Don't Fall in Love in Witness Protection

Chapter 23: Black and Gold

Stopping to take a sip of her drink she continued, 'Anyway we were watching this band together and the guitarist was amazing, he did this solo to a quiet room. It was very gypsy jazz, all fast moving fingers and beautiful sounds. In fact to this day it's my favourite type of music to play,' she recalled wistfully.

'I don't mean to rush you or anything, but what does this have to do with your stalker?' Eli asked gently.

Charlotte looked up at him in realization, she'd gone off into another world remembering that night with her father.

'Right, sorry,' she smiled weakly and continued on. 'My parents enrolled me into Ranger Downs High School when they noticed I had some raw talent with the guitar. Even though our house was on the other side of the woods, and technically there was another school closer to our house I should have gone to. But Ranger Downs had an amazing music program and my Dad insisted I went there.'

Eli nodded in understanding, he saw first hand how incredible their program and facilities were.

'I got pretty good over the years,' she confessed slightly embarrassed. 'I won loads of competitions and awards, my best friend Stacy was an amazing singer so we did a lot of gigs outside of school together as well. Then two years ago we got a new music director...' Her eyes filled up with tears as she choked on the words. She hadn't talked about this at all since it happened. She'd never mentioned him at all after she'd given the police everything they needed.

'We were pretty close with him,' she shrugged. 'We were his favourite students because we were the best. We made him look amazing, we won the school plenty of awards... We even called him by his first name. Roy.' She felt her eyes well up again. 'He wouldn't let any other students do that, it should have been our first clue but we loved being his favourites. He'd open up the music rooms early for us, and even gave me his key a couple of times for weekends.'

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'That was terrible,' he grinned at her. 'My ears are bleeding.'

Ellie rolled her eyes and poked her tongue out at her teacher, 'Gee thanks.'

He laughed loudly, 'You know I'm kidding, that piece will win it for you, I just know it. You've practiced so hard El I have so much faith in you.'

'Thanks,' she smiled up at him putting her guitar away in its case.

She briefly wondered where Stacy had got to as she clasped the case shut. She'd asked Stacy to grab her book bag from her locker while she showed Mr Gold her final piece, but Stacy had been gone for ages now.

'I wonder what's taking Stacy so long,' she mused out loud.

Roy let out a low chuckle, 'Oh like you don't know...'

Ellie's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she glanced back up at her teacher, 'Excuse me?'

His smile widened as he took a step closer to where Ellie stood holding her guitar case. 'You sent her away.'

Ellie's confusion doubled, 'Yeah... To get my book bag. You were here when I asked her?'

He laughed again taking another step closer, 'You sent her away on purpose, it was so obvious. You girls are cheeky.'

Ellie took a step back, clutching her guitar case in her hands tightly not really liking where this conversation was going. She had no idea what had gotten into him. 'What are you talking about? Why would I even do that?'

'To get me alone of course,' he rolled his eyes almost losing patience with her little game playing. 'I've had you figured out for a while now my little Ellie,' his voice sank dangerously low and there was a longing to his words that sent alarm bells ringing wildly in her head.