Dolly (Part three-Max Mitchell series)

FOUR

Jane narrowed her eyes at Tom. "Wait a second, you're--"
"Magnus!" Ellis exclaimed. "From Wallander, yeah?"
"Guilty as charged." he smiled and shook both of Max's parents hands.
"You just made my dad's year. He's a Wallander super-fan." Tabatha added. "I'm Max's sister, you can call me Tab."
"Nice to meet you, all of you. I wish it were under better circumstances."
"So, when did you and Max--" Jane started.
Not knowing fully what Max may or may not have told them, Tom resolved to keep it short and direct.
"Stef and I happened to be seated next to eachother on a flight here from London. It was her that introduced us."
They all nodded, and there was a brief moment of quiet, as if they knew he'd trimmed their story a bit. Tom didn't care though, he wanted to let Max give them all of the details. Thankfully, Wendy spoke up and took care of the increasingly awkward silence.
"The nurse told us earlier that they were going to keep her sedated until the surgeon saw her, which should be tomorrow morning. Would you like me to get you a car, to take you all to Max's house so you can get settled?" She found it easier to manage the stress by doing her job, taking care of Max and all things Max related.
"I'm staying here with her." Jane said, definitively and nobody chose to argue.
"Tom, will you be coming with us, then?" Ellis asked, clapping a hand on his shoulder.
"Um, yes. If I'm welcome?"
"Of course you are." Tab said.

They said their goodbyes to Wendy and Tom, Ellis and Tab piled into the car Wendy had waiting for them.

***

"This must be super weird for you." Tab stated. She and Tom were sitting in the kitchen, having a cup of tea.
"What do you mean?"
"Having all of us show up, kind of out of nowhere."
Tom shrugged, thinking he was not bothered by them one little bit. "She will be terribly happy to see you. I can't even tell you all of the times she's said how much she missed you."
Tab smiled. "We've missed her too. I wish we could have had more contact while we were gone. I feel like I know nothing about her life lately."
He knew she was eluding to their relationship a little bit.
"Well, you're here now. That's what's important."
She nodded in response. Tom could tell she was starting to get lost in her thoughts, so he just sat with her in silence until she spoke again.

"What happened, Tom? I just don't understand." She sounded bewildered.
He sucked in a deep breath, and pondered for a moment.
"Nobody really knows, except for Max and the Police. All we know is that somebody shot her." his voice broke a little as the words came from his mouth.
"So, she had been out of town and it happened when she got back?"
"Yeah. Like I said, we haven't been told anything...but Wendy and I have our theories."
"Theories? Like what?"
"When Max was in LA, I stayed with her. She got a phone call from someone back home named Brittany. Ring a bell?"
"That's Paul's sister...oh my god." her face went pale. "It was him, wasn't it?"
"I know very little about Paul, but Wendy seems very keen on the idea that it was him."
"God dammit, that piece of trash just won't go away." she rubbed at her eyes, looking completely depleted.

"Get in here you two!"
They hustled to the living room to find that Ellis was watching TMZ, and photographs of the day that Max was shot were plastered all over the TV. The three of them sat, frozen and fixated on the television screen as the narrators voice divulged all of the speculations that they had from that awful day.

"Max Mitchell is the music industry's darling. Why is it then, that someone would feel compelled to gun her down, in her own home? A source tells us that it could have been an old lover, or maybe an old enemy that came to find her, once she returned from a trip away. All we can say for sure is that from these photographs, taken two days ago, was that Max was taken from her home via ambulance and shortly after, a body bag was removed on a stretcher. What we want to know is, who is it?"

"I want to know who their bloody source is." Ellis barked.
"So, if it was Paul. It's safe to say, he's not a threat anymore, yeah?" Tom said, peering out the window, noticing a few news cameras outside.
"So it would seem." Ellis said.
"He's a piece of shit. Good riddance." Tab hissed, and her father shot a look at her, shocked by her words.