The Music of Souls, page 11
“We were on our way back when she asked me to get some drinks from the vending machine. It was 4:15 PM when I walked back to her, I still remember it so vividly because I looked at the clock before I saw her standing far away from the other people. She was almost at the end of the platform. She looked in my direction and she was smiling. When I realised what she was planning to do it was too late to stop her. The approaching train wasn’t scheduled to stop at our platform,” I said and felt the colour draining from my face. I felt sick to my stomach and I gagged. Thankfully I managed to calm down and not throw up right there in the middle of the office.
“She jumped in front of the train,” Andrew concluded in a sad voice and I nodded, unable to stop the tears streaming down my face.
“I was running towards her when I realised what she was going to do, but I wasn’t fast enough to drag her back and keep her by my side,” I sobbed. “She was looking at me, smiling still. And the last words that left her mouth were: ‘Thank you, I am sorry’,” I managed to say. She didn’t say them very loudly, but they reached me loud and clear regardless.
“After that I can’t remember anything. It just gets dark in my head and that’s probably for the best,” I said after I had calmed down again.
“But Avalynn, you really have to stop blaming yourself, whatever happened with her wasn’t your fault,” Andrew said, his voice soft.
“If she hadn’t met me, then she wouldn’t have died,” I said. I pulled the blanket closer around me. I felt so cold and exposed.
“But you did all you could to help her. You tried to reach her,” he said, and I shook my head.
“No, I only went into action when it was too late. I gave an anonymous tip-off to the police afterwards. I reported my father for slander. They didn’t get enough evidence against him to put him behind bars. But they got enough evidence to at least remove the wrongful-death accusations from Maddy’s father’s records. He got out of prison early, but they left for India soon after. I still don’t know how my father managed to get away with it, but he is a sneaky bastard. He isn’t such a great lawyer without good reason. He knows how to manipulate people. But at least I was able to reverse a little of the wrong my father had done,” I said.
“Did they find out it was you?” he asked, and I laughed bitterly.
“Yes, and they kicked me out of the house soon after. Not that I wanted to stay with them anyway,” I said.
We sat together in silence for a while.
“Thanks for sharing your story, Avalynn. Did it help?” Andrew asked. I looked up and he had a smile on his face. He seemed like a really good person. I didn’t want to admit that I actually felt better now, so I just shrugged my shoulders.
“There is one thing though,” he said, and I looked up in surprise.
“What exactly is that melody you were talking about?” he asked.
Chapter 10
His question left me stunned. It must have slipped my mind when I was talking about the past. He’d already told me that he also had some kind of gift of his own, but if they found out now that I hadn’t revealed all the truth to them regarding the case, would that be bad for me?
His phone started ringing, interrupting the silence. He pulled it out and looked at it. Then he sighed and got up. “Excuse me for a moment.”
Quickly, he left the room. I leaned back on the couch and tried to stay calm. He is kind of like me, he is like John. I could trust him, right? I could tell him everything because he knew how it felt to be different. But I was nervous regardless.
Not to mention this situation I was in right now. What would happen to me?
A few minutes passed until Andrew came back into the room, the other two following him. My heart started beating quickly, all of a sudden I was way too scared to talk about the melodies in front of the other two.
And did the other two even know about Andrew and his gift? If they didn’t, he might not want it mentioned now.
They all sat down on the couch in front of me again.
“So Avalynn, about the melody you mentioned,” Andrew said. He looked rather annoyed now, that phone call probably hadn’t been very positive.
I eyed the other two Special Agents, trying to figure out what they thought about it, but they didn’t react at all.
“Don’t worry, they know about gifts,” Andrew added with a weak smile. I nodded. That really didn’t make me feel better, but I should probably cooperate anyway.
“I can hear people’s souls through melodies,” I whispered.
“Meaning you can identify people by their melody,” Brown stated.
“Yes,” I replied.
“So you knew who the person in the store was because you recognised his melody,” Brown continued.
“Yes,” I said again. I felt as if someone had just proved that I had been lying, even though I’d only remained silent about certain information.
“I can understand that you have been hesitant to share this, don’t feel bad about only talking about it now,” Brown said, surprising me. I didn’t expect him to be understanding about it.
“It can’t really be proven, and people would probably think you were losing your mind. It isn’t a valid explanation for most people,” Brown explained, and I nodded.
“We will treat this information confidential. You don’t have to worry about other people hearing about what you can do,” Andrew said. And I knew that I could trust them.
“That would also explain why you were walking around in those areas before,” Connor said.
“Yes, I thought I could find them that way,” I answered, feeling somewhat embarrassed about it. It sounded rather ridiculous now that I was talking about it with actual special agents who were working on the case themselves. If it was this easy, they probably would have found them by now.
“If their area of influence was smaller, you might have had a chance. But they are a big and powerful organised gang. They probably don’t stay in any area for long. But your hearing can probably help us out regardless,” Connor said.
“Right now, we have to sort out your own case though,” Andrew said and got up. “Since you have killed one of them, you are definitely on their radar now. Most likely even more than before. And we can be sure that they already know about it. They have eyes and ears everywhere.”
Great, now they might really kill me in my sleep.
“Besides, we have to go through the official channels as well,” Brown said.
“I suppose this is my cue then,” a voice said that sounded a bit too familiar. Only a fraction later his melody filled the room and I jumped up from my seat, ready to flee out of this room. The three men on the couch reacted to my sudden move and tensed up.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I shouted.
“Language, daughter. I can’t remember that I raised you to be a bad-mouthed woman. Then again, I also didn’t raise you to murder someone,” my father said. He looked exactly like I remembered him. Tall, broad, a mean stare and short black hair. He hadn’t aged even one day. His suit of course was on fleek. And he still sounded as though he was reprimanding me.
“Why are you here?” I asked, trying to keep my calm, or what was left of it, as best I could.
“I am here to take on your case, obviously. And I hope you haven’t answered a single question they asked,” he said, placing his small black case on the table between the two couches. I stayed silent.
“So you already told them everything then,” he said, sounding incredibly disappointed. And as always, that bothered me more than it should. It’s not as if I could ever live up to his expectations anyway.
“Avalynn, you aren’t supposed to answer any questions until you have a lawyer present. You should know that; you are the daughter of a lawyer after all,” he explained in an exasperated voice.
“It’s not as if you actually taught me stuff like that,” I replied in a small voice. But yes, of course I knew. He’d mentioned it more than once and the look he gave me said exactly that.
“I am sorry,” I whispered. I still had this fear of disobeying him or lying to him, just like when I was little. I still can’t comprehend how I managed to get him into trouble without feeling awfully bad about it.
“Would it be possible to talk with my client alone for a moment?” my father asked the three special agents. They looked at each other for a second.
“Sure, we’ll be in the kitchen down the hall,” Andrew said. They got up and he looked at me before leaving the room. As if to make sure I was alright with staying alone with my father. I smiled weakly and nodded. They left the room and closed the door behind them.
I turned to my father who was already eyeing me with a disgusted look on his face. I used the blanket to shield myself from his eyes as best I could.
He took his phone and tapped on it for a moment before dropping it back into this pocket.
“You look disgusting,” he stated then, settling on the couch.
“Well, I think my appearance should be the least of our worries, but thank you for reminding me,” I replied and sat down again, as far away from him as possible.
“This case does not worry me. I have won worse cases than this so I really wouldn’t be overly concerned,” he said, shooting me a reproachful look. I suppose the fact that I’d got him into trouble still didn’t sit well with him. But I was not surprised, I wouldn’t have been happy about it either.
“Okay, well, you are the lawyer here,” I said. He looked at me in silence for a while before taking out his laptop.
“What was the reason for you to be at the store?” he asked, directly moving on to business. I sighed.
“Can’t you just ask the agents for that information? I’ve already told them everything,” I replied. I really didn’t want to talk about the whole thing again.
“Avalynn,” he said in that reprimanding voice, causing me to slump down. “I am the one trying to get you out of trouble. Which means you have to cooperate with me and that means you have to answer my questions.”
I considered not saying anything, just to annoy him more. But I suppose this wasn’t the time to act like a child. Not when I had murdered someone.
“I was told to pick up some costumes from the tailor,” I said.
“And why were you the one picking them up, is that your new job now?” he asked. He just couldn’t help being an asshole about this, could he?
“The company was severely understaffed today. There has been a bad case of food poisoning. We really needed those costumes though, so I was asked to pick them up,” I said.
“Food poisoning that caused the company to be severely understaffed?” he asked as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“The company celebrated their anniversary and the shrimp apparently wasn’t exactly fresh,” I explained, and he nodded.
“When you arrived at the tailor’s shop, were there other people close by?” he asked. I thought about that for a quite a while.
“I can’t remember seeing many people, if any. The area looked more or less deserted,” I answered eventually.
“What about the inside of the store?” he continued.
“It was empty, no one was around except the owner. At least that’s who I think she was,” I replied.
“So what happened after you entered the store?” he asked.
“I looked around and waited for her to come into the store. She was in the back somewhere. She asked what I wanted, and I told her that I was there to pick up the costumes for my company. She immediately knew what I was talking about and she went back to pick them up,” I said. If only things could have ended there. He looked at me while typing now, waiting for me to continue.
“Before she came back someone else entered the store,” I said.
“And how did you react to that?” he asked.
“I went into hiding behind one of the tables,” I said quietly. For some reason I felt a bit ashamed for just hiding like that.
“You normally hide behind a table when a stranger enters the store?” he asked with an amused look on his face.
“No, I usually don’t do that,” I answered.
“Then what made you hide behind the table?” he asked.
“I recognised him,” I replied briefly.
“If you could elaborate a bit more, that would be great,” he said with a smirk. I started to get the feeling that he was enjoying this a little too much.
“I recognised him because he was one of the guys who killed a man the other night,” I said.
“You have been a witness before, then,” he stated, not looking particularly surprised.
“Yes, there has been a murder. I witnessed it by accident,” I said. Remembering that night made me feel sick to my stomach. He nodded. “I have heard about that case. Did they see you?”
“Yes, they saw me. They also followed me and tried to finish me off,” I said.
“So three people saw you and you got away,” he said, sounding incredulous.
“Yes, and one of the men was in that store today,” I said. He stayed silent for a while. For a moment I could only hear the noise of his keyboard and melody in the background. Surprisingly, his melody hadn’t changed at all. Still this stoic, quick and clean sound. Slightly on the darker side. But it also felt familiar, a bit like home. I didn’t think I would ever think that, but him being around actually calmed me down. I felt safe, even though that seemed quite ridiculous.
“Is there something on my face?” he asked without looking up.
“No,” I answered and looked down. I hadn’t even realised I was staring at him. I could feel the heat rising in my face and I started fiddling with the blanket again.
“Okay, so you realised the man in the store was the man from that night and you decided to hide,” he said.
“Yes, because I was scared,” I admitted. He looked up and I could have sworn I saw concern in his eyes for just a second. But with his cold heart I doubted he was able to feel such emotions.
“What happened after that?” he asked.
“The woman came back into the store and saw the man,” I said.
“Did she know him?” he asked.
“Yes, they were talking about another payment. He told her that she was supposed to pay another one. That some things got changed and that they wanted two payments instead of one now. She didn’t have the money though, and he started to strangle her,” I repeated the story.
“Did you try calling the emergency services?” He was asking the same question Brown had asked me earlier.
“I wanted to, but I couldn’t. I left my phone in the car,” I said.
“Fair enough,” he replied. “So what did you do to help her? I assume you did something.”
“I panicked and it was as if my body acted on its own. I just grabbed one of the scissors and rammed them in his back,” I said. The memory made my hands tremble again. I just couldn’t comprehend how I’d been able to just do that to someone.
“It didn’t cross your mind to maybe find help outside?” he asked, his brows raised.
“I was too scared to leave the store and I thought that if I didn’t act quick enough, he would kill her,” I said, my voice starting to sound weak now. I supposed that was also how I looked. A weak mess. Who would believe that I had actually killed a fully-grown man just a few hours ago?
“But you could have left the store and tried to get help, anyway,” my father said with a blank face.
“And risk her getting killed?” I asked.
“She might have survived,” he said, shrugging. I couldn’t believe my ears.
“Or she might have died if I hadn’t helped her,” I said, defending my decision. “I think having two people die in front of my eyes without me doing anything useful should be enough. Don’t you think so?”
My father stopped typing and closed his laptop. He looked at me for a long while.
“Neither the death of your friend nor that of the man who was murdered was your fault,” he said with determination. This surprised me. He had never once said anything like that after Maddy’s suicide. But of course, I hadn’t given him the opportunity, either. My hatred towards him was so strong that I’d always avoided him.
“I could have done something,” I said.
“No, Avalynn. You couldn’t have done anything. Your friend’s decision to kill herself was her own, and it’s not as though you could have helped that man. Besides getting yourself into even more danger than you were already in at the time,” he said.
“I could have stopped you doing what you did!” I was shouting now.
“Oh come on, Avalynn. You know that my work was correct. The clues you offered to the police weren’t nearly enough to get me in actual trouble. Yes, of course it was annoying, but more so because my own daughter decided to put me behind bars. The evidence against your friend’s father was stronger than you think, even though you don’t want to believe me. And you also might not believe that I actually cared about your well-being, and still do. Otherwise I would not be here now. The police only found what I wanted them to find. The deaths that seemed connected to him turned out to be false,” he said.
“You still manipulated the evidence,” I replied, and he smiled at me.
“False information can fall into the hands of even the most perfect lawyers,” he said. The most perfect lawyers, such as him. God, he was so full of himself.
“It still doesn’t change the fact that I don’t really have to be here to defend you. But you are my daughter, Avalynn. I don’t want to see you behind bars,” he said. He sounded genuine.
“You kicked me out of the house, you told me I was no longer your daughter,” I said, holding back yet more tears. I was a freaking cry baby today.
“Because you needed to learn your lesson and I was angry. People say things they don’t really mean sometimes. But you are my own flesh and blood, and I never stopped caring about you,” he said. I couldn’t help but feel kind of happy about his words. Maybe he was lying to me about Maddy’s father or maybe he was lying the moment he opened his mouth. But in this situation, where I felt as if I was losing the ground under my feet, his words gave me strength and comfort. I think deep inside of me I missed my family, even though I never wanted to admit it.
