Traces of Delilah

Twelve

"So, you're telling me Delilah quit? She wasn't fired. She just quit literally less than a week before her death?"

Jace stopped flicking his pen against the clipboard and looked at me. He had been putting in orders for new shipments but our conversation seemed to have taken an unexpected turn. "That's right." He shrugged.

"Is there anything else you'd like to know?" he asked. I couldn't tell if he was amused or annoyed. He was acting a bit of both. But he hadn't told me to shut up yet so I was going to ask as many questions as I could.

I fumbled with my phone in my hand and glanced around the store. Oliver had still been helping an old woman find whatever she needed. He was the only bilingual employee working our shift. That was good. I couldn't imagine what he would have had to say about what we were talking about. Delilah was a controversial topic of discussion. Which was weird, because she shouldn't have been.

"No, it's just—don't you think that's odd?" I lowered my voice as someone familiar entered the store. Jace must've noticed because he followed my eyes to the entrance. One of his eyebrows rose at the sight of Makayla. But I would have thought I imagined it because his eyes tore away incredibly fast.

Her eyes roamed the store until she made eye contact with Jace then me. A tint of pink flushed her cheeks. And I watched her tread to the other side of the store, disappearing in between the racks. Huh, that was strange. She was blushing. I wasn't sure why. I hadn't done anything.

"What do you mean by odd?" Jace's voice grabbed my attention again.

My head whirled back around to him. "You said Delilah has been working here for months. Almost a year. Don't you think it's odd that she decided to quit one day? Then, she kills herself and her family only a few days after. There should have been some signs, right?

"Maybe depression or some kind of mental health issue no one was aware of. No one wakes up one day and just decides, I'm going to do this, right? Especially something as big as that! She was probably thinking about it for a while and no one noticed!" I spoke in a hushed whisper.

"Why are you chewing me out about it? I wasn't that close to her." He scoffed.

"Yeah, but you and Oliver were her co-workers. You two didn't notice any changes in her behavior?" I stressed.

"Listen, I'm just the manager, okay? I don't know much. I gave my condolences. She tells Thomas and Oliver everything. So, you might want to interrogate them. Good luck with that though, because the last I heard, Thomas and her weren't on speaking terms before she died. Who knows what kind of stuff she was keeping in? And if they don't know anything, then I'm not sure what else to tell you. Why are you so worried about what happened to Delilah anyway? You just moved here and the case was closed last year." He sighed drastically.

The sound of plastic hitting the floor caused both our heads to snap.

"Sorry, that was an accident." Makayla laughed nervously. She slowly revealed herself from behind the racks. We watched while she bent down to pick up the clothing hangers she dropped. Damn, had she heard what we were talking about? That couldn't have been good.

"It's not nice to eavesdrop." Jace teased. I fixed my eyes on him, scowling. What a hypocrite. He was just eavesdropping on Thomas and I the other day.

As soon as she heard his voice, her face went blank. "I wasn't."

"Sure, you weren't." He rolled his eyes.

Was it me or was it tense in here? I glanced between the two with an eyebrow raised. Jace had a smug smirk fixed on his face while she wore one of the coldest glares I'd ever seen. I guess these two had history. . . And it didn't seem like the best by the looks of things.