The Music of Souls, page 12
“And that’s why we have to work together in order to get you out of this mess fast,” he said, opening his laptop again. “What happened after you stabbed the man in the back?”
I cleared my throat and wiped away the tears.
“He let go of the woman and he recognised me from that night. He had a knife on him and tried to attack me with it. But I was hiding behind tables again and his injury made him less mobile. During that time the woman called the emergency services and he probably decided it was easier to kill her first,” I said. It almost felt like I was telling someone else’s story by now.
“So you did what exactly, to stop him from doing that?” he asked.
“I grabbed another pair of scissors and rushed in front of the woman to defend her,” I answered.
“Just for the record, you hadn’t met that woman before?” he asked.
“I’d never seen her before in my life,” I said.
“Reckless, just reckless,” he said under his breath, shaking his head.
“He still wouldn’t leave us alone though,” I said, ignoring his comment. “He came closer and closer towards us and dared me to stab him again. He said that I wouldn’t dare to do it again,” I said. I remembered his dark eyes and out-of-tune melody and for a moment it was like I was back in the store, being scared to death.
“Well obviously you did, though,” he said.
“I had no other choice, right? It was either him stabbing me or me stabbing him. He stumbled backwards after I’d stabbed him and he fell on his back,” I said quickly, finally coming to the end of the story.
My father nodded and continued typing.
“Did anything else happen after that?” he asked.
“No, I just sat there staring at him until the police arrived,” I said, his lifeless body in front of my eyes. A loud ringing was starting in my ears again, the same one that had blocked all my hearing when I was sitting in that store. At the moment I realised that I’d killed someone.
A touch on my hand brought me back to reality. My father was leaning forward, placing his large warm hand on mine. It was the first fatherly contact I could ever remember from him.
“It will be fine. I promise.” He patted my hand before removing it again.
I just nodded, still stunned about his behaviour.
“Sorry to interrupt, but some hysterical woman is demanding to see the two of you,” Brown said. He looked extremely annoyed.
“That must be my wife, please bring her in,” my father said. Brown nodded and opened the door wide.
My mother stormed into the room.
“Avalynn!” She came rushing towards me and pulled me into a tight embrace. I was listening to her melody; it was almost back to the one I used to love so much. But something about it was still off.
“I was so worried,” she said and looked me up and down. She looked worried for sure.
“Give her the clothes, Maria, so she can finally get out of those dirty clothes,” my father said.
“Yes, yes of course,” my mother said quickly and handed me a bag. “Those are some of your old clothes you left at home.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
She smiled at me and hugged me once more before shooing me out of the room.
I left the office and closed the door behind me. I let out a sigh of relief. I sincerely hoped no one would ask me to tell the same story again today. Or ever.
“Are you alright?” Andrew asked, startling me. I hadn’t seen him leaning against the wall across from the office.
“As much as I can be, I guess,” I answered vaguely.
“Changing into some clean clothes will probably help. Don’t try to run away though,” he said, smiling.
“Like I could hide for long,” I said, and he laughed.
“We would probably find you quite quickly, yes,” he said. He seemed to be in a much better mood than before.
“Well, I’ll go change then,” I said and headed towards the restrooms.
Changing into new and clean clothes really did make me feel a lot better. When I entered the office again, my mother was already gone. But the three special agents and my father were sitting together.
“What is going to happen now?” I asked and sat down on couch again.
“We’ll have to wait for all the evidence to be collected and analysed. For the next 48 hours you should stay away from the public. It was decided that you probably aren’t a danger to the rest of the world, so we don’t have to put you in jail for the duration. But we also can’t really let you go back to your own home,” Andrew said. I was relieved that I didn’t have to go to prison. I really wouldn’t know how to handle that on top of everything else.
“Why can’t I go home?” I asked.
“Because that’s where they might try to find you. We aren’t sure how that gang will react to someone who killed one of their numbers. We haven’t had that yet. But we must expect the worst,” Connor said.
“We also wouldn’t propose that you go back to your parent’s home, as we wouldn’t want them to get them involved either,” Brown said. I looked at my father, he didn’t have anything to say to that.
Oddly enough I had hoped he would let me stay, but I guessed being there would be too obvious.
“That’s why we propose that you should stay with us,” Andrew said.
“What?” I asked, stunned.
“We actually have a pretty large property,” Andrew said.
“You three are living together?” I asked, surprised.
“We live under the same roof, but we have our own apartments. We do have guest rooms though, so you can stay there. That way, you will have enough privacy as well,” Andrew explained.
I looked at my father again. “Aren’t you concerned about me living with three men? Strangers even?”
He looked unimpressed. “I’m not really concerned, no. Special Agent Miller is engaged, and Special Agents Connor and Brown are actually in a relationship with each other.”
“What?” I said and looked back and forth between Connor and Brown.
“You are gay?” I asked bluntly, then turned back to my father. “And how do you know all that?”
“Well, it’s obvious. Also, they told me while you were gone to change your clothes. In my opinion it’s the best solution for now,” my father replied.
“I suppose so, if everyone is alright with it,” I said, still trying to stomach all the information I’d just received. They did seem like good people and Connor had even gone out of his way yesterday to bring me pizza and talk with me. It didn’t feel as though he was lying either. They wanted to get to know me after all, even if this kind of development probably wasn’t what anyone had in mind.
“It’s decided then,” my father said, getting up. “I have other places to be, so Avalynn, try to stay out of trouble for at least the next two days.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, Father.”
He nodded, satisfied. “Good. And you guys take good care of my daughter.”
“Of course, Sir,” Andrew said. My father handed him his business card as he left the room soon.
“Okay, I guess we have a guest for a while then,” Andrew said. I looked at the three men. They all seemed rather relaxed about this. I tried to calm down and just take it as it was now. It couldn’t really get any worse anyway, right?
Chapter 11
It felt rather surreal when I packed some things back in my apartment. Mainly because three special agents were walking around in the background, doing whatever. Considering the state my apartment was in right now, they had a lot to look at.
I was happy that I didn’t own that much. I could fit all my clothes in one big suitcase and a bag. I don’t have other things here that are important to me, aside from my documents, and those fitted into the bag as well.
“Finished already?” Brown asked when I carried my things into the living room.
“Yes,” I answered. Brown looked at the luggage and nodded slowly.
“We’ll carry them,” Connor said and reached for the bag. I handed it to him. Andrew took my suitcase and I looked around my apartment one last time. I didn’t feel sad about leaving here. The only sad thing about it was the fact that I left it in absolute chaos. But I would be back soon enough.
“Let’s go,” I said, and we left the apartment.
They didn’t say much on our drive to their home. I expected their property to be quite big, but when we drove through a massive gate, I knew that what I’d imagined wasn’t even close.
I wouldn’t even consider the driveway a driveway anymore, that’s how long it was.
At some point a huge white house came into view.
“So, you are really rich then,” I stated. I was stunned. Did they really earn that much money as special agents? Hard to believe!
“We do live quite a wealthy lifestyle, I guess,” Connor said.
“Are you joking? This place is huge. How did you get so much money?” I asked. I knew that I was a bit too blunt and straightforward, but I just couldn’t help but be curious about it.
“Let’s just say we have been quite lucky in Vegas a few times,” Andrew said, and a mischievous smile formed on his lips.
“Quite lucky? How so?” I asked.
“Oh Avalynn, you know what they say: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” Andrew answered, an even broader smile on his face. What a tease.
“Besides, you aren’t exactly badly off with your music either, right?” Brown asked.
“I’m doing okay. But most of the money doesn’t go to me,” I said. When I signed the contract, I didn’t really care about the pay. I knew from the very beginning that the company would take a big cut of the money my music would earn, but I didn’t care. I made more than enough to live a good life. And they promised me a safe working place, even rented the apartment for me. I wanted to be safely on my own two feet as quickly as possible after my parents had kicked me out.
But now that they mentioned work: I’d forgotten about Rose.
“Has anyone told my company what happened?” I asked. I kind of hoped they hadn’t. Rose was probably going out of her mind. Either because she was worried or because she was pissed off beyond belief.
“No, we haven’t. You’ll have to do that yourself,” Andrew answered.
“I don’t have my phone with me,” I said. I should at least tell Rose that I wouldn’t be back any time soon.
“Oh, right. I have it. One of the police officers searched the car and found the phone. I assumed it was yours,” Connor said.
“You don’t need it for investigations?” I asked.
“No, not anymore,” he replied. Well, they’d probably already done what they had to do with it.
He reached behind and handed me the phone.
“Thanks,” I said. “Would it be okay to call my colleague?”
“Sure,” Andrew said with a questioning look on his face. “You don’t have to ask our permission for everything now, you know that, right?”
“Just making sure,” I said sheepishly. I had no idea how to act in this kind of situation, it’s not as if I had been in a situation like this before. Once again terror ran through my veins when I thought about what I’d done. I took a few deep breaths. This wasn’t the moment to lose it. Not now.
“Just be sure to make it short. You don’t want any information to get out,” Brown said.
There were several missed calls from Rose. She was probably raging.
I dialled her number and waited. With every second I waited for her to pick up, my nerves got more frazzled.
“Avalynn!” Rose shouted.
“Hi Rose.” I wasn’t even sure what to say now.
“You really did it this time, didn’t you?” she yelled furiously. That caught me by surprise. I mean, I’d kind of expected her to be angry, but now that she actually was, it shocked me.
“Excuse me?” I said.
“It’s all over the news, Avalynn. You freaking killed a man!” she screamed.
All eyes were on me now. She must have screamed so loudly, the other three must have heard it as well. I didn’t know what to say. I was more or less opening and closing my mouth, probably looking like a fish on land gasping for air.
“You do know that you are fired, right?” she continued. I shook my head, trying to stay calm.
“I asked you to do one little thing for me and you actually managed to kill an innocent man while doing so,” she shouted.
I was about to defend myself, when Andrew took the phone from me.
“I am sorry Ma’am, but Ms Cole is not allowed to speak about the case. She just wanted to inform you that she wouldn’t be coming to work for a while. But since she is fired anyway, I suppose that is irrelevant now. Goodbye.” He spoke smoothly, with a composure I couldn’t even imagine I would ever have.
We sat quietly for a while again after he’d ended the call.
“Well, I guess that was that,” I said, trying to break the silence.
“There must have been someone leaking the news. When we left, the media hadn’t been informed yet,” Brown said. He looked angry.
“It’s okay, they won’t find her here,” Connor said, touching Brown’s hand carefully.
“Let’s show you around. After all, you’ll be here for a few days,” Andrew said and opened the door. I nodded and got out of the car. I was still stunned. Stunned about the fact that Rose didn’t even ask me what had happened. She seemed totally convinced that I had killed an innocent man. Like he was innocent in the slightest!
I just couldn’t figure out who Rose really was. Her actions just didn’t fit with her melody. It confused me.
“Come on,” Andrew said. I looked up. He was waiting on the steps, looking at me, a bit concerned. I must have spaced out again.
“Yes, sure,” I said and quickly followed him. The door was already unlocked, Brown and Connor were inside.
I walked through the door and took the place in. It was massive and just wonderful. The light flooding through the big windows painted the beautiful wooden floor a shiny golden colour. I carefully stepped inside. The high ceiling made it look even more impressive. They had wonderful paintings on the walls, and it looked as if they had picked the flowers that were placed all around specially to match the paintings. Nothing looked out of place or over the top.
“This is wonderful,” I said.
“Thank you. My fiancée is really into interior design,” Andrew said next to me.
“She did an amazing job!” I said.
“Yes, she did,” he replied. I looked at him. He looked really proud. “Let me show you to your room,” he said and started walking. I followed him. This place felt really warm and safe, nothing looked staged or forced. His fiancée must have spent a lot of time making this place look so amazing.
“This is the kitchen,” he said, pointing to another massive room. That one room was the size of an entire apartment. In contrast to the rest it was less modern and a bit more country style. A really big kitchen isle in the centre made it look like a kitchen you would see in a cooking show.
I looked back to Andrew, who was already walking down the hall. I hurried after him. He stopped in front of a closed door and waited for me.
“This is your room while you are here.” Andrew opened the door.
I stepped inside. I never really liked the colour blue that much, but my opinion changed after seeing this room.
The walls were painted a really nice light blue that went very well with the light-coloured flooring. A huge bed stood in the middle of the room. Besides that, it also had a desk and a wardrobe. It was more on the minimalist side, but it was still wonderful.
I also liked the pictures of the ocean decorating the walls.
“Do you like it?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. It felt like a place I could relax in, even with everything that had happened. I closed my eyes for a moment and listened to the sound of the house. My apartment was always quiet, my family home was scary. But this place was harmonising so well. I could hear Connor and Brown somewhere in the house and Andrew louder behind me. Everything just felt perfect.
“Thank you,” I said and opened my eyes. I truly had never felt this grateful in my life. Andrew smiled at me and nodded.
“It will be okay,” he said and at least for an instant I could actually believe that.
In order to keep my mind busy, I started to unpack my things and store them in the wardrobe. After that was done, I sat on the bed. I bounced up and down a few times. It was certainly a high-quality mattress. Nothing like the cheap mattress I had bought when I’d moved into my apartment. I didn’t have much money at that time, and I was afraid to spend too much and end up on the streets. I have always been quite dramatic. But I’d never had to think about money before in my life. My parents had more than enough but probably not as much as these three special agents.
Now that I thought about it: My company had fired me, and they were renting out the apartment specifically to their employees.
They might very well kick me out of there. Of course they would. I was no longer part of their company. I had to admit that, even though I didn’t really enjoy the job all that much, I still felt a bit sad about it now. Especially considering that Rose was acting like a stranger yet again. I got the feeling more and more that the real Rose was coming through now. We hadn’t worked together all that long. But usually a person’s melody told me quite reliably whether or not I could trust a person, so I would have a bad surprise. Eventually, I stopped looking out for other clues and just trusted my hearing. And yet with Rose, her melody made me feel so at ease with her, but more and more her actions didn’t match her sound. Or maybe I had interpreted it the wrong way.
I supposed there were limitations to what I could figure out with it after all.
