one thing his gut told him was that she was most likely not alone in the traveling car, as her slimming dress would most probably be to delight the senses of a date. With statistics in favor of a heterosexual relationship, he calculated the person accompanying her was male, a boyfriend or husband, and this person was most likely her chauffeur. This was his first piece to the freshly cut jigsaw puzzle.
    “Okay, thank you for the information. I have enough for some leads,” he said.
    Det. Cleveland jotted down some of his conjectures into his notepad as Nurse Ann focused on Lois. She took her warm hand and compassionately caressed the skin of Lois’ cheek. It was cold at first, but the heat from Nurse Ann quickly heated the spot. Det. Cleveland clicked his pen and put his notepad and writing utensil into his trench coat. He knew that Nurse Ann was having a moment, and he didn’t want to make eye contact. In fact, he couldn’t because he knew that keeping the nameless woman a variable in the overall equation was the best way to maintain his