"You're early!" Detective Parker told us as soon as he saw us, his face looking like he had a lemon in his mouth. I guess his everyday mantra was When life gives you lemons, eat them all and then blame other people for that.
Chris and Steven invited me to the interview room, while I was making a mental note to buy some fruits and vegetables before I got home. Mmm, some fresh juice...
"Wait here, I'll be right back" Chris told me before he closed the door and left me alone in the sad looking interview room.
Standing between the door and the closest chair I was pondering whether to either sit down and wait for Chris and the detective to come, or just open the door and wait outside just because the room that I was in was depressing. I chose to open the door, as soon as I did, I heard voices close by so I didn't fully open it and just listened.
"... and you will let her go because she is innocent. And you will say sorry to her." I heard Chris's voice. Or was that Steven?
"I will let her go and say sorry to her..." that definitely was detective Parker, but he sounded weird, like he didn't have the lemon in his mouth anymore.
"Now let's go inside the interview room and be over with this"
As soon as I heard about the room, I closed the door without any noise and sat on the nearest chair, when the door opened and the two men stepped inside. Chris smiled at me and I did my best to smile back, but what I managed was a grimace.
"Everything will be fine" he told me, trying to make me feel better and I congratulated myself that he believed that I was freaked out about the whole restaurant and murder thing and not by the conversation I just heard that I already created ten different movies in my head and they were becoming weirder and weirder.
"Miss Lancaster" the detective cleared his throat "our investigation concluded that what happened at your restaurant was nothing but a bad joke. I am sorry for the inconvenience that this created."
He seemed to read the confusion on my face, and after clearing his throat again he continued.
"We discovered that all the blood was fake and part of a prank that got out of control."
"Oh! So everything is alright then?" exhaling I allowed my body to relax and I smiled. "That's such good news!"
"Yes, and you will receive compensation to cover the repairs to your restaurant." Chris continued, smiling at me.
"Really? That's... thank you!" I told both of them and smiled. "So, can I go then? I've been so stressed all day and I am looking forward to a hot batch, a bottle of wine and a good book" I was looking at detective Parker for a reaction, but he didn't say anything, looking more as if he didn't even remember that I was drinking wine last night during our interview. And as I didn't want to be locked away just for that, I just shut up.
"Yes, Miss Lancaster, you are free to go. Thank you for your cooperation and I am sorry again for all the trouble."
All I managed was a smile, before I got up and went to the front door with Chris right behind me, his brother waiting there for us, with a smile on his face.
"Told you everything will be fine! I just heard that there was a problem with the blood results and it actually was fake!"
"Thank you! Both of you!" I looked at the two brothers and smiled. "I'm going home now before Detective Spider-Man changes his mind and decides to charge me for being too happy or something like that!"
"We still have some paperwork to do, but let me know if you want someone to drive you home..."
"It's ok Steven, I'm more than fine. I'm great! Everything is great! I might have a party and you both will be invited. Not sure when. But thank you for everything!"
With that, I left the police station, leaving behind the depression that this place was giving me.
In the car, I turned on the music and sang all the way to the grocery store and at the same time, putting together everything that happened in the last almost twenty-four hours. I was happy and grateful that I didn't end up accused of killing someone, and at the same time I knew that everything that the detective just told me was absolute bullshit. That might have been a stupid prank, but I knew that there was more to that, unless they found a fake blood that smelled exactly like blood. And what the fuck had the Goldman wanker to do with all this?
With my airpods on and the music playing, I entered the grocery store trying to remember why I was there. Ah, right. Juice. Fruits and vegetables. So I went in that direction and put stuff into my cart. When I was done there, I went to the frozen stuff and took a bag of frozen potatoes, then to the cheese section and then stopped in front of all sorts of chocolate with different types of alcohol.
Why did so many of them have dark chocolate? Ah here, milk chocolate and irish cream. Put that into my cart. Some orange liqueur flavored chocolates. It was dark chocolate unfortunately, but orange liqueur seemed like a good idea. Put two more kinds of alcoholic chocolates into my cart before taking some with caramel filling and opening it. Still listening to music and dancing as subtly as I could, I went to pay for my stuff where there was a cute guy scanning the products.
I offered him some chocolate in an attempt to flirt/be nice with him, but he just refused and then scanned the rest of the products and told me how much everything cost. Still smiling, I gave him the money and was on my way to the exit. I was so happy that I was sure I could flirt with everyone, even the detective Spider-Man. Well, maybe...
"Flirting with the cashier?" I heard a voice next to me that made me turn my head in that direction while putting another chocolate into my mouth. "He seems too bored with his life to appreciate a lady like you. But I promise that I won't make that mistake."
I almost choked the chocolate in my mouth then swallowed it when I saw Tom Goldman on my right, with a smile on his face that was very different from the I'm gonna kill you look that he gave me in the elevator. Well, fucking hell!
"Really? Because threatening someone isn't such a turn on for me." and then I lifted the box of chocolates in his direction and smiled. "Chocolate?"
"No, thank you."
By the look on his face, and all the boxes of chocolates with alcohol in my cart, he was sure that those had alcohol too. Too bad for him.
When I was next to my car, I wished Tom Goldman a good day and ignored him while I put everything in the car.
He didn't wait around, and when his car left the store's parking lot, I was right behind him, with my chocolate yumminess on the passenger seat.
I did my best to remember everything about car chasings from movies and books, like keeping my distance and not losing the car that I was following and I was really proud of the good job that I was doing. The bad part was that he saw my car and might know that I am following him if he recognizes my car so I did my best to keep my distance while feeling excited and terrified at the same time. Yes, I was exterrified and that made me eat the entire box of chocolates by the time his car stopped in front of a two story building, got out of the car and got inside.
I parked my car far away from the building, and then approached it, trying at the same time to look around so no one, especially Tom Goldman, could see me, and trying not to seem too suspicious.
When I was close to the entrance, I already had some idea if someone asked me what I was doing there. I could tell that I was lost and ask for directions. And if Tom Goldman found me, I was just going to improvise. But fortunately no one was there. There was a big empty room with two other doors, one to the left and one to the right.
I went to the one on the left to take a look. There was a bigger room, empty as well. Then I went to the one on the right, where I started hearing voices as I was getting closer. I looked behind me, making sure that no one was going to take me by surprise and maybe kill me for snooping around, then tried my best to look to the other room, while hiding so who was there didn't see me.
Shit! I left the bag of frozen potatoes and the cheese in the car! I sent a silent prayer that they'll be fine until I get home, and then froze when I was who Tom Goldman was talking to. Two brothers, their names: Chris and Steven Phills. What the fuck was going on?
But I didn't get much of what they were talking about. When I saw that they seemed to want to get to the door, I went as fast and as silent as I could to the exit, got out of that building and got into my car and waited there. I watched them exiting the building, then going into different cars and going in different directions.
Fucking hell!
I stayed there for another five minutes, for no other reason than trying to figure out what just happened. Then I remembered about the cheese and frozen fries and I started the car, turned on the music and sang all the way home.