Codename: Jumping Spider [Published]

Eleven

The next morning was rather uneventful. Ben was up before anyone else was, and he went out quietly, leaving a note saying that he was out for a morning run. Jenn and J. Lee woke up next to find the note he had left on the coffee table in the living area.

"Do you think he'll be back for the briefing?" J. Lee asked after she had read Ben's note.

Jenn scrunched the paper into a ball and threw it into the bin near the couch. "Don't worry. He's not one who skips important meetings, especially when it comes to a case," she answered in an indifferent tone.

Her friend nodded and went into the kitchen. "Coffee?"

"Yes, please," Jenn said as she took out her cell phone to inform Ben when the briefing would start. She saw that she had two voice mail from the night before and one unread text message from earlier this morning. The voice mails were from Agent Turner, while the text message was from Ben.

She decided to listen to the voice mails first.

"Hi. I've just finished talking to Nick Jefferson. He said that he didn't notice that the victim was missing at the party because he was drinking with a bunch of his guy friends at the courtyard almost throughout the whole party. Talked to the friends he mentioned and his alibi checks out. I'll come back to you with more updates. Bye."

She moved on to the second one:

"Hi. So we've talked to all the people who attended the party. According to them, Nick Jefferson and Jack Giller held the party spontaneously. Most said that it wasn't a big event. It was more of a gathering than anything else. Apparently, none of them had seen the victim at the party. Possibly the killer got his hands on her before she reached the party. A few of the people who were there early said that they had seen a strange guy leaving Nick Jefferson's backyard just before the party started. Looking into the new suspect now. That's all. Goodnight."

It seemed she was right about Nick, then. A thought occurred to her suddenly, and she quickly replied with a text message:

"Give me a quick description of the new suspect. Do not speak to the suspect first. I'll be at the department in the afternoon for further discussion."

She hit the SEND button. After that, she reluctantly opened the last text message:

"You won't talk to me about what happened between us. You won't even listen to my explanation. And yet you're willing to talk to a stranger about us. All I want from you is to give me a chance to clear things up between us. Is that too much to ask?"

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. Had he not made things clear six months ago? Insulting her on the phone wasn't enough for him? Must he say it to her face to make it clear that it was over between them?

She balled her hands into fists, gripping her cell phone tightly. Did he have to be so particular about this? She had already gotten his message when he decided to cheat on her. Man, she had even heard the girl laughing at her while he repeatedly insulted her. Wasn't that obvious enough?

Uh-uh, there was no way she would let herself be humiliated again by allowing him to toy with her emotions like this. Furiously, she typed a reply:

"Ray is not a stranger. He is my friend – a good friend. As for your explanation, I don't see any point in listening to it. You already made things clear six months ago. There's no need to complicate things now. Let's just keep things the way they are right now and stop bugging me about this. Stop wasting our time and move on."

After hitting the SEND button, she threw herself on the couch and sighed exasperatedly, staring at her cell phone in annoyance.

"Your coffee."