RoseBlood

Face The Facts

"They really helped, you know, when I needed a place here. I moved from London to settle somewhere a little more... well, relaxed, and everything went a lot easier than I thought it would. I work as the assistant store manager now, at a nearby clothes shop."

"Would I know it?"

"Oh, um, I'm not sure. It's not, like, a big chain or anything. It's called Elysium, on Lewes Road."

I nod slowly. That's one place to check out, and one name to look up. Elysium?

Clarissa comes over to put the tea down, her cat glancing at us with olive-green eyes before it goes upstairs, uninterested.

"Look, Clarissa... I hate to be upfront about this, but did you notice anything odd going on before my parents died?"

Clarissa gasps in shock, her eyes widening. "What? Died?"

I raise a brow in confusion. "You didn't know?"

"I- no! I've been at home for a while now, trying to get rid of this headache, and... oh, how awful. I'm so, so sorry, Holly."

I shrug, smiling awkwardly. "Thanks."

"W-what happened?"

"They were found dead in suspicious circumstances," I choose my words wisely, and she looks at me blankly for a moment before catching on. "It's an ongoing investigation. I'm just curious as to how it all kicked off. I mean, they were nice people, weren't they?"

"Really nice people," Clarissa agrees, nodding vigorously. "I can't believe it..."

"Did you know them well? My Mum?"

"No, not your mother."

I pause, taking a sip of tea before cupping the drink in my hands, meeting her timid gaze with my concentrated one.

"My father, then?"

Clarissa shakes her head and shrugs. "Not well, no. But he was the one who helped me get a place here. He was a lovely man."

I give her a thin-lipped smile. "Really?"

"Yeah. He even visited me at Elysium once, when I was first settling in, to ask me how I was doing. He was so-"

She stops suddenly, as if realising her rambling, and her cheeks dust pink. I watch in interest, trying to study her expression.

Okay.

It's possible that I've never acknowledged that my father was good-looking and, I don't know, attractive to other women? It's a pretty weird and, quite frankly, disturbing thought, but it still counts. So, could Clarissa have really liked my dad? He was married to Mum before I was born and seemed a faithful man - bad at hiding things anyway, and I'd never seen any kind of behaviour that suggested another woman. Not that there was. But this is a possibility, and one that links with the love letter style.

Things turned disturbing pretty quick, didn't they, Holl?

"So what?" I ask, but she shakes her head with a brief smile before drinking some of her tea. I let it go. For now.

"You never noticed anything odd about them at all before my birthday?"

"No," she replies, a small, thoughtful frown on her face. "I hadn't seen them much recently, so I suppose they'd been busy with work, like everyone. I don't understand why anyone would want them dead."

"Neither do I," I agree, finishing the last of my tea, before leaning back in my seat and looking at her curiously, ready to be a little more straightforward now.

"You were here all day then? On my birthday?"

Clarissa blinks. "I... yes."

"A bad migraine?"