THE VELVET KILLERS

(8) WHEN IT GOT A WHOLE LOT WORSE IN A MATTER OF MINUTES

LEAH

Things have been great those past few days: ever since I saw Ingrid and Alexia again, I was reassured on the matter of the McCabe's. To be honest, after a week had gone by after the discovery of the body in Saint Ives, the case was starting to get quiet again, which is a good sign of the police dropping it for good this time.

Today, as classes had ended early, my friends and I decided to go grab a drink downtown, near the river, enjoying the last bits of sun before winter officially came with its usual rainy and snowy days. 

Suddenly, as we - Jill, Kady, Lia and myself - are in the middle of an overly interesting conversation, my phone starts to ring. If I ignored it at first, whoever was calling insisted too much for it to be a simple call... Frowning, I excuse myself, grab my phone and walk out of the coffee shop for a second, and when I see SOS number (yes, I finally renamed the unknown number Alexia and Ingrid were texting from), my blood runs cold.

As I pick up, I hear Ingrid's voice that sounded quite alarmed:

"Leah?"

"Yeah, what's up?" I respond, feeling like my day was about to take a turn.

I could hear Ingrid walk out of some room, take a deep breath, before saying:

"My boss just got an intel from a police source that they're re-opening the case about McCabe..."

"W-what? How's it possible, if you hid everything...?"

"Lower your voice" Ingrid orders, setting her jaw. As I let her speak, she then says: "Katie McCabe's body was found by one of her roommate this morning, they think it's suicide..."

"Oh my God..." I whisper, nauseous.

My whole body starts to tremble, as Ingrid goes one nonetheless:

"They say she wrote a suicide note, and they're re-opening the case because of that... I'll know more by the end of the day, 'cause apparently they want me and this bitch from The Guardian to partner up again..."

"This is good, right ?" I ask, my voice trembling, "I mean, the closer you are from the case the more-"

"Don't even bother finishing your sentence" Ingrid orders, cold as ice. As I am about to answer to that, she just says: "I'll let you know as soon as I get updates."

Just like that, she hangs up the phone, and I start having an anxiety attack : this is bad, really bad...

***

INGRID

We were not allowed anywhere near the crime scene: the whole building was restricted, and as I arrived early, I read Sakina's text message: Roflö's on her way, she's been informed about your partnership. Gave her all the intel she needed. Good luck boss! And, feeling like I was simultaneously going to faint or kick someone's ass, I put my phone down and just sit down on a coffee shop's table across the street and order some tea.

A few minutes later, a black Mercedes stops right in front of me, as Frida Roflö gets out of it and walks straight at my table, as her driver leaves with the car. As soon as she sits down, she just sets her jaw and wave at the waiter to get her the same as I took, before she stares at me with a weird expression on her face.

"You okay, Engen? You're paler than usual." she asks, trying to mess with my head.

"That's hard to do, but okay" I let out, rolling my eyes. As I realise she is still waiting for an answer, I just say without any remorse: "Whose idea was it to put us both back on this case?"