When She Comes

Chapter 30 - Pure Magic

Even the sky missed Prince and his purple hue that normally illuminated above Paisley Park, showing its gloom by raining since his disappearance.

Each day cars entered and exited Paisley's gate while others stayed around the clock. Through the front door, one could see that the lobby and front offices were lit at all hours; it was now what one might consider...the devil's den.

On one particular morning luck wasn't having it for the four dubbed as the inner circle.

To match the fantastic four, four Carver County Sheriff vehicles along with a black Mercedes arrived at Paisley Park coincidentally at the exact same time Meron Burke was buzzing for the gate to be opened.

Eyes glued to her rearview mirror nerves settled in seeing the law on her tail. Were they here to give bad news about Prince?

Meron's inbox has been vacant outside of her typical emails from Sephora, Caribou Coffee, Ticketmaster and a slew of clothing store emails. Typically Prince greeted her every morning with a list of duties but not a peep has been heard from her detail oriented boss.

This was the third day since anyone had seen or heard from Prince.

More than a tenseness had set in. Kirk was tight lipped and gruff while Phaedra was constantly screaming orders and complaining about moving money, losing money, missing money.

Phaedra had a California friend hack into Prince's computer and Kirk was busy trying to find clues to his whereabouts in emails recent documents and website visit history.

One thing that intrigued Meron was when Kirk and Phaedra kept referencing someone or something called Fenny. Talk about pick ups, drop offs and where to slip him...or maybe it was a her. There was a code between these two that Meron couldn't quite decipher.

Each day Meron would asked if there was any word from Prince or if they had any leads, but no one answered and she began to wonder if something happened to him or if they did something to him. Wherever he was...he didn't leave alone because he was too sick to hardly move.

Meron was no innocent in all of this. She knew he was sick and chose to not inquire about his health. Following orders for food, enemas, Fireball cinnamon whisky miniature spirits, 5-hour ENERGY drinks were the staple items she purchased unless there were other specifics he needed.

And...she also found a fair amount of money lying around the last couple of days and decided to take it. She accumulated approximately $3,000.00 and kept it in her purse.

During Prince's absence, Meron assisted Kirk and Phaedra with some administrative duties like sorting through boxes and cleaning up Prince's office as well as her usual responsibility of grabbing meals because Phaedra and Kirk were working around the clock.

BAM! Phaedra plunked a heavy pile of papers down onto Meron's desk. "This goes from the file folder to the shredder and no eyes in between. You hear me? You stay locked on your job and nothing else." Sternly Phaedra raised her eyebrows ensuring Meron was clear on her duties, aka no reading the documents.

In addition to her shredding work, which made her feel like working in a rock quarry, Meron was tasked with replying to all voicemails regarding the indefinitely paused for a family emergency Piano & Microphone Tour.

People wanted to know if they could get their money back or if the concerts would be rescheduled. There were so many unanswered questions but Phaedra wasn't about to lose money by issuing refunds. Even Prince's concert manager, Theo London was wondering what to tell people.

Prince disappearing shortly after the Atlanta trip and Moline happening didn't look good. Gossip was swirling from he died to being terminally ill.