Maria pressed the small red button beside the oak door. It was so minute that she hadn't seen it when she first stood at the door. She was about to knock on the front door when she noticed the door bell at the side. A cheery tune short tune played for a few seconds. Maria tapped her fingers on her thighs lightly, patiently waiting for someone to answer the door. The door clicked open, revealing a woman who looked like she was in her late thirties. Her caramel glassy eyes complimented her light brown hair, which had been put up in a small bun.
"Hello, how may I help you." The woman said as she gave Maria a warm smile.
Maria pulled out her badge, showing it to her.
"Oh…." The woman said softly, her smile disappearing slowly.
" I would like to speak with Amelia Winston. Is she home right now?"
"Amelia is at school right now, but she will be home soon."
"Oh, I see…." Maria said, looking very disappointed. "But if you're not in a hurry, you can come in and wait for her."
Maria's eyes brightened as she nodded. She was very grateful that she wouldn't have to leave without getting any information. The woman opened the door further letting Maria in.
'I should really decorate my apartment' Maria thought as she looked at the décor surrounding her.
"I'm sorry, I just realized that I haven't introduced myself yet." the woman said as they reached the living room.
"Please take a seat."
Maria obliged, sitting on the sofa white sofa.
"My name is Catherine Winston, I'm Amelia's mother." "Detective Maria Valentina."
Maria introduced herself as well as they both shook hands.
"I'll go make you some tea, please make yourself comfortable."
Maria smiled and nodded. She watched Catherine disappear into the long hallway. Maria had been to a lot of houses and seen a lot of décor, but the Winston's house in particular, had very showy décor. It felt as if the house was supposed to appeal to its guests, like it was a museum. Maria's eyes wandered from the crystal like chandelier with hung freely above her head, to the conceptional paintings, hanging on the walls. Vases and ceramic objects which looked like artifacts were placed at different parts of the living room. The wall paper was a plain white colour. This gave the living room a very clean feeling. Maria had centralized her whole attention on the décor, making her oblivious to the fact that Catherine was back in the living room. "I see you're admiring the décor." She said, placing the tray which had two cups on it, on the glass table in front of Maria.
Her voice seemed to catch Maria's attention as she turned to look at Catherine.
"Yes, you have a very beautiful house."
"Why, thank you." Catherine said as she took a seat directly opposite from where Maria sat.
Maria picked up a tea cup and stared at its contents. The hot liquid had a green colour and had very nice aroma. It was a familiar scent but Maria couldn't wrap her head what it smelled like.
"I hope my daughter's not in any kind of trouble. Is she a suspect now?" Catherine asked, her eyes filled with concern.
"Don't worry ma'am, she's not in any trouble and she's not a suspect. I just need to ask her a couple of questions."
Maria took a sip of her steaming hot tea.
"Oh!"
Maria could finally tell what flavour it was.
"It's matcha tea. Do you like it?"
"Yes, very much."
Maria took another sip before placing the cup gently on the tray.
"Please, if possible I'd like if you didn't put a lot of pressure on Amelia. She... hasn't really been doing too well every since the incident." Catherine said. "How has she been fairing?" Maria said.
She couldn't hide the curiosity in her voice. Catherine looked like she was struggling to say the words. "Amelia hasn't been eating her meals. Even when she actually does, she ends up vomiting the whole thing." Catherine said, her voice getting shaky with each word.
"And whenever she comes back from school, she immediately goes up to her room and doesn't come out till its time for her to go to school again the next day."
Maria could see the clear sadness in Catherine's eyes. She was struggling greatly with this.
"Her body also looks so malnourished. She doesn't look like my daughter anymore."
Catherine put a hand over her mouth as tears gathered at the bottom of her eyes.
Maria walked over to her and put an arms around her, hoping it would be enough to comfort the sad woman. "She doesn't even talk to me or even look at me." Catherine said as the tears finally went loose, running down her cheeks.
Everything will be fine. Maria felt it would be pretentious to say something like that. She wasn't used to comforting sad people. She always tried to avoid a situation like the one she was in currently. The sound of the front door made Maria and Catherine shift their gaze towards the hallway. They could hear hurried footsteps in the hallway. Amelia walked into the living room and paused. She looked at Maria and then at her mom and back again at Maria. She had a puzzled look on her face.
" Welcome back honey, how was school today?" Catherine said as she wiped away her tears rather quickly.
Amelia just shrugged without saying a word.
Maria was quite shocked when she laid eyes on Amelia's scrawny body. It was worse than she had imagined. It was hard to believe that this was the same girl she met that night. She could finally understand Catherine's anguish.
"Detective Maria is here to see you."
Amelia looked at Maria, her face filled with worry. "Don't worry, everything is fine. She just needs to ask you a few questions." Catherine said, trying to reassure her.
Maria smiled at Amelia as a way of telling her that everything was fine. Amelia hesitated for some seconds but eventually took a seat adjacent to Maria. "Alright Amelia, let's start." Maria said as she pulled out her note pad and a pen.
"I would like you to tell me everything you know about Nancy Evelyn."
Amelia's whole body went stiff. She wasn't expect to be questioned about Nancy.
"I don't know anything about Nancy. She wasn't my friend. We just knew each other."
"You invited your friends to the beach house…..am I correct?"
Amelia nodded slowly.
"If Nancy wasn't your friend as you claim, then why did you invite her?"
Amelia averted her gaze away from Maria who was staring directly at her. Maria's gaze was making Amelia very uncomfortable.
"Leroy insisted I invite her."
"Leroy?"
Amelia nodded.
"He was Jerry's best friend."
"I see." Maria said, taking down some things in the note pad.
"what room did Nancy stay in?"
"She... slept in the living room."
Maria gave her a perplexed look.
"And why is that?"
Amelia played with the hem of her shirt nervously. "She volunteered to stay there since the beach house has only three rooms."
Another lie. Amelia bit her lower lip. She couldn't say the truth. If she did, her mom would find out how much of a terrible person she was. 'she's definitely hiding something. I wonder if I should press on.' Maria thought as she tapped her pen lightly on her note pad. With the kind of answers she was getting from Amelia, it was quite obvious that something wasn't just adding up. Looking at the poor girl's demeanour, Maria decided not to press further.
"Alright Amelia, that's all the questions I have for you but if you happen to know anything that can help us search for Nancy, do let us know."
Amelia nodded slowly.
" Thank you for the tea Mrs Winston, it was delicious." Maria said as she got up from the sofa. Catherine let out a small laugh.
"It's nothing dear, let me see you to the front door." Amelia watched as her mom and the detective walked out of the living room. She let out a long sigh of relief and used the back of her hand to wipe away the beads of sweat that had settled on her fore head. The tension eased off from her body making her slump back on the sofa. She closed her eyes, trying to relax but the only thing she could think about was Nancy. Where could she be? Did she run away once she saw the terrifying creature? So many questions, but no one to answer. Amelia hoped that the police would find Nancy….. Where ever she is.
Maria sat in her car which was parked in castella's parking lot. Castella was a restaurant that Maria frequented. Maria could recall the first time she had discovered the eatery. She had just entered town and Maria was hungry. Being on the road for 3 hours without eating made Maria really hungry. She decided that the first thing she'd do when she got to her destination was to look for a restaurant. It was Maria's first time in, so she was clueless on where to go. She drove for a few minutes before she saw a restaurant. It had a big writing on top of the building. It read CASTELLA. Without hesitation, she parked her car and quickly went into the restaurant. She ordered anything that looked good on the menu and wolfed it down the second it arrived. Ever since then, she became a regular and would sometimes have breakfast or lunch here. Maria flipped her note pad, going through the notes she had jotted down earlier. She did that for a few more minutes before heading into the restaurant. The aroma coming from the restaurant was enough to make anyone's mouth water. Maria found an empty seat and occupied it. She picked up the menu and went through it.
Castella's food varieties
-cream and shrimp pasta
-Spaghetti and tomato sauce
-mac and cheese (Extra cheese can be added on request)
-fettuccine Alfredo
-Stir fry rice with chicken
-Spicy chicken sandwich
Drinks
-Coca Cola
-lemonade
-sprite
-iced tea
-coffee
-café latte
-expresso
-Hot chocolate
Maria was having a hard time choosing what she wanted to eat. She was torn between the stir fry rice with chicken and the cream and shrimp pasta. 'Who wouldn't thought choosing food would be this hard and complicated' Maria thought. She usually ordered the spicy chicken sandwich with a lemonade, but she wasn't in the mood for that today. She signaled for a waiter and told him what she wanted, while he wrote it down in small note pad he had in his hand.
"Will that be all?" he said.
Maria nodded and watched him walk away. Maria's eyes traveled around the restaurant while waiting for her order to be served. She watched people walk in and out of the restaurant. To the left corner of the restaurant, Maria noticed someone staring directly at her. It was quite far from where she sat, so making out the person's features was very hard. Maria sat there, making eye contact with the person. 'Could it be someone I know?' Maria thought. Her brain was trying to come up with reasonable explanations as to why someone would be staring at her in a restaurant. It felt like she was having a stare down with the person and losing would be fatal. The stare down went on for what felt like hours.
"Your order." The waiter said as he served her order. The waiter blocked Maria view of the person, breaking her stare. She turned her attention to him, thanking him before he walked away. Maria consumed her meal, stealing glances at the person once in a while. The person however never broke their gaze away from Maria. It started to make her feel very uncomfortable. Munching on the last piece of her chicken sandwich, Maria washed it down with her cool lemonade. She felt energized and was ready to go back to work. Maria could here footsteps approaching her. She turned to see a girl walking towards her. Maria could've sworn that she'd seen her somewhere. That was when it clicked. 'that's Oliver's girlfriend' Maria thought.