Iris Pierce is Detective Howard Parker's assistant and being a detective's assistant means being thrust into a world of death and blood. Not to mention the fact that Iris is a psychic who can see the ghosts of the people who's death she is helping s...
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The next morning I was running late. I had spent last night staring at the ceiling, occasionally thinking of Howard or Maddi at the restaurant and slept through all of the three alarms I set every night! A call from my mother asking for money had set me back about half an hour and by the time I got to work I was an hour late.
I peeked inside through the window to see if they were having a client meeting just in case I interrupted them. But the only people there were Hampton and Rowena hunched over something on the tea table. I stumbled in apologising frantically about my punctuality and at the same time almost tripped over an irregularly shaped package left on the front step.
'I've already done the schedule. We've had a client call in the morning who's gonna come in in a few minutes.' Rowena said as she adjusted her hair. This morning she was dressed in a plaintive shirt and navy blue dress pants. She looked much more neat and proper than me. I bet she didn't even need an alarm to wake up at exactly the right time.
Usually taking half an hour in the morning making sure I look and feel neat and pretty, this morning I had less than ten minutes to get ready! My hair was sticking out at different angles and my orange blouse did not at all match with my brown skirt. While Rowena terribly hid her shock at my horrible outfit choice, I smoothed down my hair and turned my attention to Robert Hampton.
He had scarcely noticed my ungainly entrance and was looking very impressed at Rowena's schedule he was holding in his hand. 'This is very impressive Rowena. You should do it like this Iris. It's all colour coded and has little sections to separate them!' I chose to ignore Hampton's irritating remark and ask about Howard. I couldn't see him anywhere. Usually he'd be in the living room or in the kitchen but he was nowhere to be seen.
'Right,' Hampton began, 'you know Howard, sometimes he gets too engaged in something and he forgets about his surroundings. He fell down the stairs. I told him to rest and take the day off-'
I didn't need to hear anymore. I was already up the stairs and throwing Howard's bedroom door open. 'You could knock,' said a voice from the bed softly. How much more stupid could I have been!? In my moment of worry I had forgotten that he was my boss! I was as embarrassed as if I'd worn a skirt on a windy day. I have to say I was glad he couldn't see my face. As I was closing the door I heard Howard say, 'No, wait, come in.'After a moment's hesitation I slowly made my way towards his bed.
Usually someone's personality could be told by the way their bedroom looked. My one wasn't appealing. There were discarded papers on the floor, at least three telephones in that one room alone and everything was covered in a layer of dust. It just showed how busy I had been and how neglected my house was.
I had never seen Hampton's one but it probably had dim lighting and a suspect board hanging on the wall as decoration.
Rowena's one was probably perfect, bedsheets always white and spotless, the walls decorated with flower paintings and a huge mirror in front of which she posed and got ready every morning. Howard's room wasn't like that. I couldn't read it.
