My Ex's Ex

NINE

James looked around his office. It was a mess. He had never been the most organized person around, but he wasn't dirty. He closed the door to his office, yawned and stretched, then collapsed into his chair.

He had gone to talk to Mr Fringe earlier that day. The conversation was rather uninteresting, to say the least. Mr Fringe only told him what he already knew.

"My wife found the body, rushed into the house to wake me up, and inform me. I rushed outside and saw the body all...."He took a large gulp of his orange juice to calm his nerves from the memory that just popped into his brain.

"I understand it must be hard for you to explain. Please take your time,"

"Well, there's nothing much to say, Detective. It was a horrible experience that has been giving some of us sleepless nights since. I worry for my wife, especially. She was the one who found the body, that does things to you."

"I understand. Have you considered moving? It will help with the healing. And maybe"he said this part carefully to avoid any form of misconception, "see a therapist to help with the trauma"

"Yes, yes, we will definitely do that. We want to find a place near to where at least one of our children lives. They are worried sick."

"I understand. You've been very cooperative during this whole process, and I must commend you for that. Before I leave, do you have anything you want to tell me?"

For a split second, James was sure he saw a strange emotion flicker across his eyes, but it was gone in a flash. Was that regret he saw?

"No, there isn't, Detective."

"Are you sure Mr Fringe? It stays between both of us, don't forget that."

"I'm sure,"

James packed up, shook Mr Fringe's hand and thanked him for taking the time out to talk to him, then headed to his car while wondering why Mr Fringe would prefer a cold orange juice to a hot coffee in this freezing weather.

**************
Reddish-brown hair, freckles, and pink lips were all James could remember as a resounding knock on the door woke him from his slumber.

"Who's there?"He said, then cleared his throat and tried again as he sounded weird the first time, "Come in, the door's open. "

"No, it's not," said a familiar voice, "if it was, I would have, seeing as I have knocked a million times already,"

"Sorry," James said as he unlocked the door.

"The reports are ready,"

"What reports?"

"The officers that were sent to talk to people around the estate have finished and compiled the result into this file, and we have to read through it."

"Now?"James said. He just wanted to go back to that dream he was having.

"Yes..."Charlotte said, looking at him James unsurely, "or would you rather we..."

"Now is fine," James cut in, and he decided to snap out of it.

There were 5 zones in the estate consisting of 20 houses each. Lily Plugger lived in the first zone, so they started from there.

"Officer Andrew," Charlotte read out loud.

This was the zone where the murder took place, so they took their time to read through the report carefully. After about 20 minutes, there wasn't much to go on. It was the same thing they had been hearing since the beginning of the case.

Some knew Lily Plugger, and for this reason, they had their opinions on why the murder happened. Some didn't know her but still had their opinions on her and why the murder happened.

All James and Charlotte saw in the report was the same thing, fear, anger, guilt, and judgment. Apart from that, there was nothing of use to them.

They went through the second zone report, fewer emotions, just gossip and fear

The third report was the same but with more judgment and colourful gossip. It went on and on.

By the time James and Charlotte were done reading through the report, they had zero lead on the case but lots of pity and sympathy for the victim.

After a few minutes of just staring into space, trying to digest what they just read. James decided to break the silence and yawned.

"Not much to go on, but we never know when something from this may provide a lead."

"Yeah," Charlotte replied, sounding far away.

" So how did it go with Mrs Fringe?"

"Honestly, nothing much. She's just scared and tired. I pity her. I mean, she just wanted a quiet, peaceful life and look what she got. A dead body, most likely haunting her dreams and a murder case. Everything but peaceful."

"That sounds rough."

" What about with Mr Fringe?"

"Same, same. Only that I feel there's something he's not telling me. I tried to ask him, but he won't budge. I will talk to him again if we don't have a major lead anytime soon."

" Hmm, I hope it's not him. What would poor Mrs Fringe do?"

" I just really hope we find this murderer. "

" I hope so too. I really can't afford for this to develop into a cold case or something. I need this for my plan to work with the FBI. "

James felt anger rush through him for a second. Then he realized how stupid it was to get angry at Charlotte for trying to pursue her career. He felt it was insensitive, but when he really thought about it, he realized Charlotte had done nothing wrong. He only felt that way because he was attached to the victim.

"The big plan is the FBI?"

"Yes, it is," Charlotte said with a light chuckle.

"That sounds nice. Everyone around me has dreams, and then there's me, comfortable with being here for the rest of my laugh, L O L."

Charlotte laughed and then said, " That's not bad at all. We can't all have big dreams. And L O L? What is that? Didn't know you were so this generation."

"What do you mean? I am so this generation."

" Yes, Grandpa."

"How dare you?"James said with a playful, hurt look

And they burst into laughter for about two minutes. Charlotte began to talk, but her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and excused herself.

Less than a minute later, Charlotte knocked on the door and told James she was leaving.

James was once again left with thoughts of a woman with reddish-brown hair and freckles staring intensely at him, and no one else could see her but him.