December 15th, 2012
Saturday
11:41 p.m.
Dear Janet,
It was Thomas' victory party today, at his father's yacht. Most of the guests were seniors (including his three dear friends), except for Diana and Amara. I figured Ethan must've urged Thomas to invite Diana, given the Covingtons and Parks are associates. Amara might've been her plus one. But that's not the point!
Thomas' father was on the yacht to monitor the kids. It was his property after all and I'm pretty sure he doesn't have much faith in his son to keep everything in check, and that made it so much easier for me. It was as if luck was my right-hand man today!
What happened was, when Thomas was giving us a tour of 'his' yacht, he took us to his father's cellar. He gave us this big-ass speech of the different wines and I'm pretty sure he made up some of those names. Anyway, on our way back to the deck, I snuck in one of his father's 'special liquors.' It was a vintage bottle with a golden label that had some French letters printed on it in a decorative font.
Later during the party, when I was on my way to the bathroom, I had to pass by Thomas' father's room. I peeped in through the ajar door and saw him reading a book. Well, that was my cue. I retrieved the bottle of liquor and smashed it against the yacht's floor to create as much noise as possible and my god, it did! I ran back to the deck before his father could catch me.
A few minutes after, Mr. Irvine interrupted the party and boy was he MAD! He accused Thomas of breaking the bottle containing his precious wine. We were worried that he would kill his own son then and there. But you know what happened next? I swooped in like the perfect savior and took the blame upon myself, saying I got curious and brought the bottle from the party and dropped it by mistake on my way back to the party. He believed me and let it slide. Once he was gone, Thomas thanked me for saving his ass by covering for him! I don't know if he believed my truth, but so long as he was unharmed, he was happy — the definition of a shallow person.
Perhaps I'll be in his 'good graces' now, though he won't be in mine, not after what he did. Perhaps my plans of infiltrating his friend group will finally work! I hope it does.
I love you.
Your brother,
Jeremy
***
"Did you find anything suspicious on the Covingtons?" I ask Ray while Aiden, he, and I are on Facetime on our day off.
"Not anything noteworthy," Ray starts, "except for the fact that Patricia gets these crazy migraines that only her husband knows of."
"She's a lawyer, must be one hell of a workload," comments Aiden. "Anything else?"
"Nope," Ray shakes his head, still looking over at his computer, presumably spying on the Covingtons even now. His under eye-bags suggest he takes his "job" very seriously.
"Ray, did you stay up all night watching them?" I ask and he finally looks up at me through his phone screen.
"Wh—"
"Don't lie to me," I urge and he opens his mouth to say something, but stops midway, slumping his shoulders.
"It's fun, however! It's like watching an episode of Big Brother!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." I roll my eyes at him.
"Anyway," Ray speaks up once again and yawns. "I should catch up on some sleep. Goodbye!" he says and ends the Facetime abruptly, leaving me on the call with just Aiden.
Just as I was about to exit the Facetime as well, Aiden stops me.
"Hey rookie, send me the address of the Ice Rink that your roommate invited me to?" he asks. Sadie went through my phone a few days ago and the moment she got a hold of Aiden's number, she asked him to come to this Ice Rink she and Javier love going to. I don't know why she wouldn't just ask me for his number instead of fishing through my phone in my sleep. Well, I think I know why. There is no way I would've given her the number without knowing the context.
"Yup, will do," I say. "Also, I'm not your rookie today. Day off, remember?"
"But you still responded to my question, rookie," he says, flashing a cocky smile that makes me sigh.
"I'll kill you one day," I say.
"Cross your heart," he says and ends the call with one last smirk. I shake my head and scream into my pillow both in frustration and anxiety at the thought of meeting up with him at some place other than work. Well, Sadie and Javier will be there too so I guess it would be less awkward, right? You know what they say — Ignore the problem and it ceases to exist.
"Breakfast in bed?" Sadie sings on a broken note as she arrives in my room, carrying a bed tray table with some steaming pancakes with maple syrup poured on them. I'm pretty sure she had been listening to the whole conversation like the eavesdropper she is.
"Why are you doing this?" I ask her, dejected.
"Doin...whaf?" she asks, her mouth stuffed with pancakes to the brim.
"The Ice Rink. You know what you're doing."
She shrugs and swallows the bolus of food. "I just want to get to know your co-worker better."
"That's all?"
"Mhmm," she says, about to eat another piece of the pancake when I grab her hand, stopping her from doing so.
"Sadie, this isn't going to be a double date. Aiden and I are colleagues and trust me, he's...insufferable and he talks like he has the wisdom of a seventy-year-old man! I mean, who goes to operas these days? You don't even know the language they're performing in. And not to mention, he's kind of a dick with that awful attitude. He and I? Polar opposites!'
"You like him," Sadie says with a nod and that makes me about to go on another tangent when she pokes a piece of pancake into my mouth. "Eat up, Amy. I can give you a thousand reasons why opposites attract while you do."
***
At around five, Sadie, Javier, and I meet up at the Indoor Ice Skating Rink. It's located in a buzzing commercial intersection in New Orleans, the neighboring city of Valenchester. Also, I finally realized ice skating was the one thing Aiden is not good at, and I make sure to laugh under my breath every time he falls over.
"Go help your pal, Amy!" Sadie says with a wink and my laughs stop.
"You were a figure skater in high school, right? Why don't you help him out?" I ask.
Sadie, instead of answering me, takes Javier by the hand as the both of them skate away, leaving me alone with my doomed fate.
"A little help here?" Aiden groans, trying to get back on his feet but flails his arms and falls flat on the ice...yet again.
I give out a long exhale and make my way over to him, reaching out my hand for him to hold. "That's the most compassion you will get out of me," I say.
He manages to extend his hand and grabs onto it and finally gets on his feet.
"Thanks, rookie," he says and I glare at him. "Erm...Amara. Thanks, Amara."
"You're welcome," I saw with an expression that makes it seem like I'm looking down on him. "You wanna take a break or skate more?"
"Skate!" he says with an enthusiasm that feels highly misplaced.
"Are you sure? You can barely glide five meters in these skates."
"Help me, then," he says and before I can object, he takes my hands in his and starts to skate along the ice. He keeps his eyes fixed on his feet, which I've seen him do every time he starts over.
"Hey, don't look down. Look at me, alright?" I say and he does as I say, lifting his nervous gaze and fixating it on me.
"That's good?" he asks and I nod.
"That's a start," I answer.
"What if I fall again? What if we fall together?"
"Aiden, relax!" I say, my voice louder this time and he takes it as his cue to stop talking for once. "Bend your knees a little and keep your weight forward."
He follows.
"Now to turn, twist your body in the direction you want to go and push off with your leading skate, alright? Let's do a right turn," I suggest, and realize his grip on my hands tightens. "Ready?"
He hums in response and squints.
"Okay so, three, two...one!" I say and we both turn at the same time, gliding along the ice just fine.
"Oh my god, we did it!" Aiden says, exhilarated, and leaves my hands, hoping to do a victory lap around the ice rink but all he meets with is yet another fall, one that makes a loud thud.
"Yup, you need more practice."
***
A few more rounds later, Aiden and I finally take a break and go sit on one of the public benches, watching Sadie and Javier skate flawlessly on the ice. They aren't gliding...they're floating.
"Have you ever come here before?" Aiden asks, taking off his skates.
"Couple of times," I answer, "with Sadie and Javier."
"Haven't you ever felt like third-wheeling?" he asks and manages to take off both his skates and stretches his legs.
"Sometimes, I guess?" I answer, taking off my skates as well. "Which is probably why she brought you here today."
"To keep you company?" he asks and I shake my head with a laugh.
"Trust me, if I had a choice, I'd pick a better company," I say, tilting my head to the side.
"Haha funny," Aiden mocks.
I sigh and answer him, honestly this time. "She planned a 'double date'," I say, inserting air quotes and Aiden nearly chokes on his breath.
"A double what?" he asks, shocked.
I release a long breath before answering him. "That's the thing about Sadie. She loves playing matchmaker. She's a good person, but I can't help but be annoyed at how childish she is sometimes. I mean...we're just co-workers! There shouldn't be any date involved in any of this."
I look up at Aiden and he takes a second to nod. "Yeah, co-workers. Exactly!"
"Right?" I say with another laugh, feeling his eyes linger on me for a while. "Anyway, what do you think about Diana?"
"What do I think about Diana?" he repeats, still staring at me like he's staring at a dream.
I click my fingers before his face, breaking his daze. "About the tarot card that Janet sent her. The reversed nine of pentacles?"
"Ah, yes. That," he says and takes in a deep breath. "I think she's sending your former friend a warning."
"A warning against who? Janet?" I ask.
Aiden chews on his bottom lip and answers with a question. "Did Diana have any role to play in Janet's death?"
"I don't think so. If anything, Diana only praised Janet just as much as I did," I reply. "Janet was the perfect girl, you know. Smart, kind, passionate—"
"It's always the good that gets the most harm done to them," Aiden interrupts. "Besides, doesn't Janet, or whoever we think is Janet, send tarot cards in the order in which they're about to strike?"
"So if we follow that order...it's Archie, then Diana."
"Probably—" Just then, his phone rings. He fishes it out of his shirt pocket and holds it up for me to see. It's a Facetime from Ray.
Aiden and I share a look before he swipes his finger across the screen and a tired-looking Ray pops up, his face illuminated by the light of his computer screen.
"Aiden, I just foun— Wait, where are you two?" he asks.
"At the Ice Rink. Amara's roommate invited me over," Aiden answers. "Anyway, did you find any dirt on the Covingtons?"
"No, not that. But I did manage to dig up information about Paul Zhou, the last of Janet's perpetrators. Turns out, he moved to China right after graduating high school. I did some digging and apparently, he works in one of Sphynx's subsidiaries in China."
"So he might have had contact with Ethan even after high school?" I say as the realization hits me.
"Slim chance, but yeah. Also, he got married around twenty-nineteen and has two kids, both daughters," Ray informs.
"Wow," I say, breathing out. "He gets to have his happily-ever-after after ruining Janet's life?"
"Did you manage to get a hold of any contact number, email, or anything?" Aiden asks and Ray nods.
"Yes sir, I'll forward it to you."
"Good job, Ray," Aiden says and smiles as he ends the Facetime.
"This could be it, right? The final piece of the puzzle?" I say with excitement bubbling in my voice.
"I sure hope so," he says, calling Paul on the number Ray forwarded him and puts the call on speaker.
Seven rings later, a man on the other end picks up.
"Hello?" a low, deep voice says.
"Hi, am I talking to Paul Zhou?" Aiden asks.
"Yes, you are," he speaks with an accent.
"Hi, I'm calling from the Valenchester Police Department. Can you spare a few—"
"I can't help you with anything," he says and right before he cuts the call short, I speak up.
"It's about Janet! Janet Holloway!"
The line goes quiet for a while. An uneasy silence puts the both of us through an equally uneasy and long minute.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can help you," he says and ends the call.
"Bullshit!" Aiden swears under his breath, holding the phone with so much force that his knuckles turn white.
"He knows something that we don't," I say. "But why is he so hesitant? Did the Covingtons pay him off too as they did to the people at the party?"
"I don't know," Aiden says, shaking his head. "But what I do know is that there's an awful game at play here, and we need to find out what's going on."
"With or without Paul," I add and he passes me a stern nod.
"With or without Paul."
***
"So, did you enjoy ice skating?" Sadie asks Aiden and elbows me in the stomach.
"I think I broke quite a few bones," Aiden says, running his right hand along his left shoulder.
"Oh come on, I saw how Amy was teaching you how to skate," Sadie says, elbowing me in the shoulder once again and I finally yelp.
"She is a good teacher," Aiden comments but I'm too lost in my own thoughts that I don't even realize my pace has slowed and I'm falling behind the group. The reversed nine of pentacles blurs my mind and I pull out my phone to search for its meaning.
"In a general context, the Nine of Pentacles reversed can indicate a lack of independence, confidence, freedom, security, or stability. There is also an element of dishonesty or deceitfulness represented by this card so be sure you are treating others with honesty and integrity and be wary of dishonesty from others when it appears in your Tarot reading," a site says. I wonder if Diana will be on the giving end of the deceit or the receiving end, or if deceit even has any role to play here.
"Hey Amara, isn't this your friend from high school?" Sadie calls out to me and I finally look up from my phone.
I run to her and lean in as she plays a live news broadcast on her cellphone.
"I went on my social media and everyone's talking about the Nine O'Clock news," she informs.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, tonight we have a very special guest on our show — Mrs. Patricia Covington," the host says and the camera pans to a prim and proper Patricia sitting next to him.
"Good evening," she greets.
"So, without further ado, can you tell us what you're here for? What confession do you have to make?"
Patricia looks at the camera once and I can feel her looking straight at me.
"I'm sure most of you know about my elder son, Ethan's passing on the twenty-second of November."
"My condolences," says the host.
She dabs her eyes with a tissue and continues. "The night before his...death, my younger son Logan, my husband and I found out that Ethan's ex-fiancee Diana had been having an affair with Logan behind all of our backs."
A few gasps go off around me from people who must be watching the same thing as me.
"That's...shocking!" says the news anchor.
"And that's not the end of it," she says, "Diana is pregnant with Logan's child."
A wave of gasps goes off once again.
"Did none of you know about the pregnancy? What about Logan? Did he know?"
Patricia shakes her head. "Not a clue. I talked to Logan and according to him, Diana manipulated him into getting into a secret relationship with her."
"Why did she not just break up with Ethan, then?"
"Because that's who she is. That is who Diana Park is, a conniving, manipulative mastermind who knows how to flip the coins in her favor." Her voice cracks and I feel my eyes burn a hole in my skull. "It's she who got my son killed."
***
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hi Arcanas, sorry for the late update. I had been busy with exams and just taking some time off for myself. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and let me know your theories in the comment section down below!
- Adrianna