Chapter 7

"Ok, I'll send u the location." Maria texted detective James then finally left bed after almost 10 hours of sleeping. She got up and she headed to the bathroom.

Maria took a quick showered, got dressed then left the room all messed up. She went to the lobby and asked the lobby man about the nearest cafe.

"There's The Grand Cafe, by the end of the street miss; it serves the best drinks in Sunset."

"Thanks," she said then left the hotel and walked towards the cafe. On her way, she remembered that Jessica's notebook is still in her handbag which is not safe, so she decided to get back to the hotel to hide it.

"Sry, running late, be there in 10." She texted James

"Where should I hide the notebook?" she thought "I need to put it somewhere unexpected, a place where nobody would think a notebook is hidden... I saw some people in movies hide stuff in the toilet flush system, but that's just disgusting" she kept looking around the room "Maybe under the rug? That's freaking predictable Maria."

She scratched he head thinking "Oh, I have an idea, inside the pillow case... no, predictable again. In the tissue box? My luggage? The basket? Inder the bed,... Oh my God, I've got the best idea ever."

Maria grabbed the notebook out of her bag and walked over to the mini-fridge, she placed the notebook behind the juice boxes and soda cans. "Perfect" she said proudly "Now nobody can find you till I get back."

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James decided to walk from the police station to the cafe although it was a long distance, he just needed to think a little; Besides, the cool air was so refreshing which was encouraging along with the wonderful view. "Maybe it's not a bad area to live in after all" he said to himself.

He kept organizing his thoughts about the case "Eve said she saw a train ticket, maybe Maria was right, Sierra was the woman from the train. Now we need to knoe what she was doing in Veronaville?"

He blew out his cheeks "My only hope now is that the notebook actually contains some important evidence. The clock ia ticking, I genuinely need to solve this case after messing up the last three."

At this point, he was getting closer and could see the cafe logo from the distance "The problem is that this might be threatening for Maria's life, my biggest fear right now is to cause someone else's death" James admitted to himself.

Almost a years and a half ago, detective James was working on the biggest case of his career, against an important politician. Upon his investigations, he received many threats, but that didn't stop him from looking further into the case till he found the evidence he needed. That same day he received an envelope containing death threats against his family and some photos taken from inside the house with the caption "Stop looking, we can get in your house again that easily."

He drove insanely to his house and told his wife to take their daughter and go somewhere safer to hide. He gave her the car keys unkowing that someone had tampered with his brakes to kill him, but instead it caused the accident that killed them.

Everytime he thinks about what happened to them, he keeps blaming himself further. He always wondered what if he stopped his investigations earlier? What if he didn't give them the car key? After all thay car trap was meant for him, not his family.

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Meanwhile, at the same cafe, Ricky and Nina sat together.

"Just tell them we were together please, the police said someone saw me outside just before the lights went off," Ricky said anxiously

"you know we can't we'd both be in trouble," she replied with a shaky voice.

"Oh Jesus, I can't believe this, so I'm going to prison both way." he facepalmed.

"There is something else that I haven't told the police yet" she swallowed then lowered her voice "I need to show you something" she opened her bag and showed him what's inside.

"Nina what have you done?!" he asked  hestitantly

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Maria finally reached the cafe, she pushed the door in and entered; The place was loud and crowded, she looked around until she noticed James sitting at the bar. Maria thought it was  the coolest place to hangout in Sunset, everywhere else was just calm and quiet "It's a perfect town for old people" Maria always thought that way about Sunset, she never expected herself to go there one day.

"Yup that's definitely Detective James' back. I hope he's not still mad, I didn't mean what I said earlier" She sighed "I just hate being treated as a kid, I'm now 21, so basically I'm an adult." She walked towards Detective James "God, I really suck at apologies... Here we go"

Maria tiptoed her way to detective James and "BOOOOO" she said loudly

"What was that?" he laughed as he turned to her.

"I don't know I didn't give it much thought, to be honest, I just didn't know how to start the conversation cause I was worried you might still be upset about what I said earlier."

"Believe me, I had a VERY long day, I don't even remember what you're talking about." He gestured fpr her to sit "By the way, your definition of 'I'll be there in 10' is very different than mine, you should've said I'll be there in half an hour or so"

"Thank God you're not mad. I'm sorry for being late and for what I said this morning" She ordered a drink then continued their conversation "So... do you know who did it?"

"Of course I don't, it's still too early to know."

"It's definitely the boyfriend, don't you watch crime tv?"

He was surprised and quite worried at the way she was excited about the whole thing, she certainly didn't understand the danger of it "Remind me again where did you board the first train?"

"Veronaville," sh said and paused for a moment thinking "why are you asking? Do you believe me now?"

"Maybe I'm beginning to see connections" he took a sip from his drink "Did you have a look at the notebook?"

"Not really, but I hid it really good and when I'll get back I'll start reading and hopefully find some clues." She felt so clever saying this. "Do you still want me to keep it a secret?"

"Yes! I don't want you getting in danger if the notebook has any evidence or links to the crime."

"Ok, don't worry, no one knows but us and David, but he's got nothing to do with this anyways."

"I'm gonna leave now, I have a long day tomorrow, but be careful" He emphasised "It's better if you don't speak to anyone cause you're pretty chatty and you might say too much."

"I'm just gonna finish my drink and leave..." she said and James got up from his seat "I'm not chatty by the way, you only think so cause you haven't met my friends, I'm like the quiet one"

"Sure" he smiled at her

James left the Cafe and Maria sat drinking "it would be really awesome if I'm the one who discovers the murderer".

The bartender interrupted her thoughts and gave her a drink. "I didn't order that," she said

"I know, the gentleman over there did." he pointed towards a guy sitting at the table behind.

Maria held the drink and turned around to the guy "Strawberry Milkshake? Really? I'm not ten you know" she said sarcastically

"I'm 34 and I love it." He laughed "I'm Andrew" he said

"And I have a boyfriend." She squinted her eyes a little "Have we met already? I feel like I've seen you before."

"I don't know if you remember, but I saw you this morning in a cab outside my house then you fainted after." He got up and sat next to her "I wanted to check on you"

"Oh my God, he's the creepy guy who was staring at me" she thought "No, I don't remember" she lied

"Did you know her?"

"Jessica?" she intentionally said Jessica instead of Sierra to observe his reaction

"Who?" he looked startled

"I heard from locals that the vitctim's name Jessica. Was she your friend?"

"Her name was Sierra" He said defensively "She was more than a friend to me, I mean she was my closest friend."

There was a moment of awkward silence, but Maria felt that Andrew was staring too much into her eyes which stressed he out, so she looked down breaking the intense eye contact.

"I find it kind of odd that you were confused about Sierra's name even though you were just having drinks with one of the detectives on the case," he said

"Crap, He's been watching us what if he heard what we were talking about,? He must be the murderer!" Maria started panicking.

"James and I are friends, we don't really talk about work stuff when we're hanging out."

"So did you know her? Or why did you faint when you saw her?"

"Well, I'm not used to seeing dead people," She was trying to play it cool "especially someone who was brutally murdered like she way."

Andrew took off his leather jacket and Maria noticed his graphic t-shirt of the band Train. "What the hell? I've seen this before. Damn it! I saw it yesterday on the train, he's the guy who bumped into me. Crap he was following Jessica/Sierra/whatever." She said to herself

"I' a genius, I solved it, I need to tell James NOW. Act normal Maria, calm down, you don't wanna be his next victim"

"You look nervous, are you ok?" he said

"No, I'm not." Her voice started getting sharper " I'm totally fine, I'm great actually. Is it getting chilly in here, I don't wanna catch a cold" She folded her arms "I think I need to leaving." Maria said.

"That's the stupidest excuse ever, it's June the weather is great, I'm actually kind of sweating." She let out a long breath

"Probably by now he knows that I know." she thought

Maria stood up and took her bag to leave "bye"

"No wait," he said pulling her arm

"Please leave me alone or I'm gonna get a restraining order, my boyfriend is a lawyer!"

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you, it's just that I was trying to figure out if you know from your detective friend any new leads on the case."

"Why do you wanna know?" she said

Then she thought "He's defonitely worried that the police realized it's him"

"I really cared about her okay? I just wanna know who did it," he said angrily clenching his fists into balls.

"You two were more than friends" she paused observing hia reaction "I can see it in your eyes."

"I don't exactly know how to explain what we used to be, so just don't ask." He looked down.

"I really need to get going, it's getting late."

"Here," he said giving her his jacket, "you said you were cold."

"No thanks, I'm good."

Maria started walking away, she got her phone out her purse and dialed detective James.

"Hello" he said

"I know who did it, It's Andrew! He bought me a drink at the cafe after you left and we talked for a while" she was talking fast without taking a breath "Turns out he was in love with Jessica/Sierra and he was surprised when I said, Jessica, cause I tested him to see how he'd react. I think he killed her cause she chose to be with another guy. He was jealous." She finally paused to take a breath "HE was sitting behind us at the cafe, I think he might have overheard what we said. Did I mention I saw him at the train yesterday?!"

"Maria calm down stop talking for a moment," He sounded angry "Didn't I tell you to keep your mouth shut!" He sighee "Please go to your hotel room, lock yourself and tomorrow we'll talk. Please don't do anything dangerous again!"

"Why don't you believe me again? You just told me a while ago that I was right"

"Maybe you're right, maybe he did it and maybe he heard ua talking about the notebook. If so, that makes you his next target." They were both silent for a moment "Go lock yourself and be careful"

"Ok, I will... bye."

"He always finds a way to burst my bubble, I was excited to solve a mystery, but now I'm terrified as hell" she thought on her way back "What if he's following me, I better run to the hotel."

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Maria went up into her room and locked herself as James told her, then she called room services to order dinner, steak with mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables. As soon as she changed into her pj, the food arrived, she opened the door and got her tray in then closed the door locking it again.

After dinner, she decided to get out the notebook to have a look at it, and mayne find proof Andrew did it.

When she walked to the mini fridge, she heard footsteps sounds coming from outside the door, so she realized that someone is trying to get in her room.

"Oh my God, Andrew is here to kill me" she thought "What should I do?"

she grabbed the sharp steak knife from the food tray, turned off the light and pretended to be sleeping while holding the knife under the cover with her shaky hands.

In a couple of minutes, she heard someone's footsteps inside the room, getting closer "Keep calm" she said to herself as she tried to slow down her fast breathing, he stopped to grab one of the pillows which she threw earlier on the ground then walked closer, at the edge of the bed, to choke her with it, as he came closer and put the pillow. She sudenly moved quickly surprising him then stabbed him with the knife in his neck. The man fell over her and his blood was dripping all over her.

Maria pushed the body away and ran from her room screaming and shouting for help with blood all over her.

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Soon the police and the ambulence arrived and so did detective James.

"Are you okay?" he asked

"At least still alive." She was trembling

"What happened?" Maria explained everything then James left to talk to the policemen, trying to figure out the identity of the man.

Maria sat in the lobby, she was terrified, her heartbeats were still so fast and she was hyperventilating. She looked up and became even more frightened when she saw Andrew just outside the hotel in the middle of the crowd.

She was still shaking, but then a policeman came over to ask her what happened she recalled the incident then detective James came back and grabbed her outside to talk privately.

"He was one of the hotel's housekeeping staff, probably someone paid him to get rid of you." He paused "Someone thinks you know something."

"Didn't he say who sent him?"

"No," he shook his head "he can't, you stabbed him directly with a sharp knife in the carotid artery... he's dead."

"Oh Lord, I just killed someone." she started crying

"Don't worry, it was self-defence, there's nothing against you, but I think you shouldn't stay here anyways since someone is on to you. come stay at my place for the night, then you should leave the first thing tomorrow."

Maria was still in shock so James didn't want to say I told you so, but he was angry at her for not listening and putting herself in danger.

"Ok, I'll go get my stuff."

"I'll be waiting at the lobby," he said and turned away then looked back at her "I'm glad you're safe"

Maria stood there for a moment searching for Andrew, but she couldn't see him anymore. Instead, she saw a tall woman staring at her from a distance, she looked familiar, but Maria was too exhausted to remember who she was.

After a few seconds, their eyes met and the woman realized Maria caught her staring, she turned the other side quickly and ran off."