chapter 9

Monday, 05 March 2018.

At Café Chic, Manhattan Upper East Side, New York City.

As soon as Emilie arrives at the local coffee shop in the corner of the city street, she orders seven cups of hot coffee latte. All of those for her friends and for herself before they come here.

Then she waits patiently while sitting alone in the middle of this quiet room. There are only one and two visitors in the morning. And now her thought starts wandering off again once she sets her eyes at the café window.

The view of the parking lots out there keeps her mind away for a while. The dark thought keeps coming back to her since Barbara died. She can’t stop thinking about it. All that fear and anxiety starts crippling inside her chest.

And suddenly, her phone buzzes and rings again inside her expensive small bag. When she checks it out for a second, turns out, it’s that same unknown numbers again.

“Ugh, this must be Detective Lee. What does he want to talk about this time?” she grumbles, feeling annoyed.

Without a second thought, she hurriedly accepts his phone call. “Hello, Detective…”

“Oh, right, Miss Emilie Roze… I forgot to ask you about the detail regarding your friendship circle with Barbara Megan and the others. How was it? Can you tell me?”

Emilie chuckles in disbelief. And she asks to herself; why would this story of a very dull friendship even matter to him? And what he could gain from hearing it again and again?

“Listen, Detective, I already told you everything that I know of. Barbara didn’t have many friends back then. We were not that closed as a friend. But we did have the same circle in The Elite. She was just the kind of girl that liked to keep it all to herself, and so…”

“And that, I already heard, Miss Roze,” Detective Lee cuts her off firmly. “I believe there’s more story to come between your circle. The methanol poisoning is found in the only bottle liquor left on a waiter’s silver tray last night. So, I will keep a close look at this tricky investigation…”

“How dare you, Detective! Then why don’t you try questioning that damn waiter now?” her eyes almost pop-out in annoyance when she talks impatiently to him on the phone. “What are you suggesting? That you suspect us? Is that it? You think one of us killed her last night?”

“The murderer can be anyone and anywhere. That I believe so. And if I were you, I would be very careful, my dear,” Detective Lee speaks in a chill voice again that gets her temper raises up. The more she talks with him, the more she realizes how he becomes very annoying in time.

Then Emilie snaps cynically, “And do you think any of us would be very smart to mix her glass of wine with a high methanol concentration to poison her till dead? And what for? You are crazy...”

Right at that second, she keeps mumbling, then she stares up at the presence of the handsome man that is already standing in front of her table. She agape herself so awkwardly. He already heard it all. It’s just about time.

Jack stares in disbelief as he asks curiously, “What did you say? What poison?”

Then she hears Detective Lee suddenly has to excuse himself from the phone conversation since he will have a duty call again this morning. The timing is just perfect.

After he hangs up the phone call, Emilie slowly puts down her phone on the table.

“Hey, Jack. How are you doing this morning?” she asks awkwardly. She can barely feel her red lips stiff when she speaks in front of him.

Jack pulls the chair and sits next to her. Then he starts asking restlessly, “Was that Detective Lee? What did he say to you about the case?”

“Uh, the case, he…” Emilie stammers her voice again. She needs to take a long heavy breath first before she can tell him.

But Jack grows impatient when he asks, “What is it, Emilie? Tell me, please…”

“Okay, I’ve just informed by Detective Lee this morning, he already knows the cause of Barbara’s death last night. She was murdered. Someone poisoned her glass of wine,” says Emilie.

Jack looks tremendously surprised with this news he just hears. And now they exchange stares anxiously for a while.

“I can’t believe it,” he murmurs, feeling the pity for Barbara. “Who would kill her?”

Emilie nods. “Yeah, me too. I’m still in shock.”

The cafe waiter comes bringing the cups of coffees to her table, at the same time when her friends have just arrived at the café door.

Illana, Sonia, Alec, Jazz, and Sheryl, they all walk together to her table.

Then Sheryl starts mumbling when she just sits along with them, “Oh, God! I thought I’m late. My mom was just so annoying with the whole cooking class and making salmon tuna! Ugh, it’s still the first thing in the morning!”

“Babe, how was the interview with Detective Lee?” Jack quickly asks her. He still looks concerned about Barbara’s murder case.

“Oh, it went well,” Sheryl says lazily.

“So, he called you too?” Emilie asks curiously.

Sheryl nods, and she talks in a flirty way with her thick eyelashes, “Yeah, I told him the things he should know.”

Sonia, who already crosses her arms defensively, she snaps agitatedly at her. “Like what?”

Sheryl chuckles and snarls, “Ugh, like the thing about yesterday’s problem, duh!”

“Sheryl, please, be serious. Don’t make things harder than it already is,” Alec reminds her.

She just rolls her eyes, doesn’t want to care about what other thinks, except if it’s involving her well-being. Then she says, “I just told him, that the media published stupid articles on the internet this morning about Wine & Co. They make stupid random assumptions about our wine. How could they blame my parents’ company, huh?”

This time, Alec stares down at the table. He already becomes part of the family company, and thus, he doesn’t have much to confront her about it without any proven fact.

And just as usual, Jack always plays the mature role. He tries to calm her childish girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Sonia and Illana still give her the same sarcastic look, every time. They just resent the Beefy Girl for her annoying attitude. And besides, they are assured that Sheryl has something to do behind last night’s tragic incident.

But Emilie doesn’t want to believe in anything, until there’s a valid evidence of who put that poisonous methanol in Barbara’s drink last night.

For an hour and so, they just sit down silently at the wooden table. It’s like the world is already doomed that they can’t continue talking without feeling restless at each other.

The silence feels killing sometimes. Until they hear the lazy footstep coming toward them.

And when they are all stare up at him, they are tremendously surprised.

“Wh-what… how does he know that we are here?” Sonia asks perplexingly.

“Detective Lee Bouchard…” Emilie murmurs in disbelief when seeing him come here in person. And he acts mysteriously that it bothers her.

“Okay, sorry to disturb, but I have things to catch up today. Who any of you with names Sonia and Alec?” he asks, with eyes keep searching in between them all.

Sonia and Alec then exchange stares in a bewilderment. It’s so odd that Detective Lee suddenly wants to talk with them. And it seems he just being forgetful after meeting them last night.

Then Sonia raises her hand in the air and says nervously, “Me. I’m Sonia.”

Alec follows along to raise his hand as well. Then Detective Lee asks to have a moment with them outside. And as usual, he always promises that it won’t take long.

Once they follow him outside, Sonia crosses her hands and asks him, “Is there anything suspicious, Detective?”

Alec also stares oddly at him for a second.

He clears his throat a few times before he says, “Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude or anything, since I come here without informing you…”

“So, what is it?” Sonia asks impatiently.

“This morning I have talked with Miss Emilie Roze and Miss Sheryl Crowd. But I get more information from Miss Blondie Sheryl, that you two had once involved in an argument with Barbara Megan, in the same day when she died.”

Sonia shakes her head in disbelief. Her lips start puckering.

Alec also feels confused with his statement. Then he says, “So, you heard that from Sheryl? She really told you that?”

“You should be able to judge a person by the first look when you play good cops bad cops. So, how come you believe whatever she said?” Sonia snaps in annoyance.

Detective Lee lets out a heavy breath for a second. Then he continues saying, “From the information that I just received; Miss Sheryl Crowd told me that the three of you involved in a love triangle. Ugh, and save the drama for the opera, please… just give me the real information…”

Sonia chuckles sarcastically at him.

While Alec has to talk back to defense himself in this, “Absolutely no. That’s not true. We were just really fine yesterday, until last night’s party, right, Sonia?”

Sonia nods and half smiles stiffly at him. She tries to hide her real feeling at the time. Of course, this situation feels awkward for her. She knows the truth is on the contrary.

Detective Lee observes their anxious face once again. He still has not collected enough data to judge them. And this investigation will take some times to proceed anyway.

Then he follows to nod at them and says, “Alright. Thank you for your time. And I’m sorry to disturb you like this. Since I’m on my way to somewhere as well, so…”

“Okay, take care of yourself, Detective,” Sonia says as she stares sharply at him, still trying to hold her bad temper in front of him.

Alec shouts to him, “Take care. And just let us know about any further info, Detective.”

And then he quickly walks away from them.