Villanelle

I

|August 9th 2016|

^Genevieve's PoV^

"Viv? Genevieve?" The knock at the door makes me spin on my heel, and the cup of coffee in my hand, thankfully lukewarm, topples and the brown liquid spills all over my white shirt.

"Shit! Bollocks!" I discard my mug, and I unlock the door with one hand while the other is trying gallantly to rub away the large brown stain I knew would be setting in.

"Sorry honey, I just wanted to make sure you were okay after last nights antics? Didn't mean to give you a fright." I keep scrubbing, but then I let my hand fall, I drop the tea towel onto the kitchen counter.

"I'm fine Bill. The coffee was cold anyways. Let me change and we'll be on our way, hot coffee and a croissant okay for breakfast?" I start to unbutton the damp fabric that covered my top half, and I throw it into the washing basket along with my bra as well.

After a small amount of time deliberating I choose a blue shirt, but I knew anything would go with the black pants I was wearing. I grabbed a black bra and once I was ready I headed back out to the kitchen.

Bill was sat, reading a newspaper and his eyes moved to me and I smiled.

"Made you a coffee to go sweet. Let's go, a croissant sounds good." Bill slides my travel mug over to me and I give him a grateful grin.

We head out the door and I see Bills car waiting on the other side of the street.

Last night had definitely been more than a small birthday party, I think I probably left at 2 o'clock in the morning and I thought I'd have the weekend to myself but unfortunately at 6 o'clock this morning Bill had called me and said we were needed at the office.

We made a pit stop on the way and arrived at the office ten minutes before the meeting was due to start. I was still feeling the hangover but it must be something important for us to be called in on a Saturday.

I hear Bill rustling his paper bag and I chuckle to myself.

"Can't you wait until after the meeting?" I hadn't even thought of eating my croissant, I needed at least another two cups of coffee first.

"No, it appears not." He had already stuffed half of the pastry into his mouth.

I had lived with Bill from the age of 12 and when I turned 20 I moved out. I needed my own place, but it was only minutes from Bills house so it didn't feel like a move really. Even though I had my own apartment, I still found myself spending nearly all of my time at his home, along with his wife and their daughter. Bill treat me like a daughter and I had never felt anything less than love from the family I'd been taken into.

I opened the door and headed inside, unable to ignore the pain spreading across my temples.

Already seated in the room that I knew, were Carolyn Martens from the Russian desk and Frank, my boss. Who was a complete and utter idiot. Or a dick swab as Bill called him.

I was glad we weren't late, but Franks face told me that we should've been earlier..or maybe he knew that me and Bill had been doing a fair bit of karaoke last night.

"Genevieve, Bill. How nice of you to join us. Now I want to thank you all for giving me your weekend, but we have a new case that has come in from Vienna. A man was murdered, his femoral artery was sliced from 20 feet away, and his girlfriend bore witness to the scene and is being brought to the UK for questioning. Genevieve, it's your job to keep her safe, and have a place secure for her to stay, and should she have to be taken to the hospital she needs sufficient protection on that front as well." Frank was simply put, a narcissist.