The Jazz Club

Chapter Six

Unedited
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August 23rd 1920

Julia put her finger to her lip as her mind went wild. Her eyes scanned the pictures and the pieces of information pinned up to the back of the wardrobe door. Julia's suspects;

Albert, of course. Albert was something. His sneer made Julia's skin crawl. His words made Julia shiver at just the thought of them. 'You really are like a mini Irene it's quite remarkable'. Albert made Julia wary of him from their first interaction.

Henry. No matter what he did to sway her heart, Julia had to keep a clear head. Everyone was a suspect, no exceptions. Henry knew more than he was letting on and he had only confirmed it the day before.

And finally, Evelyn.

No matter how close Evelyn and Julia got, no matter how protective Evelyn became over Julia. Evelyn was one of Irene's closest friends, one of the only friends Julia knew about. Evelyn would have to be lying if she knew nothing about Irene's death. They worked at the same club and people talk, especially at a club run by the mob.

Taking her lip between her teeth as she thought to herself, she tapped her finger nail onto a photo of Albert going into his office. A giggle left her lips as they turned up into a smirk.

"There"

--

Julia looked around, her eyes training onto every other person in the room. When she knew no one was looking her way, she sneakily makes her way to Albert's office and entered, quickly closing the door behind her.

This was going to be easy, as long as no one noticed her disappear for a bit then no one would know she'd be gone. Albert was still away on a business trip so he wouldn't have any knowledge of Julia entering his office.

Rushing over to his desk, she drops her knees and opens the first draw in his desk. It was practically empty apart from a few pens that were rolling around. Closing the draw, she moves down to the second one and pulls it open to see a bunch of documents; debts, paper work, a hand written note...

Julia raised an eyebrow, peering down at the paper. The handwriting was messy, it felt familiar to Julia, but she wasn't sure. Stuffing the note into her pocket, she closes the draw and moves onto the next one.

Again, this one empty. Strangely empty. Running her fingers over the bottom of the draw, she jumps when she feels a part of the wood was at a different level to the rest of the draw. Something you wouldn't notice if you weren't looking close enough. Doing her best to remove the wooden piece, her eyes widen at the sight;

A key.

It was brass, with a swirling handle. Something Julia had never seen before, this key wasn't a normal type of key and that intrigued Julia even more to know what this key opened and what was inside of whatever the thing was.

She closed the draw and her eyes went around the room. Nothing seemed out of place and nothing seemed to jump out to her as suspicious, but Julia knew she couldn't stop now. Behind Albert's desk was a small table with a few photos on and under it was a large file case. Julia tried to open it, but she huffed when she found it to be locked. She tried the key she found, but nothing. It was still locked.

"Key, key, key" Julia mumbled, looking around the room again. "If I was a key where would I be?"

Before she could even try to look, a cough made her jump and fall onto the table, knocking over one of the photo frames. Julia placed her hand to her heart and she felt it racing. Henry stood in front of her with a raised eyebrow.