"We found her dead." He delivers the shell shocking news as soon as I'm settled in a couch in front of him.
I have driven to the firm offices to get updates on the job I'd assigned to them last night. But what I'm hearing is the last thing I was expecting.
"Dead?" I ask in disbelief. "How is that possible? Your incompetence is disgusting. How can you fail to complete such a simple task!!" I shriek, he probably thinks I've lost it. The composed, rational lady I usually am has fallen away.
"I'm sorry ma'am." He apologizes meekly. "Your apology will not bring her back, will it?" I say, glaring at him. "We had purchased the ticket as you had asked," he continues in a flat voice. "Everything was already in order, from the hotel bookings, to activities she'd participate in when she got there and the hotel stuff had been bought off." I'm glaring at him the whole time he's explaining in a hope to calm me down.
"I sent the team to deliver the ticket to her early this morning. They are the ones who found her dead in her bath tub." He stops and looks at me expectantly. I clear my throat in a quest to compose myself realizing it wasn't his fault.
"What did they say was the cause of her death." I ask, hoping she hadn't committed suicide. Her blood would be on my head if that turns out to be the case. "The homicide team suspect electrocution. They said they'd let me know the actual cause once it's established by the forensics team.
"I need a drink, this is too much for me." I say, grabbing my purse excusing myself. Confusion taints his features, he's probably wondering about my sudden change of feelings towards someone I've kept away from her child.He's probably recalling all the trouble I went through to keep her from seeing Lynn, if ever she surfaced. I don't bother explaining myself though, I just head for the door.
I'm perched on a stool in bar a few blocks away from the firm offices. I'm sipping on Black Russian, giving in to my grief. The bartender recommended it saying something about the vodka in it being a stimulant and sedative hence it's stress relief properties. I wasn't paying much attention, too many thoughts are whizzing in my mind.
The day I called the firm, I had decided to send Kira away for a while. The plan was to send her on holiday on a pretext that she'd won the tickets at a holiday resort in Maurice. Courtesy of the state criminal investigation department. I needed to spend the time she was away with Lynn. I was going to take the time to tell her about everything hoping she'd come to terms with it. I had even gone as far as planning to share custody rights.But the worst had to happen.
The heartbreak of losing a sister I'd lost before and just been reunited with but didn't utilize the reunion is unbearable. I wish I had let her meet her daughter as soon as I'd realized she was hers.
My phone rings, interrupting my grieving thoughts.
"Hello, Miss Kim?" A voice on the other end of the line enquires. I stutter before realizing it's my fake identity. "Yes." I confirm. We found your business card in Miss Kira's lounge, you seem to have been her most recent visitor. "I went to visit her yesterday, pertaining a case she had filed." I reply with an explanation, trying to clear any doubts that may have arisen. "Can you come over to her house, if it's convenient to you." The voice request. "Now?" I ask, having been caught off guard. "Yes please." The voice replies. "Yes, lemme see if I can make it." I reply hanging up.
I grab my phone and dial a chauffeur. I'm still level headed enough to avoid driving after a cocktail. We head to the Bluegrass countyside having made a detour to my house to grab my detective outfit.
Two hours later, I'm stepping out of the car into Kira's compound. The atmosphere around the house is more tense than it was the last time I came. It feels like everything around is in mourning of her passing. I shake the feeling off and head for the door.
I'm received by a black female, who enquires about my identity then leads me inside. "Miss Kim, thank you for making time for us. We would like to know if you noticed anything on Miss Kira that could have been a red flag?" He asks, diving into business. "No, nothing out of the ordinary except that she seemed a little out of sorts." I reply, honestly. "Any suicidal words from her?" He asks to which I reply with a shake of my head.
The detective asks an array of more questions before concluding, "We suspect it was more than an accident. We can't say much before establishing the facts though. Thank you for you time." He shakes my hand and I head out.
I'm on the last step on her porch when an intense red glow draws my attention. I look around to find the source but it's futile. I almost brush it off as something reflecting the sun but the sun has already set. I start towards the glow until I reach a window on the southern side facing the forest.
The window pane had been left open and an earthen cylindrical vessel sat on the window sill. I stand on my tiptoes and reach for it. The glow intensifies as soon as my fingers come into contact with the clay. I almost drop it but I manage to steady my hands with an effort.
My eyes sting from looking at such an intense light, but it's the least of my concerns right now. I'm curious about the cylinder hidden away in my purse. I instruct the chauffeur to take me straight home. The whole ride home I'm trying to figure out what the cylinder could be. Then a memory hits me.....
"Kira!, Kirst! Come and have breakfast." My mom called. She had ladden the table with our usual delicacies. Pancakes, bacon, sunny side up eggs and coffee. My dad had gone out to find a merchant to sell his plot's harvest. So it was just the three of us.
"What were you making today?" I mumble to my mom with a mouthful. "Finish eating first and I'll show you." Mom replies.
We head down the corridor to her workshop as soon as we were done with breakfast. My mom was a potter, very good in her craft. "I want to show you girls a special something." She says, reaching for a cylindrical vessel from the shelf. "This is a thought vessel." She says, sprinkling some sparkling dust on it from one of her jars. "A thought vessel? What does it do?" I ask curiously, hoping around my mom.
"Look, it's glowing." I shriek, pointing at it excitedly. "Is it meant to do that?" Kira asks, saying something for the first time since we got there. She'd been observing mom's every movement the whole time.
"Come, sit, I'll tell you how it works." Mom invited us, patting the floor besides her. We scurry to her side and wait for her presentation. Mom was one to always tell stories.
"This will help preserve your thoughts incase you forget them." She says, looking at the vessel adoringly. "Everytime you have something you never want to forget, just say it into this thought box." She continues. I giggle, pointing at her "Mom, you just called a cylinder, a box." Just then my dad comes in and swats the thought box away from Mom's hand as if it's something she was not meant to have. It lands on the floor with a smash. "I told you not to introduce the kids to that yet." He reprimanded my mom, who just continued to sit there, eyes cast down....
I clasp a hand to my mouth, tears pooling into my eyes. I'm holding my sister's thoughts. I thought I'd lost her but she has left an essential part of herself for me.
I wonder where she got one though. She has always been the intelligent one, so I guess she made it from seeing mom do it.
I reserve tapping into it for when I get home.