Philip owned the little cafe I targeted next. It was a quaint little place, it screamed ‘holiday’ spirit; specifically Christmas. I loved all the decorations placed around the place;
“This is a beautiful place you have here, Philip,” I said, needing to strike up a conversation with him; something not crime-related. After the perfect amount of small talk, I would then ask him relevant questions.
“Thank you. My wife decorated it. This was her dream.” He said sadly.
“Oh? What happened to her?”
“She passed away a few years ago. She was an angel.” He shook his head and seemed to give himself a pep talk. “What would you like to order?”
It was getting a little cloudy and cold; so I ordered a hot chocolate and scone.
“Coming right up.” Then he walked out of the room. He returned a few minutes later with my order ready.
“Why aren’t there many people here?” I asked, noticing that apart from me; there were only five more people. Three of them were students, and the other two seemed to work.
“People usually come here to get some quiet. It’s a nice place to work, as you can see.” I nodded. “This town isn’t the…. quietest. People love minding each other’s businesses and neglecting their own.”
“I understand.”
“How long have you lived here? I’ve never seen you before.” He said. I liked Philip; he had… an enjoyable aura about him. He was friendly and nice.
“I’m here visiting my Aunt Poppy. She’s had surgery, and she needed help to get around.” I explained.
“Oh! Poppy’s your aunt? You must be Angela.” He chuckled. “Your aunt won’t shut up about you and your sister; says you were her two angels.”
I loved how he didn’t hesitate or try to hide that he knew about my sister, but he didn’t know the complete story.
“She does, does she?” I smiled. “My aunt doesn’t have much to do if she goes around telling every single person in town about me and Olivia.” It felt good to talk about her to someone who didn’t seem fazed about it at all.
“I was sorry to hear about her, though. Sounds like a friendly person.”
“Who? My sister?”
“Yes. Your aunt didn’t say exactly what happened, but I suppose it was sad with the way she cried when she told me.”
Olivia had been a nice girl, loved and adored by everyone around her; I was more in the backseat. I wasn’t as beautiful or captivating. I wasn’t talented like she was; I wasn’t put in the spotlight and held up on a pedestal like she was. But eventually; this was what saved me because Chance only fell for her, but spared me.
“How did your wife die?” I asked softly.
“She was in a road accident. Some drunk dude on the phone drove right through her car with his motorcycle. But I loved her and she loved me. I don’t have any regrets about her; which makes the loss I have to deal with every day less… you now?” I nodded. I had so much to regret with my sister, so many things I wished I could go back in time and say or do. There were things I had ignored, things I’d said that I wanted to take back. Sometimes, I wanted her to hold me and tell me how much she loved me; as she’d done when we were younger. But part of me told me that would never happen; we didn’t know where she was.
“That helps, doesn’t it?” I smiled. “I know how difficult the loss is, but…” Not having any guilt or regret was a dream.
“It does.”
“I can’t imagine how the woman’s family must feel right now,” I whispered.
“The one on the beach?” I nodded. “But I don’t think they know. They have not identified her yet, have they?”
“No?” I feigned confusion. “But Alison told me they’d identified her this morning.”
Philip gave me a bewildered look. “Who’s Alison?”
He was the second person to ask me that. The second person who had absolutely no idea of who Alison was, I was now petrified. Who was she? I didn’t even know her last name.
“You don’t know who Alison is?”
“No. Never heard of her. Not in this town at least, and everyone’s been in here once or twice; look at you.” He said. “Anyhow, the night that woman was killed, I was here, you know?”
I ignored the Alison thing for now and asked why he told me that. He led me into an adjacent room… and I could see the beach from where I was. The place where Celine had been found was as clear as day.
“Did you see anything?”
Phillip shook his head emphatically. “Not that night, I didn’t. But the next morning,” His voice dropped to a whisper that sent shivers down my spine. Not the good kind; the bad kind. To show how scared I was. “They were dressed in all black. I saw them leave her there and then leave, but not before they poured a few bucketfuls of water over her.”
“Have you told the police any of this?” I asked, chilled to the bone.
“No.” His aggressive voice jarred me out of my petrified haze, I suddenly wanted to make a run for it. I was here with a man I didn’t know and we were alone… in a room… in a pretty much empty cafe. “They’d suspect me if I did.”
“Well, you have to. If you did nothing; then you have nothing to fear.” I smiled, a very forced smile. It hurt to even attempt it.
“But I didn’t do anything!” I wanted to roll my eyes. Exactly!
“How many of them were there?” I asked.
“How many what?”
“You said you saw ‘them’. How many were there?”
“Oh! It was one person, I didn’t know their gender. I mean, they could have been male or female, but it wasn’t clear.”
And then the voice of horror called for Phillip. Lucas Lawrance himself was in the cafe. My eyes widened as panic took over the fear I’d been feeling initially. “You should probably go talk to him… and please think about telling him…” I said.
“Aren’t you coming?” He didn’t understand who was here, and why I had to avoid him at the moment. But he said nothing else, just told me how to leave if I needed an emergency exit route, I thanked him. I avoided the good detective and headed home.
At home, I remembered I had so many questions for the detective; such as ‘who’s Alison.’ But I’d run away from him, which meant I was now too lazy to go looking for him, but I also wanted answers, which led me to Google. Google was useful in that it told me so much about the millionaire who’d died among us.
She’d been very rich and well-known in my town, but apparently, I lived under a rock because I only knew as little as nothing about her, which wasn’t much, to begin with.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
