Party for Murder

1. The Notebook Coincidence

Chapter 1

Maria woke up late in the middle of the afternoon to her annoying alarm sound, as usual in her summer vacation after staying up all night watching TV. She got dressed in a hurry, grabbed her luggage and rushed to the train station where she almost missed her train. On her way, Maria kept blaming heself for clicking snooze was too many times.

She reached the station barely on time and bought a last minute ticket. She got on the train and kept passing from a car to the next till she finally found the last seat available. The train was full, everybody was already in their seats, Maria was the last on board, she had the bad habit of being unpunctual and basically irresponsible but she was lucky today.

Next to Maria sat an older woman in her early to mid thirties, she looked disturbed and quite shakey, but that didn't stop Maria from starting a conversation with her, being big-mouthed was a total understatement for her.

"Hey," She smiled fully "I'm Maria, I'm going to Twinbrook to visit my boyfriend David." She flushed "I haven't seen him in months... What about you?"

After a brief uncomfortable pause, the woman said "I'm Jessica."

Maria kept on humiliating herself further and chatting even after being shot down by Jessica who definitely seemed uninterested, but Maria couldn't stay silent for a long train ride. "Well, as I said before, I'm visiting my boyfriend, he's a lawyer, he's training with some big law firm, thua the long distance, but I'm still a student." She kept going "I'm studying fine arts, you can say I'm the artistic one of the couple." She flipped her hair jokingly "People always blame David and I for the 7-years gap between us, but I blame cupid." Maria giggled then she continued saying "So, what's your story?"

"Sadly I don't have a story as interesting as yours," said Jessica firmly ending the conversation this time.

She then opened her fancy Louis Vuitton bag, that Maria noticed belongs to the latest collection, and grabbed a leather notebook and a pen. Jessica starting ticking some stuff off of a very long to-do list.

"She must be a really busy woman" Maria thought.

A few hours had passed, Maria was getting really bored of silence and her legs were starting to feel numb from sitting for too long. At first, she was observing people around her, but they weren't that interesting after some time. So instead she kept thinking about David and how long it's been since she last saw him.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Jessica asking to exchange seats because her stop was just minutes away. Maria was actually excited to finally move he legs and take the window seat to enjoy the natural view for the rest of the ride.

After the train stopped, Jessica got up and started walking towards the swing door. Maria glanced the seat next to her only to noticed that Jessica had forgotten a notebook, the same one with all the to do listd. So Maria got up following her, hoping to catch up and give it back.

Maria was walking through the aisle towards the exit when she felt someone pushing her from behind, so she turned around angryly "watch out jerk!"

"I'm sorry. I just need to get off at this station" he said walking away.

Maria lost track of Jessica, she kept looking for her, but she couldn't find her and soon the train started moving again. She went back to her seat and took a look at the notebook. There were some random quotes, a list of names, numbers, lots of long to-do lists, emails and an address which had "party" written next to it with the date June 24th.

"Today is June 24th!" Maria realized and thought Jessica might need the notebook. "Maybe she's an event planner" she said to herself and decided to get off at the next station, stay the night at any hotel, then next morning take the train back to Sunset Valley, where Jessica went, to give her the notebook back. She sighed "Then another train to Twinbrook to see my David."