When I woke up the next morning, I made plans to go visit Phillip later that day and talk to him a bit about what he remembered seeing that night. But my plans were thwarted when I got a call from Annie. She took no time telling me what had taken place, not even sparing time for build-up or mental and emotional preparation for me. And the news was jarring.
“They arrested Phillip.” Annie shrieked frantically into the phone. The fact that she was frantic held no weight to me; Annie was always frantic about something.
“Why?” I tried to stay as calm as I could in this situation. This was deplorable behaviour by the police; the man was obviously not guilty. But I’d learnt not to go by my judgement on these things. Criminals were pretty good at hiding it.
“Because his cafe is on the beach and looks out onto the crime scene. He saw the killer dump the body and then pour water on it, and he didn’t even think to tell the detectives before today… well, yesterday.” Her voice was back to normal by the end of her last sentence. My ears were grateful.
“What’s he accused of?” I asked, still calm. I wasn’t feeling very calm at all. I, in fact, wanted to scream into a pillow or something. But if I did that, Annie would panic even more and then we’d both be panicked, which wasn’t any good considering the current situation we were in.
“Murder. And did you know that the woman’s name was Celine Ramroth? That rich, holier-than-thou woman from your town? Do You live under a rock, because how didn’t you know her?” When Annie panicked, she used the word ‘and’ far too many times. It made me dizzy.
“Murder? Do they have evidence?” I ignored the rest of her statements but got my tablet to check if there was any news on the identification of the woman. That was so good for Annie. If she’d said this and it wasn’t public knowledge, I’d have added her to my current… minimal suspect list.
“That’s the thing, isn’t it?” She now sounded excited. “The only thing against him was that he could see the crime scene out his window. The other two problems were he was at his cafe at three o’clock in the morning and he hadn’t told anyone any of this before. How disturbing.” I could feel her shiver through the phone.
“Three o’clock?” I asked. “That’s what he said?”
“Yes, that’s what he told all the police,” Annie said. “What are we going to do?”
“How do we know that he’s innocent?” I was sure he hadn’t done it, but I needed a place to start if I was going to prove the police wrong.
“I don’t know. I feel it inside.” She exclaimed. “But… how do you know him?”
“I was at his cafe yesterday. I left before the detective got there.” I was not planning to tell her what had happened. “But he didn’t tell me anything about the woman. We didn’t know each other. He wouldn’t dish out information, which could incriminate him, a random stranger.”
“But you aren’t a random stranger.” Annie pointed out.
“To him I am.”
We talked for a few more minutes, then she hung up and I got ready for my day. My Aunt wasn’t high maintenance. All she needed was ready food, ready tea, her bible, a few books, her phone, and a friend. That was it; I would be free to go. When all this was done and I was ready to yell at a certain detective, I left the house.
Small towns are so much fun because there aren’t many people outside, but especially not in the mid-morning. Lucas spotted me in the parking lot as he was walking to his car, and he didn’t look too happy to see me. But then again, the feeling was mutual. Except that I needed to see him, even if I didn’t want to.
“Miss Blackburn.” He gave me a curt nod. “How can I help you this morning?”
“What are you charging him with?” I asked. My voice wasn’t as forceful as I wanted it to be. I wanted to make him hear how annoyed I was; but no. I couldn’t do that, not with my voice, at least.
“I’m assuming you mean Philip?” I glared at him. “He’s… were still investigating.”
“Investigating?” I gave a short and forced laugh. “You can’t be investigated for a reason to arrest someone you’ve already arrested.”
“If you came here with the sole purpose of yelling at me, then I suggest you leave right now. I don’t have time for any of it.” I scowled. The nerve he possessed!
His face mirrored mine, he scowled too; except he looked way less pleased than I did. “I don’t have time either, detective,” I said, smoothing out my face and smiling at him, only a little smile. “Can you at least tell me if he has a lawyer?”
“Yes.”
“Will he be out soon?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” He said. “Is that it?”
I nodded, infuriated. Lucas would not tell me anything, so I’d find out by myself. Without him… or with a little of his help. Then I turned around and left. I planned to talk to either ‘Alison’ or Tanya. I stopped; Alison. Lucas had gone nowhere. He stood there; watching me. Probably to make sure I was gone for real… the amount of trust he had in me was astronomical.
I turned around again and walked up to him.
“What now?” He asked.
“I have one more question, unrelated to the arrest… or the case,” I said. He raised an eyebrow, telling me to go on. “Do you know Alison?”
“Who?” He looked as confused as everyone I’d asked had been. They all looked at me like I was losing my mind to even mention an Alison in their town… and besides, what town did not have a person named Alison in it?
“Alison. I’ve talked to her at least two times already. She has black hair, hazel eyes, she’s about 165 centimetres tall.”
“Doesn’t ring a bell.”
“Oh! Come on, Lucas. I’ve seen her. She says she’s lived here for roughly five years. On and off because she had cancer and asthma and would sometimes leave town.”
“I’d still know her. I know everyone in this town.”
“Yes, that’s the thing!” I said, exasperated. I wanted to cry. “My aunt knows everyone too.”
“Then why don’t you ask her if she knows Alison?” Lucas’ voice carried a laughing edge, I hated how he was mocking me. He found this whole thing hilarious and probably thought I was going crazy, or maybe he thought I was using a fake person to get his attention.
“You think I’m lying to you, don’t you?” He shook his head and stifled a smile. “I asked my mom, and I asked Philip. None of them knows her. I met her in the only other cafe in this town, not Philip’s.”
“You mean Mandy’s? Then go ask Mandy, maybe she knows who Alison is.”
“She doesn’t,” I mumbled. I realised that no one except myself knew Alison, only I’d seen her. I was the only person who’d spoken to her because everyone I’d asked thought I was going bonkers.
“I’ll try to look into it when I have time,” Lucas said. I smiled at him. “And do you, by chance, know her last name?”
“If I did, I’d have researched her,” I mumbled. He didn’t hear me, so I spoke up. “No, I don’t.”
He said nothing else, so I left. My aunt gave me a concerned look when I walked into the house. She knew I wouldn’t appreciate her talking to me about anything, so she kept quiet. My head was spinning. Confusion was eating me away. I could feel physical pain when all my pain was internal. My already suffering mental health crumbled, and I was left to pick up the crumbs.
I couldn’t sit down when I got home. My legs itched to work, my hands shook, my breathing was rapid. Because of how quickly I was filing away thoughts, I paced fast in the room; the living room where my aunt was eating candy and walking a movie.
“Stop! You’re making me dizzy. If walk you must; then go to your room.” She said,
“I’m sorry,” I replied and kept pacing, her words not quite registering. She was quiet for a few minutes before snapping;
“Angela!” That got me partially out of my daze. “Stop pacing, my goodness! Could you sit down or go to your room? To spare at least one of us.”
“I’m sorry.” Then I walked to my room. I wanted to tell her all my thoughts, but I figured she wasn’t interested or she didn’t need to hear any of my… thoughts.
In my mind, nothing made sense. So far, all I knew was that Celine Ramroth had been found on the beach the morning after a party half the town had attended. No one in the town had recognised her, or all pretended not to know her. I thought about how Tanya had lied to the detective; I needed to talk to her.
I wanted to talk to two people; well, three. Tanya, her husband, and Alison. These three people had something to do with the murder, but none of them wanted to talk about it.
Tanya’s husband left town a few days before Celine Ramroth’s death, which was very suspicious. Why had he left when he did? Why did he leave? Then I stopped pacing.
Tanya had lied about that, too. She’d told me that her husband’s father had passed away, but then told Lucas that she didn’t know why he was out of town. Why had she done that? Another question I had, which probably had a great and obvious answer, was why she hadn’t gone to her father-in-law’s funeral. Why wasn’t she there supporting her husband during this hard time?
Grabbing my stuff, I jogged out of my room and waved goodbye to my aunt. I didn’t explain where I was going, but she knew what I was going to do. Tanya was home when I got there. I knocked, and she opened the door. During my walk here, I’d calmed down and collected myself. My plan was to ‘chat’ and nothing more. I wasn’t fishing for information at all.
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