Screaming Trees - Les Noir

Which One?

The restless night triggered everyone's anxieties. Gabe sulked in his bedroom unsure of his future. The bullet wound in his arm was superficial, but the betrayal hurt worse. He still hadn't grieved the loss of his beloved friend and lover. Sleep didn't come easy. Every time his eyes closed, he was right back at the Alabama Moon club. Waking up with his heart beating fast as he drenched the sheets with sweat.

Larry choked down his own need for affection trying to sleep in his room. Hours passed by as he tossed from side to side. The time ticked away slowly so he left the quiet of his room to go into the dining room and review the files Ri left him. Laurent tossed and turned in his lonely bed trying to figure out a way to get his twin back for the shitty way he' been treating him lately. 

The long night showed up as a weary look on Larry's face as he drank coffee at the dining room table trying to decipher Ri's notes the next morning.

Richard Paschal's notes:

The label read - 5 Bitches. There were pictures of the women burying Mrs. Washington's husband in a wooded area in London. The photos of the man's dismembered and bloodied body made him almost hurl. There were newspaper clippings that said Mr. Washington died in a tragic boating accident while he vacationed alone in Hawaii. It also listed each woman's affiliations with someone named Audrey. The more he read, the more he realized that Audrey seemed to come up in many of the files.

Lena's file had photos of the young dancer at her home and with her sister, Zoe, in New Orleans. It read that their former boss, Giselle, hired her because Zoe and Giselle were once friends. Lena's obituary said that the dancer suffered from depression and died by a single gunshot wound to the head at her sister's home in the early morning hours while her sister was gone shopping.

The file regarding Honey had notes saying that her mother was a tyrant and alcoholic. Ri helped her escape from her mother into the entertainment industry by moving her form the UK to the U.S. The singer had fallen in love with the lead guitarist from her band. He was horribly abusive to her, and Ri was worried about her well-being seeing how much time and money had gone into helping her career.

The file for Mistress Selena had so many photos and notes that it had a rubber band around it to hold it together. The photos of her as a child in an orphanage and the photos of the torture chamber where she first started working as a dominatrix disturbed him bringing up painful memories. The notes read that she also had been mentored by the mystery Audrey woman from childhood.

He looked at Erica Loving's file reluctantly. The top photos were of Erica and Laurent making love in the garden at her home. When he heard Gabe coming into the kitchen, he called out to him. Gabe huffed seeing him sitting at the table surrounded with files.

"What is it boss?" Gabe asked sarcastically.

"Come sit with me," Larry asked in an apologetic voice. Though he rolled his eyes, Gabe sat down across from him at the table.