Dangerous Liaisons [✗]

𝟏𝟓 | 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐲

Tori Joyce didn't jump. She was already dead, before being thrown off. There was no incriminating evidence pointing towards a fall she had initiated herself. But there was an obvious reason why the rigor mortis had already set, prior to her being found.

"Did you put salt in it, rather than sugar?"

Audrey was lounging by the pool —scrap that, she was half naked and splashing around the edge of it, consumed by the words in her book. If she sensed my presence, she didn't show that she was bothered by my being there. It was after some time when she sighed and got up to address me, peering through her shades, scanning me head to toe.

If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that she was admiring my looks. But she wasn't. Judgement and prejudice masked her face, because she wasn't so agreeable of what I did, which was ironic, because if anything I was actively trying to do what was for the greater good.

"You can put it down." She hummed and brushed past me, taking her sweet time to wrap a sheer white sarong around her waist loosely, covering up her peach bottoms. "So...?"

"I didn't make it." I replied simply, trailing after her, as she headed to the kitchen and grabbed herself a bottle of water from the fridge, while conscious of me there. "Rose did."

I set the container down onto the kitchen island and looked at the closed smart fridge, the doors of it decorated with fridge magnets, of her family, her mother and father, herself, her brother and his partner, and a little girl that wasn't Audrey, yet had very similar features to her.

She stepped forward to obscure my view as if she were aware of what my eyes were seeing, thereby placing her chest in my line of vision so that I could see the silky skin extending over her cleavage. Just like the night at the Gala, her fucking nipples were aroused and I didn't know why that would be or why that was even capturing my attention.

When I lifted my eyes, I saw that she was fuming at me and had yanked off her shades so they were perched on her head instead.

Audrey was without a doubt unfavourable of me being in her home and I didn't need her to tell me that in words, because her sour expression displayed as much.

"El has a kid?" I blurted out stiffly.

"Yes." Her face softened and broke into the semblance of a smile. "Irena."

"Shit, no way." I laughed and my chest caved in a little, because it had been years that I had spoken to her brother, nor acknowledged his online posts in passing, announcing such things. "She looks just like you."

"She's my niece after all." Audrey arched a brow. "What are you doing here?"

"It's a nice evening." I found myself saying, making small talk. "Warm too."

"We're not going to stand here and discuss the weather, Thayer." She snapped.

"You work at Finley's, Audrey." I stated calmly, getting straight to my point.

"I do." She folded her arms across her chest, defensively or out of habit.

"Tori Joyce's sister works there also. The girl that was found dead at the Gala." I elaborated. "Tia Joyce. Do you know her? I spent some time at your workplace yesterday."

"Tia is my colleague." Audrey said carefully, steadily. "My friend also. I had no clue that she was her sister. In fact she never mentioned that she had a sister who was present in her life to me. But maybe that was where the familiarity kicked in at the Gala seeing that poor girl."

At the raw honesty, I almost gave in, rubbing the back of my head. I thought deeply about how I had sprung this information on her, how I had come into her home and shared insight into a case that I was supposed to keep to myself.