When I walked into the house that evening; Miles and my aunt were laughing about something. That meant that my aunt was in hysterics and Miles was chuckling. They both turned their heads to look at me when I walked into the house. I stopped in the doorway and waited for someone to say something.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO97QUMi2ky
“Oh! Hi dear.” Aunt Poppy said, “Miles here dropped by to keep me company. It gets awfully quiet around here and Miles always comes over to…” She must have noticed that she had hurt my feelings. She stopped in the middle of her sentence and changed it altogether. “So, how was your day?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMVdx9Q4BW9
“It was okay,” I said. “Hi Miles.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7VpJoQIX2n
“Angie.” He stood up and grabbed his things to leave. “I need to be heading home now, Poppy. It was nice talking to you.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFHdZHSTEoV
“Oh no! You can stay if you want to. We’ll be putting dinner on the table soon, might as well hang around and talk awhile.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ80x4nGceyr
Miles looked at me for approval. “Sure. You can stay. It’ll be fun having you here.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5zx9QdFfUb
We sat down, had food, and then played some board games. My Aunt suggested games because she knew how horrid I was at them. It was fun, and I had a great time; until Miles spoke;184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcOw8UFp8OH
“What are the detectives saying about the woman?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKSJuCP2AFT
They both looked at me. My eyes widened. “I… I don’t know.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4JPFFb0ZwZ
“But you’ve been talking to Lucas!” Aunt Poppy exclaimed. I cringed inwardly and shook my head;184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAKTI9ZkbL2
“He hasn’t told me anything, and even if he had; I can’t talk about it.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVMnZmLocmG
“Why?” Miles inquired.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtmOqocjzwP
“Because Police business is private. I can’t give out information that shouldn’t be made public.” I begged them to understand with my eyes. I prayed they wouldn’t pry into it anymore. “I mean… even if he told me things, he’d be telling me because he trusts me enough not to dish it all out.” And Aunt Poppy was a known gossip. She’d tell everyone what I’d said, and I was still trying to reel in Lucas.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9E1R5AWl0N
“Oh, okay.” Miles shrugged. I sighed with relief, but my Aunt wasn’t about to drop it.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFUOa8JOfJ
“Have they identified the woman?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZUiOoOinWk
“Aunt Poppy; if that was public information; then it would be in the news. I don’t know and watch for the paper tomorrow, it might please you.” I snapped and stood up; went to my room and lied on my bed to watch YouTube.
The next morning wasn’t as bright as the last morning. I got out of bed, cleaned up and went for a walk. I didn’t run, but I enjoyed exercise… sometimes. And today was one of those times. My thoughts were all over the place. The murder of Celine Ramroth occupied about 80 per cent of my brain, and then food occupied the rest.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZG001UPWXb
After walking for about twenty minutes, I spotted someone. My heart dropped, not because I hated the person; but because I didn’t want to see anyone this morning, especially not someone I was friends with, and I’d have to talk to. I almost turned around to walk home, but then it would be obvious that I was avoiding her.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6CBedDsOkV
“Good morning, Angie.” Alison’s cheery voice said. She was way too cheery considering the time of day, still early.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbxsPyDdatT
“Hey, Alison. How are you?” I asked, faking glee. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZMRL0TsqUE
“One day. It seems to be a long time, doesn’t it?” Alison gave a bitter laugh. “I heard they identified the woman; Celine Ramroth. I’ve heard of her, some high-end jewellery… person.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdFRKjJf7T3
“Oh?” I said, questioningly. “Where did you hear that?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfPWO2NQhhi
“I guess… I…” She stuttered. “I read the news this morning. They’ve identified the lady.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsnw5n7FRYL
I knew she was lying. If she’d left the house when I did; then she wouldn’t have seen that because the news wasn’t out yet. This town only had two news channels, and both had said nothing; not even on the internet. Another thing was, she didn’t have her phone with her. If she did; then she could have seen the news while running. I kept this to myself.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Mu5CJff4M
“Celine Ramroth.” I faked being deep in thought. “I’ve heard about her before. But I’m not sure.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0cCR9ndtEC
“She’s everywhere on google. You can look her up; she was rich and supposed to be out on a holiday or something.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ9HM3pCzmz
“And there was no media that followed her on her holiday?” I asked.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS0P6VgDxUg
“No. She wanted to keep on the down-low. She didn’t tell people who she was. And even her outfits screamed out, ‘I’m middle class.’ Even her outfit, when she died, was middle class.” She giggled. “Maybe that’s why we couldn’t identify her.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXphGvN7ZT5
But how had she known what the woman was wearing when she died? As far as I knew, that information hadn’t been released into the media. The police were decent at keeping information to themselves; they hadn’t released a lot of the things they knew about the case.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ03rP463m2j
I nodded, absentmindedly. “Yeah. Maybe. Where are you headed?” I asked. The thing was, she’d turned around and joined me when she’d seen me. We’d been going opposite directions. Now I hoped she’d remember that and go where she was initially going. Or at least take the hint.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHdN3k4Fwpv
She stopped, laughed and then said; “Oh dear! Thank you. I was headed to… a friend. I thought I’d squeeze in a little workout.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSDSZL1jCrU
“Oh. It was great talking to you, Alison. I’ll see you soon, yes?” But I hadn’t the pause between ‘to’ and ‘a friend’.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkZ0cmR8Rg6
I was deep in thought for the rest of my walk. I came to once I was at home; I took a shower, made breakfast and hung out with my aunt. She said she was sorry for the night before and then started talking about my day and how she wanted to spend her time today. It shocked me that people planned out their day; they didn’t… go with the flow. Which is exactly what I did?184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZw5J1oNYD7
“Aunty…” I began tentatively. “Do you know Alison?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKQ0xpldbXQ
“Alison who?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPr1SoXVidQ
“I don’t know. Alison, the girl that came here because of Asthma and cancer or something?” I tried to jog my Aunt’s memory. No spark of recognition came.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp36xAs9H2c
“No. I don’t know anyone called Alison.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNzArrZYhnT
“Aunty!” I said. “She says she’s been here for a long time already, like five years. How don’t you know her? You know everyone here.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfc3Qv38h59
“Everyone except this Alison creature.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqpObmqF3gV
At mid-morning, I made tea and checked the news. And the news about the woman’s identity still wasn’t out; which meant Alison knew a bit too much; but how? And my Aunt’s staunch belief that she knew no one by the name ‘Alison’ in town made me uncomfortable.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvv99e2P4os
I went for a walk like I seemed to do way too much these days. I hoped I could run into Lucas and convince him to tell me something, then let me tag along. I knew I could never walk up to the station and into his office. That would be creepy.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZNZ6BmJCjN
No ideas entered my head for the first fifteen minutes of my walk, then I saw Tanya rushing in my direction. How could I avoid her? I wondered. I needed to get away; I needed a cover story. She was by my side in less than a minute, which wasn’t enough time to come up with a story that didn’t include my Aunt.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZDRX2iRynQ
“How are you today?” Tanya asked me. She had a soft voice today. Or I hadn’t noticed before.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvD1C1zkZ2l
“I’m great,” I say and smile. “How are you?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ekEMrYIFx
“Okay. Anything come up about the woman?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ3QYXdWpTU
I remembered how she’d lied about not knowing Celine. I was positive she’d known something about her, even if it wasn’t her full name; but she’d seen her before.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdcjZlVnXEf
“I don’t know. I’ll talk to the detective about it and try to get him to talk to me.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ03WwbJHx9G
She nodded. “Oh. Please tell me what he says when you talk to him okay?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg0ci2LBdyP
“Sure. How’s your husband? Is he back yet?” I asked.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Obc1baLVO
Tanya hesitated before slowly saying; “No. He’s not back, but he will be soon enough. I told him the Police wanted to talk to him, and because he’s- he was in the force; he wanted to help them as much as he could.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqeCOW3N2cI
“I understand. It must be hard on you though, hearing everything that people are saying about your husband, and not being able to disprove the rumours?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg8vToGLktC
“Yes. But I know that I could cause more harm than good if I try to say anything.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1aLVastNOR
My phone rang then, and I silently thanked the caller because now I could get rid of Tanya. “Oh, I’m sorry I have to take this. I’ll see you after?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8izQ3S63Ho
She nodded and walked away; I waved and then looked at the caller; mom.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0WSleu062O
“Hello?” I said questioningly.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5kMnkWIb4v
“Yes, dear.” She sounded concerned. “I heard.” That was all she said. She didn’t offer any more information and my heart clenched in my throat.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHKR5UKM1Nq
“Heard about what?” I asked, my voice came out choked. I hoped it wasn’t the murder. That would mean I have to explain everything to her, which I wasn’t keen on doing.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaQIFoQdGyh
“The woman you found on the beach.” She said. “Why didn’t you tell me?”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzXbC91NptN
“I didn’t find her, mother. Someone else did.” I was suddenly exhausted, and I ignored her question about not telling her.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt9GifiuI8E
“That doesn’t matter!” My mother shrieked, and again; only fragments of my hearing remained. “I hope you’re staying out of it. I saw that she was murdered.” She gave an exaggerated gasp.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMXJW81lSfe
“Yes, I haven’t involved myself in any of it, mother,” I drawled. “I wouldn’t dare, especially with such things. I don’t want to get murdered too.”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFNWeE6Mhby
“Exactly!” She exclaimed. I figured she was relaxing more now that she thought I was on her side and agreed. “Imagine how I’d deal with that kind of loss.” I silently begged her not to mention my sister, I wasn’t in the mood to comfort myself and her.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡakB1vGcPFP
“Yes,” I said.184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRe2gnBtgTr
“If I hear anything about you from anyone, Angela, I promise you I will…”184Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuQ6SxUqVF9
“Yes, mother. You won’t hear anything of the sort.” I didn’t know what she’d do if she found out, she enjoyed saying she’d disown me, but so far… she hadn’t. That should have counted as an accomplishment.
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