Diamonds in the Rough: VOL. I

eight

Kianna stepped off the elevator pulling her cart with her. She looked over her list of assigned rooms for the day. Her AirPods were in her ears as she listened to some 90s r&b. She hummed along to Mariah's Honey as she read over the door numbers.

As she got closer to the one she was supposed to clean a set of detectives stepped out of a room. She stopped so that she could move her cart out of their way. A hand touched her shoulder and she turned taking an AirPod out of her ear.

"Are you Kianna Moore?" Detective Smith asked. She nodded before taking out her other AirPod."Detective Smith and my partner Detective Wright, we're with the homicide department. Can we speak with you for a minute."

"Of course." Kianna nodded once.

"How long have you been working at the hotel?"

"Two months."

"Do you usually clean the rooms on this floor?"

"We're assigned different rooms every day." Kianna placed her hands in front of her.

"Can we see your list of rooms?" Kianna nodded toward the clipboard on her cart. Detective Wright stepped to it with her notepad and pen in hand. "Has anyone cleaned these rooms to your knowledge in the last week?"

"I don't really associate with anyone right now. This position was something I chose due to my PTSD." She explained happy the officers couldn't see how embarrassed she truly was with the fact.

"How long did you serve?" Detective Wright asked her.

"Eight years."

"We appreciate your service." Detective Smith smiled as she looked back at him. "Do you know there's an investigation going on for the death of the owner's cousin?"

"I knew about the investigation but I didn't know it was for a family member of his." Kianna frowned. Andre hadn't mentioned that once. He and Monica seemed fine when she was around the two of them.

"You look upset."

"I had ran into my boss the other day and he didn't really say anything about what the investigation was about. He did tell me about the investigation but nothing about it being his family member."

"That's interesting. How was he acting that day?"

"We just met on New Year's Eve. I can't make that type of judgement."

"What type of judgement?" Detective Wright stepped closer to them. "We just want to know if he seemed to have strange behavior."

"He was." Kianna paused trying to think of Dre the other day. It wasn't hard. She just didn't want to make an innocent man seem guilty for something he did share with her. He didn't have to tell her about his relationship with the victim. Dre was always sharing things with her that he didn't have to.

"He seemed okay at first. But then there was some time where he seemed upset."

"Had anything happened to upset him?"

"Not that I witnessed. He made a stop after we got some food."

"Are you two dating?"

"No." Kianna frowned. "His sister is my therapist. He was stopping to bring her some food and I was heading home. We decided to get lunch and then he dropped me off to the store."

"He just offered to get you lunch. Without any type of romantic interest."

Kianna blushed and looked to the ground. "I kissed him on New Years Eve. But he hasn't shown any interest in me. Really he's been patient and understanding with my disorder. His father was in the service."