There was a silence in the room. Not the type that came from a lack of presence or the sorrow of a loved one at the brink of death, but one that held a surprising sense of peace. Within the silence there was a faint fragrance of vanilla, medicine and what seemed to be a familiar perfume.
Struggling to open his eyes, Marley let out a small groan, surprised to find his throat sore and unable to produce much sound. Shutting his eyes tightly as though building momentum before opening them again with more force a light blinded him, temporarily making him see white before he noticed three images some distance from him. Realising his one eye seemed to be swollen shut, he directed the good one and found himself drawn to the first, perhaps because he was directly within sight, or maybe it had to do with the beauty of the person that stood some distance from him. The light had cast a halo on his golden locks, giving his beautiful countenance an angelic glow, wide blue eyes looking back at him with curiosity and some worry.
"Why would an angel be worried about me, am I going to hell?" his thoughts were disrupted when a figure in a pale pink dress cut off his line of sight, "Fran?" his wife's pale face drew a littoe away to him until she was mere inches from him, enabling him to see the tears glistening in eyes that were red-rimmed and swollen from what he assumed was time spent crying.
"I'm... ook" he managed hoarsely, his voice shocking himself unlike his wife, who seemed unaware of the change as she threw herself on top of him weeping and babbling. Her large frame, added to the fact that he was injured, managed to create a pain that jolted him out of the last of his drowsiness. Suppressing a curse, Marley weakly patted his wife's chubby arm, gesturing with his eyes to the two young men who stood silently in the distance until Marley managed to get his wife off him.
"Honey, these are detectives Lew and Riverra, they have come to ask some things about what happened" Francesca said as her husband regarded the men who steadily approached his bed and felt a surge of emotion that was one part jealousy, two parts bitterness and three parts regret, 'I should have worked out when I was younger' eyeing the belly protruding under the blankets he considered joining a fitness centre once he was out of hospital but quickly wrote off the idea as he reminded himself that his bank account far outweighed that of these two boys put together. Feeling the sour taste in his mouth fade Marley sidled his body to a sitting position slowly so he could better face the two.
"Although the circumstances are not ideal it is still a pleasure to meet you Mr Zhuang" Kai said a little sombrely, "We won't take too much of your time, we just want to know about the incident that occurred. Ma'am we're sorry but could you please sit outside? This is still a formal investigation so we need some privacy" noting the curtness of his friends tone Colt added an apologetic smile, making Fran's eyes soften slightly before she shuffled out, closing the door softly behind her.
"Right. Could you start by telling us what led up to the incident?" Kai asked as he handed him a glass of warm water, causing the poor man to break out in a cold sweat.
'What the hell's up with this kid's eyes?' he thought before quickly beginning to recount the past few weeks, suddenly thankful his wife was made to leave the room.
"Look I go to play golf and... for other entertainments at the club every Tuesday; it's a type of de-stress for every one of the men with enough money in this town, you two might still be too young (and broke) to understand but yeah" pausing to take a breath and accepting another cup of water from the blonde man's fair hand he continued.
"So I was feeling a bit stressed and went to ... um, play golf on a Sunday and I happened to notice this bir- lady at the golf course whom I've never seen before. Thing is, she wasn't the type that one usually meets at such places, she looked like one of those pretty nursery school teachers that all the parents secretly wanna sc-"
"We'll get to how she looked in a bit Mr Zhuang, tell us how you two began speaking" Kai interjected, not noticing his friends unhappy look.
"Well it wasn't like how I imagined I'll tell you that. She actually just smiled at me before continuing her game like it was normal for her to be there, I meam women there are almost always accompanying the men. So I greeted her and she smiled and chatted with me a while and agreed to have a drink with me after her game. I mean I didn't expect her to jump at the chance but I didn't think she would easily agree either. But I didn't question it and booked a room just in case, you know. Well, she showed up about half an hour later, said her name was Ro something, after a few drinks-"
"Wait, no last name? Also please tell us everything about the conversation you can remember, we never know what words will be a necessary piece" Kai stated in one breath, his eyes unblinking and empty.
"Um, I can't remember what we discussed to be honest with you both, I was just trying to get the conversation round to the part where I try my luck okay? I asked her where she was from and all but she gave some vague answers and smiled. To be honest I didn't care 'cause none of the girls that hang out in such places really want their identities known"
"If that's all the information you have on her please fast forward a little bit, how did you get her to go to your room?"
Marley responded with an unhappy grunt at this interference, this colourful one was quite audacious, anyone his age was too afraid to look him in the eye at the bank. In fact the quiet angelic looking one had quite the unlikable aura about him too, he was so... sunny, one would think he was listening to a friend tell him about his day what with his bright eyes and demeanour. He expelled an annoyed breath.
"Look I asked her if she had anywhere to be and if she'd be willing to go somewhere more private and she said yes, I thanked my lucky stars, gave her the room card then I went up and waited for her to follow, next thing I remember is waking up here in the hospital beaten half to death" he finished sourly.
"Tell us what she looked like" Kai stated, earning another look from Marley.
"She had short hair I guess, and a nice smile. She was really tall; about as tall as me with a great body, I'm talking model great-"
"Thank you for your time. We'll be in touch if there is anything else" Kai turned on his heel and left, not sparing him another glance or saying another word.
Colt briefly glanced at his friend, understanding what he intended to do he turned back to the angered man on the bed, "my colleague is going to look through the files to get an idea of your injuries, I don't want to bother him just yet so how about we have a chat?" Smiling too brightly to warrant refusal he took a seat right by the man's bedside with s sketchbook in hand. Corking his head slightly to side as he looked at the man he offered another smile and Marley once again questioned whether this person was not some sort of angel.