Kofy Richmond Mysteries

Chapter 9: The Spotted Band Part I

This may be hard to believe, but I rarely cook. My parents and my sister taught me how to cook, and I think I am quite good at it. However, since I started going to Waterview University, I haven’t needed to. It does help that my family lives three miles away and I can drive there for a home-cooked meal whenever I want. It also helps that my mother is friends with the owner of Temptations so I get really well-served at the grill.

As I ingested the last of my braised rice, I smiled at Rynn, my regular waiter, who was approaching me with a jug of juice.

"Do you want a refill?" They asked, ready to empty the jug into my glass.

"No, please." I said, covering the opening of the glass with my hand. "I'm done. I'm even about to leave."

"Okay, good." They said, looking back for a bit and taking a seat across me.

"How much do I owe for this?" I asked.

"Don't worry, it's on the house." They said, scratching their sweater-covered arm.

I noticed they were nervous; looking back a lot. I thought they were just looking back to see if they had been spotted by the manager taking an unauthorized break.

They seemed to enjoy my company a lot, usually taking a break to sit with me while I ate for us to have a talk. Expectedly, I am the one who does most of the talking, continuously going on about my many and not necessarily famous cases. They didn't seem to mind, though, so that's okay.

However, what I was seeing was unsettling. Rynn seemed to be worried and scared. Even worse, they continued to work and didn't take a break when I came in. They must have needed the extra cash.

"Rynn, is everything okay?" I asked.

"No, Kofy." They leaned in and began to speak at a lowered volume. "Everything is not okay. Actually, I would like to hire you, if you'll allow it."

"Rynn Laryea, what's your story."

They took in a deep breath. "You know I'm in an a cappella group called Hallelujah, right?"

"Yep!" I said. "And I've been very quiet about how much I hate acapella and how ridiculous I find the name of the band. That's why I stopped calling you Hallelujah because I knew you wouldn't change it."

"We are about to enter a music competition." They said. "Well, at least we were. We have been disqualified because we have been deemed a pontential to endanger the health of others."

"Why would they say so?"

Rynn looked back again, and then all around the grill. They placed their arm on the table and rolled the sleeve of their black sweater. All over their arm were some big white spots. They were as big as ping pong balls, and they were twice that size apart.

Before I could make further examination of it, Rynn pulled back their arm.

"We went to bed last night at our apartment. We woke up this morning with these spots, and Richmond, they are everywhere."

It didn't seem appropriate to say at the time, but it looked like we had a mystery on our hands.

*******

After I succeeded in calming Rynn down and leaving them to get back to work, I hypothesized that if there was any foul play involved, it was most likely caused by a rival band. That is why I texted Kai to look into them. Also, he's a Music major and I was being nice by involving him on the case so that he feels his programme of study is relevant.

I got to the room about an hour after I texted Kai. He was busy on his computer, typing so loud and hard, I felt bad for his keyboard.